Established in 1973, Rio Pools has earned a reputation as one of the UK's leading swimming pool builders and has completed more that 1500 pool projects in England, Wales and France. View our range of swimming pools and hot tubs online at http://www.riopools.co.uk/
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Having a small kitchen can be a nightmare. Whether you’re frantically rummaging through the drawers for your corkscrew when you have company, or wrestling with the pots and pans in your cupboards; you find your thoughts turning to your dream kitchen. Grand, spacious and well-organized, with a breakfast bar, double fridge and a pasta arm (nobody actually needs a pasta arm, but that doesn’t stop us wanting one). However, you don’t need a huge kitchen to get the efficiency and/or spaciousness you desire. Here are some tips on how to get the most out of your kitchen, despite its size. De-Clutter
This is the most important step in making the most out of your kitchen. Get rid of anything that you don’t need, and be harsh about it. Do you really need that egg-slicer? What about the pasta maker that you’re sure you’ll use one day? If you don’t want to throw them away, find another place to store them. Cupboards and shelves in other rooms of the house are perfect for storing rarely used utensils and those Christmas plates that only come out once a year. Just get them out of the kitchen. Open It Up Now that your kitchen is empty of clutter, it’s time to open up the space. If you can, open up the walls connected to other rooms in the house. By knocking down a wall you make the space feel much more substantial. If you are unable to do this, there are many other ways to open up the space. Open shelving makes a great alternative to cabinets, and creates the illusion of spaciousness. With all your foodstuffs and utensils on display this also gives your kitchen more character, as well as improved functionality. If you want to keep your cupboards, add glass fronts to the upper cabinets and paint the back to match the walls. Again, this adds to the illusion and makes your kitchen feel roomier. The “Magic” Triangle There’s not much to say about this one, but it is very important to a functional kitchen. The “magic” triangle refers to the optimisation of the space between the three most important kitchen appliances: Fridge, sink and oven. This is actually where small kitchens come into their own, as each of these appliances should only be a step or two away from each other. Storage Solutions Failing all this, there are tonnes of storage solutions available. A rolling kitchen cart can be used to add extra counter space. Sliding shelves can be used to store small items in deep cabinets. The tops of cabinets can be used to store appliances when not in use. The walls can be used for storage as well. You can hang up magnetic knife strips, peg boards for pots and pans and collapsible tables to add more space as needed. Prime Furniture Designs is a bespoke furniture maker that works with spaces of all sizes. They send out a representative to measure the size of the space and provide you with drawings of the project. This is perfect for small sized kitchens, as you can take advantage of every amount of space available. For more information on their services, visit their website here: www.primefurnituredesigns.com/ Maintaining high levels of productivity at the workplace is not only important in today’s world but also the only way to weather the prevailing tough economic conditions. When it comes to boosting this productivity on a daily basis, nothing works better than a good cup of coffee. It not only raises the drinker’s morale but also improves their short term memory. When employees hit a productivity slump during the day, a good cup of coffee will help them bounce back and end their day in a high. For this, you will need coffee vending machines for the best results. These machines are suited to the workplace environment as they offer some much-needed benefits over other alternatives. Below we will look at the benefits companies stand to gain when using coffee vending machines as opposed to regular tea and coffee service on trays. To provide a worthwhile experience to both employees and customers visiting the office, it is important to have quality coffee served. No one wants to drink a cup from a low quality and possibly stale brew of coffee. By opting to use top of the range coffee machines, you will get great coffee which means better enjoyment for partakers. Quality coffee vending machines also serve a variety of coffee drinks as per the drinker’s preference. White coffee, black coffee and espresso coffee among others can be served from the machine. Another important benefit of using coffee vending machines is the fact that you will no longer need to hire and maintain coffee or tea service staff. Employees can simply walk over to the machine and get their daily cup hassle free. Coffee vending machines can be rented with any service personnel required for operation included in the deal. This means that the company does not have to maintain a tea service employee. This is highly beneficial for smaller enterprises where the employees can easily serve themselves. One of the main problems in maintaining a variety of hot beverage making supplies in the office break room is wastage. Cocoa, coffee, tea, milk and sugar will usually be misused and wasted by employees. With coffee vending machines, all these supplies are locked inside the machine and dispensed automatically and uniformly for all employees reducing wastage. The machine is set to provide only a fair share of each ingredient for the most efficient usage. This reduces costs to the company. When seeking to find coffee vending machines for your business, you will have two options. You can either buy the machines or rent them from a coffee vending machine service provider. The choice between the two depends on the available budget as well as the specific needs of the company. Office chairs and desks as well are very important pieces of furniture in any company or even at home. While most people want to focus on being cost effective, more and more realise that their health is being affected by inadequate officer chairs. Today’s typical sedentary lifestyle coupled with an demanding office job, which requires the employee to spend hours on end sitting a desk can lead to stress and tension, especially in the lumbar area. This is where the ergonomic office chairs come in to help with relieving the pressure from the spine and making a person’s legs and arms feel equally comfortable.
