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Jeremy Stevent asked:




Designing your own house can be a daunting task if you don’t have a lot of ideas. Where do you go to find some great house designs that will help you figure out exactly what you want? If you want to get lots of house design ideas, a great place to get those ideas is by looking at other houses. By seeing things that you like in houses that are already built, it makes it easier to come up with your own house design plans.

On Saturdays and Sundays each week, you will see lots of “Open House” signs on street corners in the residential neighborhoods. You can stop in to take a tour of all those houses you see open and you shouldn’t feel bad about not really being in the market to buy. This is a great way to see a large variety of different house designs, but also to see how they are furnished. How else are you going to get a grand tour of other people’s house all for free?

Once you are in an open house and are looking around, you might want to remember what you are seeing. A great little small camera such as a Flip Camcorder will fit right into your pocket and not be too obvious. It is small, lightweight, takes great movies, and is easy to carry anywhere. You can discreetly take a film of what you like in every house you go to!

Make sure you go to different neighborhoods so that you can see all the different house plans that are in your area. Going from house to house allows you to see all types of house designs from different economic areas and price ranges. You may end up realizing that you like one idea from one house and another from a different house. This will give you lots of great ideas once you start to design your own house plans.

Richard Vande Sompel asked:




Deck building is a polular do-it-yourself project with homeowners who can take advantage of how-to-do-it clinics and tools rentals at home improvement retail outlets to construct the decks of their dreams.

Cantilevering is a deck construction technique that can be used by do-it-yourselfers on almost all decks. It allows the builder to add several feet to the width of the deck without increasing the maximum span rating for the beams or the joists. This is especially true when homeowners are building bigger and bigger decks with more levels and more complex shapes.

In some instances cantilevering makes it possible for a smaller beam size to be used to support the deck. As far as the joist size is concerned a smaller size could also be used by the using this innovative construction method.

Another advantage of incorporationg cantilevering into the construction of a deck is that the location of foundation columns, support posts and beams can be less precise than in the conventional method of construction. This is an important consideration for do-it-yourselfers who are not as proficient as professional contractors especially in this area of deck building.

However, it is important to remember that there are still guidelines that limit the distance that a beam can extend beyond a support post or that a joist can extend past a beam. These guidelines also assume that there will be no unusual loads placed at the other end other than the deck occupants. These guidelines are there to provide necessary standards to ensure the proper and safe construction of outdoor deck spaces by amateurs and pros alike.

Under the right conditions, technically it is alright for beams or joists to cantilever up to 40% of the distance that they are spanning between supports as long as the cantilever does not exceed four times the beam or joist depth. An example of this would be a joist that spans 10 feet between supports. Theoretically it could cantilever .40% x 10 = 4 feet beyond the supporting beam. Thus a 10 + 4 = 14 foot joist would be possible. But if the joist is a 2×8 (with an actual width of 7.25 inches) then the cantilever would be limited to 4 x 7.25 = 29 inches.

Unless you like bouncy construction it would be a wise decision to limit the cantilever to about 25% of supported beam or joist length. An even wiser decision would be to never exceed 3 feet of cantilever in the construction of the deck. This will result in the deck feeling solid even when one is standing over the cantilevered ends.

Cantilevering more than 3 feet would be better achieved by moving up to the next larger dimensional size of beam or joist.

In the initial deck design process it is a good idea to consult with the local building department regarding building codes and construction methods. Once you submit your application for a building permit along with your deck design drawings, building department staff will make alterations in your design where necessary. Cantilevering can be incorporated into this design and their expertise will ensure that the deck design will adhere to construction requirements and result in the building of an outstanding deck that will meet the needs and tastes of its occupants.

Cantilevering can be an important and very practical part of that process.

Debra Gould asked:




If you make your living as an interior designer or decorator the current economy has got to be hurting your business. When the economy is slow, many people who might otherwise hire an interior designer or decorator are forced to move such a ‘non-essential’ service to the bottom of their priority list. If you haven’t felt the pinch yet, brace yourself as your business could take a drastic nose-dive during an economic recession. Nobody really needs interior design services, especially in have-not times.

There’s also the fact that so many of your days are spent on the business-side of design; negotiating with contractors, waiting for deliveries to arrive, billing, gathering quotes, and so on. This is all time that doesn’t directly generate revenue for your interior design or decorating business, and when client billings are already meager, this can really hurt your financial situation.

