This book captures today's hottest design trend for the home - textures, design, colors, and craftsmanship that evoke European ideals of a bygone era. Explore kitchens and baths rich in the fine details that characterize Provencal, Tuscan, and English country designs. Massive range hoods and brick hearths, faux finishes, rich natural stone, and tile provide polish and posh to up-to-the-minute home environments. Enjoy hand-carved wood, wrought-iron, and fine crystal chandeliers in spaces filled with the latest appliances and an abundance of workspace. The atmosphere is timeless, and these designs are certain to endure. This is an indispensable design guide for professional designers and discerning homeowners.

You deserve a home that meets your specific needs and desires! If you find yourself dreaming of the perfect patio, the ideal kitchen, and inviting rooms where you love to spend time, it might just be time to start building! With Building Your Custom Home For Dummies, you won't have to feel intimidated as you plan, finance, and oversee construction on your new oasis. You'll learn what it takes to build a custom home, including which pros to call and when. This updated edition also covers the latest in real estate and home construction trends, including smart homes, green building, and banking options. It's more important than ever to live in a home that's truly how you want it, truly your own. Now is the perfect time to get started--if you're still in the dreaming stage, this book will help you identify your style and articulate your vision. If you're further along in the process, you'll benefit from checklists and pointers on reviewing architects' plans, evaluating contractor bids, flipping the home you build, and more. The latest guidance on building a beautiful home on any budget New ideas for high-tech homes with low carbon footprints Step-by-step instructions for securing financing, hiring architects, and finding reliable contractors Advice on how to invest your home-building budget wisely and plan for the future Building Your Custom Home For Dummies takes you from finding the perfect homesite through laying the foundation to framing and finishing--in the friendly Dummies style you can trust.

Written by a qualified Building Control Officer with over thirty years' experience in the industry, the book talks you through the entire home-extension process from conception to decorating. It offers advice on substructure, superstructure, internal and external work, as well as site inspection, drainage and restrictive covenants. There is also a handy section on finance, insurance and warranty schemes. Common problems are helpfully identified, enabling you to begin building with confidence.Save time and stress by using the included standard specification for a single storey extension, new to this fourth edition.

Aphra Behn is usually described as England's first professional woman writer, but her contemporary Hannah Woolley (Wooley or Wolley) ran her close, though recipes not bodice-rippers were her speciality (mixed with some judicious teaching, housekeeping and medical marketing). It seems amazing, therefore, that apart from a slight compendium, nothing of hers is available today - when women's studies have so strong a following. Her output is confusing and disputed, even the portrait in this second edition of her book is not of her but one Sarah Gilly, but all is made clearer by the long introduction by Caterina Albano, who has studied women's domestic literature for this period, and who urged us to produce this new, unabridged setting of the book (it is not a facsimile). The Companion is a conduct- as well as cookery-book (the recipes are mainly derived from her earlier works). It also contains an autobiography of the author. In truth it is a rank, but captivating, miscellany, including recipes, medical prescriptions, advice to servants and governesses, hints on upbringing, cosmetics and education, rules of social comportment and conduct, instructions and model letters for correspondence (mainly for young ladies), and 'Pleasant Discourses and Witty Dialogues' between gentlemen and ladies. Great bedtime reading. The editor puts it all in long perspective.

Here is the ultimate portfolio featuring some of the most advanced interlocking concrete paver technology available today. Over 300 full color images showcase innovative paver shapes, textures, colors, and finishes, as well as a wide variety of classic pavers in a stunning collection of residential and commercial projects. Homeowners, landscape architects, and builders should not be without this important resource, which inspires with hundreds of ideas for patios, pool skirts, driveways, shopping centers, parking lots, boulevards, and much more.

When Joan Caraganis Jakobson's daughter became engaged, she realized there was so much she wanted to tell her before she left. But time was running out. Joan started writing out the hard-earned lessons she had learned over the years. Filled with wonderfully sassy advice, AND ONE MORE THING...gives daughters information they'll really use - like what to do when seated next to a boring person at a dinner party, how to properly arrange flowers, and how to tell a real designer bag from a fake one. As Joan's daughter says, Joan may look like a minivan-driving soccer mom with a twin set and pearls, but this is a woman full of surprises. And so is the book. Joan tells women: "for God's sake talk about politics and sex at dinner parties (what else is more entertaining?)" At the end of the book there are pages for mothers to personalize with their own advice to their daughters.

Tiny homes are all the rage these days, especially among young people new to the housing market, for people wanting a small dwelling as a second home or as a studio, and among singles and empty nesters. As millions are experiencing the "magic" of tidying up and reducing the number of their possessions, many are also seeing the value of living with less space, while environmentalists are also valuing a smaller carbon footprint. How to Build Your Own Tiny House is a comprehensive guide to the actual construction process, building codes, and regulations, not another pretty picture book about tiny houses. Offers anyone with basic carpentry skills step-by-step instructions to successfully build a tiny house (250 to 1,000 square feet.) The book covers everything from forming a bill of materials to the basics of frame construction; it details wiring and plumbing a tiny home, outlines construction codes for small buildings and gives pointers as to where local regulations may apply, and also includes a section on building appropriately sized furniture for a tiny home. Includes a selection of tiny home designs, each of which can be expanded as needs change.

