Drawer Pulls - Some Refreshing Ideas

Looking to really mix things up in your house? There has been a major drive for people to be more creative in recent years. That goes beyond taking the time to learn how to do a little painting or drawing. Many want to show off their creativity by adding artistic touches to their homes.

While you may not be at the level where you want to do a major job on the whole house and start a massive painting project, you can start small and personalize some of the accents in your house like drawer pulls and knobs.

When you think about drawer pulls, you may not think about too much impressive. Those are just there to help you open the drawers and close them, right? Well, sure they can be just that. But they can also be much more if you give them a chance.

Here's a look at some of the possible unique ways you can make new drawer pulls in your home.

Adding to Existing Pulls

If you have pulls that are made of a simple and rather plain material, you may be able to use that as your canvas. Many pulls are made of wood or plastic and are a solid color.

If you have a little painting prowess, you can turn these into new designs with your own hands.

Not a painter? Never fear, there are other ways to decorate as well. Small pieces of tile or glass can be attached to the front of the pull in a mosaic style. One thing to keep in mind if this is your plan is to make sure that the items you use on the pulls are not sharp edged as they can cut your hands as you try to use the drawers.

Handy with cloth? You can decorate your pulls and make them softer to the touch at the same time by adding fabric with designs to the handle or even crocheting or embroidering a piece to slip over the pull.

Making New Pulls

Another option is to create something completely new that can take on the roll of drawer pulls or knobs. This will take a little more thought and creativity, but can pay off in spades.

Have a nature theme going in your home? Why not add a little nature to your drawers? If you can find old pieces of driftwood or dried branches from a beloved tree in your backyard, these may take on a new life as pulls for your chest of drawers. It's easier than you think. You can either use the base of your old drawer pulls and attach the new pieces to them or measure the screw holes that were in the old pulls and drill new holes in the wood at the right distance apart. Then just screw them in place and use.

In this respect, you can use whatever you think of as drawer pulls including old trinkets that you are willing to sacrifice with a drill hole to make it take on a new role.

The key to mixing up your hardware is to enjoy it and have fun while fine-tuning your creative look.

Author Jennifer Akre is an owner of a wide variety of online specialty shops that offer both items and information on how you can easily furnish and decorate your space. Whether it's your living, bedroom, or even your deck or patio, there are many tips you can use to make those spots both functional and beautiful. Today, she offers advice on how to create a fabulous kitchen area by using versatile kitchen carts and sleek cabinet knobs to update the look of the space.

Tips When Choosing a Room Air Conditioner

A room air conditioner is a small, self-contained unit designed to cool just one room of a building. While most models of room air conditioners are placed in windows, there are some models that are installed to go through an exterior wall opening. These small air conditioning units must be placed in a window or in a wall opening, in order to allow for the air exchange that is needed for the unit to function properly.

Room air conditioners are often a good choice for renters, since they can be removed fairly easily and can be reinstalled in a new location. The drawback is that these small air conditioning units tend to be quite a bit less energy efficient than a central air conditioning system would be.

To encourage residential customers to make choices that will save on electricity usage during the summer months, there are many utility districts that have launched a "Be Cool" campaign. The purpose of this effort is to promote the benefits of buying room air conditioner models that are as energy efficient as possible.

In some areas, the local power companies are even encouraging the residents to trade in their old air conditioners and replace these less efficient units with Energy Star qualified room air conditioners. The "BE COOL" challenge winner will be the participating community that gets the highest percentage of area residents to take part in the campaign.

Recently, another advantage to using energy efficient air conditioning systems is a federal tax credit. Individuals who choose to install any type of air conditioning units, which are Energy Star rated, will be eligible for a federal tax credit of as much as $300.

The air conditioning units that qualify for this tax credit are obviously costlier to purchase than the ordinary air conditioners that consume more energy to operate. However, calculating the tax incentive, along with the savings in the cost to run the unit, clearly shows that it is well worth it to install new units that qualify.

Even with a savings of just $10 a month on the electricity bill adds up to $120 for a year. Add that minimum savings to that the tax credit of $300, and the net saving is $420 for the first year.

In most instances, this amount will more than offset the initial, higher cost of energy efficient, air conditioning units. On top of that, the energy efficient air conditioning unit will also continue to save money each year and make it more affordable to run.

When choosing a room air conditioning unit, experts advise that it is best to purchase the best model that is affordable, but not necessarily the biggest unit. The unit should fit into the amount of space available, while taking into consideration the room size.

Buying a room air conditioner model that is bigger than what is needed actually means that it will be using more energy and will not be efficient at all. This wasted energy is because of the cycling of the motor that works to keep the room at the right temperature. On top of an ineffective use of energy, this also means there is more wear on the moving parts as well.

