Beach House

Is there anything more relaxing than the beach? The warm sand, blue waters and picturesque sunsets combine to create an atmosphere that's casual, calm and worry-free - exactly the features you'll want to incorporate when decorating your beach house! The idea behind home beach décor is to keep it simple. You want to focus on creating a home that's welcoming and relaxing. This includes paying attention to the materials and finishes you select, as you'll be bringing plenty of sand, wet feet, and damp towels home after your days at the beach. You don't want to choose surfaces that you'll have to worry about damaging, like leather couches or expensive fabrics.

When choosing furniture for your beach home, wicker is the obvious choice for material. It not only fits the beach theme perfectly, it's also the a great low-maintenance and durable option for your home. You can even choose outdoor wicker furniture and use it in your dining and living rooms. Wicker can be uncomfortable, so be sure and invest in some comfortable cushions and covers. When making your selections, be sure to choose outdoor-rated fabrics so they will hold up to the sand and saltwater. unsecured loans

Another furnishing option that will work well with your beach décor is wood. Choose lighter natural woods like birch and maple to keep things feeling light and airy. You can also paint your wood furnishings white or light colors to maintain the summery beach feel.

The best paint options for your beach home are light, breezy colors. Look for inspiration from the colors of the beach....the sand, the ocean, the sunsets. Choose sea green, pinks, and pale yellows. Another option is to go with a nautical blue and white theme. Pottery Barn makes an entire line of beach inspired paints, so check into this option for more ideas. Whichever paint you choose, make sure to use a semi-gloss paint to withstand the humidity and sea breezes.

To invoke the old beach bungalow feeling, you can even consider clapboard walls in some rooms. These walls are relatively simple to install and made from board paneling placed horizontally. You can even choose to install clapboard walls on only one wall of your kitchen as an accent.

When it comes to floors, natural wood floors work best. These floors should be well sealed to prevent water damage. Low-pile rugs work great too.

To accessorize your beach home, turn to nature. Flowers, driftwood, shells, and small indoor fountains make great additions to any beach theme.

Remember when decorating your beach home that the decorating process should be as calm and worry-free as the beach itself. Keep your home low-maintenance, simple, and comfortable and you're sure to enjoy your new beach home décor. bad credit loans

espares

Samara Zittin, who is on the marketing team at eSpares, was kind enough to share the approach her company is taking with Social Media.    This small, London-based, company is seeing the benefits from their efforts, you will too.

Q. What is eSpares?
A. We specialize in providing spare parts for home and garden appliances. Our catalogue of spares contains roughly half a million spares and we carry over 500 brands. We’ve got bits that fit everything from toaster ovens and vacuum cleaners to dishwashers and pressure washers. There are 70 company members and we’re located in London, England, and we ship worldwide.


Q. Who is your average customer?
A. The majority of our business is direct to the consumer; however we also have quite a few business accounts using our services too. Generally we like to think that our average customer is an intrepid person who knows that they can save a bit of money through a bit of ‘fix it yourself’ knowledge.


Q. How does social media fit in at the highest levels of your business?
A. We’ve always thrived on the correspondence that we have with our customers. It’s our company policy that you’ll always receive a response from eSpares if you write us; which is strictly enforced by our CEO. It was clear to us from early on that customers wanted to communicate with us via channels other than the phone, email and occasional fax. 


From our email feedback it became apparent that our customers wanted to share fitting advice with each other. In 2008 we responded to this by launching ‘Ratings and Reviews’ and ‘Questions & Answers’ on our website which has enabled our customers to share their experience and advice for fitting individual parts. At the time this was justified to the highest levels of our business by citing the SEO benefits. Circumspect we did A/B testing that illustrated the products with customer generated reviews and fitting advice had up to a 14.2% increase in conversion rate.


Q. What were the benefits of “going social”?
A. For us the benefits of going social were multifold. As stated above the obvious benefit is that we can now have ‘real time’ conversations with our customers. The additional benefits to us have been:

• Raising awareness: Simply put, most people don’t know that you can buy spare parts to fix up your oven or that fitting a fridge door seal yourself is possible. We use Twitter to find people who are having trouble with their appliances and we do our best to guide them to the best course of action for their circumstances. Whether that’s simply watching a ‘fix it yourself’ video on our YouTube channel, helping them find a spare part or calling a repair person.
• Gaining consumer insight: being on Twitter has helped us improve the content and video on our site to directly meet what consumers want.
• 
  
• Cutting the cost of affiliate networks: In the past we participated in affiliate networks. We noticed the slow transition from our affiliates being sites with great content that led to new site visitors to sites that strictly featured voucher codes.  Looking at our traffic we could see that customers would select the items they wanted on our site, visit the voucher code website and then come back to our site. This meant that we were paying affiliate fees for the traffic that we already had. We’ve eliminated the use of affiliate networks and now strictly only release voucher codes on our Twitter channel and to those on our mailing list. Our customers still get the same benefits and it’s reduced our marketing costs.
• 
  
• Giving us a voice: we’re pretty passionate about what we do and sometimes this is hard to express through our website alone. Twitter and YouTube have allowed us to communicate that we genuinely are interested in helping people and that we want to ensure that they have a great buying experience with us. The individuals who make up our company are genuinely friendly people and communicating this has helped increase consumer confidence in our brand.

Q. What processes did you put in place to enable going social?
A. Going social for us was simple to implement as it required no resource from our technical team. We simply nominated people from within our marketing team to champion and run the social media channels. Samara Zittin is responsible for the Twitter account and our newly launched Facebook channel and Michael Hodge is responsible for the eSpares YouTube channel. unsecured loans


Q. How did you go about tool selection?
A. Having tried most of the free tools available the tools of choice are TweetDeck and the webclient for our Twitter account management. To track our traffic and sales from Twitter and YouTube we use Google Analytics.


Q. What social communication policies have you put in place?
A. We follow the Golden Rule of treating others the way that we would like to be treated when we use our personal social media accounts. We do our best to keep pure marketing messages to a minimum and to make sure that our tweets are relevant to our followers.


Q. How many people do you have monitoring the social channels today?
A. As not to confuse the message of our channel we only have one person tweeting from the eSpares account. Most people within the company have TweetDeck installed and monitor the phrase bad credit loans‘eSpares’. Alerts for our social media channels are sent to a group email address within the company.


Q. How do your customers react to you being social?

A. We’ve gained quite a few new customers through our YouTube and Twitter channels. Our YouTube video content has been particularly important for giving potential customers the confidence to fix an appliance themselves.

IKEA-fied

I’m a big fan of IKEA.  I think their products improve my life and are a good value to boot.  As a parent, I often wonder how people furnished their kids’ rooms before IKEA, especially when I see the prices at stores like Serena & Lily.  Half of my adult furniture is also IKEA, because my kids ruin my furniture, and I feel better about them destroying a $600 couch than a $4000 one.

All that aside, if I get divorced one day, I’m fairly certain IKEA will be a contributing factor in my marriage’s collapse.  IKEA furniture generally requires that it be assembled at home, by you.  And there is nothing more unhealthy to a relationship than the joint assembling of furniture.  In my house, the experience of shopping at IKEA is a gloomy one, because Tom and I know that no matter how awesome we feel about our purchases in the store, something terrible is going to go down during the assembly process back home.

I’ve thought a lot about why the process of building IKEA furniture is so unpleasant for us.  And I think it comes down to the combo of two factors: my micro-managing tendencies, paired with Tom’s apparent belief that the ability to assemble furniture is a part of his manly essence.  It’s a perfect storm, where tempers collide and egos are left in shreds.