Nowadays employers focus a lot on having modern, stylish office furniture in order to create a certain professional image but they also think about the health of the personnel, which a bad chair can affect in a negative way, thus leading to a lower productivity of the person sitting on it. Office chairs are the most important piece of furniture because it determines how a person sits, and this will determine the spine’s health as well. Any office employee may be required to spend most if not all of his time at his desk and if the chair is inappropriate it can lead to physical problems, which in turn will lead to stress and tension while at work. The ergonomic office chairs are changing the situation by promoting the spine’s health and making sure that the user’s position is a comfortable and healthy one. Neglecting the quality of any office chairs is a grave mistake because any professional working at a desk or even the average person sitting in front of a computer at home can suffer health problems if the chair doesn’t fit their requirements. The chair may certainly be important, but a person’s sitting posture is equally importance when it comes to maintaining a healthy back. The ergonomic office chairs certainly help to keep a healthy posture, but the person sitting on it must also adjust, keeping his back straight in order to keep the spine in a natural position. When purchasing ergonomic office chairs, it is important to remember that everyone is different, and body dimensions need to be taken into consideration in order to select the appropriate chair. A high quality, well-designed office chair must allow the user to sit in a balanced position with changing the body’s natural posture. This is why physical measurements help with choosing the perfect chair because the height and weight of a person will influence the posture. http://officeandchairs.co.uk/ If your home has a septic tank, you will need to have it cleaned/pumped every time it comes close to being filled up. This is because if it were to overflow this would not only be unsanitary for you and your household, rendering all drainage unusable but is also a community health issue. Cleaning the septic tank should only be done by a professional so as to eliminate the risk associated with the process. On opening the tank you will find that there can be a release of poisonous gases and contact with unsanitary elements, only qualified personnel can be able to handle all these in the required manner armed with the necessary gear.
How often should you seek Septic Tank Cleaning Services? Septic tanks usually fill up depending on the volume of waste water draining into them. In the tank, solid waste drains to the bottom where decomposition takes place. Water and oils, float above the solid waste pile at the bottom, with the oil being at the top. During septic tank cleaning, the grey water is pumped out leaving the tank empty. If the tank were to be left unattended to it may sustain damage on the filter as well as the leaching drains, which could render the tank useless and necessitate the construction of a new one. In most cases, septic tank cleaning should be done between one to five years but this period reduces with an increasing number of people living in a household as well as rising water usage as well. The Process of Tank Cleaning To clean out the septic tank, the septic cleaning company specialists will first need to take time to locate the manhole of the septic tank. It is important to note that the tank should not be emptied through the inspection hole, which is usually smaller in size. In some cases, this hole may be covered up by the soil and hence need some digging before it is found. Some companies will charge extra for this digging. Once the manhole of the septic tank is found, the suction tube will be inserted, and the process of cleaning it out will begin. On average this process takes between 4 and 5 hours to complete for average sized septic tanks. Cleaning out the septic tank should be thorough as it is required that another clean out will be needed after a similar period holding all other factors constant. Once the septic tank cleaning process is complete, the personnel doing the job will be required to carefully inspect the tank and ensure it is fit for use. If any repairable flaws are found, then it is important to seek the services of a septic tank contractor to get this fixed. http://www.ambenvironmental.co.uk/ When your heater experiences any problem, it does not mean you have to splurge money and buy a new one immediately. A practical thing to do is to first trace the root cause of the problem and determine how it can be resolved. You can either hire a technician to help you or do the repair on your own. Regardless of what you choose, you will most probably need a variety of heating spares. These parts will help to restore the functionality of the heater and make it work like new. A wrong choice of heating parts will not only be a waste of money, but will also make you unable to have the problem resolved.
