Green Home!

Archive for April, 2009

Growing the indoor Bonsai Tree is actually the Japanese art form of cultivating miniature trees. These trees are very similar to their larger counterparts with the exception that they are grown in pots and the constant pruning does not allow them to reach full size, making it an indoor Bonsai Tree.

The art of growing these trees is thought to have originated in ancient China, where men who were healers would grow plants for medicinal purposes. In early times the main purpose was to display trunks in the shape of animals and mystic figures. Somewhere between the 7th and 9th century, this art form was introduced to the Japanese culture.

There are many types of Bonsai Trees, including formal and informal upright, cascade, raft, literati, semi-cascade and forest. The indoor Bonsai Tree is available at a range of nurseries in various stages of growth, from seedlings to the fully mature indoor Bonsai Tree.

As an alternative, you can choose to grow your indoor Bonsai Tree from seeds. Generally you can purchase kits to grow Bonsai Trees; these kits usually include, a particular kind of seed, a small pot, a little bag of fertilizer and soil, a drainage sheet as well as information to help you get started. The different kits will provide you with different instructions, depending on the type of indoor Bonsai Tree you are trying to grow. It is important to follow these instructions for the best possible growth.

Watering them correctly is essential to successfully growing the indoor Bonsai Tree. Watch the moisture in the soil carefully to ensure that it does not get too wet, or too dry. If you live in a warm climate, it is even more important that you keep a close eye on the soil’s moisture. It is also vital to pay attention to the temperature of the room and the correct amount of sunlight. You do not want your indoor Bonsai Tree to be in a room that is too hot or cold. You also want to ensure that it has plenty of sunlight.

Once your tree has sprouted, you can start shaping and dwarfing it through an assortment of techniques. In addition to pruning, giving your Bonsai Tree a lot of love will help you work wonders with growing these beautiful trees.

Take some time to learn exactly how this is done and you will be rewarded with a beautiful indoor Bonsai Tree. Creating your own Japanese garden in your home is a great way to enhance the beauty of your surroundings and bring nature into your life.

The finishing touches to your bathroom or kitchen renovation project is the selection of your tap and should be given the same consideration when purchasing other bathroom furniture. Since mixer taps now come in a wide variety of styles and finishes to incorporate the latest in technology, choosing the right taps either for the bath, shower, kitchen or basin mixer taps can add charisma to any room. Whether you are trying to achieve an ultra modern or a traditional look choosing a design that is relevant to your taste and will be significant to the rest of room creates both harmony and balance.

A Modern or Traditional Tap

What defines beauty and elegance in today’s selection of bathroom and kitchen mixer taps are the ultra modern sleek architectural designs. From curvaceous to modular geometric styles or the combination of both in brilliant chrome finishes can create a statement of authenticity and enhance the atmosphere and mood of your design. The array of choices out in the marketplace can be somewhat baffling, ranging from revolutionary and ornate Laser bathroom basin taps in tubular designs that are triggered by touch for a distinctive contemporary appeal. Traditional cross head taps have been have been brought up-to-date into the 21st century with a more angular construction and is the perfect accent to adorn any basin or bath, whatever your design needs are always go with a style that is pleasing to you and fits into the existing design of your room.

Looking for a tap that is both practical and functional also plays a role in the selection process, mixer taps are the ideal solution for the bathroom or kitchen available in single or dual lever controls providing a consistent water temperature and flow. Subtle and elegant traditional bath and shower mixers are a distinguished way in trying to emulate a bygone era, with ceramic accents these types of mixer taps are a favored choice for making a design statement.

Designer Taps

While the scope of kitchen remodeling is on a much grander scale, choosing the right style of tap should be of the same deliberation as in the bathroom. If the kitchen incorporates stainless steel appliances and other modern furnishings a traditional style tap would create an unbalanced look. Opting to go for a trendy minimalist mixer tap design would be more preferable for a complete modern ambiance. On the other hand if your kitchen has a country rustic appearance, traditional styles such as the Dual-Flow High Bridge sink mixer tap or Bib Tap style that can add a genuine touch of charm in a traditional setting.

