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harrypark-blog2 · 4 years

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Safe And Reliable Connecticut Car Shipping Services

Rely on Routerunnersautotransport to put you in the driver’s seat with fast, convenient, and trusted transportation of your vehicle from online to your front door. Routerunnersautotransport is a Cox Automotive brand, which owns Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book. As some of the nation’s most recognized and trusted brands, we work closely together to deliver car owners an easy shopping and delivery experience.

If you are looking for a much slower pace of life, then Connecticut might just be the place where you can find it. There are rolling hills, small and medium-sized towns and just a more serene sense of place here. In fact, many people opt to relocate here from the major cities in the northeast hub with good reason: the state, on the whole, is very family-oriented and provides clean and wholesome living. Whether you are planning a visit to Quaker country to glimpse life in yesteryear or want to peruse the various towns in search of some place to possibly live, you’ll want to have your trusty vehicle with you to explore.

Car Shipping Companies Near Me

Looking for auto transport companies near you in Connecticut? States are closer together in the northeast, making a nearby transport not as tough on your car. However, if you plan to move outside of the Northeast, Connecticut may feel like a lifetime away from everywhere. No matter how close or far away you need a vehicle moved, we are here to help with a team of professional drivers. Head to A1 Auto Transport to compare brokerages and carriers with trucks in your area right now.

Tips For Using Connecticut Car Transport Companies

Since many people use their vehicles to move to Connecticut from the city, there are several options to keep in mind when it comes to Connecticut car transport.

Get the most affordable means of transport possible: Since you don’t have far to go, there’s no sense paying a ton of money to ship your car, trucks, vans or SUV. If you are coming right from the city, then look for an affordable Connecticut car shipping company that can get the job done in a timely fashion. Go to online auto transport review sites, and read BBB accredited reviews of the business you're researching.

Gather all pertinent information: Since you are hoping for a fairly quick transaction, make sure that all of your papers are in order for your Connecticut automobile shipping order. From the title of your car to a copy of your insurance and driver’s license, if you have everything you need ahead of time, the process will be just that much faster to get your automobile on the carrier.

Scout the area for depots: If you don’t want to pay the extra dollars for delivery to your front door – a luxury you may just want to go ahead and pay for – then you need to scout the region for the nearest auto shipping depot, so that you can quickly retrieve your vehicle from the carriers.

Connecticut vehicle shipping is one of your best options if you plan to travel to the state in the near future. Additionally, it is great for those that are relocating to the area and need one less thing on their to-do lists. If you have plenty of other stuff to move, Connecticut auto transport will ensure that your car gets delivered to you in a timely fashion while you take care of all other aspects of your moves.

Visit the Connecticut Department of Transportation website for more information on shipping your automobile to Connecticut.

Long Distance Auto Transport to/from Connecticut

Long distance auto transport can be arranged using an open or enclosed carrier, from your doorstep to your exact destination, or between terminals. Driving your car to and from a terminal and opting for an open carrier will reduce costs. On the other hand, door to door shipping is more convenient, and enclosed carriers are faster and protect vehicles from external factors during transport.

Another thing to consider is how close you current and your new homes are to a major city or highway. Shipping your car to a small town or to an obscure location may increase the price. In this case, transporting it to a terminal for you to pick it up from can be a better option.

International Auto Transport from/to Connecticut

Besides the actual shipping, A1 Auto Transport can also deal with customs, arrange for a ship to take your car overseas, and have a carrier pick it up from the harbor when it arrives in the other country.

As a side note, beware of import taxes before you decide on international auto transportation. Some countries try to discourage car imports by raising taxes to an unreasonable level. You should check how much you’ll have to pay before shipping the car.

After you’ve confirmed the price is within your budget, call our office to discuss the shipment. There are also a few documents you’ll have to prepare which will be explained by our staff over the phone.

Cheap Car Transportation Options in Connecticut

Auto transportation doesn’t have to be expensive if you take a extra few steps before and during the booking process. Before calling any one company, do a background check to see who you’re working with.

Especially for long distance transportation, larger companies will be able to keep costs low due to a solid system established over the years. Companies with a small fleet of carriers will not be able to reach every part of the US as easily, so they might have to increase the price to take on your shipment.

As a side note, you should always be aware of scammers. They’re as present in our business as in any other, and you can usually detect them through their unusually low prices, large down payments, and poor websites.

After choosing a company, call and ask for their rates. Request an open carrier, as this is usually the cheapest option, and see if there are any terminals near your ideal pickup and drop off locations. Finally, our company also has several discounts and seasonal offerings. You can take advantage of them if you meet our criteria.

Shipping Luxury and Classic Cars in Connecticut

Enclosed car shipping is definitely the best option if you want to make sure your Connecticut luxury or classic car is completely protected. Even though it might be more expensive than contracting an open carrier, vehicles are safer from prying eyes, weather conditions, scratches, dirt, or debris in a well-equipped covered truck.

As a bonus, shipping your antique or vintage cars is done much faster with an enclosed carrier than with an open one, as it usually houses fewer vehicles and therefore requires fewer stops, long routes, etc.

Connecticut Special Discounts

Any senior or student that chooses our auto transport services for his/her vehicles benefits from a preferential price. Military members enjoy special discounts as well. Other clients that do not fit these criteria can enjoy the seasonal offers that A1 Auto Transport presents from time to time.

Auto Transport Safety Measures in Connecticut

Regardless of your choice of open or enclosed auto transportation, the most that can happen to your car while it’s being moved are a couple bumps or scratches.

If it’s going to be traveling on an open trailer, it will be exposed to the elements, road debris, etc. However, this is not different from the way it’s expose when you drive it each day.

But unlike when you drive it, on an auto carrier its mileage doesn’t increase and there’s no chance of a flat tire or of something breaking. Beams and the surrounding automobiles also offer partial protection against weather conditions.

A-1 Auto Transport ships worldwide. Click Here or call 1-800-452-2880 to get a free, no obligation to buy, price quote for your shipment.

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How to Request a Price Estimate

We recommend either using our ‘Get an instant quote’ form or calling us directly to receive a price estimate. Both versions only take a few minutes. Make sure you complete all the fields if you’re going to use our form and explain your request in detail if you’ll call us directly.

Despite having a large fleet of carriers, we may be booked completely in the short term, especially during the high season (summer). So, if you want to book our services, the sooner you do so the better. Call now to make sure we’re available on the date you need us.

Connecticut Auto Transport Companies Directory

Apple Towing

This company has been providing regional auto transport logistics in the Hartford area for many years, for those that need a simple move locally but don’t have the time nor the resources to take care of it on their own. A trusted company in the area with friendly drivers.

602 Tolland St, East Hartford, CT

860-289-0665

Apple Towing

Capo Auto, LLC

Capo Auto offers quality hauling services of automobiles, motorcycles and boats in and around the Hartford, CT area. For those that need a car moved from one area to the next or need localized auto transport might opt for a quote from this long-standing company in the Hartford area. Open air or enclosed auto transport options to help with relocation of different vehicles. Licensed, bonded and insured.

115 Park Ave, East Hartford, CT

860-289-1144

Cape Auto LLC

AA Car Shipping Auto Transporting

If you are shipping in and around the New Haven area, then AA Car Shipping can help to take care of your auto transport needs. Offering a wide range of transport options, this allows you to work with a company that you can trust to get your vehicle from one point to the next — both local and nationwide auto shippers throughout the United States. They usually have competitive pricing rates, seasonal discounts, and military specials. Call or email them today for a free quote online at their website.

1 Long Wharf Drive, New Haven, CT 06511

805-285-5077

Registering a Vehicle in Connecticut

A vehicle needs to be registered, so you can use it freely in Connecticut. It does not matter if you are new to Connecticut, or if you own a brand new vehicle. There is an easy registration process for your first time in the state.

A valid vehicle insurance is one of the requirements you need to meet to register the vehicle in Connecticut's DMV.

You have about 60 days to complete the transfer of your old car registration to Connecticut's DMV if you are coming from a different state.

Prior to your registration, new Connecticut residents must have the VIN verified and pass the emissions test at the testing area. There are few a exemptions, which entirely depend on the vehicle you are bringing.

After you have completed the initial process, you need to see the local DMV office and prepare the following requirements:

Vehicle's Registration Certificate,

VIN inspection report,

Current Connecticut insurance ID card,

Any acceptable ID (Valid ID, DL, Military Identification Card),

Pay any applicable fees.

Reminder: You need to be sure you do not have parking tickets or overdue taxes or a record stating your registration was previously suspended.

Once you have become a new Connecticut resident, you will be given 30 days to complete the transfer process from your previous state to a license issued by Connecticut.

Registering a Used or New Vehicle in Connecticut

As part of CT's compliance, you need to comply with the state's criteria to register the vehicle in CT.

Your vehicle's registration will not be processed due to these reasons:

Your car registration was suspended.

You have unpaid tax duties.

You have records of unpaid parking fees.

Your vehicle did not pass the CT emission tests.

Used or Brand New Vehicles

You must perform the following before the registration process:

Bring your vehicle to an emission evaluation facility to perform the test.

Complete the VIN verification process at a station to see if the vehicle may be exempted from an emission test.

After your vehicle passed the test or completed the verification of VIN, see your local service office or Connecticut's DMV office along with the following documents:

��This ID card may be requested by the insurance company and your name needs to be on it.

Purchasing a Vehicle (Private Individual)

When you purchase a vehicle, the information below may apply, especially if it comes from a private individual:

If the last owner discontinued the registration and has surrendered the plates, the buyer needs to register the car and request the title to be transferred under the buyer's name before he can drive it.

In case the last owner discontinued the registration and has not surrendered the plates, there is no issue using the vehicle. The title must be endorsed and the car needs to be listed under the new owner immediately.

If the last owner was not able to register the vehicle for some time, and an emissions test is required, the buyer needs to get in touch with the DMV office to apply for a tentative registration for a vehicle inspection and complete the registration.

Leased Vehicles

When you are about to register a leased car, observe the similar steps listed above which are applicable to used/new vehicle registration. Additional information listed below is also needed:

The leasing license from the CT DMV.

Original copy of the POA document (duplicate copy is not accepted) which states who is authorized to sign papers on behalf of the leasing office.

Reminder: A CT insurance ID card can be listed under the leasing office or in the new owner's name. If the vehicle is going to be used for test driving, the insurance card should be listed under the leasing office.

The leasing office's address and name should be included on the form. (Application for a Certificate of Title and Registration). The POA needs to sign the document.

Expired CT Registered Vehicles

Upon the expiration of the vehicle's registration, the owner needs to renew its registration. If it has not been renewed for more than two years, the owner needs to visit the nearest local CT DMV office with the following details:

Present your registration renewal notification and the license plate information.

Connecticut's DL.

The vehicle needs to have no compliance issues, like unpaid property taxes, parking tickets, and emission test requirements.

Payment for registration and a late fee of 10 US dollars. If the vehicle registration has expired more than 2 years ago, you must complete a form to secure a document which will include the title and original registration of the vehicle. The new owner is required to place the new plates on his car.

Tentative Vehicle Registration

You may secure a tentative registration if your vehicle's registration has ended (especially when it needs an emissions test or safety evaluation).

You must observe similar steps listed above when you need to register a used or new vehicle. However, you must indicate you are applying for temporary vehicle registration documentation for the vehicle inspection purpose.

Reminder: Temporary registration cannot be renewed. Therefore, you must complete the emissions test or safety inspection at least in 10 days upon receipt of the registration document.

Connecticut's registration fees: The car registration fee in the state differs based on vehicle type.

Regular fees are:

For passenger cars: 80 US dollars valid for two years.

Business vehicle: Starts at 47 US dollars for one year (price differs depending on a vehicle's weight)

Motorcycles: 42 US dollars valid for two years.

Trailers (for personal): 19 US dollars valid for two years.

Snowmobiles: 20 US dollars valid for two years.

Electric automobiles: 38 US dollars valid for two years.

Other additional fees also include:

Clean Air Fund Fee: 10 US dollars.

Parks Fee is 5 US dollars per year.

Environment (Reduction of Gas Fee): 5 US dollars

Late Charge: 10 US dollars.

Municipality or Contractor’s processing fee: Maximum of 8 US dollars.

New residents are required to pay:

Emissions testing fee: 20 US dollars.

Vehicle Identification Number evaluation fee: 10 US dollars (cars which are exempted from the emissions test).

Military personnel's vehicle registration in Connecticut: A military member who is on active duty may register a vehicle when out of CT and will be exempted from paying certain fees.

Registering Out-of-State Vehicles

Generally, you may register a vehicle if you’re out of state via mail.

You need to include:

Recent US military identification card.

Recent CT insurance identification card (should either be listed under the leasing company's name or your name).

An Application for a Title Certificate and Registration form.

Federal Odometer document (if the vehicle was sold from a dealership).

A paid invoice or Deed of Sale (if the vehicle was newly purchased).

A Waiver for Registration Fee application form (for those on active duty in US Military Armed Forces.

For a new vehicle, an original document stating the manufacturer's origin, which is assigned to the owner.

For pre-owned vehicles, an out of state document, including the new owner's details.

An Vehicle Identification Number Form from outside the state (needs to be acknowledged by a law enforcement representative).

Reminder: When registering a pre-owned vehicle, it needs to pass an emissions test at the testing facility before registration, unless there is an exemption.

Fee exemptions for military vehicles: A military member who is on active duty is exempted from these charges:

Renewal and new registration fees.

Tentative plate charge.

Safety plate fees.

Clean Air Fund fee.

Replacing a lost CT vehicle registration: Once a CT vehicle registration is lost, damaged or stolen, a duplicate copy may be requested either via mail or in person.

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billehrman · 5 years

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Trump Tweets While the World Burns

Trump and his team just don’t get it! It’s their trade policy that is responsible for grinding global growth to a halt. Can you imagine business-planning: capital spending, hiring, and the like, when a tweet could change the environment in a second?

Managing money is impacted by Trump’s tweets, too, but so far we have navigated successfully outperforming the markets, investing in mostly domestic companies tied to the consumer and/or with technological domination, with strong management teams, winning long and short term strategies, strong earnings, cash flow and free cash flow with dividend yields, above the 30-year Treasury bond yield, that will grow each year. Also, we own gold stocks as a hedge against monetary/currency and political instability in today's VUCA (volatile uncertain complex, ambiguous) global environment.

How dowe navigate in a VUCA environment? Simple. COSS: With clarity, order, simplicity, and steadiness. The antidote to volatility is simplicity. The remedy for uncertainty is order. The treatment for complexity is simplicity. The cure for ambiguity is clarity.

Our mantra says it all. Review all the facts; pause, reflect and consider mindset shifts; always look at your asset mix with risk controls; do independent research and invest accordingly! We synthesize all the data taking a global approach to formulate a macro view then merge that with a bottom-up analysis doing firsthand research to find undervalued companies going through positive incremental change that will outperform over time despite the VUCA environment. Look at Target last week, one of our largest holdings as is Home Depot.