Maybe you’re one of the many trained interior decorators who have ended up working in retail for a 100% commission. If the economy gets worse and you’re working purely on commission, where does that leave you? Even in good times, if you work for 100% commission you might as well be your own boss and have the freedom to market yourself to new clients rather than being tied to any one store.

When I decided to take the reigns of my life back and do something that would allow me to profit from my creativity, I considered a career in interior design. I struggled with that option countless times across a 20 year period when I was unsatisfied in my work. I researched, and even interviewed, many interior design schools in my “former life” but for some reason I never took the step to enroll. I decided with my BA, MBA and a couple decades of experience in business, being in a classroom for two to four years with kids 20 years my junior was not something I wanted to do.

Never mind tuition costs and the tremendous loss of income while you’re a student. Then who knows how many years of working experience as a designer or decorator would be needed after graduation to really start earning money. I wanted to unleash my creativity and love for decorating, but I definitely needed to start making money as soon as possible. So, I started my own home staging company.

As soon as my business was launched, the money was coming in. Within my second year as a home stager I was making up to $10,000 per month. Compare that to the median annual salary of $36,150 a year for an Interior Designer according to Salary.com this year. I’m very happy I trusted my instincts!

If you’re an interior designer or decorator and you aren’t making enough money, consider adding Home Staging to your service mix or switching to a more profitable career as a Home Stager altogether.

Here a few ways a home staging business can be more profitable than an interior design business:

• As a home stager you get the opportunity to work with different types of people than you would as an interior designer. Generally, only very high income individuals hire interior designers, which limits your target market. Home stagers work mostly with clients in the middle to upper income level which gives you a much larger percentage of the population to market to, and increases the number of projects available for you to work on.

• Home stagers enjoy a higher volume of projects than interior designers because each one is so short in nature. One interior design project might take months to complete (especially when you factor in the wait times to have upholstery done, or furniture delivered), but the average home staging project takes only a few hours or days. There’s no way I could have decorated hundreds of homes within a couple of years as a new interior designer, the way I did as a new home stager. With such quick projects, a home stager is able to complete (and get paid for) a significantly higher number of projects per year than an interior designer who often has client work on hold through no fault of their own.

• When the economy is slow, people eliminate the non-essentials. Interior design or decorating isn’t really high on the “essential items list” especially when choices need to be made about what to give up, and there’s no real deadline to redecorate or renovate a room. In uncertain times, interior design moves way down on the priority list, while home staging move up. No matter how slow the economy is or how much the real estate market has declined, there will always be people who absolutely have to sell and move by a certain date. Divorce, job relocation, job loss, mounting debts, a death in the family or a birth often get people to put their house on the market even if it isn’t the best time to sell. When a homeowner is desperate to sell their house, a home stager will often be involved since the seller stands to make a handsome profit from their services. When people have less time, less money or less equity in their house, they need a home stager so they can get whatever they can out of the sale of their home! As a home stager, your creativity and talent for decorating will serve you well in slow economic times and slow real estate markets.

I especially love the amount of creative freedom I get as a home stager. Because my clients know I’m decorating their home to sell and not for them to live in, I am able to execute my creative vision without their interference or taking their taste into consideration. I can’t imagine wasting hours sitting with a client who can’t decide which color they want for their bathroom, or which fabric to pick for their drapes. My clients don’t care what I choose as long as their house will sell quicker because of it. Besides that, my home staging business is extremely profitable which every entrepreneur wants.

If your interior design business isn’t doing as well as you hoped, it’s not too late to make a change towards living a more creatively fulfilling career that is also more profitable. Do some research into the home staging field. It’s a career that is virtually “recession-proof”.

Carole DeJarnatt asked:




There is a movement across the nation, more and more people are starting to raise chickens. Whether it be the state of the economy or people just wanting to get back to the basics–people are looking for ways to be a little more self-sufficient and having eggs supplied by your own poultry is one of many ways.

Along with the interest in raising chickens you need to be aware of some of the poultry equipment required to maintain your new flock. Some people just jump right in without a thought–kind of like I did in the beginning–my husband brought home six chickens and we scrambled around looking for temporary housing until we could build better and something to dispense their feed and water. If you have a choice, first determine what is needed to start raising chickens and then get your chickens.

What comes first–the chicken or the chicken supplies?

