The Interior Design Blog
Big Announcement! We’re Moving to the Mountains…Literally
5 Jan 2009 Author: admin In: Diy
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Yep, it’s true. We’re moving back across the country to the mountains of Virginia. You might remember our video about recycled paper insulation that we were installing at Jay’s dad’s garage in Virginia…well, that’s the place! We’re excited to continue to learn more about living a sustainable life and we plan to keep documenting this process on Ryan Is Hungry. We also plan to take our mini-documentaries of other folks hacking the sustainable lifestyle to another level. Thanks for the year of total awesomeness. We’ve learned so much from all of you, thanks for following us and contributing back to the conversation!
woven wood bamboo blackout blinds
4 Jan 2009 Author: admin In: Interior Designwoven wood bamboo blackout blinds are a beautiful addition to the Master Bedroom. The combination of style, function and beauty really put the finishing touches on a well planned design. Defined Interiors, a Hunter Douglas showcase dealer is your blackout blind specialist. Give us a call 850-939-7776 or visit us online at www.definedinteriors.com
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internet goodness
3 Jan 2009 Author: admin In: Home ImprovementThe cable guy finally showed up yesterday, after I had been without service for a week and a half (no such luck having my service mysteriously pop back on this time without intervention). He ran some tests though, and discovered that it wasn’t that I got no signal, but that the signal was coming through at way too high a frequency (one which was OK for the TV/cable service, but not for internet). So began the process of checking every connection all the way back to the junction box in the stairwell.
Which he opened up, took a deep breath, and noted that the connections in there looked like they hadn’t been updated in over 20 years. I laughed and pointed out that I knew the previous tenant in my apartment (being that she’s my stepmom), and she moved in in 1978. So she probably had cable installed around the same time that cable was installed in the building. So he replaced all of the connections, and now I have shiny shiny internet again, and it’s actually much faster than it was before. Like, near-instantaneous. So I highly recommend that if you live in a really old building, you find out the last time your trunk line was updated, and if it’s before the internet existed, maybe see about getting that fixed!
Also, I didn’t even realize that there was a problem before, but when we put the TV back on to test it out with some high-def olympic coverage, I could swear that my picture was clearer than it had been in the morning. I could just be imagining things, but I was actually taken aback (I think the non-word “whoa” might have been uttered).
The third thing I have, of course, is a neckache, because I had to put all of the furniture back after the cable guy left and something went wonky in the middle of that process.
Still managed to get a bike ride with my brother in afterwards. Although “with” is somewhat misleading as a significant portion of our ride involved me watching his red backpack get smaller and smaller, and him having to periodically stop and wait for me. The best part about the ride? The realization that I’m not actually that slow. I’m only the slowest cyclist on the road at 6:30 in the morning. At 5 in the afternoon on a Saturday, there are plenty of people who are more than willing to suck and get in my way while I quietly seethe about how slow they all are.
Raising Chics from Scratch
2 Jan 2009 Author: admin In: Diy
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You might remember from our Stone Soup video that our little eco-village has started to cull our chicken flock to make room for new birds. For the last 2 months we’ve been learning what it takes to be mother hens and raise two dozen newly hatched chics. Jay and I grew up in urban areas where there were no chickens but in the grocery store, so this was a learning experience for us both. These babies need tons of food, water and warmth because they grow exponentially in their first months of life. The benefits of having chickens in your backyard are many- they eat veggie food scraps and weeds, they poop instant fertilizer, they lay eggs and, if you’re into it, they’ll eventually make a great organic, free range, home raised meal.
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Technorati Tags: chickens, chics, raising chickens, san mateo eco-village, food security, ryanishungry
The Benefits of a Debt Consolidation Home Loan!
30 Dec 2008 Author: admin In: Home ImprovementThis interesting article addresses some of the key issues regarding home improvement. A careful reading of this material could make a big difference in how you think about home improvement.
As the amount of people who are in debt in the UK continues to rise, people are finding themselves simply overwhelmed by their mounting debt problems. Many people have a variety of debts and their monthly budget cannot cover the amount of money they have to pay back. This can cause huge amounts of stress and worse still, often lead to further unintentional debt. In this situation it is worthwhile considering a variety of possible solutions to help you with your debt problems. The follow…
I hope that reading the above information was both enjoyable and educational for you. Your learning process should be ongoing–the more you understand about any subject, the more you will be able to share with others.
More: continued here
Trashy
29 Dec 2008 Author: admin In: Home ImprovementI’ll take a break from the bookshelf project in favor of one with more instant results. Actually, this is this first project I did at this place. And it was a great idea, because it makes the space under the sink so much more usable. I picked up the parts at one of my many trips to the incredible downtown Container Store. We actually had to make several trips because I had to measure (and re-measure) the under-sink area several times to figure out what combination of slide-out products would fit.
