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# Home Construction Basement Remodeling

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- [How To Design A Room (Online For Free) - One Room Challenge Week 3](https://basementremodelingnow.com/how-to-design-a-room-online-for-free-one-room-challenge-week-3/) - Sourced from: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RamblingRenovators/~3/zeeYhCDxdCw/how-to-design-room-step-by-step-easy.html Week 3 of the One Room Challenge has started off with lots of great progress! Last week, I talked about the importance of starting any home remodel project with a plan. Let me show you how far along we've come with that plan and walk you through the next element: How to design a room step by step. Not only that, but I'm going to share how you can design a room online for free using free online apps and design software.Designing a room might seem difficult but I think it's something anyone can do. Read on for the 4 exact and easy steps I use, from where to begin to decorate a room, the room layout apps I use, and the order in which I decorate.Welcome and thanks for stopping by! If you're new here, I'm a Toronto-based blogger and plaid enthusiast who mixes DIY with traditional design. Catch up on Week 1 and Week 2 of this guest bedroom remodel.The room is looking fresh and bright. Here's what we've done so far:demolition of old closet and removal of old triminstallation of new closet systemreframing of closet doorinstallation of bifold doorsinstallation of door and window trim and baseboardspainting walls and ceilingThe walls are Paper White OC-55 from Benjamin Moore. It is a cool soft white with just the slightest hint of grey. Because we have a cove ceiling here, I knew I wanted to paint the walls and ceiling all the same colour to make that architectural feature disappear. The room isn't that large so having everything in one shade of paint would make the room feel much more expansive.Here's what the room looked like Before. I don't miss those red walls at all. Not one bit. Now, the sunlight bounces around the room and gives the room that calm and peaceful feeling I wanted this guest bedroom to have.So let's dive deeper into that feeling... how did I decide what I wanted this room to look like? How did I design this room in 3D? What free tools and process did I use and how can YOU be your own designer?How To Design A Room Step By StepThe first step to designing a room is assessing what you have to work with. That begins with a floor plan.1. Create a Floor Plan of the Current RoomI create two plans:a rough hand-written version showing all the room dimensions and location of windows, doors, and other architectural elements. You can use my FREE Download: Current State Checklist found here which contains grid paper for this task.take that rough sketch and translate it into a digital floor plan. For this, I like to use Urban Barn's Room Planner, a FREE online room planning tool. This is my favourite app to design a room layout for free. With this tool, I can create the room and then place and move furniture around until I settle on a design I like. Note: Though this tool is built to work with the furniture Urban Barn sells, you can create "generic" furniture and alter the dimensions to match any current pieces in your own home, or match any new furniture you're considering purchasing. You can even change colours and patterns to give you a more realistic visual layout.Here's the empty floor plan of our guest bedroom I created in the Room Planner:You can see the window and door locations, the width of the bifold doors, and the small wall bump out in the top right corner of the room. With this 2D floor plan, you can proceed to design a room layout. But before you do that, you need to know how your room functions, and know what furniture is going into the room.2. Determine Your Functional NeedsEvery space, from a kitchen to a closet, has a function. Good design is built on satisfying functional needs. What needs or tasks does your room fulfill? What is the role of this room?Two things you should also consider: You want to think about what currently doesn't work in the room and also any new functions this room can perform. Can the room be more multifunctional? The planning stage is when you easily build the design to suit your needs.For our guest bedroom, the needs were simple:To provide sleeping room for guestsTo store clothing and linensTo provide a small sitting/reading areaTo be well lit and a usable room in our house3. Identify Your FurnitureOnce you've determined your functional needs, you can identify what furniture is needed to help fulfill those functions.In our bedroom, we were able to eliminate the existing dresser by putting drawers into the closet. Taking into account this new free floor space, we wanted to bring the following into the room:the existing Double beda side tablea desk or consolean armchair for additional seatinga rugUsing the Room Planner, I identified different bedroom layout options. It's easy to design a room layout using free online tools like this. Simply pull different objects into the room and move them around. Change the dimensions of the objects if you can to approximate the "real life" furniture you're using.A room layout will help you identify different ways you can arrange furniture . It gives you an idea of what feels cramped or spacious, what looks good and what looks awkward. In a small space, every inch counts so you'll want to think through your floor plan, Most importantly, it gives you a sense of scale.How to Create a Room in 3D Online for FreeScale is one of the hardest things to assess in design. It refers to the size of an object or space in relation to the human body. Scale also considers how the objects relate to one another in the same room. Essentially, scale means looking at your space in three dimensions or 3D.To help with scale, you can also draw a rendering. This can be an elevation (or forward facing view), like this one we did for our old master bedroom showing the panelled accent wall. Sean created this plan using an architectural program, CAD:You can also create a hand-drawn rendering. To do this, take a photo of the existing space, print it out, and then lay tracing paper on top to draw a rendering of the new space. It will help you see what things will look like in 3D.Another option is SketchUp, a 3D modelling software. They have a free version which will allow you to design a room online in 3D for free, but beware, there is quite a steep learning curve with SketchUp.4. Create a Moodboard or Design SchemeWhen people think of a "design plan", this is the step that most people think of. How things look in turn impacts how they feel. The visual scheme of a room is the first thing you encounter when you enter a space so it's no wonder that this part in the process gets all the attention. But how do you create a moodboard? Here's three things you can do to pull your design scheme together.Create A Virtual Inspiration Board on Pinterest:Use Pinterest to gather ideas that show a finished look you are inspired by. Examine the images you've gathered and ask yourself what exactly it is in the image that you like? Is there a specific element, colour, or product? Usually, you'll start to see some commonalities in the images you save and those are the elements that you can replicate in your own room.Put Together A Pin BoardUsing a pin board can help you visualize how things will work together. Pin up fabric samples, paint chips, and images torn out of magazines that inspire you. If you have furniture spec sheets, floor samples or tile samples, gather them together in one spot.Create A Moodboard For Free in KeynoteA Keynote Moodboard is the tool I tend to use most. If you have a Mac computer, the Keynote program comes free installed. I've talked in depth about how to create a moodboard in keynote on this post. I'm re-sharing the video here as it's really easy to follow: You can easily swap furniture pieces in and out on your Keynote moodboard. Here's a few of the design schemes I created for this room:These designs aren't drastically different from one another. Change out the rug here, try a different desk there. The possibilities are limitless. Selecting the individual pieces can be daunting and you might be wondering in what order do you decorate a room.Here's the order I typically use:Existing Furniture: Rarely will I buy everything new for a room. Typically, I'll have existing furniture, art or decor pieces that I'll want to reuse. In this case, the bed, side table, some bed linens, printed curtains, and rug are all things I already own. To keep this room budget friendly, I'd like to reuse what I can, but I'm not opposed to switching some of them out for newer items if the design works better.Hard Goods: Furniture pieces like sofas and chairs, desks, beds, and tables tend to be the largest pieces in any room. They are an important part of the design scheme so spend time thinking about their shape, colour, and texture. These hard goods convey your room's style - is it modern or farmhouse? Is it bold and energetic or muted and calm? The bold Velvet Swoop Arm Accent Chair in Green from HomePop is a focal point in this space and intentionally livens up what would otherwise be a neutral decorating scheme.Art: The Berry Branch Botanicals from Rainsford Company are the elements that tie this entire design scheme together. I fell in love with these art pieces and wanted to use their colour palette as inspiration for the room. I was really drawn to the verdant greens and blues and the black frames and you'll see those colours repeated throughout my mood boards.Lighting and Hardware: I consider these "metal" elements as one group. You can certainly mix metals in a space but don't overdo it. In this room, I'm going with a mix of black and gold. The black hardware will tie in with the black metal bed and gold keeps things feeling modern and fresh.Soft goods and accessories: These elements are the easiest to change and so they fall to the bottom of the priority list. Use your soft goods and accessories to complement your larger elements and colour scheme.In the end, there is no right or wrong to a room's design. By following these steps though, you will end up with a room that makes best use of the space, meets your functional needs, and whose design reflects your style.If you'd like more decorating know-how, design inspiration and style tips sent to your mailbox, signup for my weekly newsletter: SubscribePowered By ConvertKit.formkit-form[data-uid="8fd6c67e27"] *box-sizing:border-box;.formkit-form[data-uid="8fd6c67e27"]-webkit-font-smoothing:antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing:grayscale;.formkit-form[data-uid="8fd6c67e27"] legendborder:none;font-size:inherit;margin-bottom:10px;padding:0;position:relative;display:table;.formkit-form[data-uid="8fd6c67e27"] fieldsetborder:0;padding:0.01em 0 0 0;margin:0;min-width:0;.formkit-form[data-uid="8fd6c67e27"] body:not(:-moz-handler-blocked) fieldsetdisplay:table-cell;.formkit-form[data-uid="8fd6c67e27"] h1,.formkit-form[data-uid="8fd6c67e27"] h2,.formkit-form[data-uid="8fd6c67e27"] h3,.formkit-form[data-uid="8fd6c67e27"] 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5px;.formkit-form[data-uid="8fd6c67e27"][min-width~="700"] .formkit-fields[data-stacked="false"] .formkit-field,.formkit-form[data-uid="8fd6c67e27"][min-width~="800"] .formkit-fields[data-stacked="false"] .formkit-field-webkit-flex:100 1 auto;-ms-flex:100 1 auto;flex:100 1 auto;.formkit-form[data-uid="8fd6c67e27"][min-width~="700"] .formkit-fields[data-stacked="false"] .formkit-submit,.formkit-form[data-uid="8fd6c67e27"][min-width~="800"] .formkit-fields[data-stacked="false"] .formkit-submit-webkit-flex:1 1 auto;-ms-flex:1 1 auto;flex:1 1 auto; Join me again next week where I talk about the next phase, the Work Breakdown and Timeline. For now, hop over to the One Room Challenge blog and see all of the other inspiring Guest Participant projects.***Thank you to Hudson Valley Lighting, HomePop and Rainsford Company for providing products for use in this project. Thank you for supporting the brands whose quality products I bring into my home and who make this blog possible.