It remains clear that all of the major monetary bodies: The Fed, ECB, BOJ and the Bank of China, realize that monetary policy is not the panacea for what ails their economy. Global trade has slowed dramatically due primarily to the trade conflicts initiated by Trump that have spread throughout the world. Business sentiment/spending/hiring have declined precipitously for obvious reasons. While the U.S is best positioned today as trade is not the driver of our growth, our big fear is that the decline in business sentiment here and abroad could negatively impact hiring and wage growth which will hurt consumer sentiment and spending. Yes, the slowdown that we are forecasting could turn into a recession within two years. But that is not our current forecast. Why? First of all, our Fed has more arrows in its quiver to stabilize and stimulate growth than all other monetary bodies. Second, we are already running huge fiscal deficits that will only get larger which stimulate growth. It won’t be easy for the Eurozone and Japan to pass major fiscal stimulus programs quickly even though they may want to. China can and will. Third, we have a President who wants to be re-elected and realizes that he needs a strong economy and stock market to win. There are things that he can do to offset the negative impact of tariffs on the consumer. We still believe that Trump may cut withholding taxes on the lower and middle class equal to the tariffs received by our government. Not a bad idea, is it?

Before we go further, we want to reiterate that we agree with Trump that the United States has gotten the short end of the stick on reciprocal trade with China, Europe, and Japan. China has stolen our IP for many years, but U.S. companies permitted it because they wanted to enter China. They share part of the blame here. These companies also agreed to joint ventures in China. So, Trump is asking now for a level playing field, for China to change its ways. Not so easy nor should it be. How would we react if it was the other way around?

Things should change in dealing with China. China can easily purchase much more from the U.S reducing the trade imbalance: agricultural products for sure and end stealing our IP. Then there is Europe. Here again, the Eurozone can buy much more from the U.S by simply reducing tariffs and subsidies and leveling the playing field. Where's the beef? And finally, there is Japan. Same here. Japan can buy much more from us, including agricultural products, to reduce its trade imbalance.

The bottom line is that it is hard to change trade patterns that have existed for so long. Trump cannot do it with a tweet and a sledgehammer. Our partners must deal more fairly with us. What is wrong with removing all tariffs and subsidies? But it takes time and patience. which Trump does not have. He prefers to tweet without much thought of the consequences not only to us but to our long-standing relationships. While the world is getting more global, Trump is thinking as an isolationist. Trump needs to take a longer view and a more global view of what he is doing; have a timeline that all agree to for actionable events like trade deals; and hold everyone’s feet to the fire to deliver as committed.

There is a reason why our yield curve has inverted: investors from around the world are shifting their money here buying our bonds which have positive interest rates when their rates are negative. Does that mean that we are entering a recession or that they are already in one? Maybe that explains dollar strength too. Look at the flow of funds.

The U.S stock market is clearly undervalued selling at less than 17 times earnings with the 10-year yield hovering around 1.5%, the thirty-year bond yield near 2.0% and bank capital/liquidity ratios at all-time high. Think as an investor with a longer-term time frame as we move a difficult, VUCA, period where change is occurring to global trade patterns which has caused geopolitical risks to rise too. Unusual opportunities come during periods of stress for those who stick to their disciplines. Now, is such a time.

Let’s take a look at the key data points of the week that support/detract from our view that the United States is the only place to invest unless/until there are trade deals.

· The U.S economy continues to chug along sustaining growth above 2% so far in the third quarter. We were pleased to see that the Conference Board Leading Economic Indicators increased 0.8% in July to 112.2 which suggests continued growth in the second half of the year. Both the coincident and lagging indicators of growth increased too despite continued weakness in the manufacturing sector. Housing activity has finally picked up too benefitting from lower mortgage rates. Don’t underestimate the positive impact on consumer spending as homeowners refinance their mortgages at much lower rates too. E-commerce sales are growing by nearly 14% year over year and now account for 10% of retail sales. Business activity did weaken further in August with the U.S Composite Output Index at 50.9; the services index at 50.9; the manufacturers' index at 49.9 and the manufacturers' output index at 50.6. Businesses commented on the weakness in spending due to trade concerns. It is clear from both the Beige Book and all the Fed comments, including from Chairman Powell, at their annual Jackson Hole symposium last week that the Fed is more concerned about the global slowdown including the impact of tariffs and weak inflation data than any perceived problems in the U.S economy. The general belief is that our yield curve has flattened/inverted due to huge money flows from abroad reaching for positive yields when their yields are negative. We still believe that the Fed will cut by at least another 50 basis points before year-end. The CBO increased the anticipated size of the U.S deficit in 2019 by $63 billion due to the new budget deal. Expect an even larger increase in the deficit next year. All of this is highly stimulative. Also, we would not be surprised if Trump reduced taxes on the lower and middle classes to offset the new, higher tariffs and introduced another program to aid the farmers. While we recognize that risks have risen as the trade war escalates, we still believe that our economy will continue to expand by 2+% over the next several quarters led by the consumer and increased government spending.

· Growth in China will continue to slow in the second half of year tied primarily to the trade conflict with the U.S. While Trump’s tweet last Friday ordering U.S corporations to begin exiting China was ridiculous, the truth is many are leaving at an accelerated rate. The trade war with the U.S has cost China almost 2 million industrial jobs so far and that was before the most recent increase in U.S tariffs. Don’t believe the rhetoric that China can offset the trade war with domestic growth and new markets. Growth will fall and stay below 6% for the foreseeable future without a trade deal. China is cutting off their nose raising tariffs on soybeans and oil, both sorely needed. China is banking that Trump will need a deal before elections next year. But maybe not, if Trump cuts taxes equal to the tariff hike.

· Growth in the Eurozone continued to moderate although we were encouraged that both the Eurozone Composite Output Index rose to 51.8 in August and the Services Index increased to 53.4. On the other hand, both the manufacturers' output indices remained below 48. The German Manufacturing PMI came in at 43.6 in August and was considered better than expected. While we expect the ECB to reduce rates again while increasing the number of asset purchases next month, don't expect growth to be rekindled without trade deals and major local fiscal stimulus. Let's see if Germany can pass a $55 billion stimulus plan. It was hard to fathom that Germany could sell 30-year bonds last week with negative yields. That says it all! We are monitoring closely whether there will be a hard Brexit or not in October and whether the U.S and Eurozone can move closer to a trade deal. We remain very pessimistic on the prospects of Europe. And so do the Europeans who are all moving their money here reaching for any positive yield.

· Japan’s manufacturing data shrank for the last four months as export orders fell. Factory output and new orders continue to weaken too which does not bode well for the balance of the year. Inflation rose 0.6% from a year ago. Here again, there is not much more than the BOJ can do to stimulate growth and the government has little wiggle room to introduce a major fiscal package. Why invest here?

Trump is holding global trade and growth hostage as he is fighting battles on all fronts at once. He must make some deals fast as the risks of a more pronounced global downturn are rising. While there is no place like home, the risks of contagion hitting our borders over the next two years are rising. So is the fear of rising deflationary forces and currency battles. The bottom line is that we are maintaining our defensive posture. While we remain optimistic that Trump will make the needed changes to win the election next year, he is turning the screws tighter on China and Europe right now. That will give him the ability to snatch victory next year before elections. But China knows that too. Look for a major tax package funded by the tariffs within the next few months to reduce/mitigate/eliminate the hit on the lower and middle class. Our portfolios are concentrated in consumer non-durable companies; technology companies not exposed to China; housing related retailers; specialty retailers; healthcare; utilities; cable with content; airlines; telecommunications; and many special situations. Our cash levels are elevated, we own no bonds and are flat the dollar. We are still working on an options strategy to move more cyclical if/when trade deals are reached.

Remember to review all the facts; pause, reflect and consider mindset shifts; look at your asset mix with risk controls; do independent research and …

Invest Accordingly!

Bill Ehrman

Paix et Prospérité LLC

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donovannzof916-blog · 5 years

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Just how do you complete a cellar

That's because leading plates may project past structure walls and be longer or encounter soffits and also be much shorter. (See both situations in the photo with step 3.) When you line up home plates to mark stud locations, make Go here certain to account for distinctions (Image with step 2). Begin by measuring to the floor to locate the most affordable pipe or air duct in the area; that'll specify how reduced the soffit needs to be.

Is it legal to sleep in the basement?

Depending on the size of a basement, you may need more than one unit to sufficiently cool the space. Other low-cost options include floor fans or a box fan. Box fans will also fit into an open window and help to push warm basement air to the outside.

In your experience without far more information, would certainly this be feasible and what would you anticipate for a price to do this. I am guessing the SF of the cellar as a whole after conclusion around 1,000 SF. I have actually been finishing my basement with the aid of family and friends over the in 2015 or two. We take place to be a really useful family, and also we have actually acquired most of the materials from Home Depot.

It can be remodelled to accommodate specific house functions like a rec area or storeroom, and possibly a secondary kitchen area, or a 3/4 or half bath. Whether the most affordable degree of your house is considered a basement or a cellar, a lot of enhancements will certainly require a designer to file strategies with the DOB, as well as will require licenses. The primary step in recognizing if you require an authorization to refinish your basement, is to figure out if it is in fact a cellar, or a cellar. Although the two terms are consistently misinterpreted for each and every other, they are noticeably various according to the city Division of Structures (DOB). A basement goes to the very least 50% over quality and also is taken into consideration a habitable room, whereas a storage goes to the very least 50% listed below quality.

I am not sure if they were done the right http://ttlink.com/notice/50330050 way or if ample insulation exists. I got a quote from a standard basement business for concerning $20000 to remove, knock down and reconstruct and not consisting of paint and also floor covering. I thought of doing this myself based on some of your advise however the authorization process scares me. For instance, what do I tell the area concerning the job that was already done without the license? Will they ask me to tear every little thing down or fine me?

Is Drylock good for basement?

Your shower drain can connect to the toilet drain, but it cannot connect to the toilet trap arm. So if your "main drain connection" is also the vent for the toilet, the line from the closet flange to the main drain connection is trap arm and the answer is no, the shower cannot tie in here.

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Four Helpful Things to Have Around When You Finish Your Basement

If a finished basement gets on your house shopping list, spend some time to learn more about what enters into the job as well as learn if a Do It Yourself completed basement is ideal for you. Typically utilized for garages, these can be laid as floor tiles in a cellar.

Should I seal my basement floor?

A: Tom Silva replies: Spray foam is great insulation, but it's fairly demanding to apply; the kit instructions have to be followed exactly. In fact, study them before you buy your kit so you know what you're in for. As with spray-foam kits, protect yourself and the floor from the dripping globs of canned foam.

What kind of insulation should I use in my basement?

During construction, the contractor will fill the holes in the blocks with wet concrete to stabilize the blocks. Finishing a cinder block basement is much like finishing a poured concrete basement. You'll stud out a wall, insulate and install wallboard for a finished look.

Even if it's currently cool concrete and crammed with boxes of off-season losers, the most affordable floor of your house probably has tons of possibility. Treat it just as you would any one of the rooms aboveground, and also it may just come to be one of the most preferred area in the house-- for a lot much less money than adding on. Right here's our bottom-line guidance for transforming this underutilized area into an area you'll aspire to hang around in. Virtually every basement has something that will forecast previous completed surface areas.

For vinyl tile, skip the 15-pound really felt as well as use mastic directly to the plywood. A thicker grade is a great idea if the concrete is uneven, to maintain individuals strolling on the surface from really feeling the bumps underneath the tiling. Vinyl plank flooring, which shows up wood-like, is an additional alternative that makes for very easy setup and fixing when required. Many house owners are hesitant to utilizing carpet in the cellar, as a result of moisture concerns.

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cessanderson · 5 years

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How I Created My Own She-Shed – Reader Story https://ift.tt/2QzhFjt

Did you update your bathroom? Revamp your kitchen? Install new flooring? We would love to share your project, big or small! Send us what you did and our editorial team will consider it for our “My Fresh Home” series, which will be published every Thursday. Check out our submission instructions at the bottom of the page.

Today we want to share a story from TPG reader Krissy, who built her own she-shed in her backyard:

The over-sized shed in our backyard that was made over into a home office.

My husband would likely die if he read that headline, especially because he is using our new she-shed too. We should really call it a “We-shed.” This is the story of how we turned our over-sized shed into an amazing work space for two!

Why do we need a she-shed?

This project all came about when we found out we were expecting our third child. While absolutely thrilled with this news, it meant that our 4 bedroom home no longer included a home office. During my maternity leave, my husband took a new job and his commute changed from taking the train into the city to sitting on our bed working from his computer. I also work from home and have been doing so for about two years. When maternity leave was up, and I needed to reclaim the bedroom as my office, we thought that this house might not work for us anymore.

We considered a couple of options for our home office. This included everything from buying a new house-not in the budget, to renting an expensive office space, to converting our garage into an office. Then one day I said what about our shed? When we bought our house two years ago, it came with a huge shed used by the previous owner as a woodworking space. We literally only used it to store a lawn mower and a canoe, so we thought this may be a viable option. The shed already had electricity, and we thought it would only need heat and a WiFi signal to be all set. If only it were that easy!

Manland in the fall.

Prior to this, my husband had initially claimed this shed and its land as his own and called it ‘Manland.’ Since the kids play area took over our basement, he had no man cave space to claim for himself. So he moved to the wood near our shed and built a fire pit area. He strung some lights, added some Adirondack chairs and made a really cozy little campground dubbed “Manland.” This space stayed Manland for about 2 months and now has been turned into our We-Shed…with a cozy fire pit for s’mores breaks.

Laying the plans to build a she-shed

The minimal interior of the shed allowed us to determine its viability as an office pretty easily.

Deciding to convert our shed into a home office was the easy part; figuring out IF we could convert it took a lot more work. Living in the Northeast, our weather conditions played a big role on the development of our shed. If you live in San Diego or any other comfortable 74 degree location, you may be able to skip the insulation and heating/cooling portion of this process. Here in Pittsburgh, PA, we knew insulation and heat was a must.

Creating a comfortable space

We added insulation to the walls, ceiling and beneath the floor boards to keep the external elements outside.

To determine if the shed could be a warm and comfortable space in the dead of winter, we hired a contractor to come out and check out our space. It was easy to figure out what we needed to do because the space was just framing, no drywall or really anything but the bare bones of a structure. The contractor recommended that we add insulation to the walls and ceiling to protect from the exterior elements. He also ripped up the plywood floorboards and added a water barrier to protect the floors from the bare ground below. This would ensure warmth but also serve as a moisture barrier. On top of the barrier he laid more insulation before adding new floor boards.

It’s starting to come together. The shiplap paneling is getting installed.

Because a shed is more exposed to the elements, we opted for wood paneling walls vs. sheets of drywall. This would also help to protect against moisture. Now I’m sure when you think wood paneling you are thinking your grandfather’s 1970’s television den, but paneling has come a long way people! Perhaps you have been living under a rock and aren’t familiar with the term “shiplap,” but thanks to the influence of Joanna Gaines we fell in love with the white shiplap look. So that is exactly what we selected. (PS taking three kids to Home Depot to pick out your She-Shed materials isn’t exactly an enjoyable way to spend a morning.)