The assembly process begins with the frenzied opening of boxes, during which some integral piece will go flying across the floor and down our heating register.  The haste is due to the fact we never return from IKEA before 4:00 PM.  It doesn’t matter if we start out at 10:00 AM, or 3:30 PM–we will not get home before 4:00 PM.  It’s one of the unsolved mysteries of shopping at IKEA, along with why the wheels on the shopping carts refuse to direct your cart in a straight line.  But I digress–we’re ripping open the boxes because it’s 4:00 PM and we want to get the thing built before dinner, which adds another level of stress to a situation already fraught with tension.

After the initial splaying out of the box contents, we will inevitably come to the moment during the first 15 minutes of assembly where Tom will throw his IKEA wrench on the floor and state with utter conviction that the item we have purchased is defective and/or missing parts.  Usually the part in question is either taped to the inside of one of the particle boards, or Tom is sitting on it.  It’s best to ignore this initial tantrum, which is merely an amuse-bouche for what’s to come.

Assembly will continue apace for another half hour or so before we get to the point in the pictogram instructions where we can no longer figure out what IKEA is trying to tell us.  IKEA’s pictograms were presumably designed to strip the instructions down to their barest elements and to make things as simple as possible for the builder, by removing all words from the process.  But words are not a bad thing, especially when you are confronted with a pictogram like this:



I mean, what the hell is this telling me?  For starters, you will note that in the first picture, there are slats on the bed.  Then: no slats.  What happened to the GD slats????  After struggling for an hour to get to this point, a pictogram like this can be rage-inducing in the extreme.

We will muddle through, until somehow, we make it to the last page of the instructions.  And this is when it happens: the OMFG Moment (“OMFGM”).  The point at which it becomes apparent that one of the pieces from early on in the sequence has been put on backwards or upside down, so that everything needs to be taken apart and put back together again.  The beauty of the OMFGM is twofold.  One, IKEA doesn’t play around with its screws–those suckers are meant to be screwed in exactly one time.  Try re-screwing an IKEA screw after you’ve already screwed it in once.  Fun!  Due to those screws, during reassembly, you’ll have the demoralizing sensation that you are putting together a Frankenstein, something that will inevitably fall apart as soon as it is complete. unsecured loans

The second thing about the OMFGM is that, about an hour prior, I will usually already have hinted to Tom that the incorrectly assembled piece is on backwards, or upside down.  We built the bed in the pictogram above for Finn last week, and about 30 minutes in, I suggested to Tom that the headboard was on backwards, and he informed me, with withering disdain, that the unpainted side of the headboard was meant to face out.  Even though this made zero sense to me, I didn’t press him, because it has been my experience that it is kinder to tell a guy that he has a small penis than to suggest that he is improperly assembling something from IKEA.

Of course, an hour later, as we finished up the bed by trying to insert the mid-beam into holes that were MIA, we discovered that the headboard was, in fact, on backwards.  I consider it a measure of my personal growth in recent years that I helped Tom take the entire bed apart and reassemble it without once saying “I told you so,” even though I had to bite my tongue so hard that it almost bled.  And it’s a measure of Tom’s personal growth in recent years that once the bed was finished, he looked at me and said “I’m sorry, you were right.”  If this incident had happened five years ago, one of us would have slept on the couch for three days. bad credit loans

This week, we bought and built a sofa and coffee table, sans drama.  Never mind that the only assembly the sofa required was the insertion of the legs–it’s a thing of beauty when your IKEA assembly works as it should.  The thing is built, it looks ok, and when I sit on it gingerly for the first time with my quads bearing my weight, it doesn’t collapse.  Great success!  When things end this way, I am so elated that I don’t even mind the four leftover screws laying on the floor and Tom’s scary assurance that “all the necessary parts are in.”  In that way, building IKEA furniture is a little like giving birth.  The end product is worth it, and you forget all the trauma you went through to get there.

people living underground las vegas

The Daily Mail claims that 1,000 people live underground in the flood tunnels beneath the city of Las Vegas. While tourists and the rich flock to palace-like casinos, the tunnel people live below in darkness, amongst poisonous spiders and individuals with names like The Troll.

Deep beneath Vegas’s glittering lights lies a sinister labyrinth inhabited by poisonous spiders and a man nicknamed The Troll who wields an iron bar.

But astonishingly, the 200 miles of flood tunnels are also home to 1,000 people who eke out a living in the strip’s dark underbelly.

Some, like Steven and his girlfriend Kathryn, have furnished their home with considerable care – their 400sq ft “bungalow” boasts a double bed, a wardrobe and even a bookshelf. They have been there for five years, fashioning a shower out of a water cooler, hanging paintings on the walls and collating a library from abandoned books. Steven was forced into the tunnels three years ago after his heroin addiction led to him losing his job. unsecured loans

Matthew O’Brien, a reporter who stumbled across the tunnel people when he was researching a murder case, has set up The Shine A Light foundation to help. “These are normal people of all ages who’ve lost their way, generally after a traumatic event,” he said.

“Many are war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress…It’s not known how many children are living there, as they’re kept out of sight, but I’ve seen evidence of them – toys and teddy bears.” bad credit loans

making a pond

If there’s one feature in the garden guaranteed to attract wildlife with astonishing speed, it’s a pond. And at a time when ponds have all but disappeared from farmland, it’s a hugely helpful thing to do.

Mature pond. Credit: Rupert Paul

The reason ponds develop so fast is that many of their animals (and even plants) are highly mobile. Within a short time your garden will attract birds, amphibians, insects, mammals and a host of mini-beasts you might never otherwise see. Even if you haven’t got room for a pond, or have young children, a small water feature (even a bird bath) makes a huge difference to the number and types of animals that will visit your garden.

Build a pond step-by-step

Choosing a site

You can build a pond any time of year, but it’ll establish fastest if you start in late winter. For most people it’ll take two or three weekends to complete.

Choose the sunniest site you can; dragonflies worship heat, and tadpoles wriggle over each other to reach warm shallows. Most water plants thrive in bright sunshine too. Try to avoid picking a place where autumn leaves collect, though it’s not the end of the world if you can’t (see section on maintenance below). More important is to hook up a pipe or hose so that your water butt overflow can auto-fill the pond during heavy rain.

Mark out your shape with a warm hosepipe, remembering that the finished article will look about two-thirds the size. The pond can butt up to a lawn, a border or a path, but make sure that at least one side slopes shallowly and that a fair chunk of the edge can be given over to dense waterside planting, and that this area in turn has a ‘corridor’ to borders, log piles, hedges or other sheltered areas. Come July, your emerging baby frogs will thank you.

1. Get digging

   Your objective is a deep area in the middle (two or three feet) for hibernating creatures, and a gently-sloping, shallow shoreline. Nearly every book tells you to dig this shape, but don’t do it! A gentle slope is very difficult to get level, and ensures you’ll be staring at an ugly black pond liner every time the water level falls (as it will) below the ideal.
   
   Instead, dig the entire area straight down 12 inches. Try hard to cut cleanly with your spade, leaving the un-dug soil compacted; it’ll be easier later. Use the topsoil to make a raised bed or extend a terraced border.
   
   Your job now is to dig a deep central hole, while leaving at least 18 inches (two feet is even better) undisturbed all the way round. Think of a gigantic, inverted fried egg. If you’re having a bog garden area, leave it 12 inches deep everywhere; it needs a flat base for its dam of bricks or stones.
   Keep the subsoil on a piece of sheeting for later.
   
   

   Digging a pond. Credit: Andrew Thompson

2. Fit the liner

   Many books recommend butyl rubber for the liner but some experienced pond builders reckon the latest PVC is even stronger. Tell the supplier your pond’s maximum length and depth and they’ll calculate what you need (if you’re really thrifty you could find out what sizes the liner comes in, and dig your pond accordingly).
   
