Monday, October 5, 2009

Set Goals Without Limits

Everybody on this planet has the ability to dream. But what exactly is a dream? The Websters Dictionary offers sixteen definitions of the word dream, but here we will only list two.

1. A succession of thoughts, images, or emotions passing through the mind during sleep.

2. A vision voluntarily indulged in while awake; daydream; reverie.

Whether we remember them or not we all have dreams while we sleep. But for the most part our dreaming occurs while we are awake. What are your dreams? Do you dream of making more money at your current job or do you dream of owning the company? Do you dream of owning your own home with a white picket fence or do you dream of owning your own ocean front estate on a tropical island with your own private beach? Maybe it's your dream to become president of your country or to become a motivational speaker and help millions of other people to realize their dreams. Whatever your dreams, the only thing stopping you from achieving them are the limits that you set up in your own mind.

This may seem difficult to believe but the only person that can stop you from attaining all that you desire is YOU! All the power and ability you would ever need to make your wildest dreams come true already resides within you. Inside your head is the key to ultimate success. Your mind is a vast source of energy that can never be fully consumed. The problem is that most people never learn how to direct this energy to create the lives they desire.

Dreaming, in and of itself is not enough. You must create a dream big enough to keep your interest, turn it into a goal, and in turn transform that goal into a burning desire. Anything short of that is a waste of your time and effort.

Goal Setting:

1. You must decide what you want and must absolutely have. Remember to make your goal big enough to keep you excited about accomplishing it. Nothing is impossible unless you believe it is!

2. Determine where you are now in relation to reaching your goal.

3. Once you know where you are, you need to determine what steps are necessary to bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be. This will act much like a map on your journey to success.

4. Chart all this information down on paper. This step is absolutely necessary. Writing down your goal on paper is the first step to transforming your vision into its physical equivalent.

5. Review your written goal various times throughout the day. As you do this, try to imagine already having achieved your goal. Visualize yourself in possession of that which you want most, or of the person you will be in the future as if it were right now. Perform this step until your goal becomes a burning desire. Once you reach this point, doubt about your ability to succeed will fade away, and the vast source of energy which your mind contains will now back you in your effort to achieve.

Visit http://www.inspirationtochange.com for life improving resources!

Interior Painting Ideas

It may surprise most homeowners that to give to your house a makeover, all you need is just a new coat of paint. Simple, yes, but the doing quite be tough. It's a labor intensive work and you may need to brainstorm a little for some interior painting ideas.

However, it's best you consider the reasons why you are doing this. Interior painting can take many days to complete and it requires a lot of energy to complete the whole job. Painting itself is exhausting work and if you don't have enough strong reasons to do the work, your interior painting ideas may fall apart and the painting halts midway. So why are you doing this? Is it:

a. Your neighbor is doing it
b. Your walls are dirty
c. Your children have painted the walls with crayons
d. Your spouse cannot sleep at night because it's the wrong color
e. You cannot stand the color because it reminds you of your ex

When you get the reasons right, it will be easier to see everything through and you will become more creative and you may develop insights to giving your home a new makeover. You may think about patterns on the walls, or use sponges to leave decorative marks on the wall, or create patterns with stencils and stamps.

When you are running through your interior painting ideas, you may want to think about the choice of colors. Choose your colors to suit the walls and all the rooms and its intended function for the rooms. Select colors that will match the furniture and electrical fixtures and appliances in the room. As a general guide, lighter colors tend to promote space and awareness, which are good for kids room or the new born; and darker colors will make a room seem a little smaller but it can also make it a little cozy, like a movie projector room. Different colors can psychologically affect the mood of people, especially in the home. Here are few tips when it comes to selecting color:

Red
Red walls will increase a room energy level. You will never see red walls in a prison for that reason. Red can be consider for your bedroom ideas to increase activities at night, but don't paint the elderly person's room red. Red has been shown to raise blood pressure, speed respiration and heart rate

Yellow
Yellow is good for kitchen walls and bathrooms, it is uplifting and creates a feeling of sunshine. In living rooms, yellow can feel expansive and invigorating. Yellow is believed to stimulate the nerves and purify the body.