Shop Around One of the most important things you should do is to explore the possibilities when it comes to your choices for heating spare parts. Do not immediately get settled with a decision without looking around and weighing the pros and cons of each alternative you will be confronted with. Also, ask for the opinion of the supplier if the spare parts you are buying will be perfect for the heater that will be repaired. There are some brands of heaters wherein spares should be only bought from the same brand as the manufacturer. Ask for Recommendations With the abundance of the sellers and manufacturers of heating parts, it is going to be hard for you to decide on which one is the best. It is a good idea to consult with the opinions of other people, such as in the case of online reviews. If you do not trust the opinions of strangers, you can ask for recommendations from people you personally know. Their experiences will make it a lot easier for you to evaluate your choices and decide which one is going to be the best. Consider Warranty The warranty from the manufacturer of the heating spare parts will be important to give you peace of mind with regards to its quality and functionality. This means that if the product proves to be defective within the period of the warranty coverage, you can have it returned to the manufacturer, and they will trace the issue and have it resolved. The warranty for the parts purchased will be separate from the warranty of the manufacturer of the heater. Think of Replacement Before buying heating spares, you should first make sure that the problem can be resolved through repairs. There are instances wherein the problem is too much, and a repair alone will not suffice to bring back the functionality of the heater. Unfortunately, you might need to replace the entire unit and not just specific parts. http://www.pipelineelectrical.co.uk/ When choosing a new home, people have a varied list of features that they are looking for. There will usually be a more vague collection of things that are unwanted. Among the desirable features is often a large family kitchen, a south-facing garden, or perhaps a view across to distant hills.
Among items on the less desirable list, a sloping garden is often seen as a disadvantage, and indeed it does present many challenges. In this garden, our clients were very happy with the house layout and had decided this was the ideal place to bring up a young family. The garden, however, did pose a few problems. Arranged on two levels, the lower area is accessed directly from the kitchen/dining room and had been paved throughout with a mixture of municipal concrete slabs, which were uneven and poorly laid. Also featured in this area, to the rear of the garden, was a substantial block-built shed. As the shed was no longer required, we designed a split-level garden, with a small lawn outside the dining room doors. The remaining garden was laid with decking, one step up from the lawn. We removed the shed roof, but kept most of the walls, which were retaining the garden, and converted the shed into a small paved seating area to contrast with the decking. An L-shaped bench was fitted into this walled space and the side walls of the old shed were reduced in height to form arm rests on one side. The next challenge was to get access to the much larger area of the garden, which is approximately three metres above the lower garden. The original steps ran right up the side of the garden in one long continuous flight, but we wanted to avoid long flights of stairs. Instead, rising from the deck is a combination of oak sleeper and gravel steps which wind around the back of the original shed walls and finish at a small raised area covered with bark. This area has a curved, raised seat to its rear, which retains a planting area and thus acts as a small landing, which breaks up the route. Continuing across this space is an S-shaped run of stone steps leading to a decked balcony, giving access to the main rear garden. The balcony is curved and made with toughened glass balustrades, which allow for an uninterrupted view down to the lower garden, and for this upper level to be seen from the bedroom windows. By weaving the steps across the hillside and breaking the route with landings, it has been possible to create an attractive and accessible way to reach the back of the garden. There was a lot of structural work required to shore-up the hillside on this job, but after all the hard work, what had been a difficult space to negotiate has been transformed into a garden which works well for a growing family and also presents a much more interesting space than a flat garden. http://allgardendesigns.co.uk/ This beautiful and unique photobox is available from Box Brownie Trading. It makes a lovely gift for a couple of a newborn baby or a christening etc. Your own photo can be place inside and the box is available in a wide range of colours, including apple green, cream, red and 15 more!
This photobox as is completely hand crafted and hand painted on real wood and has its own unique character since each photobox is made bespoke to order. Distinctive grains, dings and imperfections are to be expected and are intentional due to the nature of the product. http://www.boxbrownietrading.co.uk/i-was-born-to-catch-dragons-422-p.asp Antiques give you an added mystery to your interiors. However, how do you identify an authentic antique from a fake one? You might be bragging about your newest addition to your antique finds only to realize that it’s never authentic at all.
