Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

Image Credit | Cindy Boyce

The years shortest days are almost here, and that means, happily, the return of Luminothrapie to Quartier des Spectacles. On December 10, the Quartier des Spectacles Partnership unveiled the two participatory works comprising the fourth annual edition of the event that celebrates Quebecs northern climate. Every day until February 2, starting at nightfall, the luminous installationEntre les rangswill turn Place des Festivals into a wonderland.

Continue reading Entre Les Rangs | Montreal Canada | Kanva architecture firm

Dube Square is a unique example of landscape architecture boldly bringing together the design of public space, the design of an iconic outdoor structure and the design sculptural, water and visual elements to create a memorable outdoor space.

Continue reading Dube Square | Durban South Africa | CNdV africa

The Chinese hotspots of turbo urbanization have shifted: the large construction sites, engines of economic growth have moved inland to the large provincial capitals, like Xian in Shaanxi. Literally thousands of high rises and shopping centers grow simultaneously, nerved by wide boulevards.

Continue reading Fishpond City | Xian China | Lu Yang, Christian Lindle, Raoul Bukor

An ever-changing landscape that brings life to the city before it is built, and nature that cleans pollution, creates new communities and provide amenity value for all. That is the fundamental idea behind the development of a temporary, recreational landscape as a precursor to the overall urban development of a new city in Denmark that is now in the finals of one of the worlds most prestigious urban development awards, the World Smart Cities Awards 2013.

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World Landscape Architecture « World Landscape Architecture ...

Henry White of Smithson Valley will face incumbent Scott Haag for commissioner in Comal Countys Precinct 2 in the March 4 Republican Primary.

White, a Vietnam vet and graduate of Texas A&M University, spent a career as an urban planner and landscape architect before retiring. Hes been a resident of Texas for over 42 years and has lived in Comal County for more than a decade.

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Henry White throws in hat

Patio and porch containers of summer can be repurposed for holiday and winter focal points of interest.

They can be filled with evergreens and other natural materials to create interest in the same spots where the petunias grew this past summer. You may be surprised how quickly a few containers will dress up the cold and dormant winterscape. Here are some tips for keeping porch containers working through the winter.

Less is more. During the winter, there is less competition in the outdoors to draw the eye, so use fewer containers for more impact. If you normally have three pots flanking each side of your door, then scale back to one or two. Or make two large containers and minimize the amount of materials in the remaining ones.

Thriller, filler, spiller still applies. Even though the materials may be different in winter, use the same formula used to combine plants in the growing season. Use a tall element like dogwood branches for thriller, rounded items like dried pods, cones or dried flowers for filler.

Plan an easy transition from holiday to winter decor. By removing red bows or glass balls of the holidays, the rest of the container can keep the seasonal interest going until its time to plant pansies.

Scavenge your landscape for materials. Many of the components for winter containers might already be in your yard. Create your own sustainable scavenger hunt and look for:

Berries, such as red cotoneaster, blue or green juniper and orange currants.

Cones from evergreen trees and shrubs.

Seed pods and dried plants like yarrow, hydrangea or Echinacea.

Colorful deciduous branches that can be cut such as red-twig dogwood or others with an interesting shape like sumac.

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Landscape Logic column: Containers create quick winter decor

Liz Ball

Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree.

-- Herman Hesse

Landscape gifts

Just because we are transitioning into a winter season, do not assume home landscapes are doomed to become dull and unattractive. Whether the landscape is covered with snow or not, the plants there still can offer a lot of beauty and interest.

Why not make a point of noticing how your plants, and those in neighbors yards, are showing off this winter? Start now to spot fluffy or dry seed heads on ornamental grasses, dried flower husks on trees and shrubs, cones on conifers and interesting peeling, patchy or striped bark visible on woody plants that have lost their leaves.

Some plants reveal colorful yellow or red stems, others have branches that weep or are contorted. There will be berries on vines and shrubs. Some plants display interesting buds for next springs flowers all winter.

As the winter season progresses, yes, you will start to see flowers from bulbs and certain plants such as native witchhazel trees, hellebores and winterhazel. A winter of observation will assure you that with plants, there is never a dull moment.

Do you know?

-- Homeowners spend upwards of $500 a year on yard and garden care. Continued...

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Yardening

home section Interior Design Housekeeping Entertaining Home Improvement Gardening & Plants Landscaping eHow Home & Garden Landscaping & Outdoor Building Swimming Pools & Spas Landscaping Ideas for Pool Areas

Heidi Cardenas

Heidi Cardenas specializes in human resources, business and personal finance, small-business advice, home and garden and home improvement. Her professional background includes human resources and business administration, technical writing and corporate communications. She has studied horticulture and business administration, and enjoys guest blogging for publications including Herb Companion Magazine, Natural Home Living Magazine, and Mother Earth Living.

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Pools are a big investment and require special consideration during design and installation. Landscaping around them creates an atmosphere and sets a scene. Plants, shrubs, trees and landscape materials should complement the pool and minimize yard and garden maintenance. Whether simple or elaborate, plan pool area landscaping along with pool design for the best results.