Green
Green is a relaxing and peaceful color. That's why people go to gardens to relax and seek calmness. Green can be painted in almost any room in the house. In a kitchen, a sage or medium green cools things down; in a family room or living room, it encourages unwinding and also promote comfort and togetherness. It is believed to relieve stress by helping people relax.

Tips on interior painting:

1. Decide on how many walls you want to paint and in which order you want to paint. This not only helps you estimate the amount of paint you need, but also helps you plan where you want to store the furniture temporary when you are painting. You must take into consideration the inconvenience the other occupant may experience. If you painting the kitchen, then all the cooking have to stop.

2. Plan on protecting the floor and all furniture and electrical fixtures. It may be a good idea to use old newspaper to cover exposed items. Your roller may seem fun to use, but the all the splatter may not be so fun to clean up.

3. Clean the walls before you start painting. You don't want to paint over cob webs and insects crawling on the wall. Patch up holes and cracks to ensure smooth painting throughout.

When you are actively searching for interior painting ideas, remember to include all the pointers mentioned above. Any do it yourself job is always satisfying and could save you a lot money.

You can get more information on interior painting ideas and installing wood floor here.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Using Home Safes For Added Family Security

Protecting your valuables with a home safe provides you with the security in knowing that its there to protect your irreplaceable items from theft or destruction. It gives you that piece of mind knowing that your money, important documents, firearms, jewelry, and family heirlooms will be safe even through fire or water damage.

It also protects the wandering inquisitive child, babysitter, housekeeper, etc, from stumbling upon items that you would rather they not see.

But you just don't go to any discount store to get your safe, then bring it home and plop it in your closet. There are some things to think about first, a bit of thought and planning.

What type of protection are you looking for? A home safe should protect your items from fire, water damage and theft. You can find safes that protect from any one, combination, or all. (You may still want to place some of your valuables in plastic bags just in case of water damage.)

What style are you looking for? A home safe can be anything from a small chest, file, wall or floor mount safe to a home or business safe or file cabinet. You will want to install it away from the master bedroom or closet - this is the first place a thief would look.

What size are you looking for? What are you trying to protect? Your home safe should be big enough to fit things like important documents (birth certificates, passports, social security cards, credit cards, wills, tax returns, business papers, insurance documents, photos, etc); digital media (CDs, DVDs, memory sticks, GPS systems, MP3 players, cell phones, etc), and valuables (family heirlooms, jewelry, cash, video/camera equipment, collectibles, etc).

The safe needs to be anchored in some way, so be sure you will be able to bolt the safe to the floor, permanent shelving or set it in concrete. After all, you don't want to make it handy for the theft to just pick up and walk away with everything all in one spot! It should have a tool resistant outer shell as well as a minimum of one-hour fire rating; most safes have a 20-minute fire protection. The lock should be U.L. approved.

Use your safe everyday so it becomes routine. Protect the safe code and change it occasionally. There are also models available that open using your fingerprint (very cool!).

To get more valuable free personal and family safety tips, go to http://MyFamilySafetyInfo.com/ Please also visit http://GuscleBerry.com/ for a variety of home, yard and garden decor and gifts, all at affordable prices along with bulk purchase discounts.

Concrete Form Liners in Architecture

Concrete form liners are used to add texture to what otherwise would be bare walls showing only the imprint of whatever materials were used when the concrete was poured into a mold. Usually made of styrene or ABS plastic, the formliner (the term is also used as two separate words - form liner) is placed inside the structural forming system and then acts as a mold to imprint a specific texture to the concrete. There are a large variety of patterns available, and they can give concrete a brick, block, or rock pattern. Formliners can also generate wood grain textures, flutes or fractured fins. But what is formliners relevance to art and architecture?