   Choose a day with no wind, invite some friends round and get to work. It’s easy to cut the underlay with big scissors and fit it in the hole to protect against sharp stones. Next, open out the liner and drape it over the pond so that you’re certain there’ll be spare all the way round. Then add water, smoothing, pulling and folding the sheeting neatly as the level rises. Use a few rocks to subdue the bigger pleats. Try to keep the folds as simple as possible as they near the surface.
   
   

   Lining the freshly dug pond. Credit: Justine Thompson

3. Sort the edges

   Once the pond is full, cut off the excess liner at water level, leaving an extra foot (lying horizontally) all the way around. It’s a nerve-wracking job, so take your time, using a scalpel or a sharp knife.
   With the excess removed, you can see how level (or not) the surrounding ground is. Ideally the water is pressing the liner outwards onto solid, compacted soil all the way round. If you have to build up any areas, make really sure you ram the soil down hard. If you don’t, it’ll settle later, and drain some of the water away.
   
   Tricky bit over. From now on, it’s a piece of cake. Fill in the right-angled shelf all the way round with subsoil to create a gentle slope. It’ll make a hideous mess, but don’t worry. Add a little extra soil to hide the top of liner as you go.
   
   By the time you’ve finished, you’ll find yourself staring at a muddy, unpromising wallow. Welcome to your new wildlife pond.
   
   
   

   Trimmed lining edges. . Credit: Justine Thompson

4. Get planting

   Wait for the sediment to settle a few days. If you’re getting plants from a friend, you can add them any time – even the scraggy bits left over after a hard winter. Otherwise, May is the ideal buying season.
   
   You can be pretty slapdash about planting; your new charges will take off regardless. Floating plants such as hornwort, ivy-leaf duckweed and water soldier can simply be chucked in. For marginals such as water forget-me-not, brooklime, spearwort and water plantain, just use a rock or stone to hold the roots in contact with the subsoil. Only the big, pot-grown marginals need careful siting – usually in the bog garden section.
   
   If you fancy a lily, pick a small one. Weight the rhizome down in a basket with some subsoil and lower it in, on ropes if necessary. That way you can haul it up and hack it back in a few years. Three things will now happen. The water will turn pea-soup green. The wildlife will begin to arrive. And then, almost overnight, the water will be crystal clear.
   
   
   

   Freshly settled pond. Credit: Justine Thompson

5. See the pond develop

   The actual dig was in late January, and the first toads arrived in April. Now we’re in early May. The plants are in and the pea-soup colour is beginning to clear.
   By early June the tadpoles are wriggling and the water crowfoot (top) is growing and flowering.
   It’s now late August, and the young toads have developed and left the pond. The water soldier plants have multiplied furiously, and most will need removing before winter.
   
   

   Developing pond. Credit: Justine Thompson

6. Keep your wildlife pond beautiful

   As soon as you build it, your wildlife pond will start filling up with plant life. And it will do this with such enthusiasm that, if you ignored it for a decade or so, there would be nothing left beyond a damp hollow. This is a natural process known as ‘succession’, and if you let it carry on even longer you would eventually end up with a mature forest where your garden used to be.
   To keep the kind of pond we all love – dragonflies, water beetles, newts and the rest – you need to ‘set back’ the process of succession over and over again.
   
   So be brutal. When more than half the surface gets covered by plants, haul some of them out and sling them on the compost heap. Likewise if the underwater greenery gets too thick. It feels harsh, but in the long run you’ll be guaranteeing the pond’s future ability to sustain as many different species as possible.
   
   Pulling out excess growth also helps keep algae down. When you first build a pond the water goes bright green. This ‘pea soup’ is a bloom of algae (their spores are everywhere) feeding frantically on the nitrogen in the water. Eventually these tiny plants use all the food up and fade away, leaving the stage set for your slower-starting pond plants. But they can always come back, especially as the well-known ‘blanket weed’, so the trick is to keep the nitrogen down to a minimum. And every time you remove green growth you’re doing just that.
   
   Where does the nitrogen come from? Three main sources: tap water (hence our suggestion for a water butt overflow system – rain contains few nutrients); fish (a good reason not to have them in a wildlife pond); and decaying plant matter (which is why we use subsoil for the pond edges). Keep hoiking out the excess and you’ll have no trouble, year after year. And you’ll never need to ‘clean the pond out’ either.
   
   Of course to yank out the plants you need to be able to reach all of the pond area safely. It helps if you can fix up some rocks or blocks on the edge at the build-up stage, so that you can throw a ladder or builder’s plank across the surface and reach in two or three times a year.
   What about the creatures that come out with the plants? You may find you’ve just got to inspect each handful and pick out the beasties you treasure the most. Unfortunately, leaving a mass of plant material on the side ‘so they can escape back to the water’ does little good. Few creatures can worm their way out in time.
   
   Lastly, there are the birds. You’ll find they all want to use a particular part of the pond to bathe, which is fine until their enthusiasm scrapes away the soil And exposes the liner. The best solution seems to be a big, flat rock (or two) just below the surface. unsecured loans
   
   ‘Surface’ is, of course, a movable concept where ponds are concerned. It’s quite natural for the water level to fall dramatically in summer, as evaporation and transpiration speed up. This is why a ‘right angled’ pond edge design is so useful. Where other shrinking ponds show yards of exposed liner, yours just reveals… more subsoil. Even your plants will adapt to the changing conditions, moving up and down the banks with the seasons. And when those summer rainstorms come, your water butt overflow refill system comes into its own.
   
   
   

   Developed pond plantlife. Credit: Justine Thompson

7. A frog-friendly garden

   So your pond’s up and running – what about the rest of the garden? Well, if you want your new amphibians to do well, you can help.
   
   The trick is to think like a frog. By the time they creep out of the water in March, the poor things are utterly knackered. Some even die from exhaustion, which isn’t surprising when you consider they may not have eaten since the previous October. What they need is food and shelter. So ditch the chemicals (slugs poisoned by pellets are lethal), and encourage plenty of dense growth in your borders. bad credit loans
   
   Best of all, start a log pile or three, using the biggest logs you can get. As summer warms up, the stable humidity and temperature inside the pile become a life saver for all sorts of beneficial creatures – not just amphibians but slug-slaying ground beetles and centipedes, and those arch recyclers of organic matter, the woodlice and earthworms.
   Try to resist using cobbles and hard paving near a wildlife pond. Baby amphibians are incredibly delicate; on a hot day they’ll cook to death on such surfaces inside a minute.

Replacing a door handle

You've completed your door installation and the final touch is installing the door knob or handle. Maybe you just want to replace a knob with a new one. When using a handle, be sure it is a universal handle for both left and right hand doors, or be sure to purchase the correct hand. If not, it will not fit properly. Nothing bugs me more than seeing a door handle installed upside down, because the wrong handle was purchased.

 

 
Start by inserting the backset (latch) into the door with the rounded edge facing the latch hole. You may need to tap it slightly with a hammer to get it to seat properly. The door may already have a mortise for a face plate on the latch. If it does, use the 3/4" screws to secure the latch unsecured loans to the door. Also, be sure to adjust the latch for the backset depth. Interior doors are normally 2-3/8" and exterior doors are normally 2-3/4" depth. Check the instructions that came with the knob on how to adjust the backset size. Most knobs now have adjustable backset to accommodate both sizes.