The landscaping around a pool is the setting for a large feature of your property. Plan the landscaping at the same time you plan the size, type and location of the pool. Make a list of how you want the pool and plants around it to look, what plants you want to use and where you want to buy them, what your budget is for landscaping and your timeline for completion. Sketch the pool shape and dimensions on graph paper, and make several copies of it. Try out different plants and color combinations on the swimming pool sketch. Consider growth habits, mature size and maintenance of the landscaping plants you are considering.

Use natural stone and rock in poolside landscaping to create texture and minimize plant and shrub maintenance. Consider a natural stone border and patio around the pool, with plants and shrubs planted 20 to 25 feet from the pool's edge to avoid plant litter in the pool or pool chemical damage to the plants. Granite and slate slabs, landscape boulders, river rock, blue stone, purple quartz, red rock and rainbow rock are just some of the decorative stones and rocks you can use in landscaping around pools.

Use flowering perennials as much as possible to cut down on maintenance and add color and interest from spring to fall. Perennial ornamental grasses and rocks or boulders create a savanna-like look. Flowering shrubs like butterfly bush attract butterflies and birds. Fragrant flowering shrubs like lilacs and camellias add another dimension, perfumed fragrance, to the landscaping around your pool. Flowering ground covers create a maintenance-free carpet around pools for a simple look.

Use lights in landscaping around pools to add nighttime drama and illumination. Use solar lighting, lanterns along pathways, underwater pool lights and spotlights on the patio and deck. Also consider ornamental plants or decorative items like sculptures to extend the area's usefulness into the evening without the cost of electricity.

If you have a pool, it likely serves as a focal point of your outdoor landscape. Pools provide a space for entertaining...

Link:
Landscaping Ideas for Pool Areas | eHow - eHow | How to Videos ...

Today, 18 percent of IT workers are self-employed, and this number is growing by 7 percent annually compared to 5.5 percent for the rest of the independent workforce, according to research presented by Patrick Thibodeau in a recent article on Computerworld. This accelerated growth in IT is being driven by the need for the right skills to match a rapidly changing technology landscape. Independent experts fill temporary project needs and help a business avoid a commitment to fixed-cost employees when long-term growth is uncertain. Midsize businesses in particular are sensitive to fixed commitments while the economic recovery remains tentative and talent in emerging areas such as data science is commanding high prices for permanent positions.

Right Talent, Right Time

Independent workers bring the right skills to IT in less time than a permanent employee drawn from a significantly larger geographic talent pool. Talent alone does not guarantee value for a business. Successful integration with existing IT professionals and the ability to forge relationships with business users or external clients remain outstanding challenges for both independent and permanent employees. The use of independent talent, however, minimizes the inherent risk by allowing the business to end a contract with minimal penalty and to contract anew with an alternative resource.

Midsize organizations benefit greatly from access to independent workers when the resource requirements are often less than full time. Individual projects do not have to be delayed while waiting for these needs to be filled across multiple projects. Each project can acquire the right skills at the right time instead of sharing potentially generalist skills.

Team from Talent

The ability to rapidly integrate these outsiders into the organization with minimal friction is necessary to generate return on their skills. Independent workers are likely to bring their own technology, and businesses with comprehensive bring-your-own-device (BYOD), wireless and remote access policies in place are prepared for the variety of technologies that may be brought. Identifying access requirements through data governance policies ensures that the independent worker is able to view relevant materials without exposing internal documentation to the security risks of external email or public cloud tools.

Employing social business technology such as wikis, instant messaging, online meetings and collaboration work space integrate the independent expert with the business and facilitate remote work if necessary. Midsize businesses with budgetary constraints can also avoid maintaining idle permanent office space by accommodating mobile workers with remote social tools when face-to-face interactions are not required all the time. An independent worker can integrate more easily with existing teams as needed when the business is familiar with social business technologies and flexible collaboration.

The right skills from independent workers are available to businesses of all sizes. A business that has positioned itself for social collaboration is more likely to gain value from this expanding pool of talent that fits with midsize business needs.

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

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Right Technology, Right Skills, Right Fit

Anna Chidambar

Timber and plantation companies that had secured timber licences and provisional leases (PL) in Sarawak are now worried about their investments because of landmark cases in the Federal Court that affirmed the Native Customary Rights (NCR) over native land.

It is learnt that some investors met recently with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the state as part of their fact-finding mission to clarify their positions as most of their projects involve NCR land that required investments running into millions of ringgit.

They are concerned that they could lose their money if their projects fail to take off because of the court cases that have favoured the natives. All this time, they had thought they had the upper hand when it came to the law.

Sources say that prior to two landmark decisions meted out by the Federal Court, the final appellate court in the country, the investors had based their understanding of customary land rights on information provided by legal sources representing the state, including former state Attorney-General Datuk J C Fong.

Fongs book entitled The Law on Native Customary Land in Sarawak, which was released in March 2011, stated that the acquisition of rights to land is by custom or practice recognised by law, such as clearing virgin jungle, planting and occupying the land continuously.