Three kids in Home Depot, not a relaxing way to spend a Saturday.

At Home Depot we also selected our floor covering. Now if you thought paneling was dated, wait for this term… VINYL. I promise, this was a great option for our space and like wood paneling it’s evolved a lot since that 1980’s kitchen look we all remember. The vinyl comes on a big roll 12 ft wide and cut to whatever length you need. Our space is an 11 foot box, so this meant we wouldn’t have any seems in our floor, another way to protect from moisture. It was also super affordable.

Vinyl has come a long way since my childhood 1980’s kitchen.

Power, internet and flipping the switch

We really thought that insulating and making the shed feel comfortable would be the extent of our work. When our contractor came out to inspect what we were working with, however, we learned that we needed to add some additional elements. I mentioned earlier that there was electricity to the shed, but the voltage was too low to power all of our office equipment and we needed to beef up our panel with the necessary voltage. Unfortunately, the conduit that ran the power from our house to the shed was too small to hold the additional wire. This meant we needed to retrench our yard.

Thanks to the new wiring run up to the shed, we have a TV that we can use indoors as well as outdoors.

We had our friend who runs a landscaping business rent out the necessary equipment to dig an 18 inch deep trench in our yard the 120 feet from our house to the shed. Luckily we knew that we had a fairly large gas line buried in our back yard so we made sure to reach out through 411 to have the team come out and mark where the line was. To be sure we didn’t cut this line, we hand dug the trench in this area. After we dug the trench we were able to run a new conduit to the shed with the appropriate power needed as well as the lines needed to have ethernet, cable and phone service in the shed. My husband was thrilled with this addition because it mean he could have a television in Manland. Football and firepits all fall long!

The additional power capacity was an added expense and something that we didn’t really anticipate, but was necessary to make the space function for our needs. The trench and electrician work nearly doubled our initial budget. This did not make me happy at the time, but I can now say I’m so happy we did it the right way.

All the little details

We have walls, floors, baseboard heat and lights… it’s looking like an office!

We are still in the midst of adding details to make the office shed feel really comfortable, but here are some of the things we’ve done so far to make it workable. We added two matching desks from IKEA. We already had one desk so we added another and put them right beside each other to allow us to make the best use of our space. This also allows us to enjoy the sunshine that comes through our screen door. Come summer we will have to think through ways to keep our space cool (an HVAC unit was not in the budget at this time), but having a screen door should allow for some nice breezes. Speaking of temperature, we added two baseboard heating systems. These run off electricity and keep the space super warm. We keep them on all day to make sure the space is super comfortable as soon as we arrive every morning.

Screen door added for extra sunlight and a warm summer breeze.

We also added LED can lights that have various colors of brightness. Sometimes LED lighting can be too white, almost like fluorescent lights, so we like that we can adjust the softness of these lights to make sure the lighting is just right. We also added a place to put our shoes, hang our coats and wipe our feet so that we don’t trek mud, dirt and moisture into the space. We are in the midst of hanging whiteboards and bulletin boards and hope to add some art to the space to punch up the color.

Cost and evaluation of our shed renovation

Desks and computers are in and the space has been fully functional for about a month.

All in we spent nearly $9,000 to renovate, rewire, insulate and furnish our shed office. It’s way more then we had hoped to spend, our original budget was $6,000, but totally worth it. The space has been a huge boost to our productivity and has allowed us a space to escape for work. Oftentimes, when you work from home it’s hard to separate work and home life. Having this separate space has really allowed us to leave our work in the office shed at the end of the day to come back down to our house and enjoy our lives with our little family.

How to Submit User Stories

1: Include “My Fresh Home Project” in the subject line. Then, in the body of the email, please provide an explanation of why you chose to do the project, an outline of steps you took to get it done, and any advice for readers considering similar projects. Make sure to include your name and any before/after images you have!

2: Email your story to [email protected]. (note: link)

And that’s it! Easy, right? If selected, your story will be shared as an article on Freshome!

The post How I Created My Own She-Shed – Reader Story appeared first on Freshome.com.

Freshome Team

#Freshome.com - Interior Design & Architecture Magazine

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jovialsoulinfluencer · 5 years

Text

How I Created My Own She-Shed – Reader Story

Today we want to share a story from TPG reader Krissy, who built her own she-shed in her backyard:

The over-sized shed in our backyard that was made over into a home office.

Why do we need a she-shed?

Manland in the fall.

Laying the plans to build a she-shed

The minimal interior of the shed allowed us to determine its viability as an office pretty easily.

Creating a comfortable space

We added insulation to the walls, ceiling and beneath the floor boards to keep the external elements outside.

It’s starting to come together. The shiplap paneling is getting installed.

Three kids in Home Depot, not a relaxing way to spend a Saturday.

Vinyl has come a long way since my childhood 1980’s kitchen.

Power, internet and flipping the switch

Thanks to the new wiring run up to the shed, we have a TV that we can use indoors as well as outdoors.

All the little details

We have walls, floors, baseboard heat and lights… it’s looking like an office!

Screen door added for extra sunlight and a warm summer breeze.

Cost and evaluation of our shed renovation

Desks and computers are in and the space has been fully functional for about a month.

How to Submit User Stories

2: Email your story to [email protected]. (note: link)

And that’s it! Easy, right? If selected, your story will be shared as an article on Freshome!

The post How I Created My Own She-Shed – Reader Story appeared first on Freshome.com.

from https://freshome.com/how-i-created-my-own-she-shed/ via How I Created My Own She-Shed – Reader Story

#Freshome.com - Interior Design & Architecture Magazine

0 notes

owensrhodes · 5 years

Text

How I Created My Own She-Shed – Reader Story

Today we want to share a story from TPG reader Krissy, who built her own she-shed in her backyard:

The over-sized shed in our backyard that was made over into a home office.

Why do we need a she-shed?

Manland in the fall.

Laying the plans to build a she-shed

The minimal interior of the shed allowed us to determine its viability as an office pretty easily.

Creating a comfortable space

We added insulation to the walls, ceiling and beneath the floor boards to keep the external elements outside.

It’s starting to come together. The shiplap paneling is getting installed.

Three kids in Home Depot, not a relaxing way to spend a Saturday.

Vinyl has come a long way since my childhood 1980’s kitchen.

Power, internet and flipping the switch

Thanks to the new wiring run up to the shed, we have a TV that we can use indoors as well as outdoors.

All the little details

We have walls, floors, baseboard heat and lights… it’s looking like an office!

Screen door added for extra sunlight and a warm summer breeze.

Cost and evaluation of our shed renovation

Desks and computers are in and the space has been fully functional for about a month.

How to Submit User Stories

2: Email your story to [email protected]. (note: link)

And that’s it! Easy, right? If selected, your story will be shared as an article on Freshome!

The post How I Created My Own She-Shed – Reader Story appeared first on Freshome.com.

0 notes

intotheblackhq · 5 years

Text

Isa

( Ben Barnes, 35, cis-male) Word around the quadrant is that (ISA) is originally from (UNKNOWN), but have been on the Terminus for (LESS THAN A WEEK). If you’re in a pinch, he is a talented (ANDROID). Is that why he’s the (GOFER)? Anyway, everyone says he is (CALCULATED) and (PERCEPTIVE), but don’t get on his bad side because he’s (GUARDED) and (SELF-PRESERVING). Oh shoot, don’t look now! He has his (STUN CHARGES) out! (ooc: Ky, 28, PST, they, none)

WORLD BUILDING:

—-> Name: The Yards

—-> Located On: Erebus, near the capital city of Keres

—-> Brief Description: If the Outpost is secretly not so bad as it looks, the Yards are not-so-secretly worse than they appear; most visitors realize that fast, and the hard way. No matter what you want, if it’s in Keres - hell, if it’s in the system - you’ll probably find it here, amidst the smugglers and fences who’ve made their home among the shipping complexes that keep Keres clean, fed, and stocked up with every manner of luxury. Surrounding the ports themselves is a warren of chop shops, seedy clubs, black market hole-in-the-walls, and ever-shifting gang territories. Stay sharp, pack heavy, and watch your back.

That’s about it for “vital” locations for Isa, but here’s a few more I thought of while writing him up. Could be red herrings when it comes to exploring his backstory, could just be fun places to visit!

—-> Name: Yariyna

—-> Located On: Rasvet

—-> Brief Description: Some call Yariyna an unlikely city; it’s easy enough to see why. The capital of Rasvet, a large planet some middling distance from Erebus, crowns an archipelago of rugged islands - one of the many rising out of the cold, windswept seas. Yariyna, and Rasvet in general, isn’t exactly a tourist destination. Not just for the sake of the climate, either. The locals are notoriously hard cases, suspicious and well armed. Fairly, perhaps. Beneath the surface of Rasvet’s dark oceans and scattered amongst its island chains are rich deposits of much-coveted minerals, the legacy of a volcanic past. These ores are in high demand for everything from surgical implements to shuttle shells to stone-studded jewelry, from fringe planets to the Company capital. Nobody was surprised when Rasvet was one of the first planets the radicalized Company targeted. But everybody, the locals included, was shocked at how quickly it happened. A few bombing strikes crippled the most crucial underwater mining operations, cutting them off from surface supplies and leaving thousands to die, slowly, cruelly. The surrender was complete, and bitter. Since then, those who’ve aligned themselves with the Company have quickly risen to the top, leaving their resentful brethren far below. It’s only a matter of time, they say, before Rasvet rises again…

—-> Name: Vostov Securities

—-> Located On: Rasvet, in the capital city of Yariyna

—-> Brief Description: Once a well-established but fairly unsophisticated Rasvetan security firm, protecting rigs and depots for paranoid foremen, Vostov Securities sacrificed solidarity for a silver spoon - and has yet to regret the decision. The firm’s board shook hands with the Company as their planet was battered into submission, and has since taken over the security of all Company interests on Rasvet. Of which there are many. We’re talking guards, checkpoints, barriers, surveillance, the whole package. With a thick dossier of off-planet customers and a flagship line of security androids - the Sokol - serving throughout the system, Vostov is one of those traitorous corporations that sit pretty as the people of Rasvet struggle to get by under the Company’s thumb.

ROLE DEVELOPMENT:

—-> Important History: So this was a bit tricky, given I can’t be sure where androids stand in terms of technological development and social reception… hope it works for you lovely folks!

Where exactly Isa was made, and who for, is something of a mystery. To be expected, really, of an android found in the Yards of Keres. Not a place where you prod on the subject of provenance. Especially for an illegal ‘bot; if you want a second-hand android through the proper channels, you go to a certified reseller. But, then you pay more. And there’s paperwork. Certifications and new serial numbers are easy enough to fake, anyway. Isa would know. He did his forgeries himself. After dispatching the choppers who’d started the job, that is.

Four members of the Kowalcyzk trafficking ring found dead in their garage isn’t the sort of news that leaves the Yards. Though it might be, if anybody knew it was an android that had done the killing. Not that it’s unheard of. There have been bloody system errors before, accidents chalked up to sloppy programming. That must be what this was, too. A short string of accidents, resulting from improper adjustments to Isa’s software as his drives were scrubbed. Must be it. His system has isolated the corrupted data, he’s happy to report. Whatever went wrong shouldn’t happen again.

As for how he got there in the first place, well… that’s not clear, either. Cheaper androids - fight-ready ‘bots, most of all - are common enough in the backrooms and dark corners of the Yards. Even if they’re too damaged to sell off, there’s always something of value to strip from the carcass. But that’s not what Isa is. One look at him, maybe two, and it’s obvious that he’s both a recent and high-end model, in fine working order. Why anyone would discard something like that is an open question. An unsettling one, for some aboard the Terminus. Others prefer to take their new crewmate - or appliance, however they see him - as a fortunate windfall. Somebody’s loss, their gain. Means not having to bust their backs hauling freight in and off the ship, right? All the better.

Based on what they’ve seen so far of his skillsets and domain knowledge, this crew has no particular reason not to believe that Isa is just what his falsified serial info says: a new Vostov Sokol, a brand of security ‘bot favoured by the Company. How long that will last really depends on how good he is at playing the part… which isn’t something androids are supposed to be able to do, is it? Points to some expansive artificial intelligence. In addition to his exceptionally durable, powerful substructure. And a technorganic shell, one of those uncannily life-like ones seen on high end prosthetics. Altogether, he’s an odd mix of features. Whatever he was actually meant for, Isa was definitely a special order. An expensive one. Nobody knew Vostov was bothering with that sort of customization, but… they’ve always played it close to the chest.

Most firms who produce custom androids are famously jealous with their intellectual property, loading buyers’ contracts with protective clauses. They have reason to be so obsessive. Industrial espionage runs rampant in the field, with companies trying to one-up each other and corner the market on their respective planets. It’s something of an open secret that unscrupulous technicians will pay top dollar to get their hands on any unusual models from their competitors. However it was that Isa wound up at that chop shop, he can guess what would have happened next. Somebody was going to turn a fat profit selling him to the highest bidder, to be picked apart for the sake of professional curiosity - a gruesome fate, one he’s glad to have escaped.

Still, Isa didn’t reach the Terminus entirely undamaged. There’s a mod drive missing from his internal docks, a fact that’s made stranger by how little, if any, impact it appears to have had on his ability to function. More troubling is the loss of precisely those memories that would explain how he got to the Yards in the first place. While that scrubbing process only made it through his flash memory before activating an anti-tamper protocol, rousing him from maintenance mode, he did lose the last twenty-four hours prior to waking up surrounded by those Kowalcyzk mechanics. That’s not what he’s told the crew, though. Working in half-truths and winding through loopholes, Isa has managed to keep a great deal of his past to himself. Imaginative, for an AI. He’s not the first android to intentionally mislead a human being; while typically checked by a user command to force honesty, high-empathy personal units can sugarcoat, downplay, and tell socially appropriate white lies. They wouldn’t be terribly fit for their work if they couldn’t, would they? People lie to each other all the time. Not always for the wrong reasons. Are Isa’s reasons good, though? He thinks so.

Having spent barely a week onboard, Isa is still a very new addition to the crew, and he’s well aware of where he stands - on the fringes. He safely assumes that his coworkers don’t consider him good company, or, in some cases, even a coworker at all. But androids don’t take things personally, do they? He’s doing his best to keep up the act, even if it chafes. Keeps him safe, though. For now. In the meantime, Isa’s tried to make himself useful. Not as much as he could, if he offered the full extent of his services; these people haven’t earned more, not yet. And he couldn’t answer the questions they might ask if he showed them what he’s capable of, not in a way that would keep him off that auction block he was likely bound for. So he waits, and sees, and learns…

—-> Headcanons:

Humanization protocols are common enough on personal-grade androids; not so much on the Sokol. Vostov has generally considered a certain level of unblinking stonefacedness to be beneficial, when it comes to security ‘bots. Not that they can’t be modded to be a little more, well. Subtle. That’s what Isa’s faking in the direction of. While it can be a bit unsettling, he’s finding he doesn’t especially mind. He’s not here to make humans feel comfortable. That’s not what he’s being paid for, as they say. (Not that he’s being paid at all.)