Once the latch is in and secured,  it's time to insert the knob through the backset and screw it together. Be sure to insert the stem from the handle correctly into the latch. This is vital to proper operation of the knob. Now that everything is aligned and the knob is fitted against the door, screw it together with the screws provided.  Be careful not to over tighten the screws as this can hamper the operation of the knob. bad credit loans

 

 Close the door to see how tight the latch fits in the latch hole. If it fits loosely, place the latch plate slightly back in the hole. If it fits snugly, then move the latch all the way forward to the front of the hole. Minor adjustment may need to be made as you check the fit.

how to put up blinds

Step  1:   Measure the width
and height for brackets

Measure the opening width of the patio door using a steel measuring tape. If there is room on the wall, add at least 4-inches bad credit loans on each side of the door opening to ensure a minimum light gap around the blinds. Then measure the opening height from the top to the floor adding a minimum of 2 1/2-inches to the height so the mounting brackets can be placed above the door. Make a pencil mark at these locations on the wall where you'll position the brackets. Most vertical blinds have mounting hardware for installing them on either woodwork (wood screws) or walls (plastic hollow wall anchors). Use the plastic hollow wall anchors to install the hanging brackets on the walls.

Step  2:   Install the mounting hardware on the wall

Install the hardware as called for in the manufacturer's instructions. If you are attaching the hardware to window or door casing, drill a pilot hole for the wood screw to prevent the casing from splitting. Drill a slightly oversize hole in the drywall or plaster for the hollow wall fasteners or toggle bolts. unsecured loans

Step  3:   Install the head rail

Each manufacturer has their own method of attaching the head rail to the wall brackets. Some systems snap in place, others hang from brackets, both methods are easy to do.

Step  4:   Attach the vanes to the head rail

Then pull the traverse cord so the vane holders (small studs protruding from the head rail) spread out evenly across the head rail. Lay the vanes down on the floor so the seams and curves face the same direction. Then pick up and hold the vane near the top and gently push it up into the vane holder so it's locked in place. Do this one at a time until they're all attached. Some vanes are designed with a small weight or chain installed in their bottom. If that's the case you may have to thread the small bead-like chain through the vanes once they're hanging in place.

Wood Shed Foundation

Are you ready to build your wood shed foundation? This article will walk you through some vital steps you must take in order to accomplish the task of building an outdoor shed.


#1 – It All Starts With Preparation!


Before you start building an outdoor shed you should first do some preparation. This means checking with your local zoning and city building department to see whether bad credit loans a permit is required before you can begin work. Once you find out the necessary requirements, go ahead and choose a place in your backyard where the shed is going to be. Please make sure that your shed is not going to be positioned over any land lines such as phone or water.

Finally, you should pick a design for your shed. You can design it yourself or buy cheap wood shed foundation plans online! Secondly because the plans contain full instructions and drawings you will feel confident in building something of good functionality.

#2 – Build The Foundation!


Once you are fully prepped and ready to begin construction, you must build the foundation. This is the most important part of the wooden shed’s functionality. There are two main types of foundations – skid and concrete. Building a skid foundation is considered simpler and cheaper. It requires some gravel and a structure of crossed wooden or metal strips usually arranged to form a diagonal pattern of open spaces between the strips, which is used to stabilize the shed and ensure no water goes inside.

The concrete foundations are permanent and can’t be moved unless you have special equipment but that’s costly and time consuming. Although it’s a pain in the (you know what). It’s a much more stable and long lasting foundation than skid foundations. unsecured loans

How to Remove a Sink

Remove a Counter Top Sink

• 1
  Turn off the water supply at the main supply valve. Test the faucet to confirm it is turned off.
  
• 2
  Put a bucket under the trap. Loosen the nuts surrounding the trap and remove it allowing the excess water to empty into the bucket.
• 3
  Take out the water supply to the faucet. Confirm that all plumbing is disconnected from the sink. Place a rag in the main drain to block any gases.
  
• 4
  Look for clips under the bathroom sink. Loosen them completely. If you are unable to take them out easily, then break them off.
  
• 5
  Cut the seal with a utility knife that is between the counter and the rim of the sink. Or, if the sink and countertop are one piece, cut the seal along the vanity. To remove it, use a small pry bar.
  
• 6
  Raise the whole thing straight up. It should release it from the counter.
  

Remove a Wall-Mounted Sink

• 7
  Get someone to help you. The sink is probably heavier than you think. Once you take out the plumbing and brackets or bolts, the sink will not be supported.
  
• 8
  Turn off the water supply for the bathroom at the main supply valve. Test the faucet to confirm it is turned off.
  
• 9
  Put a bucket under the trap. Loosen and remove any nuts that surround the trap. Allow the excess water to empty into the bucket.
  
• 10
  Remove the water supply that connects to the faucet. Confirm that all plumbing is disconnected. Place a rag in the main drain to block any gases. unsecured loans
  
• 11
  Check to see if the sink is mounted with a bracket. This bracket will make it easy to lift out once the plumbing is disconnected. Take out the bracket and have your helper lift it out. bad credit loans
  
• 12
  See if it is bolted to the wall. Have someone hold the sink while you remove the bolts to release it.
  

Building a swimming pool

Building a swimming pool requires careful effective planning. What will determine how effective your planning process is, will be your awarenes of important prebuild considerations. . These considerations are determined by your requirments and the suitabilty of the site in whilch development is to take place.
With over 30 years experience in swimming pool construction for domestic and commercial sectors, we have outlined below all factors that should be considered at this intial stage to ensure you acheive a successful swimming pool development.

Access to Site

Consideration would have to made for accessing your garden with plant equipment and for the removal of soil. bad credit loans

Ground conditions - Clay, chalk, high water table, e.t.c.

What will you be excavating and how do you intend to dispose of this material? Is there a high water table? This is not a design issue as we have come up against many ground conditions. If detected at an early stage we will be able to advise you accordingly.

Size/depth of the swimming pool

How big do you want the pool and what style & depth do you require?

Orientation of the swimming pool

Where is the swimming pool to be placed in relation to any adjoining buildings, walls etc. Other factors include wind, shade and overall views of the swimming pool from the house and possibly your neighbours property, prevailing winds.

Positioning of flow control, lights or steps/bays

What extras do you want on the swimming pool and where will they be positioned? unsecured loans

Heating

Most pools in the UK are heated and Polypool is compatible with all types of heating systems. These include air to water and ground source heat pumps, solar systems, gas or oil pool heaters and electric pool heaters for above ground installations. Please ask one of our consultants or engineers for advice. 01489 890800.

Environmental control within the swimming pool hall

If the project is indoors, there will be a requirement for inclusion of a dehumidification system. This will control the water temperature and the environment in the swimming pool enclosure.

Usage of the swimming pool

Will the swimming pool be used for exercise, fun, hydrotherapy, public use, diving, etc?

Services available to site

Is there access to electrics, water, gas, oil, etc?

Do Coffee Pods Suck?

I really like the idea of coffee pods. For those of you who haven’t run across the things, they’re basically an attempt to make coffee as easy as humanly possible – they produce something between expresso and filter coffee on a mug-by-mug basis in about 15 seconds, bad credit loans using closed, easy-to-dispose “pods” with coffee inside.
Particularly for social situations, the ability to knock out cups of varying types, strengths and flavours of coffee, and even tea, quickly and easily sounds damn good. And let’s face it, producing good coffee’s a bit of a hassle – I’d estimate my morning mug of coffee takes 10 minutes, between preheating, grinding, boiling, waiting, measuring and steeping.

Now, that’s not a problem for me, because I’m extremely sensitive to stimulants, and more than one cup of coffee inside six hours puts me straight into a gibbering twitching government drugs-are-bad-mkay American Psycho state. So I have my little ritual in the morning and my damn fine cup of coffee. On the other hand, if I was running an office on six cups a day, and making for the rest of the office every time, that really wouldn’t be sustainable.
So, as I say, enter the pods.

Too Long, Didn’t Read: the Coffee Pod Summary

• They’re very convenient indeed, and work particularly well brought into the workplace to replace shitty office coffee.
• The taste is somewhere between “foul” and “pretty good”, heavily affected by whether you buy the “official” pods (shonky) or ones from third-party suppliers (links below). unsecured loans
• The Nestle Nespresso is generally considered to produce average to half-decent coffee (much better than the average office dispenser) but is very expensive and ties you to Nestle (who, as pointed out in the comments on our Fair Trade Chocolate article, are really not very nice people.)
• If convenience is very important or quality isn’t, they’re the win. Particularly good for an office setting.