Pens and pencils made at the wood lathe are becoming increasingly popular. These unique writing instruments are fantastic sellers at art and craft shows, cherished treasures for family, and fabulous gifts. Kits to make a variety of styles are widely available, but the techniques to make a pen which works well and looks spectacular are harder to find. This book fills the need with 273 step-by-step color photos and helpful text. Skilled wood turner Dick Sing provides detailed instructions and a wealth of tips and techniques for twelve different styles of pens. Advice on selection of materials, set-up, turning, and finishing techniques, and tips for final assembly of the pens make this book the ultimate reference for the field.

This comprehensive and classic text, originally published in the early 1900's, was written to assist farmers and mechanics instructors, and was the first book on the subject to deal exclusively with the operation, care, and repair of farm machines. Divided into six distinctive sections ranging from the preparation of the seed bed to harvesting, The Operation, Care, and Repair of Farm Machinery offers detailed information and instructions on how to use and care for dozens of different machines, including: Plows Harrows Tillers Spreaders Cultivators Sowers Diggers Harvesters Pickers Presses Mowers Binders Planters Pulverizers Loaders Drills Listers Rotary hoes

Few things capture the charm of Christmas like the old-world Santa Claus. You might also know him as St. Nicholas or Father Christmas. What better way to say "Merry Christmas" to a friend or loved one than with one of these beautiful Santas you carved yourself. It is a timeless Christmas decoration that will be cherished for many years to come. Tom Wolfe guides the carver step-by-step through the carving, painting, and finishing of an old-world Santa. The basic figure will challenge the beginning carver, and there are plenty of fascinating details included for the more advanced. As always, Tom provides advice and techniques throughout the process that are useful for any carving project. A colorful gallery features several old-world Santa designs that will fuel your imagination and help you develop your own designs. Have fun and merry Christmas!

Solid joinery, commonly found woodworking tools, and timeless design combine to make both the panel bed and armoire described in this book a joy to build. Detailed, easily understood descriptions, accompanied by over 280 clear color photos and 34 detailed plans, explain and show every step of the furniture building process. Most of the joinery is made at the table saw. The moldings are made with a router, using standard bits individually or in combination. Subtle details, which make this bed and armoire unique in their designs, are easily accomplished with commonly found woodshop tools. If you have thought of building a detailed piece of furniture but want something other than Queen Anne or another often repeated period style, this is the book for you.

Discover classic and contemporary Scandinavian style with specially commissioned photography of homes in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. Scandinavia is famous for its distinctive style: homes are pared-back and simple, and form and function are combined to create aesthetically pleasing and practical interiors. Scandinavians are inspired by light, having an abundance of it in summer but so little of it in winter, and house designs tend to maximize the amount of natural light that enters the home, and allow the inhabitants to make the most of outdoor life during the summer. Similarly, nature and the weather are major influences: homes are made warm and cosy for the freezing winter months - not just literally with log burners, but also through incorporating wood and natural materials. Here Niki Brantmark, owner of the interior design blog My Scandinavian Home, presents a wide-ranging collection of these beautiful homes and explores how the Scandinavian lifestyle is reflected in them all. The first chapter, Urban Living, features styles ranging from minimalist to bohemian, and pale palettes to dramatic dark colours. By contrast, the Country Homes tend to have a softer, calmer feel, through colour and textiles, in line with a slower pace of life. Finally, the spectacular Rural Retreats include a mountain cabin, beach house and rustic summer cottage, and demonstrate how having somewhere to escape to is so important to many Scandinavians. This collection of stunning interiors will put Scandi style within every reader's reach.

In 265 photos, this book provides all the knowledge you need to make the most of your space outdoors, creating landscape for recreation, gardens, and play that is also a safe, child friendly environment. Whether you choose to design the ideal setting for the neighborhood ping-pong tournament, create an imaginative space to inspire games for kids, or add splash-happy features to your pool, this treasure trove of backyard fun will show you how to do it right. The popularity of outdoor living is growing by leaps and bounds as ever-increasing numbers of homeowners look for ways to enjoy economical backyard environments. From croquet, bocce ball, badminton, and table tennis to horseshoes, corn in the hole, and ladder ball, families everywhere are getting outside to play. Why shouldn't you?

Good homes are places where lives can unfold, families grow up, dogs jump on sofas, friends share your hospitality. They should also be places where you can find some solitude – a quiet corner to read a book, have a Saturday afternoon nap. In short, they need to be able to sustain you, inspire you and tell your story thanks to their architecture, use of materials and contents.

