Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

The Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory has some new lighting coming its way.

Mitch Sheppard, manager of the botanical conservatory, told the Fort Wayne Parks Board on Thursday that the light system in the conservatorys terrace ponds which consist of three overflowing pools of water needs replaced.

Those (lights) have been in place since 1985, and the lighting system, well, we just cant put any more Band-Aids on it and fix it any longer, she said.

Parts for the existing lighting system are no longer made, Sheppard said, and repairs would cost between $25,000 and $27,000. Rather than go that route, Sheppard said the conservatory decided to take a more artistic approach to the fountain lighting.

The new lighting project is expected to cost $50,922 $37,122 to fabricate the structure and $13,800 for the electrical work. The cost of the electrical work will go out for competitive bids, which Sheppard said could lower the overall cost.

The cost of the structure itself is funded jointly through public and private money, Sheppard said. The conservatory has $25,200 in private money for the project and will contribute the remaining $11,922.

The project will sit just below the waterline and consists of a stainless-steel shelf structure crafted to mimic the shape and flow of Fort Waynes three rivers, Sheppard said. The shelf will be topped by various pieces of art glass that would reflect different colors and cause different sorts of shapes of lighting. LED lights will be attached beneath the steel shelf.

On top of fulfilling the lighting requirement and improving safety, Sheppard said the new lighting is more energy efficient than the current system.

The lights we have in there (currently) were designed in the 1970s, she said. They run hot, they take a lot of energy, theyre very dangerous; theyre high voltage, and they also tend to be destroyed by the chlorine thats necessary to keep the pond cool.

Aside from increasing safety and energy efficiency, the new lighting brings a lovely, lovely, cool feature, Sheppard said.

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New lighting at botanical gardens

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Nov. 21, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --For over 30 years Green Industry Equipment and Expo (GIE+EXPO), North American's biggest lawn and garden equipment event, has been an opportunity for exhibitors to showcase new and innovative products, this year attracting over 19,000 industry professionals and enthusiasts. One of the most coveted awards of GIE+EXPO is Power Equipment Trade (PET) Magazine's Dealers Choice Awards, which features the top innovative products chosen by dealers.

Briggs & Stratton (NYSE: BGG) was selected by dealers for their super concentrated 5-in-1 Advanced Formula Fuel Treatment and Stabilizer in the accessory/attachment category. According to Power Equipment Trade Managing Editor Dan Shell, the Dealers Choice Awards often mirror issues facing the industry. "Three of the accessory nominations were fuel-related products to address ethanol and fuel quality issues, reflecting the fuel quality equipment service problems that many dealers see." With 90% of all fuel sold in the U.S. made of an ethanol blend, Briggs & Stratton's Advanced Formula Fuel Treatment offers complete protection against the harmful effects of ethanol-blended fuel up to E-10 on small gasoline engines found on a variety of outdoor power equipment.

Briggs & Stratton's proprietary formula is the only innovation on the market that protects and maintains fuel stability for up to 3 years. "Briggs & Stratton Advanced Formula Fuel Treatment and Stabilizer was introduced in 2011 and has been helping consumers maintain quality and protect the life span of their small gasoline engines ever since," says Briggs & Stratton Service Marketing Coordinator, Andrew Ewig. "The recognition by leading industry professionals and dealers just reiterates the product's effectiveness."

PET solicited product nominations from exhibitors and selected five finalists in each of the five categories including: accessory/attachment, business management services, handheld, industrial/engine and wheeled. Qualified dealers participated through an online ballot system and in-person voting at the show. This year more than 1,000 lawn and garden power equipment dealers participated in the ninth annual awards.

Briggs & Stratton Corporation, headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is the world's largest producer of gasoline engines for outdoor power equipment. Its wholly owned subsidiaries include North America's number one marketer of portable generators and pressure washers, and it is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of lawn and garden, turf care and job site products through its Simplicity, Snapper, Ferris, Murray, Allmand, Branco and Victa brands. Briggs & Stratton products are designed, manufactured, marketed and serviced in over 100 countries on six continents.

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Briggs & Stratton Advanced Formula Fuel Treatment And Stabilizer Wins Power Equipment Trade Magazine GIE+EXPO 2014 ...

The Godsell house in Beaumaris.

"We lived in the weird house," says MPavilion architect Sean Godsell. "There was nothing really like it." The house designed by his father David in 1960 brought mid-west Americana to Beaumaris. A devotee of Frank Lloyd Wright, the elder Godsell translated Wright's vision of an ideal American suburban house to Melbourne's bayside.