What’s Out There?

There are a whole bunch of different pod systems and sizes out there, and they’d take more than the length of this article to go into. Thankfully, there are also several excellent dedicated sites focussing on pod machines – if you;re looking at getting one of these machines,

The question of what the best machine is seems to be nearly impossible to answer. Singleserve coffee.com have rounded up their reviews and some of their recommendations, but even that recommends 4 different machines.
Of course, the range of beans is one of the make-or-break factors. The general rule, from elsewhere on the ‘net, seems to be that the brand-name beans from the machine manufacturers vary between average and awful, but that third-party suppliers produce coffee that, whilst it doesn’t hit the heights of really well-prepared fresh-ground coffee, is pretty damn good. One poster on CoffeeGeek said “Nobody’s going to mistake this for fine French press coffee, granted, but after the Senseo and Yuban attempts, it’s a revelation”.
The Nespresso system belongs slightly in a category of its own. It uses a different pod technology to the other systems, aggressively guarded by patents (indeed, according to Wikipedia, they’re suing one manufacturer of compatible cartridges right now . The pods are very expensive (about 50p each) but are generally considered to be of reasonably decent quality (see below).

Do pod coffee machines produce good coffee?

Depends on what you mean by good coffee. One poster on Metafilter, talking about the Nespresso machines, said "Honestly, they probably produce better espresso than a many people with home espresso machines that don’t clean them properly or don’t have a decent burr grinder, and the patience to dial it in. "
In general, if your coffee palate’s particularly refined, they’re not going to perfectly satisfy. However, many of the awful reviews given to pod machines on sites like CoffeeGeek seem to have been using the default manufacturer’s coffee pods – Senseo pods came in for a particularly thorough kicking, both for lack of quality and lack of range. By contrast, third-party pods offer much more of the range serious coffee afficionados would expect – BetterCoffee offers a few hundred options compared to the dozen or so offered by most machine manufacturers.
Overall, the answer seems to be “satisfactory”, but very much dependant on individual preferences. See the range of reviews for the Phillips Senseo , for example, which vary from “If you’re desperate enought to call this swill coffee, you’d better switch to another beverage.”, through cautious optimism in particular for a balanced overview) to “Great price, great coffee”.

Fiskars Garden Tools

Every gardener knows the importance of quality, well-designed garden tools, and Fiskars provides gardeners with many practical choices. Fiskars, a 360-year-old Finnish company best known for their orange-handled scissors, manufactures a full line of garden tools that can simplify even the most difficult gardening tasks. With hundreds of innovative designs to choose from, Fiskars has just about any tool you need to properly maintain your garden space.

Cultivators

Fiskars produces a wide assortment of cultivating tools that are well-suited for preparing a garden. Prepare your soil for planting with the tiller, a 40-inch-long steel tool with a padded T-grip and soil-piercing arrowhead tines to break up hard, compacted soil. The telescoping rotary cultivator, which extends from 39 to 63 inches, has a steel shaft with attached aluminum blades to loosen unsecured loans  and aerate soil as well as remove weeds. After the soil for your garden has been prepared, choose among Fiskars' 13 hand-cultivating tools to dig holes for seeds, bulbs or transplants.

Shovels

Use one of Fiskars' five digging tools to plant bushes, transplant trees or dig post holes for garden fences. The D-handled digging shovel, garden spade and transplanting spade lets you use both hands in a variety of positions to provide ample leverage for digging. The steel tools are also powder-coated to prevent rust and allow easy clean up.

Pruners, Loppers and Shears

Fiskars makes a large selection of cutting tools to perform tasks like trimming tree limbs, clipping hedges or cutting flowers. Choose the 16-foot Power-Level tree pruner to trim the lower branches of taller trees. Select the stainless steel anvil pruner for trimming small, brittle stems and branches, or the 28-inch bypass lopper for cleanly cutting through larger green growth. Fiskars also produces adjustable telescoping Power-Level hedge shears with serrated blades that grip and hold foliage, providing a clean cut.

Ergonomic Cutting Tools

Fiskars' Power Gear line offers a wide selection of garden tools intended to keep hands and fingers comfortable when performing cutting tasks. Specially designed handles and gears make these tools easier to use, particularly for people with arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome. The Power Gear large bypass pruner, with its increased leverage design, cuts hard, dry growth three times easier than standard pivot pruners. Choose the 31-inch model--its lightweight aluminum handles make clean cuts on green growth easier.

Other Garden Tools

Fiskars manufactures other useful garden tools like rakes, watering cans, floral shears and weeders. Pick the Sit-n-Store caddy and seat for the handy carting and storage of garden supplies, or one of five rain barrels for collecting water to use in the garden. bad credit loans

Vauxhall Ampera

Vauxhall launches its Ampera range extender car next month through a specialist network of 24 dealers in metropolitan areas.


This, says product manager Simon Prior, will be the real test of the car, acclaimed earlier this month as European Car of the Year.

Seven hundred people have already expressed a genuine interest in the £33,000 car and the sales target for the rest of this year is modest at around 2,500 to 3,000. This is expected to rise to around 5,000 next year. The launch has been boosted by an order of 20 from a leasing company.
TV advertising starts on April 23.

Launch manager Ian Allen says that compared to an Insignia 2.0-litre diesel, annual savings on running costs for a company car driver could be as high as £4,000 thanks to benefit-in-kind discount, first year capital allowance, no road tax and fuel savings of £1,100 a year based on driving 12,000 miles a year.
High mileage drivers - those driving 25,000-30,000 miles a year - will be better off driving an efficient diesel, he said. Target customers for the Ampera are those driving 12-15,000 miles a year.
Ampera is launched with two models, the Positiv at £32,250 and the Electron at £33,995 (including the £5,000 government grant).

September sees the arrival of a sub-£30,000 entry model at £29,995.
The message that Vauxhall wants to convey is that although Ampera looks expensive to buy, it is very cheap to run costing around £570 per year to charge overnight against petrol or diesel costs of £1,350.
Allen said that estimates from Glass's and CAP, the used car pricing experts, suggest Ampera will be worth around 40 per cent of its new value at £14,500 after three years/60,000 miles. unsecured loans

Partnership with British Gas


Vauxhall has partnered with British Gas to provide fast-charge kits to customers of its Ampera from £799.
Discounts of up to 75% are also available on some charging solutions to people living in areas designated ‘plugged-in places’ by the Government.

Vauxhall will offer all Ampera owners a British Gas Home Charging solution, which will include the installation of a home charge point, three year warranty on parts and labour, and three year home electrical care.
The home charging solution allows the Ampera to draw 16 amps of charge, compared with the regular six or 10 amps normally available to householders, reducing the car’s total charging time from six to four hours.
When fully charged the Ampera will then be able to travel up to 50 miles with zero tailpipe emissions, while its range-extender boosts this figure by up to 310 miles.

Dan Taylor, director of new ventures at British Gas, said: “With our network of engineers, we can help make buying an electric car accessible and convenient through specialist advice and the installation of charging points.” bad credit loans

Frand Micosoft

Microsoft has filed a formal competition complaint with the European Commission against Motorola - and by extension Google - claiming FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) abuse.

Motorola is notoriously aggressive when it comes to enforcing patent rights against rivals; however, Microsoft is arguing the company does not offer essential patents on fair and bad credit loans reasonable terms, ultimately breaking competition rules.

The filing deals specifically with patents that Motorola holds for Web video and the way it's accessed and played on devices like Windows PCs and the Xbox.