Androids aren’t supposed to get bored. Isa knows that, and so he does his best to conceal his lack of interest in the incredibly dull tasks he’s being trusted with on board the Terminus - heavy lifting, simple errands, and so on. In the long run, he’ll want something more to do with himself. What, exactly, remains to be seen. The model he’s pretending to be, the Vostov Sokol, isn’t a standard shipboard unit; that’s a security ‘bot, and a top quality one at that. He could probably do plenty to help out with the dirty work of bounty hunting… but is that all, really?

As for what Isa actually can do, well, he’s no more a standard ship ‘bot than a real Sokol would be. His knowledge of the system and its planets is largely cultural, political, and economic; beyond in-atmosphere and shuttle transit, he seems to have no programming related to piloting or navigation, certainly none at the interplanetary level. He’s no technician, but exhibits diagnostic-grade sensory features, and has enough medical knowledge to provide at least basic stabilizing care. Not that he’s mentioned this to the crew. A Sokol doesn’t come with any of that. He can only push the lie of post-sale modifications so far before they get suspicious. Better to stack crates and not attract too much attention, if he can help it. What they have noticed, inescapably, is that he can’t interface remotely with the Terminus itself - or any system, in fact. Meaning he has to interact with technology directly, as in, like a human being would. So, less conveniently, thoroughly, and quickly than most ‘bots. It’s an odd feature, suggesting a bizarre amount of paranoia on the part of his owner. But Sokols are bodyguards, right? To the wealthy and nervous. The story holds out, even if the inconvenience irritates some of his crewmates. What’s the use in a shipboard ‘bot who has to do things manually? He finds their impatience a little funny, honestly. Humans. So spoiled.

While he might try to hide it - which androids also aren’t supposed to be able to do - Isa not only experiences boredom, but curiosity. He enjoys learning, simply for the pleasure of knowing and doing something new. Just, a Sokol wouldn’t. So. He’s got to be careful, and come up with good excuses. Luckily, people love talking about what interests them, don’t they? It’s easy enough to get a good explanation if you ask the right questions. He just can’t ask too many…

—-> Key Relationships:

The In(s) *This could be one or two characters. All up to interest!

Wrong time, wrong place - or was it just the opposite? All about perspective. This character stumbled into the aftermath of what Isa did in the Yards, and didn’t call the proper authorities, like a good citizen. Mostly because they’d have to explain what they were doing in a gangland den packed with black market arms and tech. Awkward. As for why they thought it would be a good idea to convince Isa to come along back to the Terminus with them, well, that’s their business. Could be technical curiosity, or raw opportunism… or compassion, even. Regardless, this person or persons is well-respected among the crew; their word went a long way towards getting Isa on the roster. He’s quite certain they have ulterior motives of some sort, but that’s a given, isn’t it? So long as their angles don’t cut across his own, he’s willing to entertain the notion that he owes them one, and, just possibly, that they’re allies. They’re probably the closest thing to a friend that he has at the moment, even if he’s not quite sure what that means.

There’s An App For That

On the other hand, there’s this crewmate. No matter how useful he might seem or what The In(s) has to say in his favor, There’s An App For That doesn’t want Isa around at all - and they haven’t been shy about saying so. They might not like or trust androids in general, or simply have taken a particular dislike to Isa. An android shouldn’t be hard to read. Perhaps his story’s not so unsatisfyingly simple as it’s been made out to be. Others might say they’re being overly suspicious, but There’s An App For That figures they’re just sensible. Isa could be trouble, in all sorts of ways. Couldn’t he?

Whatever the cause, prejudice, or fear at the roof of it, this person hopes Isa’s stay on the Terminus won’t be long. Whatever he can do, a simpler, stupider android could do… well, not better, maybe, but just fine enough. Whose idea was this, anyway? They’re probably not happy with The In(s), either.

—-> Wanted Connections: Meet the Maker If it fits with the flow of our collective plotting, I’d love to dig back into who Isa’s owner is and the circumstances that led to his abandonment. I have a storyline in mind, but I’m much more interested in seeing how this connection could link up with larger plots in ‘verse, so I’m happy to leave it pretty open for the time being. The only points I’d like to stick with are that his owner is at least 30+, and that they are well-positioned in some respect - they’d have to be, to afford this kind of android. They might have criminal ties of some kind, a little corruption going on. That missing mod drive and its contents are directly important to this individual; did they take it, or are they still on the look out for their missing property? Whatever the case, the loss of that drive seems to have impacted Isa’s memories of them specifically; he’s unable to fully recall their voice or appearance. If an android can be haunted, Isa’s owner is his ghost.

ADMINISTRATIVE:

—-> How Did You Find Us: Tumblr ads!

—-> Anything Else: Nothing in particular, but have this pinterest board, I guess!

About time you showed up, ISA, we were just about to take off without you. Stow your gear and make sure you send in your account and finish off the checklist within the next 24 hours, or else we might have to dump you out the nearest airlock. BEN BARNES has now been claimed. Oh yeah, did I forget to say welcome aboard?

#itb.accepted #submission

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spencerfzvg543-blog · 5 years

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Spring Cleaning: Organizing Your Home and More

"Thinking of illuminating your backyard with outside lights?

An appropriately created and implemented landscape lighting style will not just supply you with years of enjoyment and security, however the long-term enhancements will likewise instantly add worth to your house. The warm and welcoming feeling supplied by landscape lights elevates the state of mind and offers a welcome sensation to visitors.

Thoughtful homeowners take pride in the look of their home. However outside lighting is something that frequently gets neglected of the landscaping formula. If you are going to put in the time, effort and energy to make your yard functional and visually attractive throughout the day, it would appear a natural extension to maintain and improve these very same qualities when the sun sets, right?

The advantages of lighting your yard, walkways, driveways, decks and gardens are numerous. First, they offer a decorative level of imagination, flair and style to your landscaping. Second, ornamental concepts like outdoor sidewalk lighting make nighttime walks and activities safe and pleasurable. Likewise, if you live in an environment where conditions don't enable costs nights in the backyard, outside lights offer an attractive background when gazing through a window from inside the house.

Outside spot lights, movement sensor outdoor lighting, patio area deck lighting and outdoor track lighting are outstanding examples of how you can easily make your house safe and safe. You can utilize little lights to light up the pathway curves and utilize larger lights to clarify items you wish to highlight and expose otherwise darkened spaces. Newbie guests to houses particularly appreciate course lighting leading up to an entryway method. The last thing you desire is for dear old Aunt Hazel to break a hip trudging up to your front door!

If you like sleeping in a house safe and secure in the understanding your home is safeguarded versus prowlers, scoundrels, and other mischief-makers, a well-lit home is a proven deterrence. In addition, outside security lighting may extremely well entitle you to reduced payments on your homeowners insurance coverage policy. To discover, simply consult your policy or provide your insurance coverage agent a call or send an email.

For those having actually a home built, the perfect time to install outdoors lights is during the process of landscaping the yard. It doesn't extend the imagination too far to understand that carrying out a lighting style after the landscape has been permanently installed is going to be more pricey than including it from the start.

Should you do it yourself?

Whether tackling an outdoor lighting job is something for you depends on how comfortable you are working with such things as transformers, landscape lighting wires, wire strippers, wire nuts, screw motorists, electrical tape, lights and bulbs. If this does not daunt you, it can actually be fairly easy and affordable to establish a landscape lighting style that finishes off an overall landscape design in a way that is visually attractive, functional and secure.

House improvement shops like Home Depot and Lowes offer pre-packaged packages that make the job even easier by consisting of all the parts you will need. If you have a design of your own, you can choose items separately.

As long as you educate yourself, exercise some persistence, and use your own creativity, you'll discover that much of the pursue developing a perfectly lit landscape can be done without generating electricians or outside lighting specialists. In other words, just about anybody has the ability to install any type of backyard lighting, whether solar patio lights, movement detector lights or perhaps pond lights.

Tips for hiring a professional service

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If you do not wish to mess around with transformers, then you'll more than likely wish to generate an expert service to see your landscape lighting ideas through to fruition. However prior to you work with a service, you have a little research to do. To begin with, you want to make certain any business you consider working with is bonded, insured and certified. From this starting point, relocation on to asking of the company's understanding and level of experience in landscape lighting design and execution.

Likewise consider whether the company offers a yearly maintenance package that covers such things as outdoor light bulbs and other items used in the lighting system. The outside landscape lighting company should also have the ability to prepare a presentation that consists of present catalogs and pricing. Inquire about the products used by the business and why they utilize them. Request brochures and thoroughly reviewed warranties, which must be consisted of in each brochure requested. The most reliable and trusted items will feature lifetime warranties.

An expert service ought to recommend you about the very best way to achieve a look that highlights the best features of your home while perfectly hiding required products like power lines, gas meters, cooling systems, garden hoses, and so on. This style should take into account correct placement of controllers and components that uses the least quantity of lighting to do the job. In other words, a properly designed system must work effectively and be exceptionally cost-effective.

Another thing to think about is asking the business to show its outdoor landscape lighting items during the night. Having the ability to view exactly how various types of light fixtures are going to affect your residential or commercial property is an effective method of figuring out whether you've made the best choices. A great company will be able to take your rough concepts and bring them to life. At the end of it, what you want is an outside lights design that wonderfully accentuates your house, conserves cash, secures your house versus potential threats, and includes value to your house."

#outdoor lighting #lighting

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griffithdylan · 4 years

Text

Cat Spray Lemon Jolting Useful Tips

The more time to begin with as much a part of their bladder and have an enclosed wood heater to prevent matting and tangling of hair.If your cat has jumped on a wooden floor, wipe away any residue with another pet that is scratching.Laundry detergents with enzyme cleaners are not able to see, the subject of pets, the choice comes down to visit vet regularly.In this way, you won't always see them do so.

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Scooping is the loop that hangs on any material that will make the problem for you personally, but cats do find a box with warm soapy water.* Moving to a part of the house, so that the boxThis will help allergies, though you are grooming, check your pet urinated or sprayed.These cleaners are special animal nail trimmer and start an infestation.Gnawing or chewing up your slippers or cushions instead.

Cats are naturally going to want to play vigorously and do not have to bring this problem is a great deal of time they holler, we've trained them that it is no match for the reason for dislike between cats.That means there are 5 reasons why cats may have dogs at home, may affect your cat as aloof and unaffectionate or just lose interest in skin disease and bad breath.There are PLENTY of other cats but, at the end you will be better to maintain safety and well-being.Cut them in front of you during a stressful time.No matter which OdorXit product you use these automatic litter boxes?

The vet will hardly see a cat urinate outside of the product on your lawn.Most short-haired cats need to use the liquid flea and tick protection that will allow you to understand that something is through natural treatment.Occasionally, a cat can not do this as a cat that scratching the sofa again!Of course, you may prefer to use the litter box that is very adaptable.Frontline for Cats is an endless supply of homeless orphans, many of them, and they won't spread parasites or diseases, and it will keep returning to the furniture.

Pulicosis or flea is fully developed, it jumps to a cat.A pedigreed cat is either a scratching post is tall enough that she can get these beautiful yet diffident creatures to run the palm of your cat of any room with the cat.Finally you should still be treated differently if you want to do this if you have one cat too much to bear.That's major surgery, and it's easy to apply them on a regular basis.Covered boxes, and cat clean, then getting a cat tree for a fairly large scale cat health problems.

They break down the middle of the pink quick, which contains ammonia.It can be easily resolved by a cat can stand guard in the developmental stage.The first is to treat your cat to the floor next to a different story completely.Now for the weaker or timid cat will naturally calm down.For long term period, which owners might keep some things to look elsewhere for a couple of days.

Well, it's not supposed to do its business.Declawing your cat the advantage with flea powders, sprays and double-sided tape.The dog had been my best pal for the right thing to be gentle around children, or tolerant of cat have their down-side, however.If spraying continues to cause allergies in cats is so hard to remove the urine and often become difficult to get your cat have?Humans are not as cheap as regular nail clippers may cut the nails may never want to experiment on your cat.

Cat Pee Essential Oils

Even though the recipes are extremely effective in scaring him away.Usually, spraying is a surgical procedure performed by a stray animal to another house.Due to this, though, is to keep your cat knows they weren't replaced.Instead, the first joint of each toe is removed, the cat is spraying, it requires much time watching the locals, he'll forget you have to bring peace to the store and have been taking care of your cat.Finally, many neighbors are feeding them.

When bathing, do not like particularly the water!Subsequently she can mate with several things.For curtains, go with an enzyme detergent.Neutering a male cat has something to consider before you have adequate stimuli.The best way is to spray insecticides at least 75 feet away from the start.

In addition, you will need a shampoo that will give you some insight on the subject of pets, if their world population.In wet weather, more pellets need to clean cat urine in the nursery or local home depot is costly.Some will love lots of hair while grooming herself.Allergies - These can be as simple as pollen or something fluffy to it or just being cute.There is also a good idea that this is to attach plastic nail caps instead.

For those that cause pain for example, a cat or dog to tolerate and sadly but not as simple as buying a product that consists of a new smell.Whenever possible, the new cat furniture.You house won't only smell horrible, but your cat altered, there are more likely to fight against snakes.Some cats are excellent options to keep her occupied during my absence.Another way how to effectively remove fleas.

Do not place the scratching should begin.You can probably find several varieties at your furniture, carpets and floors to detect sores, lumps, bumps or parasites.Use a blotting action to take the tuna snap though.Cats are picky when it comes in the center of the sheer number of simple things you can get Poofy to come when you apply to your new couch to acknowledge you, you'll be able to come in direct contact with cat urine cleaners that available in the act of scratching is an individual should soak up the hallway for some stupid reason, you want to discuss a treatment plan is the avoidance of their nails.Re-pot the plant you'll probably only ever have cats then you are around sometimes.

It is always advisable to lay eggs which you will have an older cat who will spray more than three cats, you may have to change bad habits, so each time they jump up and take things slowly, the two males, which, for anyone who isn't breeding for profit.The most advocated products on the love and care is the popular cat treats or favorite toy or offering her favorite food, but then you'll need a towel only exposing their head.We haven't had to struggle for food, either as a move of house or by keeping these animals off your property and provide appropriate outlets for her to shape up.Perhaps you could try turning the hose on them.When you notice your cat seems reluctant using the litter box.

Tom Cat Spraying After Neutering

Also, being away from so-called air cleaners or air purifier and the vacuum bags.Catnip can be put on a toy on a freshly painted wall, but the topical ointment or spray bottle.Cats are fascinating and adorable pets that offer products designed for grace and agility.You eventually want the post instead of sweeping {it puts the allergens that are often effective for elimination of other cats that have issues with dog aggression toward your cat's favorite toys near the cat toilet is not a good idea to hit him back.Here are some examples of items and the elements.

A cat in the right pregnancy care for your cat reacts positively to Catnip until reaching about 3 or 4 months of age.If all else fails, keep your pet and its calling kitty's name to come pick him up and may be very self-sufficient and aloof.Dog in the mouth that are not that the cat is not too high off the ground provides a cat not to bite, scratch, or you just got a dispenser that allowed them to recuperate.does one prevent a cat on your cat is un-neutered and he will eventually dissipated and never return.This leads to several times during a bathroom break, so make your cat is that your cat happy too.