- [Critically assessing open science - the CAOS meeting.](https://basementremodelingnow.com/critically-assessing-open-science-the-caos-meeting/) - Sourced from: http://ivory.idyll.org/blog/2019-themes-caos-open-science.html The "Critical Assessment of Open Science" meeting, or CAOS, was convened by Sage Bionetworks in New Orleans in early February. About 30 open science practitioners and advocates were invited by Sage to a day long meeting in New Orleans to consider the last 10 years of progress and failures in open science. The meeting was attended by scientists, policy experts, funders, and others. While the emphasis was on the biosciences, many themes were discussed in a broader context of all of science. You can read more about the motivation for the meeting, and see a series of summary blog posts, here. This post is my attempt to summarize the entire meeting, based on notes I took during the meeting. The meeting was organized in a series of "call and response" engagements, in which two participants "called" for 5 minutes to one of five broad themes, and then a responder summarized, contextualized, and responded to their call. There were multiple such calls & responses in each session, for about 5 sessions. Audience participation was lively! The meeting was held under Chatham House rules, so below I am reporting my takeaways without reference to specific individual comments or revealing details. There should be some form of publication output in the future so you can see who attended and get a more global view of the meeting; I'll link to that below when it is out. Thank you to Sage Bionetworks for coordinating this meeting & inviting me! Main themes that emerged (for me) We hoped that open science would lead to new and better practices; what we too often got was practices that fed into the same broken system. As the value of analytics and data becomes ever more apparent, there is ever more interest by commercial interests in capturing that value in closed systems. Often, the data creators and/or owners seem to be unaware of this capture, especially when the data is secondary to their primary mission (e.g. in universities). This lack of awareness Has Consequences. Governance and sustainability of open institutions (especially open source projects) is on a lot of people's minds. Sage has a large team focused on this! (John Wilbanks says "call me!") We talked a fair bit about the challenge of convincing individuals and groups that increased opportunity for unpredictable serendipity was worth giving up predictable (but smaller) gains in fame/power/money. The invisibility of successful "open" came up repeatedly - the modern data science ecosystem is built on R and Python, preprints in the life sciences, open & FAIR data, and open source especially. That successful open practices achieve near instant adoption is wonderful; that they are not highlighted as successes of open in the open science community is unfortunate; and their invisibility means that their sustainability is often not strongly considered. (You can see a longer blog post by me on this topic, here.) It was great to see multiple statements about how the idea of one consortium/community building THE platform for analysis in an area was a non-starter. Functional interoperability, collaboration, and ecosystem thinking within and across platforms is seen as critical, even by the most senior researchers. In concert with that, I see that every functional system is a compromise between various requirements and design considerations. Therefore building multiple differently functioning systems is a good ecosystem bet. Several different people referred to the increased attack surface that open practices offer: e.g. by making your methods and data open, you increase the ability of others to attack your conclusions. While this is an important aspect of open science, it is also something that discourages everyone, with disproportionate negative impact on already marginalized populations. Sharing within "club" structures, or gated communities, was seen as one possible solution. We noted the need for & challenge of placing "do no harm" restrictions on use and reuse of data; community codes of conduct were discussed as one example of a governance structure that (combined with not-entirely-open communities) could enforce such restrictions. Diversity and inclusion was a frequently mentioned topic. Lack of diversity in communities can be seen as empirical evidence of missing structure in communities that is not clearly visible from within; I think this is important when it comes to formal governance discussions that can externalize internal culture (hopefully accurately). Another interesting theme was the extent to which some saw that grassroots communities of practice could be an antidote to the "monkey's paw" or "shitty genie" of requirements generation. Often, engineers building infrastructure want detailed use cases and requirements specification, which then leads to the wrong thing being built (and the associated blame), while if the engineers are brought into the community of practice they are more likely to build the right thing due to shared understanding and iterative/continuous participation. The challenge of analyzing all the interesting data sets was frequently mentioned. While not discussed at the meeting, in my view, training is a way to bring prepared minds and hands to tackle the analysis of interesting data sets. This training needs to be built in rather than bolted on to projects, however. My own POV: the critical role of communities of practice Again and again, I saw that communities of practice presented a key ingredient to solutions for problems in governance, training, infrastructure, methods, etc. Communities of practice bring the people to the problems! Fundamentally, I think open systems do not work without a community of practice underpinning them. Creating, growing, and sustaining these communities is, I think, one of the most important tasks to be tackled. More on that as I have time to write. Concluding thoughts One of the organizers closed out the meeting by asking everyone to highlight one theme that surprised and/or dismayed them. This was a productive if depressing way to extract essential takeaways! "The cavalry isn't coming." One of the more sobering conclusions from this part of meeting was that, given the seniority of the people in the room, we had no one but ourselves to blame for failing at open in the next decade. If we couldn't figure out how to coordinate and incentivize open, then it was unlikely that someone else would step in to help us out. We are the cavalry. (And existing, closed, institutions are more resilient than we realized.) Consumers are often very happy to trade data for convenience. This is a challenge for open! Open science can be weaponized by opponents of science, e.g. reproducibility challenges can lead to the conclusion that all science is wrong; there are many politicians eager to attack science. The dangers of further deligitimizing science in the eyes of the world are real! While scientists always start in and often revert to competitive mode, they can also switch to cooperative mode with ease, given the proper incentives and structure. (I personally recommend reading Kathleen Fitz's book Generous Thinking, which focuses on this issue!) A generational (?) concern was that DIY biology will eat all of biology, and that this meeting could be viewed as a bunch of PDP-11 engineers discussing the intricacies and importance of time sharing system design. I personally think millenials are more sophisticated about data ownership, more invested in sharing (and more sophisticated about its tradeoffs), and are likely to seriously upset current apple carts, but I'm an optimist :). There was a repeated concern that open biomedical science has to translate into better outcomes, and a shared concern that open science is an ideology built on practices that don't really work 80% of the time. My own (depressing) conclusion was that it is not possible for open to be truly open, and that completely open institutions are extremely vulnerable to attack (for my previous thoughts on this in open source projects, see "How open is too open?"). There are gates that must be kept (hodor)! I'll expand on this theme in another blog post when I have time! In general, I'm happy to expand on themes as time permits, if people have questions! Immediately after writing this, I happened to revisit Denisse Alejandra's article, "Reimagining Open Science Through a Feminist Lens", and I was encouraged by the overlap and relevance of a lot of what was discussed at the CAOS meeting to this reimagination! --titus
- [How Behavioral Science Sprinting Across Finish Line](https://basementremodelingnow.com/how-behavioral-science-sprinting-across-finish-line/) - Sourced from: http://www.ccr-mag.com/how-behavioral-science-sprinting-across-finish-line/ Finding the energy for any difficult project in the workplace may make you feel like you are running an actual marathon. These two activities seem completely different, yet behavioral science can be applied to both situations to help motivate and spark greatness. According to Charlotte Blank, Chief Behavioral Officer, Maritz.com and PeopleScience.comcontributor, key principles such as framing your goal can help propel you across the finish line, not only at work but life in general. Here are 5 tips from Charlotte on how to motivate yourself to achieve your goals: Choose a thoughtful goal: When choosing your goal, pick something achievable (truly impossible goals set us up for failure, which is super demotivating), but be honest with yourself. You can probably do more. If you’re progressing well and have the energy to spare, push yourself with a stretch goal. Commitment: Hold yourself accountable – Goals matter. We’re wired to find a way to hit our target, even a random one. Feedback: A crowd support has a significant effect, as science shows runners run faster when running with others. And encouragement from others is uplifting. Reward yourself: When you achieve your goal, it’s important to reward yourself! Rewards feel good by nature, and they serve an important purpose. They help to solidify good behaviors into healthy habits. Retrospection: Running a marathon, launching a business, hitting a tough sales goal – they all require pain for gain. Thankfully, our brains are biased toward the sweet accomplishment at the end, encouraging us to repeat and build upon our most difficult, yet most rewarding, the experience.