"In legal proceedings on both sides of the Atlantic, unsecured loans Motorola is demanding that Microsoft take its products off the market, or else remove their standards-based ability to play video and connect wirelessly," Microsoft's vice president and deputy general counsel Dave Heiner wrote in an official blog post.

"The only basis for these actions is that these products implement industry standards, on which Motorola claims patents. Yet when the industry adopted these standards, we all were counting on Motorola and every contributor to live up to their promises."

Microsoft has said it's willing to pay a fair price for the use of other's intellectual property, but claims Motorola isn't being quite so reasonable in its terms.

"For a $1,000 (£640) laptop, Motorola is demanding that Microsoft pay a royalty of $22.50 (£14) for its 50 patents on the video standard, called H.264.

"As it turns out, there are at least 2,300 other patents needed to implement this standard. They are available from a group of 29 companies that came together to offer their H.264 patents to the industry on FRAND terms.

"Microsoft's patent royalty to this group on that $1,000 laptop? Two cents (1p)."

These aren't the first FRAND problems for Motorola. Earlier this month, the company won an injunction against Apple, requiring them to pull iPad and iPhones in Germany.

However, Apple quickly appealed and won a temporary suspension of the injunction on claims that the Motorola patent is essential to industry and should be licensed under a FRAND basis.

duke of westminster fall

Grosvenor Group, the Duke ofWestminster's property firm that owns most of London's upmarket Belgravia and Mayfair districts, saw its returns fall to 9 percent last year on the back of weak retail values in Europe.
The firm is owned by the Grosvenor family, which holds the Duke of Westminster title. The current patriarch is Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, listed as Britain's fourth richest person on The Sunday Times Rich List 2011.
Government austerity measures which hit consumer spending in Europe saw Grosvenor's returns, based on rental income and property prices, fall from 10.9 percent in 2010.

"The outlook is far from certain and we expect the coming decade in the global property market to be tough," Grosvenorchief executive Mark Preston said on Tuesday.

"I do not see it (European retail) picking up or deteriorating in particular this year."

Despite falling returns, the company added 6.7 percent to its value in 2011 as property values extended a recovery after the credit crisis. Net assets were 2.9 billion pounds ($4.6 billion), versus 2.78 billion in 2010.
Like other developers, Grosvenor will increase the amount of high-end residential schemes it does versus offices and shops, Preston said. unsecured loans

Values for the most expensive London homes have risen 44 percent in the past three years on the back of strong overseas demand from buyers looking to shield assets from global economic volatility, consultancy Knight Frank said.

Outside Grosvenor's historic London estate, which it has owned for over 300 years, the company has investments in Brazil, China and North America as well as an international fund management business. ($1 = 0.6295 pound) (Reporting by Tom Bill; Editing by Dan Lalor)    bad credit loans

Which Dyson to buy?

The question of which vacuum cleaner to purchase is essentially one of personal choice. It will depend on the type of flooring you have in your home, whether you or a member of your household suffers with allergies, or if you have any pets.

You might also want to think about ongoing costs during the lifetime of your vacuum cleaner. Vacuums that use bags to trap dirt and dust clog up over time and restrict airflow, leading to a loss of suction. Over five years you’ll need to buy, on average, 40 replacement bags and five
filters. Not to mention the hassle of replacing them each time. With a Dyson vacuum there are no bags, no extra costs and no loss of suction.
Dyson machines all have patented Root Cyclone™ technology, which uses centrifugal forces to spin dust and dirt out of the air and straight into the bin. And all Dyson upright and cylinder vacuum cleaners come with a 5 year guarantee – parts and labour.

Upright or Cylinder?

Do you prefer to push or pull? Upright vacuum cleaners have a handle at waist height, and are pushed around the home in front of the user. They’re great for cleaning carpets and larger homes, and also typically come with a hose and attachments to help get into awkward spaces or clean
stairs.
Cylinder vacuums are generally quite compact and lightweight. The main unit is pulled behind the user, and the cleaner head is located at the end of the hose, which is good for getting into awkward spaces and cleaning stairs.

Push: Upright Vacuum Cleaners

   

Wheels or a ball?

Vacuums with fixed wheels only move in straight lines. DC24 and DC25 have Ball™ technology. They can turn on the spot, manoeuvring around obstacles and furniture with ease.

What about pets?

Dyson upright vacuums all have a rotating brush bar, helping to agitate the carpet pile and remove more embedded dust and pet hair. Dyson Animal bad credit loans vacuums also come with a Mini turbine head to remove pet hair from upholstery, stairs and awkward spaces.

Storage and weight

If space is at a premium, DC24 is one of Dyson’s lightest and most compact upright vacuums at just 5.4kg. Its handle compresses to make it even smaller and easier to store. For larger homes, DC33 is a full-size but lightweight upright vacuum cleaner. It has a Telescope Reach™ wand that extends to 4.8m with the press of a button, to clean stairs and high places.

Pull: Cylinder Vacuum Cleaners

Dyson cylinder vacuums come in small, medium and large.
   

For larger homes…

DC32 Animal is a full-size cylinder vacuum. With its two litre clear bin it’s ideal for larger homes, but still sits neatly on the stairs as you clean them.

…and smaller homes

DC26 weighs just 5.3kg and fits on a sheet of A4 paper. It has all the advantages of a smaller, lighter cleaner without compromising cyclone performance. Every angle and dimension has been engineered to make a small cyclone as efficient as a big one.

Easy storage

DC22 Multi Floor is a mid-size cylinder vacuum, with a Telescope Wrap™ system. Its hose and wand compress and wrap for easier storage.

Portable Dyson power wherever you need it

Only Dyson cordless vacuums have powerful, constant suction to quickly remove dirt and dust inside the home or car – from carpets to car seats, and skirting boards to counter tops. They have the same Root Cyclone™ technology as our full-sized vacuums. The lithium-ion battery releases charge evenly with no drop-off, and recharges up to three times faster than others. The charger plugs straight into the battery, attached to or separate from the machine. unsecured loans Dyson cordless vacuums come with a 2 year guarantee. Parts and labour.

Portable Dyson power… for quick clean-ups

DC30 is a handheld vacuum that weighs just 1.2kg. When fully charged it provides 6 minutes of high constant suction. Or if you’re looking for something with a longer run-time or more power, DC34 has 15 minutes of constant suction, and 6 minutes in boost mode for more difficult tasks.

Portable power… for pet owners

DC34 Animal is a handheld vacuum with a motorised brush bar, making it ideal for homes with pets, and for cleaning pet hair from the inside of cars.

Portable power… for high, low and awkward places

DC35 Multi Floor is a cordless vacuum cleaner for every floor type. It has a lightweight detachable wand and can reach high, low and awkward places.
With its own docking station and 15 minutes of high constant suction, it means that you don’t always have to get your full-sized vacuum out.

Engineered cleaning tools

Every Dyson vacuum has a range of tools designed for it. Each one removes dirt wherever it is. Dyson engineers put as much thought into developing Dyson tools as they do Dyson vacuums. A poorly-designed tool can waste suction, fail to remove dust and dirt and cause overall performance of the machine to drop. Check the Dyson website before you buy to make sure that the tool you are purchasing is compatible with your Dyson machine.

Awkward spaces

The Up top tool twists into different positions and angles for easy high-reach cleaning. And the Flexi-crevice tool extends and flexes to fit into awkward gaps.
It’s ideal for cleaning between furniture.

Awkward dirt

The Stubborn dirt brush has stiff bristles for cleaning mud and dried-in dirt on a huge range of surfaces and Dyzolv™ spot cleaner cleans spots and spills on carpets and rugs.

Awkward objects

The Mattress tool removes dirt and allergens from mattresses and upholstery quickly and easily and the Soft dusting brush has soft bristles for gentle dusting of objects like lighting and blinds.