With stainless steel kitchen sinks still leading the way in popularity and versatility, there is a broad range of complementary taps in metallic and colored finishes to co-ordinate with your design motif and to co-inside with your kitchen accessories. Deciding whether you want a dual-flow tap which provides independent hot and cold water flow or a single lever taps which combines hot and cold water temperatures with one adjustment at the initial design stage will help ease and narrow the selection process as well as avoiding costly mistakes.

Written by Shelley Murphy on behalf of www.victoriaplumb.com an online retailer of bathroom furniture, steam showers, shower enclosures, whirlpool spa baths and bath related products serving the United Kingdom.

When I was growing up as a child in the sixties, kitchens were always a hidden affair. If it was not separated by a wall from the other rooms in the house, then a divider had to be installed to hide it from the rest of the world. Inviting friends over to the kitchen to show off your new kitchen island or cooktop was not the thing to be done.

But not anymore. The kitchen of my adult years has now become the focal point of the house and the people who live in it. There is still the obligatory lounge room to receive guests but it is now just a little room on the way to the grand, open space of kitchen, family and rumpus rooms combined.

This is where most families now gather after a long days work – the parents preparing the family meal while the children (if they are in their schoolyears) do their homework in the family dining table or (if they are already young adults), sit and chatter around the breakfast nook or family room couch. Kitchens now exude warmth and welcome helped by the oak or teak oil-finished kitchen cabinets that usually line the kitchen walls, as well as mahogany or red cedar curio cabinets housing revered family treasures such as photos and bowling trophies.

I have long used my kitchen as my lounge – one of the rooms in the house that I consider most comfortable, functional, tribal and welcoming . My husband and I and anyone of my kids who occasionally fancy themselves as the new Jamie Oliver can showcase our gourmet talents as we gracefully move around the red and brown speckled granite kitchen island or benchtop to the glistening stainless steel sink to the brown flattened glow of the ceramic cooktop. All these in view of the rest of the family, and often times friends and guests who we show in straight to the kitchen/family/dining room area to sit in our beloved dark aubergine brown no-nonsense, yet sumptuous and very practical “Virginia” sofa.

Gone are the days when you felt you needed to detain your guests in the comfort of the Italian velvet sofa in the lounge while you excuse yourself and slave away in the dark, hot and steamy recesses of the kitchen preparing their food. Now there is no shame or cringe to invite friends over to the kitchen because kitchens have become the hub of family life and social entertaining. Architects, home builders and appliance manufacturers have all taken heed of the new trend and have made kitchens not only functional and efficient but also overwhelmingly stylish. Even whitegoods now come in different colors of stainless steel, earthy brown, luminous orange or buttercup yellow to suit everyone’s desire and taste.

Friends are invited to hover around stylish marble-topped kitchen islands as they continue with their socialising, talking about nothing and maybe even lending a hand in washing the vegetables and peeling the potatoes. Even wine bars are now in the domain of the kitchen (not the basement or the lounge) as friends sit down and relax in the midst of kitchens sipping their favorite red or white.

Even when alone, my kitchen has always been a delight and a quiet refuge from the hustle and bustle of the outside world. When I wake up in the morning, I find no greater joy than seeing the sun streaming through the beige voile curtains of the northeast facing kitchen window into the deep purple flowered african violets and tall and lanky chinese fortune plants that brighten up the farthest end of my granite kitchen benchtop. And when I come home from work in the evening, I open the very same northeast facing kitchen window to be greeted with the sweet scent of the orange jasmines that line the backyard fence.

My kitchen has certainly come a long way from its hiding place in the sixties and I intend to enjoy it and keep it that way for a long, long time more to come.

Camper awnings allow you to add extra space to your camper. You can get an awning for a popup camper just as easily as you can get one for a fifth wheel or a motor home. You can even add a Florida room to the awning of your camper. When you have an awning for your camper, it is very easy to operate once you set up the popup camper. Camper awnings are wonderful additions to any camper that will make your experience that much more memorable.

