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Showing posts from October, 2017

8 Mistakes Everyone Makes During a Home Renovation (And How to Avoid Them)

Taking a sledgehammer to your outdated living room may sound like fun, but realistically, reviving your home is a process that requires a lot of time and care. Deciding to gut the bathroom and add a master walk-in closet is a great idea until you realize you need to do a plumbing update throughout the house and you already blew your budget on a heated floor, clawfoot tub, and those lighted closet bars you had to have. Focus is key, as is a bit of thoughtful planning. Interior designer Nicole Fuller, whose designs are as thoughtful and practical as they are covetable, has a keen sense for upgrading a space. Below, she explains the eight most common mistakes that nearly everyone makes before and during a big renovation, and she shares how to avoid them before making that huge, gaping hole in the wall. Overlooking the most-used rooms. "People often do not invest in the rooms that are the heart of the home, like the kitchen or living room. It's important to prioritize thes

Living in a House of Straw

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As opposed to common notion, a straw bale house is not as fragile as the house of the second little pig in the story of The Three Little Pigs . So don’t think that you’re going to live inside a flimsy house if you choose to have a dwelling place made of straw bales. Don’t confuse straw with hay. Straw bales are made with rye, rice and oat straw. Bales are stacked on a raised foundation with a capillary break. Some straw bales are bound with two strings while others with three. Three-string straw bales are, of course, larger in all of the three dimensions. Straw bale walls are commonly tied together with wood or bamboo pins. A surface wire mesh can also be used which can, afterward, be plastered or stuccoed with clay, earth, or a lime-based mixture. There are now many reasons to choose this - believe it or not - sturdy material - Straw Keeps You Warm Imagine the coldest day of your life. With straw bale homes, you can stay warm because it has a high R-value. The R-valu