- [5 Important Tips for Effective Business Management](https://basementremodelingnow.com/5-important-tips-for-effective-business-management/) - Sourced from: http://www.ccr-mag.com/5-important-tips-for-effective-business-management/ It’s essential, when you run a business, that you have a streamlined system in place; from the purchase of raw materials through to the delivery of the final product. The larger your corporation is, the more complex logistics for your business can be become, which is why you’ll need to have a good planning strategy in place. Without looking at the finer details, it’s likely you could encounter some serious problems along the way. This guide will give you the best tips on ensuring your supply chain runs as smoothly as possible. Check out the tips below on how to achieve effective business management within your business: Hire a logistics manager with excellent personal skills There may be those unfortunate occasions when logistics go haywire, but rest assured this is normal within most businesses at one stage or another. To help ease any disputes between the supplier through to the client and keep the process running like clockwork, it would be good idea to hire a specialized logistics manager (otherwise known as a supply chain manager) with good personal skills to manage relations, as well as making sure that the supply chain is running accordingly. The individual should have the correct knowledge and experience to get your business out of trouble when it comes to poor logistics planning. Purchase your raw materials from high-quality suppliers It is important when running a business that as the manager or owner of the business that you choose to buy from high-quality suppliers to make your products for customers. For example, materials such as metals and steel are best purchased from Avocet precision metals as they have over 20 years of experience dealing with steel strips, precision metals, and more. By purchasing from a company such as this, you will ensure that anything you create is also of top quality. 3. Opt for automation instead of manual handling In the technological world we now live in, it would be a big mistake not to use automation to increase the efficiency of your organization and particularly, your logistics. Specialized automation software has the ability to provide updates on the movement of goods from the supplier through to the final destination. Automotive companies, for example, would benefit from being informed digitally on when raw materials have been dispatched from the supplier; through to the delivery of the finished product to the final destination. Automation will save a significant amount of time and confusion within the production line and reduce the amount of manual handling, which can often be far less accurate. 4. Warehouse management Warehouse management is a crucial step in effective logistics, but the type of operation will all depend on your business industry. Food industries have a heavy focus on the correct storage of food and keeping an eye on perishable products; while automotive companies need to ensure they have the correct number of components and equipment to build vehicles. Moreover, the storage space within the warehouse should be correctly utilized for maximum production, while staff should be correctly trained to deal with warehouse operations. 5. Consider transportation Finally, the method of transportation you use will play a major part in determining g your customer’s satisfaction, so is a key factor within logistics management operations. There are several factors to consider when it comes to transportation: Decide on the best delivery route: For your product to be delivered quickly, it would be in your best interests to choose the shortest and safest route; whether that be by vehicle, ship or plane. Package your goods properly: To ensure that your products reach their destination in one piece you need to ensure that they are packaged properly; this means making sure they are waterproof. Hire a transportation service: If you haven’t got enough staff or the correct facilities to carry out deliveries, you may need to think about hiring an external company to do so for you. A professional transportation service should be able to provide a service to package your products safely in large containers while arranging bulk shipments and the transportation of project cargo if necessary.
- [New Aurora Wall Sconce from Tivoli Lighting](https://basementremodelingnow.com/new-aurora-wall-sconce-from-tivoli-lighting/) - Sourced from: http://www.ccr-mag.com/new-aurora-wall-sconce-from-tivoli-lighting/ With more than 50 years of innovation and linear lighting leadership, Tivoli Lighting introduces its Aurora Wall Sconce, a slim-profile fixture available in four unique Deco designs, multiple color temperatures and sizes to provide beautiful form with functional lighting for commercial, municipal and residential applications. Aurora Wall Sconce features a slim 2 3/16-inch profile in Diamond, Maze, Spectro and Level designs. Tivoli Lighting also offers optional custom designs to fit specific lighting needs. The wall sconce has a light output range from 661 to 2170 lumens and is compatible with TRIAC 120V dimmer to meet a wide range of illumination requirements. Available in 3000k, 4000k, 5300k and 6500K with an 80+ CRI operating at 100-277 VAC, all of the Aurora Deco designs come in 12-, 24-, 36- and 48-inch fixtures lengths and feature a proprietary adjustable wall mounting system for quick and easy installation. Delivering long performance life, Aurora Wall Sconce maintains 70 percent of its lumens at 60,000 hours and comes with a five-year warranty. The fixture is ETL listed for product compliance to North American safety standards. For more information about Aurora Wall Sconce, contact Tivoli Lighting at 714-957-6101 or visithttp://www.tivolilighting.com/aurora.html. About Tivoli With more than 50 years of innovation and experience, Tivoli continues to lead the linear lighting industry with its award-winning architectural and theater LED-based products that offer improved appearance, quality, performance and energy saving advantages. Tivoli’s team continues to strive to incorporate innovation, color quality, and longevity of life into every product it manufactures and engineers for high quality performance and extended service life.