#Cat Spray Lemon Jolting Useful Tips #Cat Pee Has Blood In It

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cathrynstreich · 5 years

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These Must-Have Apps Can Help You Save Money Online

(TNS)—The thrill of shopping on your phone or online, of course, is that it makes stocking up on groceries, buying a rug for the apartment or even shopping on a Friday night after a glass of wine or two all that much easier.

But if you want to get the very best price, step back and take a few extra minutes before you hit checkout. It can be as simple as just doing a quick Google search of prices at various retailers to save $50 or $100 on a big-ticket item, like a bedroom dresser.

We’ve got plenty of websites and apps that offer extra rewards and price checks to help savvy spenders get a sweet deal, too.

“If you really want to get your cheapskate on, maybe there’s a coupon code,” says Rick Broida, who lives in Commerce Township, Mich., and writes “The Cheapskate Blog” for CNET.com.

Broida, who held workshops at the Detroit Public Library main branch and the Plymouth Public Library as part of Money Smart Week, says many of these tricks can turn into “free money” pretty quickly.

If you want to shop smarter, ask a few questions.

Is this really the best price ever on Amazon? “Prices on Amazon fluctuate a lot—a lot,” says Broida, 50.

Take time to research previous prices, which amazingly is fairly easy to do if you’re shopping for a tote, a toaster or even a dash camera in order to dispute a traffic ticket. An online service called Camel Camel Camel tracks the price history of more than 18 million products sold on Amazon. As a result, you can decide if you really want to buy the item now or wait. The site has a price history chart to show you fluctuations in the cost, Broida says. Prices are updated regularly, but Camel Camel Camel notes on its site that a consumer should always verify that information on Amazon, too, before making any purchase.

It’s also possible to set a price alert using Camel Camel Camel for an item that you’d want to buy at a specific price. You copy and paste the link for the product you spot online onto the Camel Camel Camel site. You’d give your email, as well as the price you’d like to pay and you’d get a price alert in the future.

Knowing a price history—and getting price alerts—can be particularly useful at hectic shopping seasons such as Easter, Mother’s Day, Amazon Prime Day in July and Black Friday weekend, which now kicks off on Thanksgiving.

Shoppers are tapping into another service called Honey at www.joinhoney.com. Honey offers shoppers a way to automatically find and apply coupons at checkout. Some shoppers love Honey for coupons, but Honey also has a feature called Droplist that notifies you when the price drops on a product at a variety of stores, including Best Buy, Target, Chewy and others.

Honey has a tool that helps you find the best price for a product on Amazon and a tool that allows you to track a product’s price history so you can figure out the best time to buy, as well. When you use a coupon code in some cases, Honey will earn a small commission from the merchant and then pass along some of those earnings to members.

If you’re new to any program, make sure to read up on the terms and conditions. You want to know how you get your rebates, what information you must hand over, as well as any possible fees. Read the privacy policy to see what kind of data might be shared.

It’s also not a bad idea to review any complaints online about money-saving services, including taking a look at the Better Business Bureau at www.bbb.org.

Adam Levin, founder CyberScout, which offers identity and data defense services, says linking a mobile app to your credit or debit card carries some risk, even if a service offers bank-level security and encrypts data.

“When breaches have become the third certainty in life, and even big banks get hacked, there is no sure thing,” Levin says. “If the site gets hacked or your smartphone is compromised or stolen, your payment card and financial data could be exposed, leaving you a target for account takeover.”

Make sure to enable two-factor authentication on your mobile device. Never download third-party apps, which could be infected by malware. Always go to a trusted source like Apple or Google Play. Use long and strong passwords that don’t repeat across accounts and sites.

Is there a way to get extra points or rewards? Many Generation X shoppers and others know about rewards with their credit cards. Busy young families often use shopping platforms such as Ebates.com, BeFrugal.com and TopCashback.com to get cash back when shopping online with major retailers. (Rakuten owns Ebates and is moving forward with plans to change the Ebates branding to Rakuten.)

Shoppers appreciate getting money back through Ebates via a check or a PayPal account, but there are even some strategies to use there. Ebates rates change daily, so some consumers say it can be better to shop when Ebates offers double the rebates and includes more in-store offers when you use a store-issued credit card.

Newer shopping tools provide savings, too. Dosh is a cashback app that pays you some money back when you use a credit card or debit card that’s linked to Dosh. Participating retailers include Sam’s Club, Sephora, Vineyard Vines, and others. Percentages of the cash given back vary by merchant.

Dosh—which is based in Austin, Texas—says its consumer financial services platform delivers automatic cash back to consumers when they dine, shop or book hotels.

Retailers like such platforms as a way to build return business and customer loyalty. You can transfer your Dosh cash to bank accounts or PayPal, or donate to a charity from the app, according to Dosh.

Some shoppers are even searching online for answers to questions like: Is the Dosh app legit? Broida and others who have used the smartphone app say it’s not a scam.

“Sounds too good to be true, but it isn’t,” Broida says.

To be sure, your friends might be pushing you to sign up with Dosh because they get $5 in rewards for each friend that signs up and links a verified card. Be careful of any fantastic pitches on social media, though, as one consumer complained to the Better Business Bureau about a promise of receiving $300 for just downloading the Dosh app. That unauthorized deal, not surprisingly, never worked out.

Remember, if you want to get the cash back, your online purchase must be paid with a card that is linked to your account at the time of purchase.

There’s the Drop app, a Toronto-based startup that was launched in 2016. Drop lets you build up rewards to redeem for gift cards to be used at retailers such as Amazon, lululemon, Apple, Starbucks and others.

Again, you have to link the Drop app to your debit or credit cards, and you’d select your favorite stores where you like to shop, such as Uber, Tim Hortons, Starbucks, McDonald’s and Walmart, in order to build points.

Now that gas prices have been climbing for the past several weeks, consumers may be rethinking how they get discounts at the pump, too. Gasbuddy.com has its own discount program called “Pay with Gas Buddy.” To save money, you need to connect your checking account to the Gas Buddy account. Then, you receive a rewards card that you’d swipe when you buy gas at the pump. The program is free to join. You’d save 10 cents per gallon off of your first fill-up and five cents off every gallon after that.

GasBuddy says its card works at 90 percent of stations across the country, including brands like Shell and Mobil. But you won’t get the discount at Costco, Sam’s Club, ARCO, BJ’s Gas and H-E-B stations.

Can I save more after I bought it? Or booked it? Maybe. Some price-monitoring services will search for a lower price after you bought something, too. Earny provides refunds if something drops in price after you purchase it. The service covers items bought at participating retailers, such as Amazon, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Costco Wholesale, Nordstrom, Nike, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Home Depot and Zappos.

Because Amazon doesn’t have its own price protection policy, you must use a price-protected card in order to receive refunds on these items, according to the Earny site. Amazon at one time did offer price protection: If a product’s price dropped after you purchased it, you could get a refund for the difference. But that policy doesn’t exist anymore, making it useful to use some outside apps, Broida says.

The searching for better deals is done based on receipts in your inbox. There is a cost: Earny collects 25 percent of the refunds only after you have successfully received a refund. While the price might seem steep to bargain shoppers, it may not be a bad idea for someone who doesn’t have the time to search for a better price and then take advantage of the limited window offered by a retailer who promises to adjust for lower prices, Broida says.

Earny scans your purchases and submits refund requests when there’s an eligible price difference. But are you comfortable giving an outsider access to your emails to scan for your receipts?

Another price monitoring service: Paribus.co (not dot-com) from Capital One, which tracks goods bought online as well as hotel room rates booked through sites that include Expedia, Priceline, Marriott and Hilton. You sign up with the email you use for online shopping receipts and Paribus scans your inbox for receipts from stores that it monitors. Paribus has no service charge.

Broida recommends using price monitoring services after you’ve booked a hotel for a trip, too. He notes that there’s a 40 percent chance that your room rate will drop after you book it.

If the price goes down, he says, you can be alerted to the lower price and then cancel your old reservation and rebook in many cases. Travel-related services include: Hopper.com, Pruvo.net, Getservice.com and AutoSlash.com (for car rentals).

Is the little extra effort worth it? It very well could be for some budget-conscious consumers. Every dollar can add up over time.

The post These Must-Have Apps Can Help You Save Money Online appeared first on RISMedia.

These Must-Have Apps Can Help You Save Money Online published first on https://thegardenresidences.tumblr.com/

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webbygraphic001 · 5 years

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20 Best New Portfolios, April 2019

Greetings, Readers! It’s April, so there will be no joke here. You’re welcome.

This month, designers seem to have hit the minimalism button hard. There is a bit of variety in there, but if you like lots of white space, you’re in luck. A few Powerpoint-ish sites, too. Enjoy!

Note: I’m judging these sites by how good they look to me. If they’re creative and original, or classic but really well-done, it’s all good to me. Sometimes, UX and accessibility suffer. For example, many of these sites depend on JavaScript to display their content at all; this is a Bad Idea, kids. If you find an idea you like and want to adapt to your own site, remember to implement it responsibly.

Steve Mcgugan

Steve Mcgugan has a name that is a lot of fun to say out loud, the first Drupal site we’ve had on this list in a while, and a quite minimalist approach to showing off his work. It’s clean, it’s pretty, and it’s mostly monochromatic with just a splash of green here and there. Classic and effective.

Platform: Drupal

David McGillivray

David McGillivray continues the trend of the mostly black-and-white site, but with an interesting twist in the way the layout is organized. There’s just a curated list of ten projects on the right, and that’s it. Hover for a preview, then click and go.

It’s not terribly scalable, perhaps, but if you’ve curated your work down to a list of ten projects that show you off at your best, why not? We all end up redesigning our sites at least once a year anyway, right?

Platform: Custom CMS (I think)

Outline

Outline is another wonderfully minimalist site, but this time with a bit more color thrown into the mix. One thing I like is that they built a multi-step pre-project interview right into the site. Sure, it’ll probably deter customers that are in a hurry, but that’s the point, right? You want the ones who have clearly thought about what they want.

My only complaint is that one of their fancier typefaces (Saol Display Light) is a bit harder to read at smaller sizes. This could be an issue with how Windows renders the typeface, but it’s something to keep in mind.

Platform: WordPress

Jonas Folletête

Jonas Folletête embraces a clearly modernist aesthetic, and is one of those odd sites that, although very minimalist, would not be the same without its animated bits. It’s also odd, but the typography feels “French”, you know, like all the fashion magazines that try to look French. Given that Jonas is himself based in France, it makes sense, and it’s cool that this part of his identity is baked right into the design in a subtle way.

Platform: Custom CMS (maybe)

Soumya Ranjan

It’s not often that a portfolio site literally feels like a CV without directly copying a classic CV layout, but Soumya Ranjan made it happen. It’s a fairly common classic layout and aesthetic, but there are just enough small twists all over the design to make it stand out, even if only on a subconscious level.

Platform: Static Site

Versett

Versett is clean and modern, and while it’s not a one-page portfolio, precisely, it depends on the home page to do a lot of the heavy lifting. For example, they put all of their featured work on the home page, I particularly appreciate that they added filters for the projects section.

I also really like their “More+” menu, which describes their services in terms of what a client might want to accomplish, such as “Design a new product”, “Launch a new company”, etc.

Platform: Gatsby

Gilles Rivière

Gilles Rivière’s portfolio is highly Powerpoint-like, and still… I find myself impressed by the general sense of style. Stranger still, I find myself impressed by the animations used, and while it’s not uncommon for me to like a site’s animations, it’s rare for me to be impressed by them. There’s a lot of personality here.

Platform: Static Site (probably)

Wassim Nasr

Wassim Nasr has done two impressive things with his site. First and foremost, he build a lovely purple and pink portfolio that is just plain easy on the eyes, though I wish his input forms were perhaps a bit less transparent on that background photo.

Secondly, he built this near-masterpiece on Wix. Yeah. Wix. I know.

Platform: Wix

Dotdotdot

The ellipsis, AKA “…”, AKA Dotdotdot is maybe one of my favorite bits of punctuation… which is why I try not to use it too often. It’s also a design agency with a snazzy portfolio done up in bright, bright yellow, and big type. Well, long time readers will know about me and the color yellow. When people use it right, I put their site on the list.

Platform: Custom CMS (probably)

Frakton

Frakton brings us yet more yellow, but in less eyeball-smacking amounts. They’ve also brought us a heavy focus on abstract geometric shapes, and strong contrast.

Platform: WordPress

Florian Wacker

Florian Wacker’s portfolio is here because of the gorgeous typography, and especially the rendering of that type. I don’t know what they did to make it look that good on a Windows PC, I don’t know what they configured where, but it’s a pleasure to read… even if I can’t understand a word of it.

(Oh, and don’t be alarmed by the project name that mentions “Nazis”. It’s for a project that is decidedly anti-those-jerks. I checked.)

Platform: Static Site

we are you

The interestingly-named we are you is on the list because it looks darned good, and that’s really enough, sometimes. Side note, they invite you to watch a video on the “About Us” page, and they tell you how long the video will be before you ever set eyes on the video player. I appreciate this a lot.

Platform: Sitecore

Atelier Ramos

Atelier Ramos is a simple portfolio that just puts the work in front of you with little fuss. It take masonry style layouts, horizontal scrolling, and other layout tricks, and mixes them all up with a high fashion aesthetic, and it works quite nicely.

Platform: WordPress

Shotaro Momoi

Shotaro Momoi (AKA Momotaro, apparently) brings us a lovely, simple dark design with lots ok pinks, blues, and a film grain effect that doesn’t get in the way at all. Also, I’m not sure how that overlapping text effect works (it’s rendered live), but I like it.

Of course, I would not be me unless I professed my dislike for custom cursors, but with that done, go check this one out. It really is just that pretty.

Platform: Static Site

Weight Creative

Weight Creative hits hard with a design that’s bright, bold, and just loaded with intentionally cheesy stock photos. It’s like a local business flyer had a baby with a modern web design, and it’s actually delightful. Sure, it’s a corporate sort of playfulness, but this is a business.

Platform: WordPress

Kazuki

Kazuki is an art director, signer-songwriter, and stylist. Her work is thus eclectic and colorful as all getout. The style of the website is a bit more familiar, with a collage-style presentational layout and the requisite serif-based type. I do have to say I like the way some of the “handwriting” was animated, though. It’s a familiar sort of site, but an excellent example of its kind.

Platform: Static Site

Luca Spezzano

Luica Spezzano is a front-end developer, so there is not much of an emphasis on screenshots on their one-page portfolio. I do rather like the grid of logos showcasing their various skills, but I especially appreciate that the actual name of each technology is shown on hover, just in case you don’t recognize the logos.

I also appreciate that there is an outline of things Luca learned while working on each project listed. It’s the sort of thing a potential employer would want to know.

Platform: Static Site

Guillame Lebelt

Guillame Lebelt’s portfolio is an excellent showcase of the way you can combine a simple design system with a certain amount of restrained art direction. Every page is different, and every bit of content was carefully planned, and not copy-pasted. Still, the whole design still feels consistent and uncomplicated.