The answer is no farther than a look at the magnificent Ahwanee Hotel located in the Yosemite National Park in California. The Ahwanee is a magnificent structure that was built in the 1920s and has been a national historic landmark since the 1980s. Fitting beautifully into the majestic Yosemite scenery, the hotel is constructed from rough-cut granite and wood. When I first saw the Ahwanee I marveled at its beauty, but also wondered if such extensive use of wood in a remote area did not represent a fire hazard. Well, the wood isn't wood. It is poured concrete that was textured with early formliners and stained to look like redwood and pine bark. When you look at the building from a distance, you see horizontal redwood siding and rough, milled timbers.

What architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood accomplished with the Ahwanee Hotel was an intelligent solution to the challenge of designing a building that fit into the breathtaking grandeur of Yosemite with its rock and woods yet was also resistant to fire. It became an architectural masterpiece and also a monument to innovative use of construction materials. By shaping, texturing and staining concrete, Underwood conjured up the natural beauty of wood, yet without incurring any of wood's drawbacks in terms of cost, safety and longevity. Underwood may not have had the type of plastic formliner we use today, but the idea and concept was the same.

While the Ahwanee was one of the most earliest and most famous examples of formliner architecture and its builders had to overcome many challenges, the concept is readily available today to architects, engineers and contractors. It adds a great degree of artistic and architectural freedom to using concrete as a construction material. Colors and textures become part of the design language, the finish of concrete as relevant as its structural properties.

Adding texture to concrete was a major task an expense when the Ahwanee was built. Today, elastomeric and urethane formliners can be specified and ordered right out of catalogs from companies that specialize in them. Hundreds of patters and textures are available, with top-notch formliner makers able to interpret and produce drawings, provide custom patterns and rustications, while adhering to schedules and budgets.

While concrete has been used as a construction material for thousands of years, it's been the fairly recent advent of concrete form liners that has given architects and engineers a powerful new tool to work with this most flexible of construction materials.

Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web.

Learn more about Concrete Form Liners.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Ceramic Floor Tile Installation - 5 Tips For Success

Ceramic floor tile installation is a great way to get a long-lasting beautiful floor. There are several tricks to getting a great looking floor tile job though. Really getting off to the right start is key to a good looking floor. Get started right and you'll be pleased with the results.

The right start begins with the base over which you install the tile. You see tile can be installed over all kinds of materials. You can put tile over plywood, concrete, vinyl flooring or even over other ceramic tile. But the one must is that the surface must be stable. It can't be flexible and it can't bend. That's because the tile floor will crack if the underlying layers moves. Often the first step in a professional tile installation is installation of a layer of cement board. That often guarantees a rigid surface.

That solid base is part of the planning of a tile project. Planning and design of a tile project is a big part of a successful installation. Before that first tile is laid, check the squareness of the room. Have you ever seen a perfectly square room? You want to work from the best corner and plan to put he cut tiles in the least visible spot. Plan for where the cuts will be to get the best results.

Once you get started, the goal is to keep the tile spacing as even as possible. Tile spacers in the right width are the best tell to get this done. Also a simple carpenter square helps to keep a close check to maintain alignment. Often nailing down some straight guide boards, batten boards, is another helpful move. Especially for the first row of tiles, a guide board can help get you off to the right start.

At one or more walls you will cut the border tiles to fit the remaining space. Now cutting is one of the skills a tile setter gets to practice. You'll need tile nippers for small trim work and probably a wet tile saw. Sometimes on a floor job with just straight cuts, a cutter board may be all you need. This tool scores a tile with a groove so it can be easily broken. It takes a little practice to break the tile on the line.

Grouting the joints is the finishing step. Grout comes in several types. Some are acrylic. Some are masonry. Some are epoxy. The epoxy grout is really waterproof and is especially well suited in bathrooms to keep water from soaking into the floor.