- [10 Creative Uses for Silicone Molds](https://basementremodelingnow.com/10-creative-uses-for-silicone-molds/) - Sourced from: http://www.ccr-mag.com/10-creative-uses-for-silicone-molds/ You may have never noticed, but silicone molds are a part of your everyday life in today’s society. They can serve as amazing life-hacks, solve minor dilemmas in our day-to-day operations, and can be an underappreciated source of fun for the family! Whatever the case may be, you can use them for optimal organization and preparation. Need more proof? Here are 10 amazing uses for silicone molds and how they can turn an everyday task into a job that sorts itself out! Organization for Small Utensils Sure, there’s plenty of ways to sort your silverware and other supplies within the cabinets of your home… but what about the smaller stuff, like the rubber bands and paper clips in your house? Even if you neatly organize them within a desk drawer, you’ll find them disorganized again after opening and closing that drawer a few times. How can you eliminate this problem for good? Silicone molds… that’s how! All you need to do is create or find a silicone mold that’s small enough to fit into your desk or kitchen drawer. Then make sure it has enough spots in it to fill things like paperclips, sewing pins, etc. Voila! Your disorganization of small materials is kaput. Bath Bombs Who doesn’t enjoy a good bath bomb? Simply dropping one into your tub ensures a soothing bathing experience. However, it’s not so smoothing to see the price you’re paying for such a luxury… until now! Now, thanks to silicone molds, you can create your own bath bombs in whatever shape you desire. Simply take the ingredients you’ll need and pour it into the silicone mold of your choice and you’ll have a bath bomb that’s entirely individualistic in both shape and scent for your bathing enjoyment. Save Your Leftovers Nothing like making grandma’s famous homemade fettucini alfredo family recipe that everyone loves so much. The only problem is that you end up wasting all of the cream you don’t end up using. If only there were a way to save that cream until the next time you needed it… Well, you can use a silicone mold that has steady compartments (similar to an ice tray) and pour that cream into it until the next time you need it. Take it one step further and measure out the mass of each compartment. That way, you’ll know how much is in each “cube” the next time you go to use it. Impact-Absorbing Pads Do you have a need for securing fragile objects and the styrofoam packaging isn’t cutting it? If so, silicone molding is the optimum material to use for handing your equipment and items either in-transit or during storage. Simply use these architectural molding materials and form a perfect pad for any item you desire. No more worrying about the integrity of your packaged belongings thanks to the use of silicone molds. Snack Tray Everyone has been a victim of walking the tight rope known as snack time. If you eat too much, you won’t be hungry for dinner time, but if you eat too little, you may not make it to dinner time at all. However, it’s always risky to put out the entire box of Cheez-Its, because then, before you know it… the entire box is empty. Use silicone molds to categorize a few healthy snacks for yourself. Sure, grab a few of those Cheez-It’s, but follow it up with grapes, pretzels, nuts, etc. Soap Bars Are you seeing the need for starting to create your own soap bars over the store-bought soap bars? Perhaps the body wash is getting a bit too harmful on your skin? Never fear, for DIY silicone molds are here! Now, you create the scent you want without risking the harmful chemicals of those you’d find in-store. You’ll no longer have to wonder what goes behind making it smell amazing, and you’ll have yourself to thank for it! Food Preparation We all know the Martha Stewarts and Barefoot Contessa’s of the world that organize their recipe’s ingredients in cute, individual bowls for appearance. However, it slows you down at home to have to do the same. Next time you’re making a recipe, have a silicone mold tray there to properly organize your necessary ingredients. Now you can measure out the correct amounts without getting out 10 separate bowls to do so. Reproduction of Items Do you have a project at hand where you need to reproduce several of the same items in one fell swoop? If so, silicone molds can help create an efficient process for copying the item to match it’s original’s exact specifications. Whether it’s a fine art sculpture, a concrete slab, or another hefty item, silicone molding can help you match it to the “T”. Jello Molds As previously mentioned, silicone molds have several fun assets to them as well. Now that you have silicone molding on your side, you can create jello in any shape that you’d like. Make a Christmas tree-shaped jello mold for Christmas parties, or pull a Jim Halpert and stick your coworker’s stapler into jello. Whatever you have a taste for, the door has now been opened to your creativity. Water Stoppage Perhaps you have some unwanted leaks or are just looking for a new way to clog the bathtub drain (since the tub drain stopper keeps disappearing). Silicone is often used as a sealant to make something waterproof, so now that you have silicone molding at your disposal, it can provide the same service for you. Maybe you’re just looking for a waterproof pad. That can be done as well. Gone are the days of letting water affect your work project, silicone molds can help! Uses for Silicone Molds in Everyday Life These are just a few of the copious amount of uses for silicone molds that you now have at your disposal. What’s better, you’ll now find even more uses for it now that your eyes have been opened to the ways it can help. Be sure to check back with Fox 34 frequently for up-to-date news and helpful tips you can apply to your life. Best of luck with your silicone molding endeavors, your life will be much more efficient with silicone molds on your side.
- [DIY Acrylic Lap Desk](https://basementremodelingnow.com/diy-acrylic-lap-desk/) - Sourced from: https://www.loveandrenovations.com/diy-acrylic-lap-desk/ this easy DIY acrylic lap desk takes less than an hour to make, and the materials cost under $30! Learn how to make a simple lap desk or DIY acrylic tray yourself right here. Ever since we reached the point in the moving process where I can’t really change anything in my house (since, you know, someone has pledged to buy it as it is and it’s time to start thinking about things like packing, not renovating), I’ve been itching to just make something. I’m used to having projects that I’m doing all the time, and this lack of stuff to do has been getting to me. So, this weekend when I had the idea to create a little acrylic lap desk for Jackson to play LEGOs on or use to draw, I was thrilled to have the chance stretch my creative muscles a bit. Ever since Jackson started school this year, he’s been really into drawing, labeling things, and creating. He’s always loved coloring, but his creativity has really blossomed in the last few months and my home is littered with pieces of paper with random Pokemon and Minecraft characters all over them. Of course, like most 5-year-old boys, he’s also super into LEGOs. He’s been doing a ton of building lately and has finally reached the point where he can actually keep his creations together and they don’t immediately get destroyed. We’ve been using the lids from the baskets in his room as little trays for him to keep his creations on (so they’re easier to continue playing with later), but that means that his baskets no longer have lids. Which, let’s be honest, drives me nuts. So, a lap desk was the perfect solution to give him a place to store whatever he’s currently playing with, and also for him to bring in the living room and use as a little table to draw on while we’re all hanging out together. The bonus is that when Grant suddenly becomes interested in whatever it is he’s working on, it’s really easy for him to pick it up and move to higher ground! This post is sponsored by Wagner. This little acrylic lap desk took me only about an hour to put together, and the only real materials cost was the acrylic, which was about $30 from the big box home improvement store. Not bad for a totally customizable (and adorable) acrylic lap desk, no?! This is one of those projects that is so easy it almost doesn’t need a tutorial, but I’ll share anyways. I promise this is something you can do yourself in no time, and your kid will love it! DIY Acrylic lap desk Materials & Tools 18X24 clear acrylic sheet (mine is 1/4″ thick)Circular saw (you could also use a table saw or jigsaw)Wagner Furno 500 Heat GunScrap wood (I used one long piece and one smaller piece)2 clamps Cut your acrylic to size First up, you’ll want to cut down your acrylic so that it measures 12″ wide by 24″ long. I tried to do this just by scoring it with a utility knife, but the 1/4″ acrylic was much too thick, so I had to grab the circular saw. You can see my tutorial on how to use one right here! You could also easily use a jigsaw (here’s that tutorial) or a table saw. You can also have them cut it for you in-store at most hardware stores for free! There’s a plastic and glass cutting station right next to the acrylic at our store, so if you don’t have the tools or don’t want to do it yourself, just have them take care of it for you. Set up your workstation The next thing you’ll want to do is set up your work area so you can be safe (heat guns are, um, hot), and work quickly so you don’t crack the acrylic. Let me break down what’s happening in the above setup: At the bottom, there’s a cardboard box on my table (just to protect it from scratches or heat)On top of that, there’s a long, skinny box that is being used just to hold the entire thing up a bit.. As you can see, the clamps hang below the scrap wood, so I just needed something to prop it all up. You could also use scrap wood for this, I just grabbed what I had.Next we have a big piece of scrap wood that is acting as my work surface and a place to clamp to.Then, I placed the acrylic on top and clamped the smaller scrap board on top – this is the piece that acts as your corner for folding. More on that below. Measure and clamp down your acrylic Once you’ve got your work area set up, you’re ready to clamp your material in place. Line your acrylic piece up with the board on bottom (so you can be sure that it’s straight), and then place your smaller scrap board so that it covers the back 3 inches of the acrylic. Be sure to measure from both sides so you know it’s straight across, and clamp it into place, as pictured above. Grab the heat gun! Now, you’re ready for the fun part. Grab your heat gun (here’s the one I use), and apply heat directly to the area right next to where you clamped the wood. You want to keep it as close to the edge of the wood as possible (I actually rested the metal part of my heat gun on the wood to ensure I stayed steady as I worked) and keep your hand moving at a slow and steady pace. I found that it worked best when I had my heat gun set to about 800 degrees and applied heat for about 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I just set a timer and slowly moved the heat gun back and forth right where I planned for the bend to be. Be sure not to rush this – if you try to bend it before it’s ready, it will crack! Once you’ve applied heat for about four and a half minutes, your acrylic should be ready to bend. Set your heat gun aside (be sure to turn it off!) and grab the end of the acrylic closest to you. Sloooooooowly fold it all the way up. I used my speed square to hold the acrylic at a 90-degree angle for about a minute while it cooled off, but I wish I would have let it be a slightly more gentle bend so that the legs aren’t straight up and down. You only need to wait for about 30 seconds to a minute before the tray is ready to be un-clamped. A quick note: I’ll go ahead and take this moment to recommend that you save your scrap piece of acrylic and use that to get a feel for the project before you do it with the main piece. This is what I did and it’s the best way to get a feel for how the acrylic bends, how you know when it’s ready, and all that other good stuff! Repeat on the other side Carefully flip the entire thing around and do the same thing on the other side. Be careful to measure the exact same length from the edge (we did 3 inches) so the legs are the same length. And just like that, you’re done! I used a sanding block to sand down some of the rough edges from cutting, and then I turned it loose to Jackson. He immediately started rattling off all the different ways he could use it (many of which had never crossed my mind), so I think it’s safe to say it’s a success. He’s already used it a ton, and I have a feeling this is going to become a staple of his day-to-day play time. I love that I was able to make something he’s going to use so much and I also love that it’s actually really cute! If you’re on the fence about if it’s worth it to grab a heat gun for a project like this, you should check out Wagner’s list of over 100 different ways to use it. Seriously, you’ll find yourself reaching for this little thing way more than you expect! You can grab one from their site, and from most home improvement stores. Be sure to let me know if you try this project – I’d love to see! The post DIY Acrylic Lap Desk appeared first on Love & Renovations.