At a local farm supply store I noticed a lady had purchased a new baby chicken and along with the chick she had a chick feeder, a chick waterer, and who knows what at home that was waiting for her new little chicken. She probably is not aware within a few weeks the baby chickens will about double in size and will not be able to eat out of the chick feeder without opening the top and the waterer will not hold enough to give them an adequate water supply. These are some of the things that you learn from experience in raising chickens.

If I was considering raising a few chickens in my backyard for the first time, here are the preferred chicken supplies I would have on hand:

Chicken House–when raising chickens the chicken needs a place to call home. Whether it be a chicken tractor, a chicken coop, or a livestock barn, give the chickens a place to get out of the rain, lay an egg, and roost at night. Baby chickens require an area with a heat source for a short time so the housing requirements will be different.

Poultry Equipment–this includes the chicken waterer, poultry feeder, and nesting boxes. The type of poultry equipment you purchase depends on the age of the chicken. The feeder and waterer requirements for baby chickens is different than adult poultry. You will need the regular feeders at some point. Unless you buy a pre-fab chicken house most do not come with nesting boxes so you will need to supply the area where you want to gather the eggs.

Used Poultry Equipment–there are many sources to purchase used poultry equipment and the first place I usually look is Craigslist and from there I search for any local livestock or small animal auctions. And don’t forget your local trading posts papers. We have one that comes from our local electric company and sometimes they have some items at good prices.

Chicken Feed–when you bring home your new chickens one of the first things they want to do is eat. Again what type you buy is determined by the age of the chicken. There are a variety of chicken feeds out there so do your homework to choose the one that is right for you.

Storage Containers for Poultry Supplies–what do I mean by this? Somewhere to keep your food and grain so other animals do not have access to it. The likelihood of attracting critters of some sort is very high with all the scratching a chicken does in its food that helps to spread it around. I use metal trash containers and they do the trick. I keep my food supplies in one and my chicken equipment in the other.

I have been raising chickens for over five years now so I have my preferred methods of feeding and watering along with my preferred poultry equipment, some homemade and some store bought. If you are just starting out and not sure where to turn, visit your local feed store. Check out their prices and then compare them to the online stores. Most of the time you will find if you buy local you will save on the shipping costs. And there is the chance that if they do not have what you are looking for they will order it for you. With the interest in raising chickens you need to have the correct poultry equipment to maintain your new flock.

Morgan Hamilton asked:




When we go about the home, many things to take into consideration. Building a summer home is no exception. Not only should your beach house designs take in to account the dimensions of your property, but also the specific details of its location. For example, when you purchase beach house designs, they cannot reasonably tell you how well their house would stand to a hurricane. That is the job of builders, inspectors and engineers. What’s about flooding and earthquake? Your holiday residence might be where you escape to dream a little, and take a break from your everyday life, but you shouldn’t be day-dreaming during the planning phases of its construction. Take into account all the details that may affect your beach house.

The fact of matter is that merrily getting a quality beach house design isn’t nearly enough. You must take extra steps to know where you are building, and insure that it is solid enough to accommodate your plans. Nature is never changing for and must realize that there are only going to be an increasing number of natural disasters, and you are wise to take into account all of the force of nature can affect your beach. It’s not about the aesthetics alone. Not by a long shot.

Before you delve into the various beach house designs, you would be wise to do some good research, due diligence about the location where you are going to build it. You should take into account the tides and available breakwaters, insure an adequate distance above sea level for protection, and do your research to insure that you are not building in a place of the planets which is often beset by storms. If you don’t want to be paying a fortune to build your dream cottage, you should also research what local materials are readily available at affordable prices, and then buy a beach house design which incorporates these materials in its design.

Probably the most important thing you could do would be to hire a builder that is intimately familiar with the area. All lands are different and have unique characteristics. There are probably tens of thousands of people who could draw out perfect beach house designs which will positively make you jump for joy, but a big part of building the perfect beach house is ensuring that it is designed for where you are going to put it.

Great beach house designs, like great designs for any building, always take into account the local geography and climate. They don’t foolishly seek to build the most sprawling, extravagant design possible, without factoring in the environment. You must also take into account the cost for homeowners insurance because they can get pretty damn pricey. Take care to do this to in a thoughtful fashion and you will be happier knowing that you have built a beach house which will keep you and your family safe for years to come.