The Beaumaris of the 1950s and '60s was itself an idyll suggesting what a bright suburban future might be, says Professor Philip Goad, who also grew up in the beachside suburb. "You had everything. The great modern house in a bush landscape, but you were still in the suburbs and near the beach. It was like 'holiday modern', but in the suburbs. It was one of those few suburbs where people were prepared to experiment."

For David Godsell that experimentation extended to Wright's Usonian homes, with their flat planes, projecting eaves and strong link between interiors and exteriors. From the street, Godsell's Beaumaris house is immediately defined by its cantilevered carport roof terracing down a slope. Designed as an everyman house there's a humility of scale, says Goad. "It's spatially and technologically lean and that's what Sean's work is as well. They're not about excess."

Athan House 1986-88 (Monbulk), one of Sean Godsell's favourite houses, will be open on November 30.

Architects are often reluctant to declare their influences and reveal the buildings that inspire them. It's too difficult. Centuries of architectural history offer so many references. Sean Godsell the architect responsible for such high-profile public buildings as the RMIT Design Hub has chosen six local influences for the latest Robin Boyd Foundation open house tour, including his family home.

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"I grew up in a house where the discussion was always architecture," says Godsell. "That exposure to architecture did two things. It made me want to do it. But it also made me query what it was at a certain critical point. That's where the work of architects like Robinson Chen were interesting. They were well-detailed, well-constructed buildings, but spatially in the sense of their materiality it's fundamentally different from what I only knew growing up."

For anyone familiar with Godsell's mature rational buildings and exploration of materiality, his choice of mid-century buildings will seem unsurprising. An admirer of clarity in architecture "It's a combination of skill and restraint" he's chosen Peter McIntyre's Snelleman house (1953), which snakes down a sloping site around a giant tree. "It's an interesting way to handle a very difficult site with a strong idea."

Several buildings reveal Godsell's interest in the experimentation between public and that most private of buildings, an architect's home. In the square, fortress-like exterior of Roy Grounds Hill house (1953) and its circular central courtyard we see the experimentation for the National Gallery of Victoria. Meanwhile Philip Goad sees in Robin Boyd's Walsh Street house (1958) and its suspended cable roof, evidence of the experimentation at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.

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Architect Sean Godsell's childhood home included in Robin Boyd Foundation open house tour

7702 Durvin Drive
For more details: http://www.visualtour.com/showvt.asp?t=3481817 7702 Durvin Drive Henrico, VA 23229 3 bed, 1.0 bath, SF Great starter Brick Rancher home for...

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The advice isnt so much for your health as it is for smaller critters and your landscape.

The report from the National Wildlife Federation says, the leaf layer is its own mini ecosystem.

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The "What to do With Fallen Leaves" blog goes on to state, from a gardening perspective. Fallen leaves offer a double benefit. They point out leaves form a natural mulch that helps suppress weeds and at the same time fertilize the soil as they break down.

So this doesnt have anything to do with your health, but the well-being of your yard.

The blog points out the leaves are a haven for salamanders, chipmunks, earthworms, and more.

There is also a suggestion for those neat and tidy folks who just cant stand the thought of a messy yard.

They recommend composting the leaves or moving them to your garden for mulch.

More here.

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Report: You shouldn't rake leaves

Flight controller: George Barlin in the 2CA studios in Kingston in the early 1930s. Photo: Courtesy George Barlin

As I traipse up the little hill opposite DFO in Fyshwick, dodging discarded sheets of metal and halftripping over fallen pine trees, I almost step on an object which looks suspiciously like it came from the shelves of one of our industrial suburb's "late night" stores. Moving on, and startling a couple of rabbits into a thicket of blackberries, I glance down at the photo that I'm carrying of the same hill in 1918.

I can't believe how much the landscape has changed - almost a 100 years ago it was completely devoid of vegetation. Today, it's heavily forested and unexpectedly harbours one of our territory's more unusual historic sites, a place where the more you dig, the more you discover its secret past.

In fact, until September this year, when reader Hilary Wardhaugh submitted a photo of the shallow concrete "reservoir" she stumbled on while exploring this rare pocket of undeveloped land on the fringes of Fyshwick, I was completely unaware of the hill, let alone it's remarkable history. Now, in the space of just a few months, I've become obsessed with uncovering its intriguing past.

Air pioneer: One of the planes that former broadcaster George Barlin (with help of listeners to 2CA) guided down to land at Canberra Airport in the 1930s. Photo: George Barlin

Surprisingly, I'm not the first to be preoccupied with "Radio Hill" as it's unofficially known. Ardent Canberra historian Alan Foskett who first "discovered" the reservoir in 2005 has published not one, but two books which delve into the area's unusual past.