- [Combating Rising Construction Industry Suicide Rates](https://basementremodelingnow.com/combating-rising-construction-industry-suicide-rates/) - Sourced from: http://www.ccr-mag.com/combating-rising-construction-industry-suicide-rates/ While the construction industry is thriving financially and making a major contribution to the U.S. economy, the industry as a whole struggles to deal with workplace stressors. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2015, male construction and extraction workers had the highest suicide rate among American workers. September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. As an industry, construction leaders need to take action to change this staggering statistic. Though many factors contribute to the increased risk of suicide, the high-pressure nature of schedule, budget and quality performance, coupled with potential for failure that’s tied to the employee’s livelihood, are especially anxiety-inducing. Employers and employees in the industry must know how to identify, cope with and prevent stress from consuming them – especially when the end result for many is suicide. Identifying Stress Employers and construction site leadership must be skilled in identifying sources of stress. Because of the stigma surrounding mental health and suicide prevention, their employees are not likely to express their feelings of stress and overwhelming depression. Though not everyone shows stress in the same way, some changes in employee behavior are more noticeable. According to The American Institute of Stress, some of the changes that may manifest include: calling out of work more frequently or unusually aggressive behavior. Although it is important for construction industry leaders to be able to identify stress in their workers, employees must also be able to identify signs of stress internally. Construction workers may notice an influx of insomnia, headaches or a loss of appetite. In an industry that contributes nearly $1.3 trillion in annual revenue to the U.S. economy, stress may not seem like a big deal. However, when this stress continues to add up and remains unaddressed, it can easily spiral into the suicide epidemic we are currently witnessing within the industry. Coping with Stress Construction employers should extend the protection of their employees beyond the requirements set in place by the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act). Instead, employers should also strive to create a space for mental wellness. Though there are limitations to the number of stressors an employer can prevent, no action is too small to make a tremendous impact on the livelihood of their employees. The most important and impactful thing an employer could do is to be understanding by noticing the changes in a worker, listening to their concerns and making meaningful changes based on these conversations. According to Dr. Sherry Benton, a psychologist with more than 25 years of experience and chief science officer of TAO Connect – a digital health company aiming to make behavioral health therapy more accessible and efficient – there are numerous ways construction workers can cope with their own stress. “When you’re stressed at work, it’s hard to remember your purpose. To help prevent and alleviate the impact of this stress, things like physical activity, support from friends and family, a creative outlet, or simply doing more of what you love can make a significant difference. Actively working on your life balance is key to staying healthy and recovering,” said Dr. Benton. Preventing/Reducing Stress Investing in mental health yields a positive return on investment for construction companies when it is compared to the financial impact of ignoring the signs. As a construction company, it is important to ensure that your workplace has a culture of mental health promotion and suicide prevention. Employers could implement employee assistance programs meant to promote mental health awareness in the workplace. If a construction company already has a relevant employee assistance program in place, it is a good practice to openly promote it to employees, because many are not aware of the benefits available to them. Stress is not 100% preventable but learning to deal with it in a healthy way can be the difference between life and death for many in the industry. According to Dr. Benton, these are some of the ways to reduce stress: Exercise is not only beneficial in reducing disease, it has been proven to reduce stress. Participating in aerobic exercise helps with stress, moodiness, sleep and self-confidence. Find balance by engaging in activities outside of work that give your life a sense of meaning. It can be difficult to prioritize these activities at first, but its effect on mental health is incredibly beneficial. Lean on your support system and let them in on your struggles and stressors. Simply being heard makes a difference. Instead of dealing with work-induced stress through toxic behaviors like addiction, mood swings and suicide, the construction industry should work to find healthy coping mechanisms. As the demand for new developments and renovations increase, so does the importance of these healthy coping mechanisms. About the Author: Michael Wright is CEO of RedTeam Software. With a background as a commercial general contractor with hands-on experience in all aspects of commercial construction, Wright developed RedTeam as a comprehensive cloud-based solution for construction project and accounting management built by contractors for contractors.
- [Easy DIY Vent Hood Cover](https://basementremodelingnow.com/easy-diy-vent-hood-cover/) - Sourced from: https://www.loveandrenovations.com/diy-vent-hood-cover/ I’m helping my parents with a quick kitchen makeover and we kicked things off by installing a new vent hood and building a custom DIY vent hood cover – I’m sharing the tutorial today! Over the last few weeks, I’ve been helping my parents with a little makeover in their kitchen. They have lived in their home for more than 25 years now and, aside from replacing the vinyl sheet flooring a few years back, they’ve never done anything to the kitchen to upgrade it. At all. So, the stove is 25 years old. The laminate counters are 25 years old. Everything is 25 years old, and the entire space really needs some love. They’ve been talking about doing some work to it for years now, but it kept getting pushed back. We got a really fun opportunity to work with Home Depot for a something we couldn’t use in our own home (more on that soon!), and I decided to gift it to them and help them transform their kitchen in the process. This isn’t going to be a huge, dramatic makeover – no walls are being knocked down, the cabinets aren’t being replaced, and we’re really only focusing on half of the kitchen right now and will tackle the rest later – hopefully before Christmas. I’ve been sharing some inside looks at the process on Instagram as my dad and I have been working, and I had a lot of requests to share some of the tutorials on the blog! So, today I’m sharing the first in a quick little series of posts about my parents’ kitchen makeover and I hope you enjoy it! Here’s a little peek at the before of the space… This post contains affiliate links. Click here to read my full disclosure policy. One thing you might notice is missing (and has always been missing – for 25 years!) is a vent hood! My parents have never had any sort of vent in their kitchen, and it has driven me a little crazy every time I’ve cooked over there for as long as I can remember. We knew that if we were doing any work in here, adding a vent hood would need to be one of the first things that happened. So, they snagged this affordable option and after my dad and I installed it, we built a DIY cover to make it look a little more custom. Today, I’m going to show you how you can do the same! It’s a really simple project, but it makes a huge difference in how the entire space feels – it really upgrades things and makes the entire kitchen feel a little more custom. Of course, you’ll notice that the kitchen is still very much a work in progress! It has already come a pretty long way, but these are by no means official “after” photos – those will come next month once we’ve actually finished aaaaall of the projects! How to build a DIY CUstom vent hood cover Materials needed: (1) 1X10 pine boardClamps (we used corner clamps)Wood glueBrad nailer + nailsSpeed squareWhite paintTrim pieces (optional) Step One: MEasure The first thing you’ll need to do is measure to determine the size of your vent hood cover. This will vary depending on what vent you have. Start by measuring how far out it comes from the cabinets at its furthest point, then measure how far down it sits. You’ll want to add a couple of inches to the measurement for the sides to account for the arch! For example, our top shelf comes 10″ out from the cabinets, and the vent hood cover is 8″ tall. step tWo: Cut the top piece Once you know your measurement, you’re ready to start cutting pieces. We used the table saw to rip our board down to 10″ (we had a 12″ board because we weren’t sure of the sizing, but you can just grab a 10″ board instead), and cut it to be just over 30″ long (the vent hood itself is exactly 30″ long, so we added about 1/8″ so it would fit snugly. We also had to cut a small notch out of the top board to account for the vent on the top. It’s not visible at all once it’s hung, but it allows the air to escape, and the shelf is still functional. Step three: Cut the side pieces Next up, cut the side pieces. They should be the same width as the top piece was, and the length will vary depending on the size of your hood. Ours were about 8″. We determined the size of our side pieces by measuring how far down the vent hood went and then adding 3 3/4 inches. We wanted the cover to sit a couple of inches below the hood (so it’s fully covered), and then we added another inch so that we could add an arch to the front. The additional 3/4″ is because the side pieces will sit flush with the top of the cover, so you need to add on the thickness of the top board. Step Four: Assemble the vent hood cover Now you’re ready to begin assembly! We simply assembled our vent hood cover with some wood glue and nails. Be sure to use a speed square to ensure that your side pieces aren’t angled at all. We used corner clamps (they’re much easier for this kind of project!), but you can make do with regular clamps if you don’t have any corner ones on hand. Step five: Cut front piece and finish assembly Now you’re ready to cut the piece for the front. You can just take measurements off your vent hood cover to determine the width and height you need to cut to (the height should be the same as the side pieces). Once you’ve got the base shape cut out, you can add the arch. I wish I had a genius tip for how to do this, but we really kind of winged it. We decided we wanted our arch to start 3″ in on either side, and only go up 1″. So, we made those marks on the hood, then we used some string and a pencil to draw a small arch. We cut it out using a bandsaw (you could also use a jigsaw!), and then sanded it until it was smooth. It’s not perfect, but you’d never know the difference! Step Six: Add Trim and Paint Finally, you’re ready for the finish work! We added some trim to the top, and (at the last minute) decided to add a square to the front with some smaller trim – I love that it adds some detail and emphasizes the arch on the front. We painted the whole thing with our sprayer (see how to use one if you don’t know!) and once it was dry, it was ready to be hung! Step seven: Hang it up! We hung the vent hood cover using pocket holes. Dad added one pocket hole at the bottom on each side (to attach to the cabinet on either side of the vent hood) and four along the top (to attach to the cabinet above the hood). Once it’s all in place, it looks a little something like this: This was such a quick and easy project, and I love how it turns out. This is, of course, just the first project in a whole series of fun projects we’ll be doing in this space over the next month, so be sure to stay tuned to see what’s next! The post Easy DIY Vent Hood Cover appeared first on Love & Renovations.