Ceramic floor tile installation requires quite a bit of planning. A well planned job will result in the best looking floor with the minimum of waste. Ceramic floors also are a great place to show creativity in mixing tiles into patterns. There are some tricks to getting a tile floor just right. If you get a chance, it helps to watch a pro work on a job or two.

You can get access to video tutorials showing a master installer do ceramic floor tile installation in several different rooms at our website.

Al Bullington invites you to visit http://InstallingCeramicTile.net for answers to your tile questions.

Building Outdoor Kitchens - Do You Need One

How often do you find yourself outdoors is the first question you ask yourself before you go off and plan to build an outdoor kitchen for your home. These days you need to think twice before doing any major renovations on the home. Aside from the major expense that will be required of you, it will also take a major toll on you as you have to supervise the entire project. But if you have the budget and the time to extend your home to include an outdoor kitchen, go ahead.

Aside from the question asked above, there are other major considerations, you need to think about before deciding on having another kitchen outdoors such as visitors. If you are the type of person who has visitors often, then you need an extension of your home. Energy is a given as everybody wants to save up on energy. By having an outdoor kitchen, one gets to save up on energy and energy cost. Space is also major concern. You cannot have this, if you live in a condominium. You have to have a backyard, a space where you can have it.

If you have a big family, having an outdoor kitchen is an advantage. Kids get messy all the time, especially during meal times. By having this, messy times will become fun times! You will no longer mind the mess as long as it's outdoors. As the mess will only be limited to that area and the other parts of the house will no longer be affected.

So start on building that outdoor kitchen and let the good times roll.

Cheryl Forbes owns and operates the website http://www.outdoor-kitchen-concepts.com

Where is Heaven

Many people live their lives with the assumption that Heaven is out there somewhere and is completely separate from life on earth. Many are taught that Heaven is a mystical place only accessed through death of the physical body. But in actuality, the spiritual planes of reality and the physical earth plane interpenetrate one another in the same point in space. Each plane has its own unique energetic structure that vibrates at its own frequency. The physical world is the lowest vibration of energy and actually lies within higher vibrational planes.

We can routinely access some of the higher, less dense planes through sleep, meditation or prayer. Whenever we are in an altered state of consciousness, we align with higher vibrational planes of reality and may come to have an expanded awareness that we dont experience in a waking state.

In the case of meditation , as we connect with our higher self, our creativity may be awakened or we may experience a light bulb moment that gives us a better understanding of who we are or of a situation going on in our lives.

As we dream, we are whisked off to a land of symbolismthe secret language of Spirit. Dreams can offer clues that can help us to resolve matters in our current waking lives. Through our dreams, we may also come in contact with deceased friends or family members or even catch a glimpse of an event that hasnt happened yet. Dream interpretation is a very useful tool that can bring the workings of Heaven into our awareness.

In prayer to the God of our understanding, we place ourselves in a position to be humbly conscious of the limitless possibilities that Heaven offers us. By recognizing the opportunities open to us, we can act on them and bring them into manifest.

Heaven is not a place, it is a system a system of subtle energies that are constantly stirring about and creating new effects that help shape and transform our daily lives. The earth plane is not separate from this system; it is merely the physical component of it. The system that sustains us in life is the same system that sustains us in death.

Karin Nemri is a Spiritual Counselor, Aiijii Healer and inter-nationally known Lecturer/Presenter. She has a private practice in Connecticut. You may wish to visit her website, http://www.SoulutionsofLight.com to learn how Spirit works through her to help others.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Prevent Black Mold

Black mold doesn't care if your house is nice and new, or musty and old. It doesn't care where you live or how sensitive your sinuses are. It wants into your house any way it can!

Black mold happens to everyone, and it's a big headache. It's especially a pain to clean. That's why prevention is the key to keeping your home mold free.

Humidity

This is the number one condition for mold to grow. It loves the wet parts of your house. Keeping your home dry is the best way to keep the mold out.