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"The Radio Hill Reservoir water was the first major use of the original Cotter Dam and pumping station," explains Foskett, who adds, "the water was pumped from the Cotter to a reservoir atop Red Hill and then reticulated to Radio Hill and on to the Molonglo Internment Camp and later workers' settlement."

Internment camp? Yes, you read correctly. Towards the end of World War I, Australia responded to a request by Britain to house 3500 German and Austrian nationals held in China by building an internment camp in the area now known as Fyshwick. The camp was hastily built in just three months, however, the original 3500 internees never arrived, and instead, 160 German and Austrian nationals were brought from other camps in NSW.

Bare land: The Radio Hill Reservoir in 1918. Photo: National Library of Australia

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Hooked on Fyshwick's history

As area lawns brown and lush plantings wither, resourceful gardeners everywhere are beginning to embrace a new normal and looking for ideas to create the next generation of water-wise California gardens.

Coming to the rescue are a handful of community demonstration gardens staffed by master gardeners and dedicated to the proposition that a drought-tolerant landscape can be not only beautiful but cheaper to maintain and easier to manage.

In Contra Costa County, master gardener Monika Olsen of Concord heads up the Pleasant Hill Instructional Garden. A teacher with Mount Diablo Unified School District's Adult Education program, Olsen's students conceived the garden, which was then developed through a combined effort that included the city, school district, Pleasant Hill Garden Study Club, Master Gardeners and community members.

"Our goal is to connect the garden with nearby trails," Olsen said. "It's designed to be a living laboratory for students; they come out and learn about sustainability. . . the neighbors just walk daily through the garden; there's quite a bit of foot traffic.

"I understand we've been a model for a lot of other gardens in the community," she added.

Contra Costa County Master Gardeners also work in Walnut Creek's Our Garden, a demonstration garden that began as a joint project with the Contra Costa Times. The garden grows organic vegetables, 12,000 pounds of which were donated to Monument Crisis Center in Concord last year. Like the other gardens, water use is carefully monitored and minimized.

"Fortunately we put in a very low-water use system to begin with," said garden manager Janet Miller. "We water below the level of the foliage, but additionally have been able to cut back our watering time by about 20 percent. We use less water here than in a residential home with a family of four."

Carol Vander Meulen is an Alameda County Master Gardener, and one of the co-chairs of the Earth-Friendly Demonstration Garden in Livermore, a 7,000-square-foot project open to the public and designed to showcase drought-tolerant plants.

"The whole point is that earth-friendly requires minimal energy, effort and maintenance," she said. "All the plants have a low-to-moderate water rating, don't require constant pruning and require minimum maintenance. They also don't require a lot of special fertilizer, pruning or pesticides to keep managed."

Master gardeners like Vander Meulen work under the auspices of the University of California Cooperative Extension, which has master gardener programs in over 45 counties throughout the state.

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Fremont gardeners showcasing water-saving plants

Small Land Clearing Job - Blade Runners, LLC

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Small Land Clearing Job - Blade Runners, LLC - Video

RabbittCraft | Ep. 4 | Lead Interior Designer
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Greg Natale. Picture: Anson Smart

Arguably Australia's most renowned and influential interior designer, Greg Natale has released his first book.

In The Tailored Interior, the award-winning, Sydney-based founder of Greg Natale Design guides readers through his chic, elegant interiors while detailing the creative process that goes into each project - from finding inspiration and establishing a concept, to layering pieces for contrast and balance and adding the finishing touches.

"I've always wanted to do a coffee table book but I didn't want it just to be the pictures," Natale said.

"While of course I want readers to be inspired by the images, I also wanted it to be about the process of interior decorating and an educational experience."

The book showcases 18 of the incredible spaces Natale has created, with stunning images by celebrated photographer Anson Smart.

"Interiors are actually very logical when you know how to approach them, and that's what I hope The Tailored Interior can teach homeowners," Natale said.

Since he started in 2001, Greg Natale Design has become one of Australia's top interiors firms, working across design and decoration in residential, retail and commercial spaces and recently expanding to residential exterior design.

Natale was named Interior Designer of the Year at both the 2014 and 2011 Belle Coco Republic Interior Design Awards and won the Best Residential Interior award in 2013. He has been shortlisted and commended in the Australian Interior Design Awards, the Interior Design Excellence Awards, the Belle Coco Republic design awards, and the Dulux Colour Awards.

Known for his bold, sophisticated style, use of colour and pattern, and warm, layered interiors, Natale said minimal was firmly out, with rich interiors the key direction for the year ahead.

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Greg Natale's style secrets