- [Certainty](https://basementremodelingnow.com/certainty/) - Sourced from: http://originateandrenovate.blogspot.com/2012/09/certainty.html Unfortunately, Juliette is in a stage where she will only sleep in her crib, and not for lack of trying either. I've driven home in the middle of the night on two camping trips and on our last journey to the lake she wouldn't go to bed until the sun came up. So...We left the kids home, and enjoyed some much needed adult time at Lake Powell last week. I remember being a child and thinking to myself, "why would grownups want to go on a vacation without any kids?!! How Boring!". hehehe. It definitely wasn't boring, but there were moments of down time. The downtime you don't enjoy until you've grown up. I took a kayak out into the lake and waited until no one was around, stopped rowing and admired the breathtaking scenery. I couldn't help but thank God under my breath for this picture of perfection. There have been times in my life when I have questioned his very existence, and undoubtedly I have a similar experience and realize there is no way this could all be a coincidence. It's just too beautiful.
- [Great Renovation Tips to Help Tackle Flipping Projects](https://basementremodelingnow.com/great-renovation-tips-to-help-tackle-flipping-projects/) - Sourced from: http://www.ccr-mag.com/great-renovation-tips-for-helping-you-tackle-your-flipping-project/ Blue living room interior with a gray sofa during renovation process. Unfinished floor, boxes and a ladder in the corner. 3d rendering mock up Flipped homes represented 5.6% of home and condo sales in 2018 with 207,957 houses fitting into that category. The average gross profit of flipped home sales was $65,000. But not all house flippers come out ahead when they sell. Going over budget, taking on too making projects, or overestimating your experience and skills can cut into your profits. Making smart renovation choices increases your chances of making high profits on your project. Renovation tips to keep the project on time and on budget help guide your decisions. Keep reading to learn ways to renovate your flipped house to improve your results. Know When to DIY and When to Contract The DIY route seems like the cheapest way to renovate when house flipping, but it can cost you more in the long run. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re more likely to make a mistake. That mistake may force you to buy new materials or eventually hire a professional to do the work anyway. Your mistake could also cause damage to other parts of the home that force more repairs and renovations. Taking on jobs outside your expertise also takes longer to complete. It can delay other projects and extend the timeline of the flip. That extended timeline costs you money because it means a delayed sale. Hiring professional contractors for specialized renovations costs you more in labor. That extra money may be well spent by keeping the project on time. You also get the work done correctly the first time. When planning your project, be realistic about your abilities. Identify the jobs you can handle yourself and the ones you need to hire contractors to complete. Start looking for contractors immediately to ensure you find someone who’s qualified and available when you need the work done. Ensure Structural Stability First Interior finishes and cosmetic work make the house come together. Those are the things potential buyers notice and can make or break the flip. But it’s a smarter decision to make sure the house is sound first. Starting with the structural integrity prevents additional problems and protects the work you do inside the home. If you start refinishing and painting walls to find out you have leaking issues, you’ll have to redo that work. A professional home inspection helps you identify those structural issues. Ensure they’re fixed properly before you move inside to work. Keep the Buyer in Mind Home renovations for a house flip are different than your personal renovations because the finished product isn’t for you. It doesn’t matter what your tastes are if they don’t match up to the people who’ll likely buy your flipped home. Consider the location, price range, size, and style of the home to anticipate the type of buyer. A small starter home in an older neighborhood isn’t going to attract the same type of buyer as a larger home in a more affluent part of town. Buyers of a lower-priced home won’t likely expect or want to pay for high-end finishes. Buyers in a more upscale neighborhood expect those better finishes. Make design decisions based on who might buy it. Create a File of Specs Organization is essential to keep your flipping project on time and budget. When you’re remodeling the entire home, you’ll have lots of finishes, materials, dimensions, and other specs to track. Create a central spreadsheet or file to contain that information. This becomes a quick reference when you need those details. It comes in handy if you need to reorder materials or make sure you’re using the correct materials in each space. Be Specific in Your Plan Before you start any work, decide on the scope of the renovations. Write down a specific plan for everything you want to change. If you hire contractors to help with the work, make sure they know exactly what you want to be done and how you want it done. This is especially important for detail work, such as tiling. If you hire someone to help with demo, make it clear which items you want to be removed and which you want to keep. Maybe an older home has old wood floors or tin ceiling tiles you want to keep and refinish. Communicate those plans to the demo crew so they don’t destroy them. Focus on Kitchens and Bathrooms Kitchens and baths get a lot of attention from potential buyers. A home that has the buyer’s preferred style of kitchen is extremely or very important to 58% of buyers. Outdated kitchens and bathroom stand out when people view homes. Buyers know it’s not cheap to renovate a kitchen or bathroom. Having the work done for them makes the home more appealing because they won’t have to shell out more money after making a major home purchase just to make the kitchen or bathroom decent. Avoid Too Much Improvement Making a good first impression attracts buyers, but going too high-end can hurt your profits. The cost of those materials cuts into your flipping budget. You won’t likely recoup those costs in the sale price. Choose a few high-end pieces can make the overall home look more upscale. Pick cost-effective pieces for this strategy. A stainless steel wall-mounted hood vent is relatively inexpensive, but it creates a high-end feel in the kitchen that makes it stand out. Choose Lasting Materials Even though you don’t want to over-improve your flipped home, you want to use materials that last. Buyers will notice cheap, low-quality materials. It may look okay for the open house, but potential buyers may pass on the home if they feel the finishes won’t last. Learning about different materials and choosing the ones that work best for you helps you make those buying decisions. Learning about teflon polymer and its use in paints, bolt coatings, and other uses may influence your decision on material purchases, for example. Follow These Renovation Tips What are your favorite renovation tips for flipping a house? The goal is to make the house appealing to buyers while keeping your costs low for a quick sale and maximum profit. Check out our past issues for more construction advice and information.