Get your FREE ventilation gift and the best information on the room air conditioner at Mike Selvon's portal, and leave a comment at our air conditioning systems blog.

Choose A Bath Over A Shower Any Day

Taking a shower will leave us feeling clean and fresh but it will not provide as many benefits as taking a bath. Let's take a look at the benefits of bathing, and you can decide for yourself, which is better for you.

Showers are quick, but baths encourage us to relax and take our time. Taking a bath is more soothing than taking a shower, will help to draw out toxins from the body and if bathing with bath salts you can actually replenish your body with essential minerals required to keep your skin soft and supple. Taking a bath also will help to relieve stress, and gives stressed people a chance to have a time to take a deep breath and stop for a while, and put things in perspective. You can combine aromatherapy with your bath to create an exceptionally therapeutic experience.

If you have a cold, there is nothing better than a bath to clear congested lungs and relieve sinus pressure. Even breathing in the steam while taking a bath is really healthy and a sore throat can feel a lot more comfortable.

Taking a bath, and especially with bath salts warms your body, eases muscles aches and pains, and is especially nice during the cold, dreary winter months. Bathing can also be very romantic. Between the warm water, sweet aromas and moisturizing bath bubbles, baths are just plain sexy when shared. Light some candles around the tub, play soft music, and step into the bath together - you will have a memorable, romantic evening.

So next time you think you are in a hurry to take a quick shower, slow down and think again - Maybe it's time to take a nice warm relaxing bath.

What Are Cooling Towers?

What exactly are cooling towers anyway? They are heat rejection devices used to extract waste heat into the air from the cooling of a water stream to a lesser temperature. They are also referred to evaporate heat rejection devices. These devices provide lower water temperatures than an air cooled or heat rejection devices.

Cooling towers are used in air conditioning, electric power generation and in various manufacturing facilities. They can be referred to both open circuit and closed circuit heat rejection equipment.

Small cooling towers are designed to handle only a few gallons of water per minute, which is supplied by small pipes. The large towers cool hundreds of thousands of gallons of water per minute. The pipes supplying the water are up to fifteen feet in diameter. These are found in large power plants.

There are several different types of cooling towers. One such type is the mechanical-draft cooling towers. They rely on power driven fans that draw or force the air through the specific tower.

Another type of cooling tower is the natural draft-cooling tower. It uses buoyancy of exhaust air rising in a chimney to provide the needed draft for cooling. Another type is the fan-assisted natural draft tower uses a mechanical draft to expand the buoyancy.

In the past, they relied on the prevailing winds to get the air drafts needed for cooling.

Cooling towers can emit a lot of noise. Things that cause the noise include the sound of water falling, the sound of large fans along with motors and drive belts as well.

Many terms are associated with water coolers. We will briefly go over a few of them. Leaching refers a loss of wood preservative chemicals caused by the washing action of flowing water through a wooden cooling tower. A plume is a stream of exhaust leaving the tower.

Blowouts are water droplets that are blown out of the cooling towers with the exhaust air that is blown out.

There is more to learn about cooling towers, so please visit our website today.

Your guide to everything you have ever wanted to know about a cooling towers and heat exchangers. We also provide information on various types and brands of heat exchangers. Visit our site today!

http://www.theheatexchangers.com

By D. Karlson

Books on Home Building - Professional Advice

If you're a do it yourself or or a homeowner who every once in a while, once to tackle a small or large project but doesn't know where to begin, can gather useful information from home building books. I have been using these books for years and may have been worth their weight in gold.

I started my career working for my father and my father worked for his father as a Carpenter. Our job was to frame the house and we built a Lotta homes. I learned how to frame and developed some great carpentry skills from my father and working with other skilled carpenters. Over the years, if you're paying attention, even a monkey can figure out, how to assemble almost anything.

The only problem that I faced, was learning how to build the rest of the home. I would often ask questions to other building trades like plumbers, electricians, roofers and construction superintendents. Some of these people were helpful and others were not. When I was in my early 30s, I purchased my first book on home building. This book lead to other books and soon I found myself with more home building knowledge that my father.

I had about 50 books on home building and soon found myself doing large home remodels, with no formal education. I would attribute almost everything that I learned outside of house framing to books. These books have proven invaluable to me over the years and with a relatively small investment. I couldn't have spent over $200 purchasing these books but have used the knowledge from them to save myself thousands of dollars.

One $20 home building books or home repairs, can save you lots of money, if you're willing to do a little research and the labor to complete almost any home building project.

