Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

While the country is busy dealing with military and economic challenges, a truck in Kyiv is freely hauling sand up to the top of a historic hill while tractor spreads it around.

This all is happening on Yurkovytsya, one of the hills Kyiv was founded on in the Middle Ages. Even though the territory is protected as a national historic site, thus forbidding construction there, private homes continue to be built on the crest.

"Here you see the cynical destruction of one the most ancient places in the world," activist Olena Yeskina says. "These are our legendary Kyiv hills, without which it is impossible to imagine our city."

A member of Kyivske Viche, a group that lobbies protection of Kyiv's historic sites, Yeskina says that the illegal construction on Yurkovytsya hill in the Lukyanivka neighborhood started soon after City Hall under former Mayor Leonid Chernovetskiy allocated several land plots on Otto Shmidt Street to private individuals in 2010.

Instead of putting up a kiosk, as stated in the title documents, one individual increased the officially allotted size of the plot from 10 to 30 acres and built a beige two-storey house with a cellar and an attic. His neighbor, meanwhile, erected a yellow colored two-storey mansion complete with a spire and surrounded it with a brick three-meter high wall. He also allegedly planned to seize more land, but activists prevented him. Both owners have denied any wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, archeologists have unearthed numerous artifacts there dating back centuries, including the Stone Age. A wooden cross mounted on the peak of the hill marks an old cemetery.

Luxurious houses have been built on Yurkovytsya hill, despite the legal ban on any construction activity here. Pavlo Podufalov

In 2012 activists managed to stop further construction on Yurkovytsya hill. However, on Nov. 3, when Yeskina and her colleagues came to monitor the situation, they saw a new fence and construction vehicles working inside. They were bringing in and smoothing out a mixture of sand and clay to enlarge a leveled area on the slope. Seeing the activists, a man came out from the house nearby and threatened them.

"When I asked him to introduce himself," Yeskina said, "He just turned around and hit me so hard that I flew several meters."

A video on Podil TV YouTube channel shows episodes of the Nov. 3 accident on Yurkovytsya hill when an unknown man hit Yeskina, an activist, after she asked him to introduce himself.

The rest is here:
Historic hill in Kyiv under threat as disputed construction continues

GWEN IFILL: Congress returned to Washington yesterday, along with a few dozen newly elected members.

The NewsHours Domenico Montanaro spoke with some of the newcomers as they learned how to navigate life on Capitol Hill.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: While the new Congress doesnt start until January, its newest members are in town this week for orientation, a kind of lawmaker boot camp.

Its a time of transition on Capitol Hill. One in eight congressional offices is getting a new boss, with a total of 70 new members coming in. Most of them are staying here in the Capitol Hill Hotel. For members of both parties, its a hectic time.

REP.-ELECT MIMI WALTERS, (R) California: Its been a whirlwind so far.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: New member Mimi Walters arrived Tuesday night and already has a long to-do list.

MIMI WALTERS: Theres so many people we have to meet. Theres so many things we have to get done. We have to hire our staff. We have to get our offices. We have to find a place to live. We have to get oriented with Washington, D.C.

WOMAN: Hi. How are you, sweetie?

DOMENICO MONTANARO: The California Republican was elected from a district some 2,600 miles away. We caught up with her while she was taking a look at potential office space.

MIMI WALTERS: Oh, my gosh, these offices are so small.

Excerpt from:
Newcomers learn to navigate life on Capitol Hill

Pan view of driveway easement, land clearing out to road
Pan view of driveway easement, land clearing out to road.

By: Sunny Golden Dog

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Pan view of driveway easement, land clearing out to road - Video

Land Clearing West Palm Beach
Do you need your land cleared, trees removed, new landscaping. Call for a free quote. Sundance Florida Landscaping. http://www.sundancefloridalandscaping.com.

By: Doug Thaler

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Land Clearing West Palm Beach - Video

Find Kitchen Contractors? Agoura Hills - Kitchen Remodeling
Find Kitchen Contractors? Agoura Hills - Kitchen Remodeling http://pacificsave.com/custom-kitchens-and-bathroom.html Find Kitchen Contractors? Agoura Hills -...

By: gabriel varon

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Find Kitchen Contractors? Agoura Hills - Kitchen Remodeling - Video

Calabasas Kitchen Ideas Design Top LA Interior Designer
Calabasas Kitchen Ideas Design Top LA Interior Designer http://pacificsave.com/custom-kitchens-and-bathroom.html Calabasas Kitchen Ideas Design Top LA In...

By: gabriel varon

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Calabasas Kitchen Ideas & Design Top LA Interior Designer - Video

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EXPERT ADVICE: On a coffee table, try a simple spray of flowers in a glass vase, a statement book and a few objects in different materials.

Greg Natale, an award winning Australian designer,offers some of his top interior tips.

PAINT

Natale tends to use a low-sheen finish paint, which he says is easy to wipe clean.

He prefers that it contain a drop of black 'which eliminates the 'blue' tinge that can cause whites to appear cold and unwelcoming'.

His favourites include Popcorn by Porter's Paints, Super White by Benjamin More, Ammonite by Farrow & Ball and House White by Resene.