Everything including the kitchen sink
As you can see from the photo, the trash can is on the left, an Elfa slide-out basket in the middle (has to be low to fit under the garbage disposal), and a sliding wire basket on the right (which clears the plumbing by just millimeters) for the recycling.
The installation was a snap. About the only thing that went wrong was that I had to do was raise the Elfa up by about an 1/8 inch so that it would clear the lip on the bottom of the cabinet. A quick trip to (where else?) Cliff’s yielded some nylon washers that did the trick.
Hört mal wer da hämmert
28 Dec 2008 Author: admin In: Home Improvementwenn das nicht Tim-derHeimwerkerking-Taylor alias Tim Allen ist.
Viele kennen den Schauspieler in seiner Paraderolle als schusseligen Fernsehmoderatoren, der immer nur eins möchte: mehr Power!
Tim hat sich die Zeit genommen und exclusive Einblicke in seine Garage gewährt…und Dommi und Georg waren dabei.
In einer unscheinbaren Halle in Nordhollywood bewahrt der Star einige Schätze mobiler Fahrkultur auf, unter anderem auch den blauen HotRod, den er in der Serie in jahrelanger Arbeit aufgebaut hat.
The Ant vs. The Termite
26 Dec 2008 Author: admin In: Home Improvement[The content below is posted with permission from the kind folks at the Home Improvement Blog.]
The saga continues as two of the most feared pests on Earth continue to battle each other over who will infest your home first! Check out this video from the Ant Institute of the Ant vs. the Termite which highlights the war between two of the most common household pests in the U.S.:
At the Termite Institute™ (www.TermiteInstitute.com) and the Ant Institute™ (www.AntInstitute.com), we have created the most comprehensive resources on the web to inform homeowners about these billion dollar pest problems.
When ant mating flights occur, homeowners often confuse the winged reproductive forms of ants with swarming, winged termites. As they battle each other for position in your home, it’s imperative that you find the correct solutions for treatment. On our websites you can learn the most common distinguishing characteristics between ants and termites.
- Both winged forms of ants and termites have two pairs of wings, but ants’ front wings are larger and longer than the back wings, while the termites’ four wings are all the same length and size.
- Ants have narrowed waists and elbowed antennae, while termites have thick waists and short, straight antennae that resemble strings of beads.
- Don’t be fooled by color or size. Ants can vary in size, and winged termites of various species can be yellowish, reddish, brown or black-like ants.
Visitors to both the Termite and Ant Institutes can learn, educate and explore with live web cams of ant and termite colonies that simulate what it would be like if these pests invaded a home. Check out extensive media libraries with high-resolutions photos and striking video of these creepy crawlers. There are also fascinating facts about these pests, and an interactive species map that pinpoints what species are prevalent in each state. Be sure to check out your state.
Programmable Z80 Microcomputer
16 Dec 2008 Author: admin In: DiyThis is a fantastic homemade computer project. Look at the schematic for this thing. Yikes!
This is an actual computer, built completely from scratch. I began the project in the spring of 2006, while I was taking a course on microcomputers. My Z80 system will remain a work in progress as long as I can think of new things to add to it.
The current specs are:
2MHz 8 bit Zilog Z80 processor
56 KB static RAM (7 x 8k x 8 )
8 KB EEPROM
1 Mb Flash Memory “hard drive”
Interrupt controller with 8 interrupt levels
20 character x 2 line backlit LCD with contrast control
RS232 serial port
2 programmable timers
Programmable beeper
8X DIP switch and 8X LED’s for general purpose I/O
Strobe button for clocked input from the DIP switches
Parallel port programming interface with parity…
I do all the programming on my PC, using Z80 assembly. I wrote a simple drag and drop utility in C++ that uploads the assembled code into the microcomputer’s memory.
- Link (via MAKE: Blog)
Reclaiming resources
13 Dec 2008 Author: admin In: Home ImprovementOne of the things that I really enjoy hearing about, or reading about, is when people use reclaimed building materials to either build their new homes or to renovate their older homes. For example, every now and then I hear about old barns being torn down and the wood being used to build and decorate new homes. Barn board is very in-demand and expensive! Who would have thought that the wood used to house livestock would be valued later by people in their own homes!
There is a company that is dedicated to helping consumers to get reclaimed wood flooring in their homes. There website is snheartpine.com. They sell beautiful reclaimed heart pine, wormy chestnut, reclaimed barnwood, and a large variety of native American hardwoods. These folks are true craftsmen, and their work is beautiful.