By the way, if you're interested in learning how to repair a roof, build your own house, interior decorating, structural engineering, building a deck, gathering some more information about home painting or even remodeling your bathroom. An online home building bookstore can save you money if you're willing to do the work.

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He has just finished a Home Buyers Guide to take some of the frustration out of home shopping

If your looking for some more home inspection or home building ideas

Green Gift Ideas - For Someone Who Wants to Go Green

Getting going on going green can seem like a daunting task. It seems like everyone is feeling pressured to do their part to be a friend to the environment, but it can be difficult to know where to even begin. If you have a friend who has expressed an interest in going green, the items described in this article might be a good place to get started.

Did you know that 8 out of 10 plastic water bottles used in the U.S. become garbage or end up in a landfill? If you purchase a Nalgene water bottle for your friend, you will enable her to refrain from contributing to this statistic. These water bottles are friendly to the environment because they are reusable and produced by an environmentally conscious company.

Because the average adult receives about 41 pounds of junk mail each year, there are now companies who are in the business of removing junk mail from your mailbox. Purchase this junk mail removal service for your friends at 41pounds.com.

Interesting fact: About 80% of what Americans throw away is recyclable. Unfortunately, the percentage of households that recycle is considerably lower. Contact the city in which your friend lives and ask to pay for their recycling service for the year. The cost and availability of this service will vary from one city or county to the next, but where we live this gift would cost only $48.00 for the entire year.

Are you aware that an energy saving light bulb uses about 75% less energy than a standard light bulb? Being friendly to the environment doesn't mean you have to sacrifice quality; these energy saving bulbs also put out about the same light and tend to last longer than a standard bulb. Help your friend get started on conserving energy by purchasing a starter kit of energy saving compact fluorescent light bulbs that they can begin using throughout their home.

You know those single use plastic bags that we all use to cart our groceries to and fro? Sadly, those bags weigh heavily on our environment. It takes a lot of oil to make those bags, they cause marine animal deaths every year and they will remain on the planet long after we've left it. Help to eliminate the use of these bags by purchasing reusable shopping bags for your friend. Inexpensive and easy to tote, these bags can be purchased at Reusablebags.com.

You can also help your friend go green by limiting their carbon footprint on the planet. Go to Terrapass.com, click on gift ideas and see all of the ways that you can give the gift of carbon offsets for your friend. Spend some time on the website to see all of the other gift ideas and environmentally friendly products the company has to offer.

Another nice way to make your friend a greener person is to plant a tree in their honor. Treesinstead.com is just one of the many organizations that offer this service as a gift option. And finally, if you are passionate about the environment and want to jumpstart your friend in her efforts to go green, you can always make a tax deductable donation to your favorite organization in the name of your friend.

Any one of these gifts will be appreciated by the friend in your life who is making an effort to be a friend to the environment.

This article was written by Amber Contant. Visit her website to discover more unique gift ideas including hints for Valentines day gifts.

DIY Vertical Wind Generators - Are They Worth It?

With the ever increasing need for everybody to be more careful with the environment (and in today's climate their money) have you ever thought about building your own DIY Vertical Wind Generator? These units are much like the usual wind generators except the blades are positioned vertically rather than horizontally.

It is easy to build a DIY Vertical Wind Generator from plans for normal wind generators. All that is needed is to turn the blades vertical. All the components need to build a DIY Vertical Wind Generator can be found in your local DIY store for as little as $200.

So why build a DIY Vertical Wind Generator rather than a normal wind generator? Since the blades are positioned vertically rather than horizontally you have the option of putting more blade units on the generator since there is more space. It won't necessarily generate more energy but it will allow the blades to become more sensitive to wind, allowing for power to be generated even in slight breezes; something that is not always possible with the conventional wind units.

The units can also be built to be much more compact that the usual wind turbines. This makes them ideal for people who do not have a lot of outside or roof space and can even be set up to sit on apartment balconies or outside walls. You don't even need a stand that rotates with the wind as the blades are sensitive even in a fixed position. The electronic side of setting up the DIY vertical wind generator is not all that complicated either. There are plenty of electronic blueprints out there that will show you how to set this up.

If self-sufficiency is what you are after then you will probably need at lease three to four units. If you want to ensure that you will still have power during a power outage then you will need to fit batteries to the unit. This allows electricity to be stored and be readily available to use. The downside is that these batteries can increase the cost of building the units. My suggestion would be to have a few units with batteries and the other directly connected to the grid. This would allow essential energy to be provided in cases of power outages.

DIY Vertical Wind Generators are ideal for supplying your household energy needs for a fraction of the cost of commercial units. They are easy to build and don't cost the earth.

http://www.squidoo.com/DIY-Vertical-Wind-Generator