Mold thrives best at around 55% relative humidity. Anything over that and mold can have a heyday in your home. The most surefire way to prevent black mold growth is to reduce humidity.

-Check your watery trouble spots. Especially keep your eye on the bathroom and kitchen, and look for places where water runs.

-If you have any area of standing water or water damage, get rid of it immediately. Clean it well and let it dry.

-Keep everything dry. After you wash the dishes, make sure you towel everything down. Don't leave standing water on any of your kitchen counters or around your sink.

-When you see mold, clean it up immediately. Don't let it go, or it will encourage more mold to grow.

-Buy a dehumidifier. This will help dry the house out a little and that will reduce mold. You can buy one at most department stores, and it doesn't have to be anything fancy.

-If you live in a humid or warm climate, you will definitely have to deal with the mold. Take that into account and keep your house dry before the mold gets in.

Air

-Make sure there is plenty of air flow in your house. Fresh air will clear out the mold spores that might be around. Open windows and get plenty of ventilation.

-In the bathroom, always turn on the exhaust fan during and just after showering. This will clear away some of the water before it has a chance to settle.

-Keep down the dust in your house. Dust can carry mold spores, and both can be major irritants.

-Routinely check and clean your air ducts. Mold can grow around your heating and air conditioning ducts, and this is especially bad because it circulates mold all over the house.

Inspections

-If you are suffering from any chronic sinus problems that might be mold related, get your house tested and inspected. Inspectors can check mold samples to see if they are toxic. They can also check and see how much airborne mold there is in your house.

-Routinely check around your house in the hidden places where Dangerous Toxic Black Mold likes to grow. This includes your attic, crawlspaces, basement and air ducts.

It's not enough just to clean up mold when you see it. To stay mold free, you have to prevent black mold from growing. Don't give it a chance!

Learn more about Black Mold Species on our site. You'll also find other information such as Black Mold On Onions ToxicBlackMoldHelp.org is a comprehensive resource to help individuals to test and inspect, identify health symptoms and removal of toxic black mold.

Realistic Rustic Looking Vinyl Log Siding

Thanks to innovative new advancements in vinyl siding, a house can look like a show place. Vinyl siding was first introduced in the 1950's, and the improvements made over the years are simply amazing. Vinyl siding offers a wonderful way to give a home a beautiful face lift.

For those who like the log cabin look, there is the very popular vinyl log siding. The biggest advantage in choosing to use log siding is the fact that it is maintenance free, and easy to install. Traditional real wooden log homes, while quite appealing require a lot of exterior maintenance as well as take quite some time to construct.

Unlike the vinyl siding from the past, today's siding is realistic looking, and requires no maintenance. Log siding gives a home the look of a real log home, at a much lower price, and saves time over traditional log home construction.

Traditional real wooden log homes require a lot of routine maintenance such as staining, sealing, and insect protection in order to preserve the wood. With that in mind,vinyl logsiding is the more attractive choice. This makes that charming rustic look much easier to achieve today than it has been in the past.

Another advantage to using vinyl siding is the weather-proofing factor. Yes, siding is a great way to weather proof a home. It provides total protection from various climates and weather conditions.

While the afore mentioned advantages are all valid and appealing reasons to choose vinyl log siding, there is more! The many choices of wood styles like cedar, cypress, and redwood just to name the most popular choices available, is yet another great reason to consider vinyl log siding.

I personally prefer the rustic log cabin look. The fact that that look can be produced by vinyl log siding that is maintenance free, and can also save me on energy bills, is a big plus. Until I saw that this siding was being used in areas where one would expect to see real traditional log homes, I would not have believed it could look so real.

It looks real because it is embossed with rich natural looking grain textures. The advancements in recent years to vinyl siding, especially vinyl log siding, is astounding. If this is the look you would like to have for your home, consider this option as an alternative to real wood log construction and save time and money.