Camper awnings larger than 8.5 feet come with support legs. These are permanently attached to the awning and when you close it, they fold up inside. A smaller size camper awning is self-supporting and does not need the support from the legs. You can secure the support legs of the awning to the ground or attach them to the wall of the camper. There are also popup camper awnings that will fold down along with the canvas material when you decide to move on.

Along with popup camper awnings you can get such additions as “Add a Room.” These help to double the amount of sleeping space you have and provide you with a sunroom where you can sit outdoors when it is raining. The sidewall supports of these camper awnings store easily into a bag on the front of the camper and the room itself does not attach to the awning of the camper.

Camper awnings that are 10 feet or longer also include a center support. When you want to extend the camper awning, you can roll it out to the full length or stop at any distance that you prefer. This is true of the popup campers awnings as well as for the awnings used with an RV. However, when you have the popup camper awning fully extended, the material will sag in the middle. To correct this all you have to do is roll back the popup camper awning one full turn.

When you first install popup camper awnings, you might think you have done something wrong when you notice that the arms seem to be bent a little. This is perfectly normal because the camper awnings are designed to have a slight bend in the lateral arms when the awning is fully extended. You should never try to push the arms of a popup camper awning into a straight position, especially when the awning is extended to its full length. This is the first mistake that many new owners of camper awnings make and as a result, they damage the awning.

Hello, my name is John Rocco.I grew up around the window and door business. My father owned a glass shop that dealt in every aspect of residential and commercial glass.Naturally, when it came time to choose a profession, I wound up in the window and door business.I have been in the business for about 27 years, and I have been self employed for 20.

One of the things that separated my company from my competitors was my willingness to show my customers how to replace their windows themselves. Whenever I would encounter a customer with a curiosity or willingness to learn how to install their own windows, I would offer to sell them the labor on one window,using them as my helper. Then, they would install the rest of the windows using the knowledge gained from helping me install one. Most window companies would never do this because there is so much money made on the labor.But I was always so busy,I never felt like it was costing me money.

Eventually, I made an installation video for those homeowners who wanted to do their own windows. While the video is for sale on my website, I decided to take excerpts from the video and write an article once a week covering some part of the window replacement project. This article is going to cover the difference between window frames used in new construction homes, and the window frames that are used to replace existing aluminum or wood windows.

When a new home is being built,the windows are nailed to the wood studs that make up the house frame.In order to accomplish this, new construction windows have a fin around all four sides of the frame that rests against the outside of the stud and nails are driven into the studs through the nailing fin. After that, flashing paper is applied to prevent water leaks, then the exterior material is applied. That material can be stucco, brick, siding, etc.

Now,imagine 10 or 20 years later when you want to replace those windows. If you were going to install your replacement windows the same way the original windows were installed, you would have to remove the exterior material around each window in order to get to those nails holding the frame in there. You can see how this procedure could cause many problems, not to mention all the labor involved. I have seen homes in california with stucco exteriors where the homeowner had the stucco cut out in order to remove the old windows.The problem was they were unable to match the stucco colors after patching. Its just not a very efficient way to replace windows. So the replacement frame was designed.

In most parts of the country it’s simply a new construction window frame with the nail fin removed. In the west, where stucco is a common home exterior,a retrofit frame was designed. If you’re going to be replacing the exterior material on your home, then you might want to consider going with the new construction window, since the nailing fins will be exposed anyway. Also, chances are that a contractor will be doing your exterior replacement,and it would be wise to let the contractor install the windows as well.Since my installation videos deal with window replacement only, these articles will focus on replacement frames and retrofit frames. Using these two frame styles,a do it yourselfer can replace their old windows without any damage to existing interior and exterior surfaces. And the job can be done using common tools such as a drill,tape measure, and caulking gun.

In next weeks article,we will discuss the replacement of wood sash windows.

John Rocco has been installing replacement windows since 1978. To learn more, visit