With the changing world and the rapid innovation of technology, there are numerous ways to make replica materials look like real antiques. However, if you’re not an expert at spotting what’s real and fake, then here’s a quick guide in looking for authenticity. Artist or Company An object with a signature is worth it more than a material that has without one. But, having a signature is not also the lone identifier if it’s real or fake. You must be able to identify the type of such item, including the colour, style and texture. Time Frame A piece of material can look as old as it can be, but it doesn't mean it was made centuries and decades ago. There are old looking items that were made weeks and months old. So don’t be fooled by these features. Type of Material A combination of certain materials can look real, such as a fusion of metal. For example a spelter looks like bronze, but in fact it’s not. Know your Seller This may be the first step in ensuring that the store you are into is selling authentic antiques. If you are buying an authentic antique always ask for an official receipt from the dealer. Check the store’s credibility, how was the feedback from other clients. This will give you an assurance that indeed, the store is selling real items. Rust Matters Always keep in mind the general rule, that old rusts are brown while new rusts are orange. So generally, an old item has a rust of deep rich brown in colour. Meanwhile, a newer object tends to have vibrant rust. Dimensions One way to tell real things from fake ones in cast irons is their dimensions or their physical size. Usually, fake or replicas are being made through the original’s mould, which tends to be smaller. Research for documented dimensions of original pieces can be seen in collectors’ guide books. Layers of Paint For wooden antique object, determining the authentic items becomes more of an art of observation. So what exactly should be taken into consideration? Look for layers of paint at the corners and edges. Moreover, the wear at the object should have gradual and gentle wood darkening. Translucency For porcelain items such as vases, plates and saucers, translucency is the main feature to look for. A translucent antique will have visible cracks or breaks but have been painted or filled. It will be seen when held up to a strong light. Conclusion Before heading into the cashier, have a deep knowledge of your preferred antique to buy. After all, it’s the most valuable thing you can have. Don’t be one of the victims of foolish sellers. Nevertheless, this guide will lead you to buying the most worthwhile antique pieces for your collection. A complete home automation may sound difficult and very expensive, however many systems are affordable and easy to install. Technology and innovation have made homes automatic in so many ways. Imagine your home to have automatic cooling and lighting control, video surveillance and locking control all the tip of your finger.
Most home automation systems work best when designed and installed by professional agents, and Control 4 Systems are here for all your home automation improvements. Home automation has been increasing in many homes that want to ensure safety and comfort. Here are the benefits of Control 4 Systems for your home automation: Added Safety for Lighting and Appliance One benefit of home automation is additional safety for your home. Control 4 System will allow you to control small fixtures and appliances at the comfort of your favourite gadget. The ability to turn off automatically your home devices will add safety and can help minimize electricity bills. Secure Home One of the greatest benefits that an automated home gives is safety and security brought by automated door locks. How many of you have forgotten to lock the doors when you leave home? But with Control 4 System’s automated door locks, you can be assured of your safety whenever you leave your home. Moreover, an alarm or alert system will notify you when someone breaks into the house without authority. Improves Awareness Admit it, you cannot be aware of what’s happening inside your home. But with the home automation that Control 4 System can offer, a secure video surveillance can be your only option to increase security inside the home by detecting and capturing all movements at all times. Improves Comfort Every day you leave your home and often forget to adjust your thermostat or cooling system. Thus, your home is too hot or too cold when you arrive at night. However, with a the help of Control 4 System automation, it aids the home to automatically adjust the temperature even if you’re outside of the house, perfect when you step into your doorstep. Saves Time Technology has made the world as busy as it may seem. If you are one of the busiest people around the world, then having an automated home is everything you need. With home automation system, everything at your fingertips can make your day as quick as possible and it saves time from adjusting and configuring your appliances, fixtures and other devices. Saves Money Yet another benefit of Control 4 System is the ability to save money. It will definitely cut your utility bill. There is no need to spend too much money for household appliances left switch on or the lights turned on all day long. This certainly saves you money at the same time gives convenience. No Worries For those who are worrying too much leaving their home all day long, worry no more once you have an automated home system. This actually gives you enough peace of mind, without thinking too much if what’s going on at your home. Home automation systems give comfort, convenience and safety whether you’re at the home or outside. Therefore, a complete home automation system allows you to customize your home to be tailored fit for your family’s needs. |
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