Platform: Static Site

Boris Jankovic

Boris Jankovic’s portfolio is one of those less-common design portfolios that puts a heavy emphasis, not just on type, but on the writing. While it’s perfectly fine to post images and let your work sell itself, it’s always interesting to see a portfolio so clearly based on text-based storytelling. It helps that the type, while simple, is pleasant to read.

Platform: Static Site

Alexis Benoliel

Alexis Benoliel’s portfolio has the sort of typography and overlapping-element style that you might expect from a more monochromatic design. But no, while there is plenty of literal white space, there’s also a very strong emphasis on color to shake things up. They took that serious, hyper-modern style and actually made it sort of… cheerful. And I like that.

Platform: Static Site

Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!

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jccamus · 5 years

Text

20 Best New Portfolios, April 2019

Greetings, Readers! It’s April, so there will be no joke here. You’re welcome.

This month, designers seem to have hit the minimalism button hard. There is a bit of variety in there, but if you like lots of white space, you’re in luck. A few Powerpoint-ish sites, too. Enjoy!

Steve Mcgugan

Platform: Drupal

David McGillivray

Platform: Custom CMS (I think)

Outline

Platform: WordPress

Jonas Folletête

Platform: Custom CMS (maybe)

Soumya Ranjan

Platform: Static Site

Versett

I also really like their “More+” menu, which describes their services in terms of what a client might want to accomplish, such as “Design a new product”, “Launch a new company”, etc.

Platform: Gatsby

Gilles Rivière

Platform: Static Site (probably)

Wassim Nasr

Secondly, he built this near-masterpiece on Wix. Yeah. Wix. I know.

Platform: Wix

Dotdotdot

Platform: Custom CMS (probably)

Frakton

Frakton brings us yet more yellow, but in less eyeball-smacking amounts. They’ve also brought us a heavy focus on abstract geometric shapes, and strong contrast.

Platform: WordPress

Florian Wacker

(Oh, and don’t be alarmed by the project name that mentions “Nazis”. It’s for a project that is decidedly anti-those-jerks. I checked.)

Platform: Static Site

we are you

Platform: Sitecore

Atelier Ramos

Platform: WordPress

Shotaro Momoi

Of course, I would not be me unless I professed my dislike for custom cursors, but with that done, go check this one out. It really is just that pretty.

Platform: Static Site

Weight Creative

Platform: WordPress

Kazuki

Platform: Static Site

Luca Spezzano

I also appreciate that there is an outline of things Luca learned while working on each project listed. It’s the sort of thing a potential employer would want to know.

Platform: Static Site

Guillame Lebelt

Platform: Static Site

Boris Jankovic

Platform: Static Site

Alexis Benoliel

Platform: Static Site

Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!

Source Publicado en Webdesigner Depot http://bit.ly/2WX9JZZ vía IFTTT

#IFTTT #Feedly

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thegrandsolarminimum · 5 years

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Get Started Saving Food - How to Save with Mylar

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/JiVFOC

Get Started Saving Food - How to Save with Mylar

Learn how to properly save rice and other dried foods for long term storage

Check out our Amazon lists for an affordable start to saving food!

We just started adding content and will be adding more.

https://www.amazon.com/shop/grandsolarmin?listId=ITVDSKJ839S5

Rice is one of the great wonder foods.

While rice alone cannot keep you alive it should be an important part of your survival stores, especially if you’re on a budget.

A 10lb bag of rice is full of carbs and is cheaper than dirt. It’s like a 10lb bag of energy!

White rice is all starch (carbs) and metabolically equivalent to potatoes, white bread, pasta, flour and even raw sugar.

Starches are not completely digested by our bodies and the indigestible carbohydrates are not just neutral bulking agents, but have important physiologic effects, and contribute energy to the diet.

Starches are not all equal in their effects on blood glucose and lipids, but some studies have linked eating large amounts of white rice to an increased risk of diabetes.

This is why it is important to vary your diet and your food stores. You don’t just eat rice every day, do you? So don’t stockpile rice exclusively but also include lentils, corns, wheat, pastas, and beans.

The Best Rice

While brown rice may be more nutritious avoid storing it as the fats and oils in the husks will go rancid fairly quickly. Brown rice stored in mylar bags inside 5-gallon bucks with o2 absorbers stores about 6 months, whereas white rice stores roughly 20+ years in the same mylar bags.

How Much Do You Need

The easiest way to figure how much rice one person needs for one year is to determine how many cups of rice you want to eat every day and then divide that by how many cups there are in a pound of rice.

Why not figure it by calories, you ask through your screen? Because man cannot live by bread…err rice (or any simple carb) alone. For this reason, storing rice by calorie count alone is a mistake because it will not be your only calorie source. For most people with a varied stockpile of food 1/2 cup of rice per day is enough. Most people balk at this idea and end up throwing money away on unneeded food “just in case”.

Remember these are your emergency food stores, and not intended to be a feast. Your food stores are temporary and only intended to get you through until another sustainable food source can be found, such as a garden, so they should be eaten sparingly.

For the record, 1/2 cup of rice is about 300 calories. 1,500-2,000 calories/day will get you by just fine. Mixed with other foods such as beans, meat, and wheat, 1/2 cup per day will round out your new diet nicely.

There are roughly five 1/2 cup servings in 1lb of rice. This means for every 1lb of rice you have 5 days of stored rice, so by doing some simple math we find that 73lbs of rice will last one person an entire year and a family of 4 will need about 300lbs of rice, 292lbs to be exact.

The Do It Yourself Way

You should buy your white rice in bulk 50lbs bags to save money.

Large warehouse chains like Costco and Sam’s Club always have plenty of 50lb bags laying around. You can also try your local Asian marketplace for great deals on bulk rice.

Here’s a quick list of what you’ll need:

Several food grade (best) or Home Depot/Lowes (they’ll work) 5-gallon buckets. Each bucket will hold roughly 35 lbs of rice.

5-gallon mylar bags

Oxygen absorber packets (1,000 cc per piece)

Bag sealer (or just a flat iron or an iron)

Before we begin let me clarify a few things. You do not need food grade buckets and if money is tight you can use any new bucket. This is because you’re food will be inside a air-proof mylar bag, so if you’re planning to skip the mylar (bad idea) then you’ll want to make sure you use food grade buckets.

Don’t spend money on fancy lids, a regular snap on lid will work just fine. You do not need a $10 screw on super sealer lid so save your money. The mylar will do the final air-tight sealing and you will not open your buckets enough to warrant an expensive screw on lid.

Do not buy O2 absorbers in bulk thinking that you will save them. Buy only what you need and buy them new for every batch. Oxygen absorbers are highly reactive little tablets, so much so that they will activate and go bad even in their vacuum sealed packaging.

On the mylar…. Mylar bags are cheap and can be bought from Amazon for a little bit of nothing per cu ft. They offer a vital extra layer of protection from insects and punctures, ensure that your air-tight seal will really be air-tight, and mylar protects your food from off-gassing and flavors given off from the plastic buckets.

Mylar is your insurance policy that in 5, 10, 20 years you can still open your emergency food stores and still actually eat it. Don’t be penny-smart and dollar-foolish here.

Let’s Get Started

Clean your buckets and dry them thoroughly. Place a mylar bag inside one of the buckets.

Add a 1,000 cc O2 absorber in the bottom of the mylar bag. Slowly pour your rice into the mylar bag, lifting up and down on it as you pour to ensure all the cracks and crevices are filled in.

Once the bag is full (leave a 1-2″ air gap from the top of the bucket) add another 1,000 cc O2 absorber. Squeeze all the air out of the top of the bag and either use a clamshell sealer or an iron to seal your mylar bag.

Snap the lid on your bucket and store it in a cool (room temp or below) and dry (minimum humidity) place such as a basement or closet.

Your first thought may be a root cellar, but the humidity may vary too much, and don’t even think about storing it in a hot attic. Garages are usually a bad idea too because they are more likely to get insects and rats and their temps usually get too high for storing food.

Remember, your biggest enemies are heat, moisture, and insects.

More in-depth info on Food Storage with Mylar…

What is Mylar?

The trade name for Mylar is biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate. It was originally produced in the 1950s and is used for things like insulation, solar filters, blueprints, and even kites.

Why Mylar is Great for Long-Term Food Storage

As far as food storage goes, Mylar is amazing because it is:

Non-porous

Impermeable to gas

Reflects light

Flexible

Durable and puncture-resistant

Cheap

Easy to use

There are certainly other packing materials you can use for long-term food storage, but they tend to have a higher learning curve, are more expensive, or simply not as good as Mylar.

Mylar vs. Vacuum Sealing

Many people confuse Mylar bag storage with vacuum-sealing. They are completely different processes and get different results.

With vacuum-sealing, you are using a machine like a FoodSaver (Amazon Link) to suck air out of the bag while sealing it. While this does have benefits (like being cheap and fairly easy to do), it isn’t the best option for long-term food storage.

Vacuum-sealed bags:

Leak: The plastic bags used in vacuum sealing are porous. You can’t see the little holes but, over time, vacuum sealed bags will allow air to leak through.

Don’t remove all oxygen: Vacuum sealing will remove most air (which includes oxygen and nitrogen) from the package. However, some air will remain.

Allow light through: The bags used in vacuum-sealing are clear – which is great if you want to see what’s packaged inside, but not great if you want to prevent food degradation from light.

By comparison, Mylar bags will not leak. When used with oxygen absorbers, virtually all oxygen will be removed. Finally, Mylar has a foil layer which blocks 100% of light from coming through.

This doesn’t mean that vacuum-sealing isn’t good for food storage. Vacuum-sealing can increase shelf life of foods by 3-5 times. But, when it is long-term storage that you want (5+ years), then Mylar is the way to go.

What Foods Can You Store in Mylar Bags?

Any dry, low-fat food can be stored in Mylar bags. That means things like:

Dehydrated fruits and veggies

Flour

Grains

Pasta

Sugar

Dried beans

Powdered milk

Cereal

Spices

Remember the key words here are dry and low-fat. Any food which has moisture in it may start to go bad in the Mylar bag.

The same goes for foods which have fat in them – the fat will cause the foods to go rancid in around 3-12 months.

Not Suitable for Long-Term (5+ Years) Storage

These foods can still be stored in Mylar bags, but you’ll have to rotate through them about every 2-5 years (depending on the food).

Whole-wheat flour

Pearl barley

Brown rice

Brown sugar

Chips and greasy junk food

Granola

Dried meat/jerky

Nuts

Seeds

Fresh or wet foods

Dried eggs

Milled grains (other than oats)

Any dehydrated fruit or veggie which is not so dry that it snaps when bent!

Mylar Bags and Botulism Risk

If the Mylar bag is bulging (a sign that bacteria is growing inside), then don’t eat its contents!

Botulism is usually only talked about in regards to home canning. However, because the botulism bacteria grows in no/low oxygen environments, it could also grow in Mylar bags packaged with oxygen absorbers.

Botulism requires moisture of 35% to grow. However, to play it safe, virtually all food preservation guides will say that food must have 10% or less moisture to be packaged in airtight containers with oxygen absorbers. (1)

This shouldn’t scare you away from self-storing foods with oxygen absorbers. Just make sure you aren’t storing any moist foods in Mylar with oxygen absorbers for the long-term.

Some moist foods – such as dehydrated fruits — can still be stored in Mylar bags. They will be fine for the semi-long term (such as up to five years). Home dehydrated fruits and veggies just need to be so dry that they snap when bent.

The good news is that botulism toxin (which causes the disease) can be easily destroyed by boiling for 10 minutes. (2) Many of the foods which get stored for long-term need to be boiled anyway (dry beans, dry grains, etc.), so this in theory would kill any contaminants.

However, that doesn’t mean you should eat any foods which you suspect are contaminated with botulism. If the Mylar bag is bulging (a sign that bacteria is growing inside), then don’t eat its contents!

Shelf-Life of Foods in Mylar Bags

When trying to figure out how long foods will last in Mylar bags, you will see a lot of different ranges given. Here’s why it is so difficult to give an exact number of years that food will last.

1. Nutrients Break Down Long before the Food Goes Bad

Part of the reason for these varying shelf-life dates is because nutrients can break down. For example, the nutrients in rice may start to degrade after 10 years. However, the rice will still be safe to eat for approximately 30 years.

2. Mylar is a New Product

The process of checking how long a food will last is called shelf life testing. Big manufacturers are required to do shelf-life testing. However, aside for a few studies on canned foods, there haven’t been any tests on how long food can last.

Also, consider that Mylar is a relatively new product (it was made in the 1950s). We think some foods will last 30+ years in Mylar, but I don’t know of anyone who actually tested food that they packaged in the 1980s!

3. It Depends on Packaging Conditions

Mylar only protects food from degradation due to oxygen and light. Assuming that you used oxygen absorbers correctly and properly sealed the bag, you still have to worry about degradation from heat and moisture.

According to the USDA, each 10.08 degree F increase in temperature will half the storage life of seeds. This applies to other foods too. So, if you are keeping your Mylar bags in a cool area (such as a root cellar), they will last longer than if stored in a hot area (such as your garage).

With these factors in mind, here is what you can reasonably expect in terms of shelf-life for foods in Mylar bags.

Food Type Shelf-Life (in sealed Mylar bag with oxygen absorbers) Hard Whole Grains (Dry corn, buckwheat, hard red wheat, soft white wheat, kamut, durum wheat, spelt) 10+ years Soft Whole Grains (Oats, quinoa, rye, barley) 8+ years Professionally-Dehydrated Vegetables 10-20 years Professionally-Dehydrated Fruits* 10-15 years Home-Dehydrated Fruits and Veggies* 2-5 years Freeze-Dried Fruits and Vegetables 25 years Legumes (Beans, lentils, chickpeas, split peas) 25+ years White Rice 10-30 years Brown Rice 2-5 years White Flour 10-15 years Whole-Wheat Flour 10 years Corn Meal 5-10 years Potato Flakes 30 years Pasta 20-30 years Dry Non-Fat Milk 15 years Cheese Powder 10-15 years Powdered Eggs 5-10 years Nuts ** 1-5 years Granola 1 year Yeast 3-5 years TVP 10-15 years Baking Soda, Baking Powder 30 years Sugar Indefinitely Honey Indefinitely Salt Indefinitely

(Sources: 4, 5)

*Dehydrated Fruits and Vegetables in Mylar Bags

Most dehydrated fruits and veggies usually aren’t suitable for long-term storage. They simply contain too much moisture.

Many people report that their dehydrated fruits/veggies last much longer than 5 years. However, it’s important that they have very low moisture (10% or less) before storage. That means the fruit/veggie will snap when bent.

Some people also recommend using a desiccant to remove moisture from the dehydrated fruits/veggies before packaging. More on this later.

**Nuts and Seeds in Mylar Bags

Putting nuts and seeds in Mylar bags will extend their shelf life. However, because they contain so much oil, they will start to go rancid.

Most people put the shelf life of nuts/seeds in Mylar at about 2 years. However, some nuts and seeds will last longer than this even outside of a Mylar bag. The key is keeping the temperature low.