RUG RULES

"A rug is a great way to visually create different 'zones' in open-plan living spaces, softly delineating areas while focusing the furniture around it," Natale explains.

He suggests textured rugs on a patterned floor or, if you have a plain floor, suggests using a rug to play with colours or prints.

Link:
Interior tips from a top designer

Entertainment

The buzz: The relationship between plants and insects is the topic of a workshop, at Cranbourne's Australian Garden next Sunday.

Book

Like Sandra McMahon (see main story), the late Stuart Rattle was a proponent of the garden-as-series-of-rooms school. And this week Paul Bangay launched a book detailing precisely how the interior designer went about it at his property Musk Farm. He took "lines from the architecture" of the one-time Musk State School and broke the property up into sections (think summer garden, chestnut lawn, woodlands ...), all defined by plantings of English box, viburnum and privet. Stuart Rattle's Musk Farm has a foreword by Bangay, photography by Earl Carter and Simon Griffiths, and text by Annemarie Kiely. It is published by Lantern, $39.99.

Workshop

Plant and insect relationships come under the microscope at an all-day workshop at Cranbourne's Australian Garden next Sunday. A diverse line-up of presenters will discuss issues of mutual need, mimicry and the propagation and cultivation of insect-reliant plants. The event is organised by the Friends of the Royal Botanic Garden Cranbourne. For more information or a booking form, email rgelliot@optusnet.com.au or phone 8774 2483. Bookings close this Monday.

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Open gardens

Though grass-fed, free-range egg production is the central feature of Wild Hen Farm in the Myrrhee Valley in north-east Victoria, the property is also home to a large garden that seamlessly blends into its rural setting. As well as an assortment of trees and shrubs, there are stone wall-surrounded vegetable beds and a Gothic-inspired cage to keep the birds off espaliered fruit trees, berries and tropical species. It is open from 10am to 5.30pm today and tomorrow, at 165 Redcamp Lane, Myrrhee. There will be talks on egg production at 11am and 2.30pm each day. Gardens in Mount Martha, Narbethong, Malmsbury and Camperdown are also open, with Open Gardens Australia this weekend. Go to opengarden.org.au for more information.

Excerpt from:
Stuart Rattle book details his architectural approach to garden design

Venus Williams isn't just a tennis icon with five Wimbledon titles in tow. She's also an interior designer.

Her latest project: developer Jorge Perez's new apartment community in Delray Beach.

Williams is working with Perez on the 172-unit SofA I and 2 going up just south of Atlantic Avenue between First and Fourth avenues.

Her Jupiter-based V*Starr Interiors is designing the lobbies, two models and some of the finishes for individual units. She said her goal is to appeal to artists, hipsters and other creative minds.

"I think that people will be surprised that this is something different," Williams said Thursday during a groundbreaking at the site. "This will be a place that when you bring people home, you're excited to show it off."

Williams, a Palm Beach Gardens resident, earned a degree in fashion design from The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. She launched the company in 2002, designing model homes and residences for professional athletes. She also designed a condo at the ultra-luxury One Thousand Ocean in Boca Raton.

At the Doral View Phase I multifamily development in Miami, V*Starr said it used a variety of colors, including blue and orange. The firm said its accessories and furniture "tell a story and bring visual and tactile interest to the space."

Williams and Perez are both part owners of the Miami Dolphins. Perez, chairman of the Related Group of Miami, couldn't attend Thursday's ceremony, but Related executive Steve Patterson said the firm's vision for the project is "industrial chic, something that has that raw edge," similar to New York City's Meatpacking District.

Related built thousands of condos in South Florida during the housing boom, including Trump Hollywood and CityPlace South Tower in West Palm Beach. But the company handed those projects and others back to lenders when buyers backed out of contracts and the market collapsed.

Related is back building condos, this time insisting on down payments of 50 percent or more to discourage buyers from walking away. The company also is beefing up its apartment construction. It has rental projects in Fort Lauderdale, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea and Pembroke Pines, with more planned.

Read the rest here:
Tennis star Venus Williams turns designer for Delray apartments

Home internet, wired or wireless? Thats a big question now days with more folks working from home. With a lot of newer homes being built today having the house pre wired for Ethernet connections is a common practice. In older homes wireless seems to be the way to go, especially with faster speed wireless routers. But, what happens when you live in an older home and your wireless signal wont reach all of your desired computing locations? TP-Link has a solution, the AV600 Gigabyte Powerline Adapter starter kit.

Note: Images can be clicked to view a larger size.

While this networking method is not new, the listed data transfer speeds for uploads and downloads are, up to 600Mps. The AV600 sent to me to review is a starter kit containing a sending unit and one receiver. Basically what this system does is turn your home wiring into a data conduit by using the sending unit to send data and the receiving unit to (you guessed it) receive the data. The sending unit is paired with the receiving units so in theory you could run multiple lines throughout your house.

The packages contains the following:

Has the following features listed on the TP Link website:

And the following hardware specs as listed on the TP-Link website:

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TP-Link AV600 Gigabit Powerline Adapter Starter Kit review