Design

Positioning Windows for Passive Cooling

By missalis | July 14, 2015 | No Comments | Design

If you want your home to leave a small carbon footprint and cost less to run over its lifetime, a good place to start is with the windows. Traditionally, windows were smaller and many older homes still reflect this trend, but it is not difficult to have larger ones installed and you will be amazed at the difference it makes. Windows let in the cool breezes, natural lighting and warm sun in the winter, if they are in the right position. And if you are building a new home, now is the time to ensure that your windows are large enough – and are positioned in the correct way.

Why Wind Direction is Important

When you purchase a block of land, probably the last thing on your mind would be what direction the prevailing winds usually come from. But this knowledge is important in passive cooling because you will need larger windows on this side. It is easy to find this information out. Ask some locals who have lived there a long time or find out from the weather bureau. Researching the topic online may be the way to go if your area is well-known. Many cities on the coast will have breezes coming in from the sea.

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The Ideal Solution for Limited Mobility – Install a Lift

By missalis | February 18, 2015 | No Comments | Design

People with limited mobility find it difficult to go up and down stairs whether they are elderly or young with some physical limitation. Very often children and young adults have been injured in a car accident or contracted some disease that prevents them climbing stairs. Yet they may have a lovely home with more than one storey, or if it is built on a hilly location, the garage may be underneath and the home is above. This requires going up steps that can be very difficult to negotiate. The ideal solution are lifts, specifically to install disability lifts.

Advantages of a Lift for Young Adults

In fact, even those who are young and strong may find going up stairs difficult at times during their life. When you have a baby, the nursery is usually upstairs in a two storey home. Imagine the difficulty – and danger – of carrying a tiny baby or wriggling toddler, not to mention all their paraphernalia, up and down the stairs. There is the pram or stroller, the baby seat or capsule, the walker, various large toys and many packets of disposable nappies, to mention just a few.

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How Bathroom Mirrors Enhance Space and Light

By missalis | December 19, 2014 | No Comments | Design

Not all bathrooms are spacious and well-lit. Older homes often fail in this regard, especially if they were designed many years ago when no one thought the bathroom was very important. It was simply considered the place to have a quick bath or shave and leave as soon as possible so the others could use it. These days it is more of a place for rest and relaxation as well as for applying make-up and doing other beauty routines. Such things require light and space, but if your bathroom has neither, what can you do? There are simple ways and means of enhancing the light and space in a bathroom renovation.

Use Mirrors

We all know that mirrors are needed in the bathroom so that we can see what we are doing. Shaving, plucking, styling hair and adding make-up all need a mirror. However, mirrors also reflect other things apart from your face. If you place an additional mirror right opposite the window, your light will increase and so will your perception of space.

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How Improved Design Enhances Sliding Aluminium Windows

By missalis | November 9, 2014 | No Comments | Design

One great thing about aluminium windows is that they don’t need painting. If you have ever had the job of painting a window you will know how fiddly it is. Aluminium windows come in silvery grey or brown, both of which seem to suit a variety of colours, as well as brickwork. They are simple to operate and provide a good view and plenty of light, since you can get large sizes.

There was only one thing wrong with them and that was the tiny grooves inside the gutter that contained the sliding part. Happily, this has disappeared, leaving the window much easier to clean.

What Else is New with Aluminium Windows?

Once, the sliding aluminium window did just that; slid to one side of the opening, leaving half the window cavity opened. Of course you could adjust this to any amount from a narrow crack to the full half width. But nowadays you can have all the advantages of aluminium windows in designs that are not just sliding. There are: –

Louvres
Bifold
Hopper
Sash
Double Hung
Fixed

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What Type of Fencing is Best for Homes

By missalis | October 25, 2014 | No Comments | Design

There are many different types of fencing for homes and the one you choose may depend on your location or the main reason for fencing your home. For instance, if you live on a farm, you may need to have a stock fence of barbed wire around your home just to keep the cows off your lawn and stop them munching up your flowers. But if you live in a residential area you are likely to need a fence for a different reason.

Reasons for Fencing

For instance, you may simply want a fence to mark out the boundaries of your block. But if you have trouble with children riding their bikes over your lawn and gardens, you would want a sturdier fence than just a pretty boundary marker.

Due to recent government regulations around the world, the glass fencing specialists at www.clearazglassfencing.com.au have seen the demand for glass pool fencing go up in recent years – where homeowners want to protect their young children or pets and add value to their property.

Many people these days choose a fence for security reasons. This means that the fence will need to be high enough so that no one can climb over it, and sturdy enough that it cannot be pulled down or have a hole cut in it.

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3 Reasons why You Need Security Doors

By missalis | June 18, 2014 | No Comments | Design

Many homeowners take security for granted without actually checking to ensure that their home is safe. Or they may have a security door at the front, but none at the back. Since doors and windows are the obvious ingress points for a burglar, it makes sense to ensure all such openings are secure. If you have not thought too much about security, here are 3 reasons why your home needs security doors.

1: Security Doors Ensure Your Personal Safety

This may seem obvious, but unless you have been the target of a home invasion it will not really hit home. Having your home broken into is bad enough, but being the victim of a violent home invasion is much worse. It takes years to recover emotionally and mentally from such an attack and of course, the physical repercussions may be with you for months or years. If you happen to be at home when your house is robbed, you can often fall victim to an assault, even if that was not the main reason the invader broke in. Older people, especially, find it difficult to recover from such a trauma, while children can be badly affected and have nightmares for years afterwards. How much better would it be to prevent it from happening in the first place.

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Adding Elegance to Your Bathroom – Frameless Shower Screens

By missalis | April 12, 2014 | No Comments | Design, Renovations

The bathroom is an important part of the house since every member of the family uses it. These days, having an elegant bathroom is considered essential, so what can you do to make your bathroom into a place that everyone will enjoy spending time in? The answer is easy. Add frameless shower screens. There are many benefits –

With no solid walls to cast shadow in your small room it will look much bigger. Having a light, airy space will create elegance and offers the perception of space, making your bathroom look bigger than it actually is.
Being lighter makes it easier to see, so you don’t have to switch the light on quite so much – a benefit to the planet as well as to your wallet.
Enhances your lifestyle. When you have a bathroom that is pleasant to be in your lifestyle is enhanced, your stress levels go down and you can feel happier and more relaxed.
Frameless shower screens are easier to clean. The glass for the frameless screen is thicker to attain the required strength. With no frame to worry about you can get on with cleaning the glass with wide sweeps of the cloth. The job is done much more quickly.
Frameless shower screens are – pure and simple – more elegant than any other kind of shower screen. You will be proud of your bathroom once it is finished.

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4 Benefits of Installing a Home Lift

By missalis | January 25, 2014 | No Comments | Design

Mostly when we think of lifts we think of them in some commercial setting such as a high-rise apartment building or a hospital. We would certainly find it difficult to get around such places without having lifts to help, but what about installing a home lift? When you think about it, it is a really sensible idea. Here are 4 benefits of having a lift installed in your home.

1: A home lift will increase the value of your home. If you get to the stage where you want to sell for any reason, having a home lift will mean that the selling reach is widened, making your home suitable to many more people such as older couples or those with a disability. Your home will very likely sell more quickly when there are more people for whom it is suitable. This will allow you to get on with the rest of your life instead of wasting time waiting for it to sell before you can really put your other goals into practice.

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Category: Design