These are the attributes that Monocle has always celebrated when covering residences in its design and architecture pages – whether featuring a city bolthole, a modernist seaside residence or a summer outpost in a forest. Now Monocle is bringing this all together in one book that explores individual homes, housing projects old and new, communities of self-builders, even whole neighbourhoods where a simple philosophy of building well has created quality of life for many. Monocle has also recruited key thinkers, writers and designers to share their perspectives in a series of fascinating essays.

The Monocle Book of Homes is packed with great photography that delivers the bigger picture and also offers a focus on the smallest details. This is a book that could change how you live.

House as a Mirror of Self presents an unprecedented examination of our relationship to where we live, interwoven with compelling personal stories of the search for a place for the soul. Marcus takes us on a reverie of the special places of childhood--the forts we made and secret hiding places we had--to growing up and expressing ourselves in the homes of adulthood. She explores how the self-image is reflected in our homes; power struggles in making a home together with a partner; territory, control, and privacy at home; self-image and location; disruptions in the boding with home; and beyond the "house as ego" to the call of the soul.
As our culture is swept up in home improvement to the extent of having an entire TV network devoted to it, this book is essential for understanding why the surroundings that we call home make us feel the way we do. With this information we can embark on home improvement that truly makes room for our soul.

The ten extraordinary houses and castles featured in this book have all survived the vicissitudes of Scotland's history with almost all of their original families still in residence. Each house also represents a landmark in Scotland's architectural history, ranging from the early seventeenth to the early twentieth century. The architectural revelation is matched by sensational settings, which merge designed gardens and landscape with the unparalleled wildness and vistas of Scotland. All of these cherished houses are chockablock with memories of the past, from swagger portraits to sporrans, from vintage photographs to ancient weaponry, from curling stones to fading chintz. James Fennell's masterly photographs capture the distinctive atmosphere of each residence. As he guides the reader on an intimate tour of the houses, Knox recounts their histories and profiles the colourful lairds, clan chiefs and nobles who have called them home.

There is something about antique homes and their hard-working barns that captures the imagination. Maybe it's their pleasing proportions, maybe they remind us of a simpler time, or maybe we sense that these venerable old survivors that were built when our country was young have seen it all. But how many of us have bothered to listen to the stories they tell or tried to understand what makes them tick? This book reveals the essence of antique New England homes and barns-their history, the people who built them, why they were built that way, and how to restore them, piece by piece, without losing their character. Learn to identify architectural styles from different periods, how to strategize a restoration, and how to approach it systematically, from the timber frame to the floors, walls, and ceilings, windows and doors, wiring, finishes, and landscaping.

"We work with Hilton because he's both a plant stylist and an incredible plant-care wizard. Hilton doesn't just teach you how to get your plants to thrive - he teaches you how to bond with them." Apartment Therapy Bestselling author Hilton Carter brings his unique eye and love of plants to show you how to create luscious interiors that not only look amazing but are good for your well-being, too. Hilton first guides you through his own plant journey, his inspirations, and his top ten favourite house plants. He then takes you on a Journey in Greenery where he showcases the homes of 12 inspiring plant parents that demonstrate the versatility of decorating with plants. From a tiny house in Venice, California and a light-filled loft in New York City, to a Berlin apartment decorated with vintage finds, and the Barcelona home of a ceramic artist, there are ideas for all types of spaces and budgets. Hilton then sets you off on your very own plant journey, taking you room by room, profiling the plants that are most suited to each: those that thrive in the tropical humidity of bathrooms, the erratic heat changes of kitchens and plants that can live happily in the indirect light of an entryway or bedroom. Packed full of interior design advice such as using 'statement plants' like Fiddle-leaf figs to create a focal point, how to layer your greenery by using hanging baskets, and how to assemble the perfect plant shelf, Hilton shows you how bringing houseplants into your home creates instant impact. Be inspired to create your own Wild Interiors with Hilton's expert styling advice, plus his hints and tips on plant care that take the mystery out of looking after your green friends.

We all know how to set tables, but do we know how to make them beautiful? With this book, you can realize the magic of table decor. With over 300 color illustrations and many practical and inventive solutions, this book covers the table, from soup to nuts or gardens to dining rooms, and many places in between. This book acquaints you with the charm of table dA (c)cor, whether it is traditional, romantic, modern, or simple. The decorators featured are both professional and gifted, from many diverse backgrounds, and working in dozens of styles. There are ideas for every occasion and taste. By keeping the focus on texture, color, simple containers, and lots of ordinary household items, you can turn a simple meal into something fabulous by varying the items you use together. Here you will find the inspiration to create table settings with style, using your own china and silverware. See how designers and decorators mix, experiment, and create table dA (c)cor with modern accouterments or pair antiques with new, ornate, or simple.

A dry-stack stonewall is a project that almost anyone can build, and it will last well over a century if built correctly. Like most projects, knowing all of the steps involved is critical to ensure a safe and solid job. This book provides thorough, step-by-step procedures for three projects using stones of various sizes from the smallest all the way up to boulders, with a focus on a safe work environment. Learn a system for planning a project, and proceed through all the steps required to completion. A gallery of wall images will inspire you to start stacking.