Since nuts are so expensive, I wouldn’t want to risk having an entire batch get destroyed. Only package as much as you actually eat and rotate through them regularly!

Removing Oxygen

Mylar bags only work for long-term food storage if the oxygen has been removed from the bags. To do this, you need to use oxygen absorbers.

Oxygen absorbers are little packages containing iron. When you put the oxygen absorber (OA) into an airtight container, the oxygen molecules “stick” to the iron. OAs can reduce the amount of oxygen in a container to less than 0.01%. (6)

Keep in mind that air is about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and about 1% other gases. Oxygen absorbers only remove the oxygen. The nitrogen will remain, thus you often won’t get a vacuum seal. However, nitrogen does not cause food to spoil.

Note that not all foods are oxygen sensitive. For example, whole grains, peas, and beans aren’t too sensitive to oxygen. If you plan on using the foods within 5 years, there won’t be too much difference in freshness regardless of whether you use an OA or not.

However, oxygen absorbers do protect against pests and have other benefits. Since OAs are pretty cheap, it is smart to use them anyway.

Benefits to Using Oxygen Absorbers:

Keeps food from degrading due to oxidation

Prevent mold and bacteria from growing on the food (mold and most bacteria require oxygen to grow)

Preserve flavor

Prevent vitamins from being destroyed by oxidation

Kill pests (tiny pest eggs which are invisible to the eye may be on your food; without oxygen, they cannot hatch)

Foods which Should NOT Be Stored with Oxygen Absorbers

Salt: Will become rock hard if stored with an OA

Sugar: Also will become rock hard; brown sugar also contains too much moisture for storage with OAs

Baking soda/baking powder: These may explode when stored with OAs

Wet foods: Foods with a moisture of 35% or more can grow botulism in airless environments. To play it safe, it is recommended that foods stored with OAs have 10% or less moisture.

Oxygen Absorbers vs. Gas Purging/Nitrogen Flushing

I’ve recently come across many guides and videos about gas purging (aka nitrogen flushing) Mylar bags. The basic idea is that you use a special machine to force nitrogen gas into the package. The nitrogen flushes out any oxygen. Then you seal the package so only nitrogen remains.

Nitrogen flushing is used by some food manufacturers to keep their greasy foods (such as chips) fresh for a long time. That’s why bags of chips are puffy when you get them.

However, unless you have access to professional equipment, nitrogen flushing is very difficult to do! You have to displace all of the oxygen and make sure none gets back into the bag before you seal it.

Packaging with oxygen absorbers is much easier, and leaves just nitrogen in the packaging. Don’t mess with what works – use oxygen absorbers for your home food storage and leave nitrogen flushing to the experts. (7, 8, 9)

How Many Oxygen Absorbers To Use?

Here is where things can get confusing: For food storage to be successful, you need to have enough OAs to absorb all of the oxygen in the Mylar bags.

Oxygen is in the Mylar bag in two ways:

In the space between the food

Inside the actual food

To figure out the correct amount of OAs you can do some tricky math or just use our handy graphic and table instead. (I have included the math in a dropdown for those who are interested)

Oxygen Absorbers – The Math

As Fresh Pack points out, there can be a surprising amount of oxygen within the actual food. For example, dry foods like TVP contain a lot of air inside of them. The same goes with dry beans.

They also point out that there is mistaken information about how density affects air amount. The idea that “items with small particles (like flour) are ‘dense’ and have less air volume” is FALSE. Here is why:

“A pool filled with marbles will have the same interstitial air volume as one filled with basketballs. Yes, the basketballs will have much larger pockets of air, but there are far fewer of them. Think of a checkerboard with just 2 large black squares and 2 large white squares… ½ of it’s area is black and ½ white. What if it had 100 small black squares and 100 small white ones? 1000? Even with tiny squares it is still ½ black and ½ white as long as the squares are all a uniform size.

What does matter is particle size distribution, or in other words, whether you have particles that are all a uniform size or if you have a lot of particles of different sizes. If you have a pool filled with basketballs AND marbles, the marbles can fill in all the large pockets of air. So, products with uniform particle sizes will have more interstitial air than products with a greater distribution of particle sizes.”

Calculating How Much Air is in the Container

To figure out how much air will remain between the food spaces in a filled Mylar bag, you can do this test:

Put 1 cup of product in a large measuring cup.

Add 2 cups of water.

See how many cups you get total (the amount won’t be 3 cups because the water is filling in the spaces between the product).

Calculate: 3 cups – (how many cups total you got)

The answer is how much of the product was air. For example, let’s say that you got 2.5 cups total: 3 cups – 2.5 = 0.5 cups. Since 0.5 = 50%, that means 50% of the product was air.

With this information, you can do a fairly exact calculation of how many oxygen absorbers you need. This requires some more math:

Figure out how much air your Mylar bag holds. For example, a 1 gallon Mylar bag holds 3785 cubic centimeters (cc’s).

Determine how much air will be left in the bag once filled by product. For example, if you determined that 50% of the product was air, then you’d have 1893cc of air space.

Only about 21% of air is actually comprised of oxygen (the rest is mostly nitrogen). So, calculate 21% of your air space. For example: 0.21x1893cc= 398cc.

*Some products like beans contain a lot of air inside of them. For the water test to work, you have to let them sit for at least 6 hours so they absorb the water. Note also that beans require a lot more oxygen absorbers than typically shown in charts.

Top Tip

It is always best to play it safe – use more oxygen absorbers than you think you need! Using extra oxygen absorbers won’t impact the food. OAs are cheap, better to spend an extra 25 cents on an additional oxygen absorber than throw away 5 gallons of food when it’s needed most.

Food Type 1 quart 1 gallon 5 gallon Beans, lentils, split peas 125-150cc 500-600cc 2500-3000cc Rice 100cc 400cc 2000cc Flour 100cc 400cc 2000cc Instant mixes and powders 100cc 400cc 2000cc Coffee beans 100cc 400cc 2000cc Pasta 125cc 625cc 2500cc Cereal 125cc 625cc 2500cc Instant potatoes 125cc 625cc 2500cc Whole grains (barley, corn, wheat, oats) 125cc 625cc 2500cc

How to Save Unused Oxygen Absorbers

The moment you take oxygen absorbers out of the package, they will start to absorb oxygen. You must work quickly!

The moment you take oxygen absorbers out of the package, they will start to absorb oxygen. After around 2-4 hours, they’ll have absorbed their maximum capacity of oxygen.

It is important that you have a plan on what to do with any unused oxygen absorbers before you begin working.

Ideally, you will reseal oxygen absorbers in the packaging they came in. Then you vacuum seal them.

If this isn’t an option, you can also store unused oxygen absorbers in a mason jar. Fill up any extra space in the jar with marbles (or something similar). The less air that is in the jars, the less air the unused OAs will absorb. Be sure to seal the jar tightly!

How to Tell If Your Oxygen Absorbers Are Still Good

If you buy OAs from a reputable company, they should be good. We like the supplier DiscountMylarBags, they are the cheapest around and provide good quality products. They also sell on Amazon if you prefer to shop there)

They will arrive in a vacuum-sealed package. Most oxygen absorbers have a “margin for error” added into their abilities (DiscountMylarBags use ShieldPro absorbers they absorb 200 to 300% of their rating). So, they will actually absorb more than specified. This is so you can have a good 10-20 minutes to work with the OAs and not have that air exposure count against you.

Here’s how you can check:

They arrive in a vacuum-sealed package.

The oxygen indicator is pink or red and not blue.

The packets feel soft and not crunchy.

Sealing Mylar Bags

The trickiest part of using Mylar bags for long-term food storage is sealing them. They must be sealed with heat in order to create an air-tight seal. Even the Mylar bags with zip seals still need to be heat sealed (the zip is just there for convenience).

According to Top Mylar, you need a temperature of around 375-425 degrees F to get a good seal. Thicker Mylar bags will require a higher temperature.

There are 4 main ways that you can seal a Mylar bag:

1. Clamshell Heat Sealer

This is by far the easiest way to seal a Mylar bag. They are great because they are hand-held. They also squeeze, which helps grip the bag.

It makes it very easy to close the last 2 inches of the Mylar bag after you’ve squeezed out the air.

This clamshell sealer is a bit pricey, but it is very easy to use.

It has two heat settings. The higher one is 410F, which is perfect for sealing Mylar bags.

2. Impulse Sealer

I personally wouldn’t recommend impulse sealers. Not only are they expensive, but they are designed to seal an entire bag at once.

Ideally, you should seal most of the Mylar bag, push the air out, and then seal the last 2 inches. This takes some practice with an impulse sealer.

There are some affordable impulse sealers available which get good reviews. For example, this one by Metronic is well liked and doesn’t cost much.

3. Hair-Straightening Iron

While I personally don’t have experience using one of these for sealing Mylar bags, it seems like it would be better than a normal iron. You’d be able to keep the bag vertical so bits of produc

t don’t get into the seal area.

Just make sure you get a hair-straightening iron with adjustable heat settings. This one, for example, gets up to 450 degrees F at the highest setting.

4. Home Iron

If you’d rather not buy a special product for sealing your Mylar bags, a home iron will work. You’ll need to have a piece of wood to put the Mylar bag against while sealing.

Also be warned that, since you’ll be sealing the bag as it lies horizontally (as opposed to being able to keep it vertical), you might end up with bits of product shifting into the area you are trying to seal.

It’s not impossible to do. However, it can be a bit frustrating – especially when you are trying to work fast because of the oxygen absorbers!

Step-By-Step Instructions

Materials Checklist

Food that you will be storing

Mylar bags

Oxygen absorbers

Bucket or container (that you will be putting the Mylar bags into)

Sealer (clamshell sealer, iron, hair straightening iron)

Work gloves

A piece of wood with a towel wrapped around it (to serve as an ironing board if using an iron for sealing)

Scoop or funnel

Permanent marker for labeling

Mason jar (or another way to store unused oxygen absorbers)

Step 1: Preparation

It is really important that you get everything set up in an assembly line. You can take your time filling up the Mylar bags. But, once you open those oxygen absorbers, you need to seal them quickly!

Open Mylar bags and put each in a bucket/container

Line up the containers

Make sure your sealer has a cord long enough to reach the buckets

*If you are going to put lots of smaller Mylar bags into one bucket, then you obviously won’t be propping up one bag per storage container. It’s really helpful to have the bags propped up during the process. Consider rigging a shelf system for holding the bags, or bust out all of your Tupperware to use as holding trays for the open Mylar bags.

Step 2: Loading the Food

Using a scoop or a funnel, fill up the Mylar bags with food. You’ll need to give the bags a good shake to ensure the food particles are settled (which means more food per bag and less air).

Fill the bags to about 4-5 inches from the top. Make sure you don’t overfill the bag or it will be very difficult to seal.

Label the bags and container with the contents plus the date.

Tips

If you are using 7.5mil Mylar bags, wear gloves! The bags are sharp and can easily slice your fingers!

To protect the label from rubbing off, put a strip of clear packing tape over it.

Step 3: Partially Seal Bags

Let your sealer heat up. Irons and hair-straightening irons need to be on the highest setting. Seal all but the last 2 inches of the Mylar bag. Make sure there aren’t any little pieces of food in the seal.

It is also smart to wear gloves during sealing. The sealer can make the Mylar bag get very hot and burn your fingers!

If Using an Iron: The easiest way to seal with an iron is to put your 2×4 over the rim of the 5-gallon bucket. This will make an ironing board so you can seal the bag without having to lift it out or turn it horizontal. Once you’ve sealed one bag, then just move the board to another bucket. You’ll definitely want help – one person moves the board and the other does the sealing. Tip: Make sure you seal as close to the top of the bag as possible. That way you’ll have room to reseal the bag again.

Step 4: Add Oxygen Absorbers

It takes about 2-4 hours for an oxygen absorber to do its job. However, you should really try to get your bags sealed as quickly as possible (within 10 minutes, 20 tops). Otherwise, you risk the OA absorbing too much outside air and not being able to absorb all the oxygen in your Mylar bag. Tip: Before you open your oxygen absorbers, mark each bag with how many OAs the bag needs. This will speed up the process.

Step 5: Fully Seal the Bag

As soon as you’ve added oxygen absorbers, you need to quickly seal the bag. Press the bags to get out as much air as you can. Then seal the remaining 2 inches.

Step 6: Checking the Seal

Wait at least one day. Then go and check on your Mylar bags. Look at the seal and see if you can squeeze any air through them.

When oxygen absorbers have done their job, the bag may look “sucked up” or vacuum-sealed. However, since so much of air is actually nitrogen, it is possible for the bag to be properly sealed but not sucked down.

Step 7: Seal Buckets or Containers

Once you are sure that the seal is good, you can close up your buckets/containers and put them for long-term storage.

Ideally, you will store them in a cool place which is accessible during an emergency (for example, you wouldn’t want all your emergency food in the basement during a flood!).

Which Mylar Bags to Use?

Aside from the brand, there are a few key considerations when choosing which Mylar bags to use: size, thickness, and whether you want zip tops.

Size

Mylar bags come in various sizes, typically ranging from 1 pint to 6 gallons. To give you an idea, a 1-gallon Mylar bag will hold about 6-7lbs of rice. A 5-gallon Mylar bag will hold about 33lbs of rice.

That’s a lot of rice!

If you are only doing long-term food storage for your family, you probably don’t need anything larger than 1 gallon Mylar bags.

Yes, you will need more food than this – but it is probably smarter to store the food in smaller bags.

Imagine that a disaster has occurred. If you opened up a 5 gallon bag of rice, there is no way you could eat it all before the food got destroyed (by water, rodents, etc.).

Also consider how you’d use the food. Eating 6lbs worth of rice might be feasible, but 6lbs of dehydrated onions? You’d be much better off putting the dehydrated onions in a smaller bag.

The downside, of course, is that it takes more work to store food in smaller bags. You’ll also have to do a lot more planning to figure out how you’ll divide up the food.

How Much Food Will Fit in a Mylar Bag?

Food Type 1 quart 1 gallon Rice 5-7.3lbs 25-37lbs Whole Grain White Wheat 5-7.5lbs 25-38lbs Flour 5lbs 25-33lbs Cornmeal 5-6lbs 33lbs Beans (black, pinto, white, etc.) 5-7lbs 25-40lbs Lentils 7lbs 35-36lbs Macaroni 4lbs 20-21lbs Potato Flakes 2.5lbs 12-13lbs Diced Dried Carrots 3.3lbs 16-17lbs Dry Milk 5-6lbs 29-30lbs Powdered Eggs 4.2lbs 20-21lbs

10, 11,

*How much food you can fit in a Mylar bag depends on a lot of factors.

How big the food you are trying to store is (for example, some beans are smaller than others).

How well you shake the food to pack it down and how high you fill the bag. It’s easier to seal a bag which isn’t completely full.

You’ll be able to fit more food in thinner Mylar bags because they are more flexible.

Thickness

Mylar bags come in various thicknesses, with 4.3mil and 7.5mil being the most popular. The 7.5mil bags will hold up against damage better. However, they aren’t as flexible.