Learn More about Vinyl Log Siding

Thursday, October 1, 2009

How to Build Your Own Wind Turbine For Home

If the increasing cost of electricity is one of your problems at home, you might want to consider some alternatives like build your own wind turbine or install solar panels on the roof of your home. In recent years, more people have seen the wisdom in using these alternative sources of energy to alleviate their growing electrical expenses. Through any of these options, you will surely see a significant cut in your electricity bills, allowing you to enjoy more savings.

In particular, there are three important concerns to be thought of before deciding and starting to build a wind turbine that you can use at home. First, you need to find a place where strong wind force can be experienced. For wind energy to be converted into electrical energy, minimum wind speed should be about 10 kmph. This almost always does not happen in urban areas so you would have to consider a rural place for this endeavor. Moreover, the place where you are to place your wind turbine should not be surrounded by trees and other obstructions so as not to impede wind strength.

Second, you have to carefully follow the steps in making a wind turbine. The Internet is a rich resource for comprehensive guides in building such. Also, make sure that you have all the necessary materials for making the turbine. Some of the more common materials for this type of project are blades, generator, and battery. A tower where the wind turbine is to be attached to is also required. To avoid functional problems, make sure that you complied with all prerequisites and followed the procedures enumerated in the guide carefully.

Lastly, make sure that you are not violating any local government provision before you build your own wind turbine to avoid being penalized later on.

Tired of high electric bills? Discover how thousands of families are using homemade power systems to power their homes!

Wood Beam Repairs - Home Repair Tips

If you live in a moist climate in the winter and a dry climate in the summer and you have exterior wood beams exposed to these elements. You could develop wood beam problems over time. If wood beams are properly maintained and painted often they could last for a long time. Wood beams can last many years if properly taken care of.

Exterior wood beams that are used to hold up roofs, patios and decking can suffer from wood rot if not taken care of. Let's take for example a wooden beam located in a patio holding up a section of a large roof. The span of the roof being is only 10 feet long. As we look at the exterior wood beam. We noticed the upper corner of the beam is soft and rotted.

The beam damage is roughly the size of a baseball. The wood beam itself is a 6 x 10. Do we need to replace this beam even though the damage is not real big. The answer to this question is yes, any amount of damage to a wood beam takes away from its structural strength.

If you have a wood beam holding up the roof and the beam fails you could end up replacing a large section of your roof as well as the damaged beam. Replacing the damaged beam is usually a difficult task. The beam is usually sandwiched between two walls and will have siding or stucco around it.

If you're lucky enough to have the wood beam sitting in a saddle or on top of a wood post this will make your job easier and will require less skill. If however the beam is located between two walls this will require shoring up the roof and removing the beam.

Beam replacement should be left to professionals. This is not often as easy as it looks and could create a safety hazard if not done properly. I have seen beams replaced by homeowners or handyman and the damage that was done after the repairs, was worse than just leaving the beam alone in the first place.

The biggest problem with exterior wood beams is that they are usually holding up large amounts of weight. If the beam is removed without the proper bracing and shoring of the roof or floor area you could have a larger problem than you started with.

Exterior beams over time seemed to develop large cracks or splits in dry weather. These large cracks and splits weaken the structural strength of the beam adding more stress to the beam itself leading to structural failure eventually.

Extreme climates where temperatures very over 40 in one day seem to suffer the most damage to exterior wood beams that are not properly maintained. Beam maintenance will require painting and keeping moisture away from them.

Be aware of structural beams in or around your house. A little painting now and then can save you thousands of dollars over the life time of your house.

Greg Vanden Berge has been in the home building and remodeling business for over 30 years. With this knowledge he has created a few websites that provide useful information for home owners as well as contractors. His main goal is to educate professionals in the home related businesses, dealing with problems that can easily be avoided with just a little bit of information.

His website http://gregvan.com provides all kinds of answers to remodeling and new house building issues that could create major damage as well as possible damage to your pocket book.

Visit us now for Vista Home Improvement.