- [An initial report on the Common Fund Data Ecosystem](https://basementremodelingnow.com/an-initial-report-on-the-common-fund-data-ecosystem/) - Sourced from: http://ivory.idyll.org/blog/2019-cfde-july-report.html For the past 6 months or so, I've been working with a team of people on a project called the Common Fund Data Ecosystem. This is a targeted effort within the NIH Common Fund (CF) to improve the Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability - a.k.a. "FAIRness" - of the data sets hosted by their Data Coordinating Centers. (You can see Dr. Vivien Bonazzi's presentation if you're interested in more details on the background motivation of this project.) I'm thrilled to announce that our first report is now available! This is the product of a tremendous data gathering effort (by many people), four interviews, and an ensuing distillation and writing effort with Owen White and Amanda Charbonneau. To quote, This assessment was generated from a combination of systematic review of online materials, in-person site visits to the Genotype Tissue Expression (GTEx) DCC and Kids First, and online interviews with Library of Integrated Network-Based Cellular Signatures (LINCS) and Human Microbiome Project (HMP) DCCs. Comprehensive reports of the site visits and online interviews are available in the appendices. We summarize the results within the body of the report. The executive summary is just under four pages, and the full report is about 30 - the bulk of the report document (another 100 pages or so) consists of appendices to the main report. I wanted to highlight a few things about the report in particular. 1. Putting your data in the cloud ...is just the start. This may be obvious to those of us in the weeds, but supporting long-term availability of data through the use of cloud hosting is only one of many steps. Indexing of (meta)data, auth and access, and a host of other issues are all important to spur actual data reuse. 2. Just, like, talking with people is, y'know, really useful! We did a lot of interviewing and found out some surprising things! In partial reaction to our experience with the Data Commons, we are taking a much lower key and more ethnographic approach to understanding the opportunities and challenges that actually exist on the ground. A lot of the good stuff in the report emerged from these interviews. 3. Interoperability is contingent on the data sets (and processing pipelines) you're talking about. The I in FAIR stands for "Interoperability", and (at least in the context of the CFDE) this is probably the trickiest to measure and evaluate. Why? Suppose, not-so-hypothetically, that you want to take some data from the GTEx human tissue RNAseq collection, and compare the expression of genes in that data with some data from the Kids First datasets. At some basic level, you might think "RNAseq is RNAseq, surely you just grab both data sets and go for it", right? Not so fast! First, you need to make sure that the raw data is comparable - not all RNAseq can be compared, at least not without removing technical biases. (And I'm honestly not sure what the state of the art is around comparing different protocols, e.g. strand-specific RNAseq to generic RNAseq.) Second, the processing pipeline used to analyze the RNAseq data needs to be the same. Practically speaking this means that you may need to reanalyze all of the raw data. Third, you need to deal with batch effects. I'm again not actually sure how you do this on data from a variety of different studies. Fourth, and more fundamental, you need to connect your sample metadata across the various studies so that you are comparing apples to apples. (Spoiler alert: this turns out to be really hard, and seems to be the main conceptual barrier to actual widespread reuse of data across multiple studies.) There are some techniques and perspectives being developed by various Common Fund DCCs that may help with this, and I hope to talk about them in a future blog post. But it's just hard. 4. Computational training is second on everybody's list. This is something that I first saw when a group of us were talking with a bunch of NSF Science and Technology Centers (STCs): when asked what their challenges were, everyone said "in addition to our primary mission, computational training is really critical." (This broad realization by the STCs led to two funded NSF supplements that are part of Data Carpentry's back story!) We saw the same thing here - a surprising result of our interviews was the extent to which the Common Fund Data Coordinating Centers felt that computational training could help foster data use and reuse. I say "surprising" not in the sense that it surprised me that training could be important - I've been banging that drum for well over a decade! - but that it was so high on everybody's list. We only had to mention it - "so, what role do you see for training?" - to have people at the DCCs jump on it enthusiastically! There are many challenges with building training programs with the CF DCCs, but it seems likely that training will be a focus of the CFDE moving forward. What's next? This is only an interim report, and we've only interviewed four DCCs - we have another five to go. Expect to hear more! --titus Brown, C. T., Charbonneau, A., & White, O.. (2019, August 13). 2019-July_CFDE_AssessmentReport.pdf (Version 1). figshare. doi: 10.6084/m9.figshare.9588374.v1
- [Kitchen Extension: Adding Essential Extra Space](https://basementremodelingnow.com/kitchen-extension-adding-essential-extra-space/) - Sourced from: https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/how-to-create-a-kitchen-diner/ Use our Manual if you Are Attempting to design and build a kitchen Expansion The post Kitchen Extension: Adding Vital Extra Space appeared first on Homebuilding & Renovating.
- [7 Essential Tools for Your Metalworking Projects](https://basementremodelingnow.com/7-essential-tools-for-your-metalworking-projects/) - Sourced from: http://www.ccr-mag.com/7-essential-tools-for-your-metalworking-projects/ Whether you’re a professional or a budding hobbyist, metalworking projects need some specialized tools to make your plans a reality. For those just starting out, however, there’s a bewildering array of tools available. That makes it hard to figure out what you need from the outset. If you’re trying to find the essentials, then you’ll want to pay attention. We’ve put together a list of seven essential tools to make your metallic dreams a hard reality. 1. Hammers Hammers are one of the quintessential metalworking tools, but the carpenter’s hammer you use to tap in nails twice a year isn’t going to cut it. There are a surprising number of hammers out there for metalworking, each with their own use. They range from lightweight finishing hammers for precious metals to heavy sledges designed to beat stubborn stainless steel into place. A heavy club hammer is a good place to start for those who plan on working with steel, while those working with softer metals may find themselves looking for something like a ball-peen hammer. Regardless of your intentions, if you’re planning on working with metal, you’ll need the right hammer. 2. Anvil Anvils aren’t just for the blacksmiths of old; they’re an essential part of any metalworker’s toolkits. Anvils provide a smooth, hard surface to allow for hammering heated steel. The horns can be used for further forming and curving. They’re heavy, often expensive, and an essential part of the metalworker’s toolkit. In the past, they were the primary tool used for forging and shaping metal, although modern tools have largely replaced them. It’s still essential to have a nice flat space to handwork metal, and there’s nothing better for that than the good old-fashioned anvil. 3. Bandsaw Intricate cuts are made with a bandsaw. There’s really no other tool like them, and there are different variations for every material — from wood to metal to stone. A bandsaw runs a blade which is… well, a band. Intricate cuts can be made easily due to the thin nature of the blade. If you’re looking for smooth, rounded curves or detailed cutouts, bandsaws will quickly become your best friend. They can also be used for chopping down smaller stock, although you’ll want to be careful of which blade type you use. It’s all in the teeth, so make sure you’re using the right blade for the stock you’re working. These are often expensive tools. Some people prefer to pick up a high-end bandsaw from an auction, rather than go with a cheapy. If that sounds right up your alley, you can learn more about equipment auctioning and get on your way to a cheaper saw. 4. Hacksaw Hacksaws are a hand saw, but with the right blade, they can make short work of tubing, sheet stock, and even smaller solid rods of material. Hacksaws are simple to use, don’t require power, and as long as you have the metal in a solid hold, they make for easier cuts than most suspect. Unlike chop saws and other larger power tools, they’re also quiet and relatively safe to use as long as you don’t try gripping the teeth and pulling. Those who have time invested in their skills might find themselves using power tools more often, but a hacksaw remains an essential part of every would-be metalworker’s toolbox. 5. Flux Core Welder Really, any welder will do, but flux core welding is the simplest for those who haven’t welded before. They operate in essentially the same fashion as a MIG welder but don’t require you to use an inert gas for shielding. Flux core welding is remarkably forgiving due to the lack of extra gasses. You’ll still need to spend a lot of time learning how to manage your welds. But, in the end, flux core welders are suited to be used pretty much anywhere and are more newbie-friendly since you don’t have to work with the shielding gas. The core of the electrode’s flux is enough to shield the metal and prevent oxidation during the whole process in almost all cases. With the right technique, they can be used to weld most metals. This is undoubtedly the most advanced tool on our list, but without some kind of welder, you’ll find yourself quite limited in the workshop. 6. Drill Press Drilling holes should be a simple process, but when it comes to metal, nothing is simple. You can use the right bits in the old drill sitting in your garage to drill through metal in most cases. But you won’t turn back once you’ve used a drill press for the first time. Drill presses hold the bit entirely stationary, making clean holes through any flat surface. All you need to do is twist the wheel or levers and bring the bit into contact with the metal. No messing with off-balance drills or the slight variance that occurs with the human wrist, just a solid connection that’ll drive the bit straight through any surface it will cut. 7. Die Grinder Die grinders are essentially a more powerful, scaled-up rotary tool. Think “Dremel on steroids.” They’re also something that you need to have around if you’re planning to do any kind of welding. Die grinders are primarily used to clean up welds after they’ve been made, leaving a smooth and even surface. With the right attachments, they can also be used to polish, hone, and even machine. Essentially anything you can’t manage with the other tools on this list will be accomplished easily with a die grinder. Make Your Metalworking Projects a Reality When it comes to metalworking projects, you’re always going to “need” more tools. That’s why it’s important to sort out the essentials as you get into the hobby. The above list is enough to get any amateur on the way to a great finished project. With all seven in your shop, you’ll find metalworking much easier than you ever thought. It still takes time to build the skills up, however. Why not browse around and see what you’ll need in a workbench while you’re waiting for your tools to arrive?