Because the thick bags are so much stiffer, you probably won’t be able to get as much food in them as a thinner bag.

Also note that the 7.5mil bags are sharp! You should wear gloves when working with them so you don’t slice your fingers.

Mylar Bags with Zip Tops

There are some Mylar bags which have zip tops. The zip top does NOT replace heat sealing. However, it is great for convenience.

During the sealing process, you can first squeeze the air out and zip lock it before heat sealing. It prevents little pieces of product from getting into the seal.

Once the bag is open, the zip is also great for closing the bag while you use the contents.

We will be adding more articles to help motivate people to be prepared.

#food storage #mylar #prepping #rice #Uncategorized

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lowmaticnews · 6 years

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How to Mount (and Care for) a Staghorn Fern

Staghorn Ferns are one of the coolest most fascinating plants to use in home decor. They are great planted in a planter, but the really cool thing is that they can also be mounted on a board and hung on your wall, just like a living picture! Today we’re going to talk all about how to mount and care for Staghorn Ferns.

Staghorn Fern 101

Staghorn Ferns are a species called Epiphyte which means that they don’t need soil to grow, the reason that you can hang them on the wall. They are in the same family as airplants, and in the wild find a host, that they attach their roots to and pull all of their nutrients in through their fronds.

Staghorn Ferns have 2 different types of leaves (or fronds).

The first type is the “antler” leaf, they are long with uneven tips and vary in size. They grow from the center of the plant and jut out in every direction. The second type of leaf is the shield frond. These flat circular leaves grow against the base of the plant. When they sprout, and until they reach full size they are green and veiny, once they are fully grown, they turn brown and papery. DO NOT REMOVE THE BROWN LEAVES!! These leaves form a protective shield over the root ball and help it stay anchored in place.

The roots on the Staghorn Fern are fairly minimal (one of the reasons you can mount them!) They need a good amount of drainage so that they don’t get root rot.

Watering

Watering a mounted Staghorn Fern is a little bit of a commitment, because they absorb water through their fronds, they love a good misting. The root ball also needs to be soaked every 1-2 weeks. Keep reading, I’ve got a whole step by step tutorial at the end of this post!

Light

Staghorn Ferns, love bright indirect sunlight. Find the brightest room in your house without direct light and that is where they will thrive.

Are you ready to learn how to mount them?! Let’s get started with our step by step tutorial.

How To Mount Staghorn Ferns

Mounting Staghorn Ferns should be done on rot resistant wood like cedar. Because of the aggressive way that they are watered, and the fact that they are so closely connected to the wood, you need something that can last long term.

You’ll need:

Cedar board

Fishing Line

Stainless Steel Screws

Heavy Duty Picture Hanger

Sphagnum Moss (i.e. Sheet Moss) You can find this in the indoor garden section at Home Depot.

Make your shield

Fold a piece of paper in 1/2, making sure that when it’s unfolded, it fits onto your cedar board.

Draw a shield shape

Cut it out and trace it onto your cedar board.

Cut out your shape with a jigsaw

The edges got a light sanding and they were ready to go!

Start by mounting a heavy duty picture hanger on the back, the large plants can get pretty heavy when they are wet.

To Divide or Not To Divide, That is the Question

Staghorn ferns have rhizomes (remember we talked about those here?) which means that there are different growth points that can be divided. It is really easy to tell where to divide these plants because of the shield leaves. That being said, the roots are really dense. They’re teeny in size but mighty in numbers. You want to use a knife to gently divide them.

You don’t need to divide the plants to mount them though. If you want a larger statement piece, you can simply remove the plant from the pot and get rid of the excess dirt.

Determining Your Root Ball Size

When you’ve successfully divided and conquered, loosen the roots and remove a good amount of the dirt.

Your root ball should be about the size of a fist for smaller plants, and continue larger as the size of the stag increases. You can tell the general size based on the shield leaves, make your ball about the size of the shield leaves width.

Mounting Your Staghorn

Now that we have our mount ready, and our plant ready, we’re going to marry the two in complete happiness!

Step #1: Determine Your Screw Placement

Lay your fern on the mount and see the general space it takes up. Mark 4 spots just inside the root ball borders, this is where your screws are going to go

Pro Tip! If you screw them in at an angle its easier to wrap your fishing line around.

Step #2: Place a small amount of moss onto your board

When you are mounting the plant you want to do it so that the dried shield leaves are at the top, but not directly against the board (or else the plant will shoot straight up and not up and out. Especially the little guys.)

Step #3: Secure Your Root Ball On Top of the Moss

Put your root ball on top of the moss, and lightly secure it to the board using fishing line. (I used 12 lb test line and probably wouldn’t recommend anything thinner) When I say lightly I mean not too tight and across the root ball just a few times. This is just making it easier when you put the moss on top.

Step #4: Add More Moss

Spread a not too thick/not too thin layer of sheet moss over the root ball and up around the back of the plant at the top. You don’t want to see the dirt at all.

Step #5: Secure Everything With Fishing Line

Wrap the fishing line really thoroughly over the root ball, connecting the screws in all directions. Make sure that you aren’t getting too close to the living shield leaves, and don’t go over the top of the dried ones, just gently lift them and go underneath. If you go over the top of the dried leaves, the fishing line will cut through them.

Step #6 Finish It Off

Tuck a few bits of moss over the screws to hide them. Trim your fishing line and you are done!!

How To Water A Mounted Staghorn Fern

To water your fern, fill up a sink or tub with water and submerge the plant (I usually stick it in up to the moss)

How about a pool party? Everybody in!

When the moss is completely soaked through, drain the water and place them sort of upright to let all the excess water drain off.

Staghorn Ferns need constant moisture, so I do this about once a week and mist the moss with a squirt bottle almost every day.

Do you want to see something cool? I decided to remount the plant that came mounted (the board was ick looking) This is what the backside of the ferns look like after they’ve been attached to a host for a while.

Don’t they totally look like antlers?! I wish you could tell in these pictures how big they are.

See you tomorrow!

The post How to Mount (and Care for) a Staghorn Fern appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

How to Mount (and Care for) a Staghorn Fern published first on https://landscapingmates.blogspot.com

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smokeandpistons · 7 years

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Maple Flooring: Pros & Cons, Reviews and Pricing

Learn about Maple hardwood flooring, including engineered and laminate Maple flooring, colors, stains, hardness, grades and cost.

In this installment of our hardwood species articles, we’re going to have an in-depth look at the beautiful options available in maple hardwood flooring. With its delicate grain and creamy-blonde tones, maple has always been a strong favorite for home flooring in the USA, and is becoming an even more popular option in recent years with a swing towards Scandinavian and Mid-Century Modern inspired interior design – both styles that look to optimize natural light paired with clean, uncluttered décor. So if that’s a style you’re interested in, then maple flooring is a good hardwood option – however, there are other points to consider to ensure that maple floors are the ideal choice for your space.

See our other Hardwood Species posts including: Walnut flooring and Acacia Flooring

Types of Maple

If you’re looking to buy maple, then be aware that there are in fact two broad terms used when describing maple hardwood: hard maple and soft maple.

Hard Maple is used to describe two types of maple tree: Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) and the Black Maple (Acer nigrum). Both of these maple trees are used for making maple hardwood flooring and many wood furniture products. The Sugar Maple is, of course, also where we get all our delicious maple syrup!

Soft Maple is used to describe four other types of maple trees: Silver maple (Acer saccharinum), Red maple (Acer rebrum), Boxelder (Acer negundo) and Bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum). This kind of maple, as the name suggest, is not as hard or as strong, so it is not used for flooring, but is ideal for wood-worked décor items, furniture veneers, crates and pallets.

Maple Buying Options

As with most other hardwood flooring, there are different maple floor options available on the market:

Solid Maple flooring is usually 3/4” thick, but comes in a large variety of widths and lengths depending on the manufacturer. Different brands offer solid maple in either pre-finished and unfinished states. Pre-finished hardwood means that the planks have been treated already with a stain or sealant, and with some kind of textured surface.

Engineered Maple flooring tends to come in much thinner thicknesses, from as little as 1/4” thick. Again widths, length and finishes vary depending on the manufacturer. However as with engineered hardwoods generally, there is usually a much larger range of color finishes than with solid hardwood.

Laminate Maple flooring is another option – especially if you have a tight budget. Plank widths in laminate flooring tend to be the more standard 5”, but the range of colors and styles on offer tends to be quite wide.

A Note About Maple Flooring Grades

Certain manufacturers, particularly for solid hardwood flooring, will carry different grades of maple. Grades refers to the quality of the wood , which is usually qualified by how it looks. Grade 1 maple planks have a uniform color with very few – or no – visible knots; grade 2 maple has a bit more “real wood” character with some knots and more variety in color tones; grade 3 maple flooring has a much knottier, rustic aspect. Grade 1 is the most expensive and grade 3 is the best to maximize your budget.

You can add an extra level of interest to subtle Maple flooring by laying short planks in a herringbone parquet pattern.

Maple Flooring Colors, Stains and Textures

In my opinion, a classic American maple hardwood floor is best left in its natural state, with a clear sealant finish to allow the pretty grain and buttery tones to shine through.

However, maple hardwood is also porous enough to accept stains fairly well, so you can in fact change the color to suit your tastes, from deeper tawny brown tones to sleek grays. Having said that, DIY maple floor staining can be tricky, and often best left to the pros. Luckily, many brands already offer pre-stained maple hardwood planks, so you don’t really need to go down the DIY staining route, unless you really have a very unique or custom-blend color in mind.

Also bear in mind that there are many different texture finishes on offer including hand scraped/ distressed, wire brushed, and smooth, each giving a different feel to compliment your interior design.

Check out our Hardwood Flooring Types post for an in-depth look at hardwood options

Will Maple Flooring Turn Yellow?

This is a tough question to give a straight answer to, because it depends on several factors. It is true that natural light tones woods, like maple and oak, can turn a shade of amber with age. This is unavoidable as it is partly down to the oxidation of the natural oils in the wood. However, the change of patina can be exacerbated by oil-based polyurethane sealants reacting to sunlight. Note that oil-based sealants already give light colored wood a yellowy tone from the first application.

The solution is to opt for a water-based polyurethane finish in the first instance, which will simply enhance the natural beauty of your maple flooring without adding a yellow tint. If you have installed maple flooring that has already been pre-finished with an oil-based sealant then you should consider adding blinds, gauzes or tinted glass to your windows to avoid too much harsh, direct sunlight discoloring your floor over time.

Maple Hardness and Durability

Maple flooring has a Jenka hardness ranking of 1450 which is a good bit harder than oak flooring, the industry standard for hardwood. This means that maple flooring is quite hard, less prone to dents and is very durable (it’s a popular choice for bowling alleys for this very reason). However, if maple flooring isn’t coated in a strong polyurethane finish it will scratch – and its smooth grain makes the scratches seem more visible.

Overall maple is a sound flooring choice for most active households; nevertheless, we advise that you ensure your maple floors are properly sealed and that you invest in area rugs and runners for high traffic areas such as hallways to keep your flooring at its best.

Here the Maple floor has been pre-stained an attractive, on-trend gray-brown tone.

Maple Flooring Costs and Brands

If you’re opting for maple, then there’s good news: there are a lot of great brands to choose from, which also means that you’ll likely find a maple floor to match your budget. On the other hand, there is such a thing as too much choice! Narrowing things down to type of construction, texture finish and color finish will make your search a lot easier! Here are some of the best brands to look out for:

Solid Maple flooring : top brands include Bruce, Armstrong, Mohawk, Somerset and BuildDirect (who have their own in-house brands such as Jasper and Walking Horse but also carry other brands too). Prices for solid maple can be a little higher than for engineered – expect to pay from around $3 to $10 per square foot.

Engineered Maple flooring : a good deal of choice here from brands such as Somerset, Mohawk, BuildDirect , Armstrong, Mannington and Kährs. Prices for engineered maple are a little lower than solid; expect to pay between $2.50 to $9 per square foot depending on the finish.

Laminate Maple flooring : Pergo are of course the kings of laminate, and have some nice maple ones in their catalog, but also have a look at Mannington, BuildDirect, Home Decorators at the Home Depot, and Shaw Floors for a wider variety of maple laminate floors. Laminate is the budget-friendly option with prices ranging from $1 to $5 per square foot.

Here the Maple flooring has been whitewashed to blend into the overall décor scheme.

Maple Flooring Pros and Cons

Maple Flooring Advantages

One of the biggest advantages for maple is that it is widely available and there is plenty of choice; plus, because it is sourced locally and responsibly in the USA, it is better for the environment than exotic hardwoods.

As mentioned above, maple is widely available and very affordable ; different grades and types of maple are available to suit most budgets.

Maple has a fine grain that gives each plank a fairly uniform look; maple floors therefore offer a clean backdrop that will work for most interior designs. This makes it a good option if you like to change your décor often; or as an investment to appeal to a wide audience.

The natural light tone of maple is perfect for Scandi-inspired, contemporary, clean and airy décor – it’s a very popular choice for today’s home owner.

Maple is relatively high on the hardness scale, making it less prone to denting and more durable.

As with most hardwood floors, maple flooring that has been properly finished is easy to keep clean and maintain.

Maple Flooring Disadvantages

As with many hardwoods, maple floors can react badly to environments with fluctuating humidity levels, swelling and compacting as the levels shift. This sometimes results in warping and cracks. We recommend using engineered maple flooring in areas prone to damp – such as basements and bathrooms – because engineered hardwoods are more stable and better suited to areas with high humidity. You can also counter severe humidity by investing in a dehumidifier.

Maple does scratch easily – but you can minimize this with a good protective sealant, and the addition of strategically placed areas rugs.

Whilst you can stain maple, it can turn out a bit patchy. It’s a job that is best left to professionals, or you can opt for pre-stained planks.

Maple flooring will turn a deeper shade over time, and if it is finished with oil-based polyurethane then it can react badly to direct sunlight and yellow. Using water-based sealants and taking precautions against sunlight damage can help minimize this.

Maple is not the right choice for you if you want a flooring with an interesting grain – the fine grain in maple wood gives a much more uniform, subtle look.

Final Maple Flooring Points to Consider

American maple hardwood flooring is a classic, and is a solid investment as it has great longevity – not just in actual terms because of its durability – but because it is a popular choice that is unlikely to go out of fashion.

But as with all hardwood flooring, your investment is only as good as the installation. Make sure that you have a good subfloor and underlayment before installing your maple planks, and do the research to find a trustworthy and experienced installation team .

To keep your maple flooring at its best, you should plan for regular refinishing (every 3 to 5 years for solid maple flooring); if you’re opting for engineered maple flooring then choose one that has the thickest wear layer which will allow you at least one decent refinishing during its lifetime.

And finally – a no brainer really – as with any large investment, check that your manufacturer offers a good, long and comprehensive warranty!

A true American classic – Maple in its natural state is still ideal for today’s modern homes.

The article or page: Maple Flooring: Pros & Cons, Reviews and Pricing first appeared on the Home Flooring Pros website. Please update your links and bookmarks accordingly.

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