Getting discount at ikea

Don't pay full price for that beautiful sofa, bed or lamp you've been thinking about buying. Fill your home with decorative furnishings from Ikea without draining your bank account. Ikea coupons, promo codes and discounts are available in a variety of denominations. Print coupons that offer a percentage off of your entire purchase or search for discounts that deduct a specific dollar amount from your total. You'll have the nicest furniture on the block -- and your neighbors will never know that you didn't pay full price for your Ikea items.

Instructions

1. • 1
     Request a catalog. You can also pick one up at your local Ikea, but the mailed copies occasionally contain coupons and special offers.
   • 2
     Find Ikea on Facebook. "Like" Ikea for full access to its fan page. Communicate with other Ikea lovers, share your opinions on Ikea products and find current information about discounts and events.
   • 3
     Join Ikea's mailing list. This is one of the best ways to receive information about special offers. When you request to join the mailing list, unsecured loans you can also elect to receive text messages from Ikea.
   • 4
     Check coupon websites and forums on a regular basis. You won't find Ikea coupons every single time you look, but they will be posted as bad credit loans they become available. One benefit of coupon forums is that they often include customer feedback about coupon expiration dates and restricted items.

Howden Joinery

Howden Joinery, which supplies kitchen, bathroom cabinet and joinery products to small builders and trade professionals, said it continued to perform well despite ongoing difficult trading conditions.
The group, which operates out of 500 depots across the UK, unsecured loans said revenue from Howden Joinery UK depots rose 6.2% between the end of the first half of the year and the end of October from the corresponding period last year.
The increase in revenue was higher than bad credit loans the underlying increase seen in first half of the year, after it hiked prices at the start of the second half, Howden explained.

Its gross margin performance is in line with market expectations for the year.
In the first 44 weeks of 2011, ending 29 October, Howden Joinery UK depots' revenue was up 5.6%, and up 3.2% on a same depot basis.
Since its last update in July, Howden has opened six new depots, resulting in eleven depots being opened so far this year.
However Howden said it remains cautious about the outlook for 2012, given the continuing uncertainty about the prospects for the economy.

How to Make Mercury Fulminate

Mercury fulminate is perhaps one of the oldest known initiating compounds. It
can be detonated by
either heat or shock, which would make it of infinite value to a terrorist. Even
the action of
dropping a crystal of the fulminate causes it to explode. A person making this
material would probably
use the following procedure:
MATERIALS EQUIPMENT
--------- ---------
5 g mercury glass stirring rod

35 ml concentrated 100 ml beaker (2)
nitric acid

ethyl alcohol (30 ml) adjustable heat source

distilled water blue litmus paper

funnel and filter paper

Solvent alcohol must be at least 95% ethyl alcohol if it is used to make mercury
fulminate. Methyl
alcohol may prevent mercury fulminate from forming.

Mercury thermometers are becoming a rarity, unfortunately. They may be hard to
find in most stores as
they have been superseded by alcohol and other less toxic fillings. Mercury is
also used in mercury
switches, which are available at electronics stores. Mercury is a hazardous
substance, and should be
kept in the thermometer or mercury switch until used. It gives off mercury
vapors which will cause
brain damage if inhaled. For this reason, it is a good idea not to spill
mercury, and to always use it
outdoors. Also, do not get it in an open cut; rubber gloves will help prevent
this.
1. In one beaker, mix 5 g of mercury with 35 ml of concentrated nitric acid,
using the glass rod.
2. Slowly heat the mixture until the mercury is dissolved, which is when the
solution turns green and
boils.
3. Place 30 ml of ethyl alcohol into the second beaker, and slowly and carefully
add all of the
contents of the first beaker unsecured loans to it. Red and/or brown fumes should appear. These

fumes are toxic
and flammable.
4. After thirty to forty minutes, the fumes should turn white, indicating that
the reaction is near
completion. After ten more minutes, add 30 ml of the distilled water to the
solution.
5. Carefully filter out the crystals of mercury fulminate from the liquid
solution. Dispose of the
solution in a safe place, as it is corrosive and toxic.
6. Wash the crystals several times in distilled water to remove as much excess
acid as possible. Test
the crystals with the litmus paper until they are neutral. This will be when the
litmus paper
stays blue when it touches the wet crystals
7. Allow the crystals to dry, and store them in a safe place, far away from any
explosive or
flammable material.

This procedure can also be bad credit loans done by volume, if the available mercury cannot be
weighed. Simply use 10
volumes of nitric acid and 10 volumes of ethanol to every one volume of mercury. 

Remax Malta registers 45 per cent increase in property sales

Remax Malta increased its year-on-year sales turnover by 45 per cent and letting turnover by 25 per cent last year.

Addressing more than 150 Remax affiliates at the annual general meeting in the Malta Hilton’s Portomaso Suite, managing director Kevin Buttigieg said: “2011 was an excellent year thanks to the collective efforts of all affiliates making up the Malta family. We already started the year up by 35 per cent compared to last year and we shall continue to support you to reach greater heights in 2012.”

Letting manager Edward Agius gave an overview of his unit’s performance while regional director Jeffrey Buttigieg outlined the marketing, public relations, and information technology activities. He said the company’s website had been recognised by Remax Europe as the most optimised regional website in all of Remax.
General manager Joseph Theuma gave a graphical presentation highlighting the achievements of 2011 which was followed by an awards ceremony.

Mr Buttigieg added: “We provide a foundation, the tools and we mentor and show our people how to best utilise their abilities. We are one big family and we are always happy at this time of the year to award our people for their excellent achievements.”

The top individual Remax Malta performers unsecured loans in property sales were married couple Vanessa and Noel Agius who won first and second place for most revenue generated. Charles Vella Rapa placed third.
Roderick Cucciardi won the award for most inspections sold; Patrick Spiteri won the award for most promises of sale signed last year.

Remax Alliance Tigne won top sales office for 2011 on two accounts, for volume sales accumulated and for revenue generated. The Remax Business Development office won top sales office for revenue generated per capita per day. The top individual performers in bad credit loans property letting were Lorainne Bonnici, Jason Cornthwaite and Michaela Tabone. Sue Carabott was named top listing associate for the second year.

The individual top winners of the awards are now off to Las Vegas for the Remax International Convention.

NHS bill explained

“What is your opinion of the NHS reforms?” I asked one consultant from Manchester. The response was less than enthusiastic.

“It’ll be a shot to the head of the NHS.” The proposed Health and Social Care Bill 2011 has been dubbed the most radical plan in the history of the health service – and it certainly has proved controversial. It’s been labelled as both the end and the saviour of nationalised British health, but with all the mud slinging between politicians, unions and healthcare groups it’s tricky to know what all the fuss is about? Where do we, as present and future patients and potential employees of the nation’s largest employer, stand?

Perhaps it’s wise just to take a step back and look at how many people it’s going to affect. The University of Manchester is the largest face-to-face teaching university in the country, having over 3,200 current students on nursing, midwifery and medicine courses. Without taking into account psychologists, life scientists and every other student with ambitions of working in the healthcare system, it makes up fewer than 10 percent of our student population. The NHS employs over 1.4 million people- that’s more than 5 percent of UK’s working population. But most importantly, these are changes that affect almost all of us. No matter how strong we think or feel we are, one day we will probably need NHS treatment. As such an important feature in our lives, any change to the NHS needs to be understood and supported by the public. I’m going to explain the current structure, outline the why and how of the reforms and discuss the numerous views surrounding them.

Why are the reforms being proposed?