Detractors pointed out that he continued to insist that this custom and practice was confined to temuda or farmed land and felled settled areas only. They stated that both the former AG and the state continued to maintain that they only recognised customs and practice under the laws of Sarawak.

However, the Federal Court affirmed in two landmark cases that NCR lands extended to an area wider than the temuda, to encompass the pulau galau reserve virgin forest within the vicinity of the village and pemakai menoa communal territory covering hunting, fishing grounds, former longhouse site and virgin forests surrounding the village.

However, sources said the state repeatedly showed its contempt of the court ruling by continuing to issue PLs and timber licences for such lands, and appealing judgments made by the lower courts which favoured native landowners.

The Federal Courts affirmation in two landmark cases namely, Madeli bin Salleh and Bisi Jinggot set a huge precedent and the tone for all other future cases that will be handled by the courts.

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Sarawak investors getting jittery over projects on NCR land

interior designer glass sliding doors

By: Hani Farran

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interior designer glass sliding doors - Video

Lisa Dreissig Design Studio is a full-service residential and commercial NJ interior design firm serving New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Lisa Dreissig is an acclaimed NJ interior designer known for her chic modern aesthetic. A neutral color palette and clean lines combined with bursts of color from artwork and accessories come together to shape inspired spaces that are sophisticated, yet comfortable and fun. Lisas philosophy is to create environments that are warm, inviting and easily kept. Providing creative storage solutions, while tastefully styling the space allows her clients to effortlessly maintain an uncluttered environment that exudes warmth and comfort.

A mixture of retail pieces, custom furnishings and vintage finds work with one another to create a unified contemporary design focused on sophistication and style. The willingness to incorporate existing client pieces can promote individuality, while maintaining a manageable budget. Being fully conscientious of, and working within a budget, is of top priority. Thoroughly understanding the vision of each client allows Lisa to properly align the project with the needs of her client. Prioritizing client needs and allocating resources effectively ensures the project stays on time and within budget, while not sacrificing design quality. Concentrating on each clients style, vision and needs, Lisa creates environments that uniquely reflect upon the individuality of each client.

Being a full-service NJ interior design firm, Lisa Dreissig Design Studio will completely manage a project from inception through installation. By working with her clients during design development and coordinating with vendors and contractors, Lisa can maintain a smooth workflow through project completion. A complete list of available services can be viewed on the interior design services page.

New Jersey interior designer, Lisa Dreissig, holds an Interior Design degree from the highly regarded Fashion Institute of Technology. Working with several award-winning NYC and NJ interior design firms, Lisa has been exposed to a wide array of aesthetics and design principals. This rare opportunity shaped Lisas diverse approach and perspective on interior design and sets her apart from other NJ interior designers. Lisas interests include camping, shopping, entertaining, gardening, antiquing and cooking all of which influence her creativity and style. To read more about Lisas inspiration and interests please take a look at her interior design blog and Like Lisa Dreissig Design Studio on Facebook.

To speak with Lisa about your design project please contact us today!

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NJ Interior Design | Lisa Dreissig Design Studio

Last Friday, Ethel Wright, 66, and her four grandchildren stepped into their new home in Kyle. It was a year in the making, but this Christmas, they will finally wake up in a home that doesnt leak every time it rains, that doesnt have holes in the floor, that has all its windows, and heating and air conditioning, and electrical wiring that works.

This is awesome, said 9-year-old Petey Crawford, as he and his siblings ran through the new three-bedroom mobile home picking out their rooms. We have a good home to live in.

Wright was part of last years Statesman Season for Caring program, which features 12 families each year and helps hundreds of others through local nonprofit agencies. Wright was nominated by Community Action Inc., which has spent the year trying to turn reader donations into a new mobile home.

Community Actions Jon Engel went to multiple mobile home dealers until finally Clayton Homes agreed to sell Wright a new home, worth $42,000, for the $30,000 Community Action Inc. had allocated from last years Season for Caring funds. Clayton Homes also removed the existing home. Matt Chambers, who is a home contractor and who teaches GED classes for Community Action, became the foreman to organize moving the new home onto the property and removing the old one. Pack-Rat gave storage units for Wright to store her things while the new home was being set up. Pullen Electric and Air Pro Heating and Air Conditioning donated their services. Students from Chambers GED class also helped.

Engel called it a Christmas miracle as he watched the family check out their new home. Without Season for Caring, this would not have been possible.

I appreciated what they did for me and my family, Wright said. Now we got a good place to stay, and we wont be cold anymore.

Without heat and with leaky windows, the family had placed tarps over the windows and put blankets in the doorways to keep in what little warmth they had from space heaters. Wright worried about the safety of the space heaters for Petey, 11-year-old JaRai, and 3-year-old twins Michael and Makhia, but she didnt have another solution.

It was really, really dangerous, Wright said.

Community Action still has work to do on the new home, including finding people to put on the skirting and build front and back porches and permanent steps into and out of the house. Scraps from the old house need to be cleaned up from the yard, and, sadly, Wright will have to replant her beautiful front garden.

I just want to thank all the nice people, Petey said.

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Season for Caring: After a year’s wait, a new home for Ethel Wright