There’s no getting away from it; the world is in financial meltdown. With governments all over the world scrounging for pennies cuts are being made across the board and the NHS (although technically ‘ring fenced’) is undergoing readjustments to make it ‘more efficient and cost effective’. Essentially, the NHS is attempting to save £20 bn by 2014-2015, which kicks David Cameron’s electoral pledge “Cut the deficit not the NHS” into the dustbin. Considering this reform will be rolled out in 2013 at the earliest, you’re looking at a whopping £10 bn saving per year across the NHS. However, Cameron has promised that the actual money put in to the NHS will still rise year on year. Critics argue that this is a facade; that in reality he’ll be reducing the annual increase in the NHS budget. The extra money that is being put in each year will be swallowed up by rising inflation, meaning that the actual monetary value the NHS gets will decrease.

A quick look back at history has seen spending on the NHS triple since 1999 from £40 bn to over £120 bn. However, looking at figures relative to British GDP per capita we still put in less money per person than almost every other nation in Western Europe and North America. Despite this, all major political parties have described a need to curb the rising costs in the NHS whilst making it more efficient. The Health and Social Care Bill 2011 is the coalition government’s proposal to do this.

How is the NHS currently structured?

At the moment the Department of Health controls the NHS. The Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley, is the head and reports to the Prime Minister. The Department of Health controls England’s 10 Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs), which oversee 152 Primary Care Trusts (PCTs).The PCTs control local NHS activities. The devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their local NHS services separately.

Primary Care Trusts control approximately 80 percent of the budget and are responsible for distributing the money to GPs and hospitals as well changing their services to suit the needs of their populations. So, if Manchester had an increase in patients with diabetes, then they would be expected to provide more services to support those with diabetes. The PCT would plan effectively how to use their budget to accommodate their new needs.

The role of the Strategic Health Authorities is to provide leadership in the area they serve by organising workforce development and ensuring PCTs are looking after the needs of their populations. Essentially, they are the overseeing body that will dictate the numbers of staff needed across the region in different areas. For example, if the North West were low on anaesthetists they would call on deaneries responsible for training them to increase the numbers they train so that the whole SHA can benefit. They also are responsible for finding specialist services for conditions that some PCTs can’t treat.

Currently there is a large emphasis on cooperation between PCTs to provide the best possible service for patients by taking a national, regional and local perspective on health.

What are the proposed reforms?

The NHS will undergo a radical pro-market shakeup with hospitals, private healthcare providers and family doctors competing for patients who will be able to choose their own treatment and care options.

They will do this by abolishing all PCTs and SHAs, therefore culling more than 24,000 management jobs. Budgets will be directly paid from Department of Health to newly formed GP consortiums, which will be groups of GPs responsible for a certain area. A National Health Commissioning Board will be set up to supervise the GP consortiums to make sure they are doing what they are supposed to.

The increase in competition will provide a change from a unilateral service to one with more ‘choice’. Say for instance someone went to his GP and was told he had a funny looking lump on his shoulder that the GP wanted to have a closer look at. The GP would then request an X-ray. At the moment the patient would go to a local hospital to have it done. If the reforms take affect the GP and patient would now have a choice between several providers. For this example we’ll say a Private Hospital is charging £60 and a local NHS hospital is charging £80. Most likely the GP will try and convince the patient to go to the cheaper one because he is mindful of his budget. If the patient doesn’t, he can then go and complain to the ‘Monitor’, who is there to ensure ‘patient choice’. The powers of the ‘Monitor’ haven’t been well defined so it is not known if they will actually be able to intervene effectively. This also raises questions over the effect it will have on doctor – patient relationships as the patient will know the doctor’s decision may be influenced by the budget the doctor himself set out. He could directly ask him,

“why haven’t you set enough aside for my X-ray?”

This increase in competition you might think could lead to a decrease in NHS patients going to NHS hospitals, causing the NHS to shrink. Well the government has a plan for that. There are already a number of hospitals that have ‘Foundation Trust’ status and the Government are pressing for more and more hospitals to convert into them. These ‘Foundation Trusts’ have several powers that enable them to chase private patients (those with individual health insurance) and therefore bolster their own revenue so that they are not solely dependent on the money given to them by the government for NHS patients, thus enabling NHS hospitals to challenge private healthcare providers. However, this has raised concerns that these ‘Foundation Trusts’ will lead a charge by the NHS for private patients causing a decrease in access to healthcare for NHS ones.

Who is against the reforms?

It all sounds rather good, with more choice for patients and reduced costs over the whole of the NHS. But the plans have drawn sharp criticism from many interest groups. UNISON, the biggest trade union in the UK with over 1.3 million members, said

“NHS patients will be the biggest losers if the Government pushes through its Health and Social Care Bill.”

More opposition comes from the Royal College of Nursing. With over 400,000 members, they took the unprecedented decision to vote 96 percent in favour of a no confidence vote in Andrew Lansley. You might think that the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), whose members will be handed increased power, would be happy but they have also expressed concerns with the changes,

“They [our members] worry about the financial pressures, and the competition culture of ‘Any Willing Provider’. They fear that these reforms could cause irreparable and irreversible damage to the NHS.”

The British Medical Association (BMA) who is to all intents and purposes a trade union for doctors working in the UK said;

“The BMA continues to call for the Bill to be withdrawn or, failing that, to be subject to further significant amendments.”

Finally, Ed Milliband, leader of the Labour party, went a step further and attacked the Prime Minister,

“It is an insult to the people who work in the health service, it is an insult to the people who use it and the Prime Minister should be ashamed of the way he is running the NHS, the proudest institution of Britain.”

It all sounds pretty fiery with anyone and everyone getting hot under the collar about it. So why are so many vehemently against the reform? The issues stem from several key areas.

The first being that GPs are now expected to become managers of their accounts whereas before much of the administration of the NHS was done by trained experts on PCT boards. Dr. Azeer, a GP of the Bury PCT, stated,

“I’ve had 15 years of clinical training, how am I expected to suddenly be an accountant as well?” A concern echoed by Conservative MP and GP, Sarah Wollaston, “It is one thing to rapidly dismantle the entire middle layer of NHS management but it is completely unrealistic to assume several hundred inexperienced commissioning (GP) consortia can take their place.”

Worries have also been raised that GPs will now have even less time with patients as they are forced to spend valuable time organising finances for their regions. Ironically, it is feared that GPs will resort to paying increased fees for managers that originally worked for PCTs absolving GPs of their new responsibilities and completely negating the desired effect. For students there may well be a reduction in training opportunities. Medical training is carried out entirely at NHS hospitals and under new proposals a lot of patients will now be going to Private Hospitals instead. Even Lord Nebbit, a Conservative pier in the House of Lords, has expressed concerns;

“It’s fine for the private sector, which doesn’t have responsibility for teaching and bringing on young surgeons, to take the straightforward and easy stuff. But that means unsecured loans the public sector is then left without the base of work to subsidise the more difficult surgery and the teaching of surgeons.”

With the abolition of the SHAs and PCTs there could be a lack of national oversight on health policy which will leave a fragmented NHS struggling to cope with the needs of patients on a national level as well as a local one. An example of this, is there being no government body to acknowledge the need for changing numbers of different types of doctors.

Regardless of these fears, a massive question remains that these changes may not actually see a decrease in costs in the NHS as the implementation of the reforms will cost over £2 billion in themselves and then the further re-organisation of the NHS bad credit loans could cause costs in the NHS to spiral out of control.

What next?

The reforms have passed through the House of Commons and are now in the House of Lords at a committee stage. This stage can take several months where infinite details are haggled over until a compromise is met before a final amendments stage. Groups such as the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and 38 Degrees have online petitions calling for the Health and Social Care Bill 2011 to be halted. Whether these reforms go through or not could be monumental for the NHS and as one of the future generations it is our responsibility to let our voices be heard. If I am to leave you with one final thought, it is to consider our trans-Atlantic cousins who, also struggling in a financial crisis, have given the go-ahead for a national health service of their own. Is this really the time to start unraveling ours?