- [Vintage Camper](https://basementremodelingnow.com/vintage-camper/) - Sourced from: http://originateandrenovate.blogspot.com/2012/09/vintage-camper.html Remember this project? Yeah, I'm not sure it really deserves the name "project", hmmm...maybe it's more of a remodel. I can't believe the amount of time and energy we put into this camper.After months of working on it, we still haven't even started on the exterior!! Think Teal on the bottom and white on the top. I'd love to just get it done, but I guess it's smart to do it right. We've still got to seal all the windows and potential openings before we can even think about paint.Thankfully, we've finished the inside!!! Don't worry, we've been using it to camp in through each stage of progress, but now it's finally complete. Before:After:
- [is this the world's ugliest kitchen?](https://basementremodelingnow.com/is-this-the-worlds-ugliest-kitchen/) - Sourced from: http://renovateanddecorate.blogspot.com/2009/02/is-this-worlds-ugliest-kitchen.html The missing door: poor bugga nearly made it. Was hanging on by one tiny nail. But Steve kept forgetting its state and it fell on his foot one time too many and spent its last few days beside the fridge.It might well have been. But unfortunately it can't claim this distinguished title because it NO LONGER EXISTS!!!! It's sitting all partly smashed up on my front sandpit (what pathetic grass we had has been fried in the heat). And it's never looked better. Even Z is glad to be rid of the "kitchen mess" as he calls it. Gee, do you wonder why I never posted pics of this room? I'm completely embarassed to show this, but seeing that it's all in the past, let's have a laugh, shall we? Yes, I've put up with this for five years. My medal better be in the mail...A few incredibly exciting facts:* I painted the doors white when we moved in because I couldn't imagine living with green doors for any amount of time. I did such a crap job, I was wishing for the green to come back.* The previous owner's son thought himself a handyman. He wasn't. He installed the taps himself did such a bang-up job they didn't work properly. They were replaced numerous times and ground back and had lots of work but no makeover could save the cold one which exploded one day. I'm so used to using warm/hot water for everything I rarely turn the cold water tap on in the bathroom. He also cut a hole too big for the tap nozzle and didn't bother doing anything about it. My non-handyman husband figured expanding filler would do the trick temporarily. It sealed the hole, but, well, look at it! Ugh.* The tiles are on big sheets of some asbestos-ridden material and weren't the same depth as the rest of the wall, so there was a weird uneven gap no one ever bothered fixing. I don't remember how the piece of wood make its way there but there it is!Hmm, what's sadder? The contact-covered sheets? The mssing door? The paper towel stuffing the hole where the cold water tap used to be? The lovely aged yellow stains or the fish plug that for some INSANE reason I never replaced??????One of the delightful tile prints I could admire while cooking. They clearly shopped at the Ugly Tile Shop - same place they got the sunflower tiles that were in my old bathroom!And another one - I guess they just couldn't decide between the two beauties and chose both... On a happier note, I did wonder if I was utilising the space enough with the new design. Would I fit everything in? Considering I was ruthless and thew out half the contents of the kitchen cupboards as well, I have a feeling I'll be just fine. Aside from another bag out of sight, this is all I have! I sense a shopping spree coming on! I started building the cupboards so I had something to store it in. Four packages down, 48 to go... So I was feeling the pressure with all your "can't wait to see the new kitchen" comments. But I guess, looking at this, anything is going to be a huge improvement isn't it?
- [What I wore: Family Pictures](https://basementremodelingnow.com/what-i-wore-family-pictures/) - Sourced from: http://originateandrenovate.blogspot.com/2012/09/what-i-wore-family-pictures.html Life is delicate, No? We work so hard and worry so much about making it the way we want. Yet, We have such little control over it. In a single instant our entire world can change. A child gets sick or a spouse is taken before we can prepare. People save their entire lives just to lose everything they've worked for. Women that would make incredible Mothers struggle to become them. The worst part is that not one of us is invincible and it's only a matter of time before we are faced with our own trials. My way of coping with these thoughts is through memories. Making them, I mean. And taking way more pictures than my family appreciates. I never want to regret not having documented each and every stage of life. Not because I want to live in the past, but because when things get rough, we need something to remind us what makes it all worth it.And so you see why I love having family pictures taken. Especially by someone as talented as Jennifer Fauset. She was a gem to work with, and the photos are exactly what I was looking for. Seriously, I could spend hours on her blog looking at all her beautiful work.What We Wore:Me:Top and Scarf: J. CrewSkirt: TargetBelt: Downeast OutfittersShoes: Steve MaddenJewelry: ExpressSteve:Undershirt: TargetButton down: J. CrewSweater: GapPants: ExpressShoes: AldoAlfie:Shirt: Crew CutsCardigan, Jeans and Shoes: Gap KidsJuju:Shirt and Necklace: Crew CutsCardigan: Baby GapJeans: Joe JeansBoots: TargetHairbow: Made by me
- [can you just imagine this coming towards you...](https://basementremodelingnow.com/can-you-just-imagine-this-coming-towards-you/) - Sourced from: http://renovateanddecorate.blogspot.com/2009/02/can-you-just-imagine-this-coming.html How frightening.I'd feel way too guilty whinging about living without a kitchen and blogging about the reno when so many people have lost their lives, homes and livelihood in the disastrous fires so I'm going to give it a miss today. On Friday afternoon there was a fire somewhere in our area - it would have been miles away, but the smoke and smell was quite intense and I found it hard to breathe at times. I thought to myself "here we go..." and sent out a silent sympathetic thought to the firies who we're in for a big weekend and made bets with my husband how long it'd be before the freeway was closed and the trains stopped running. Pretty much every year the central coast gets blocked off for a while due to fires. This is an incredible pain in the rear for anyone who needs to travel to Sydney or is stuck in Sydney trying to get home. It can be hours - at times days - before you're given the all clear. After this horiffic weekend in Victoria, we of course, have no right to complain. In fact, I'm sure every one of us up here would have happily been inconvenienced for a while if it meant Victoria had no fires, no deaths, no devastating tragedy. I cannot imagine the emotions being felt down there...My husband suggested if the latest federal Stimulus Package is passed, they should immediately halve the amounts they'd planned to hand out and give the other half to the fire victims and to rebuilding the demolished communities. He also said part of it should go to upgrading our firefighting equipment, procedures and training. Because as temperatures rise year to year, our country is only going to burn faster, further and with more fury.And for those insert-angry-adjective-here animals lighting these fires, I only hope they're found and punished accordingly. I might not be the world's biggest advocate of capital punishment, but in this case, I think being burnt at the stake highly appropriate...
- [News from the NIH Data Commons Pilot Phase Consortium](https://basementremodelingnow.com/news-from-the-nih-data-commons-pilot-phase-consortium/) - Sourced from: http://ivory.idyll.org/blog/2019-nih-data-commons-update.html You may recall that about a year and a half ago, I got involved in the NIH Data Commons. Between then and now, we built a project execution plan, ran Phase 1 for six months, and then in October took a planned work moratorium for the purpose of doing future planning. Then, in February, we received word that the the NIH Data Commons Pilot Phase Consortium (DCPPC) would not continue in its current form. Here's what we received: The NIH Office of Data Science Strategy has been asked to lead the next phase of trans-NIH data ecosystem development as described in the NIH Strategic Plan for Data Science. The deliverables from the DCPPC will inform next steps, but we will not pursue a second phase of the DCPPC. New initiatives may emerge from the ODSS and/or from the ICs in response to the Strategic Plan, but they will communicate their plans as they are established. My award finished at the end of March, and I thought it would be a good time to update y'all (especially since I've been receiving questions!) What did the NIH Data Commons Pilot Phase Consortium achieve? I think we achieved quite a lot in our fairly short stint! (And there's a fair amount of public material that was made available as part of it, although it's not well advertised.) I'm going to focus on things my team helped with, because that's what I know best. There were lots of technical prototypes as well, but those were produced by other teams and are not mine to discuss. (See the list of deliverables and their reviews for more info. Happy to connect you to the authors if you're interested - drop me a line at ctbrown@ucdavis.edu.) First off, here is the top link to the public site that we created for the end of the first Pilot Phase. There are links and documents in there that I continue to find useful, and expect to find useful for many years to come. I'm particularly happy with how the Use Case Library effort was proceeding. I think we set a good path for collaboratively developing use cases for Phase 2, and even without a Phase 2 I will be making use of this approach and this material for other projects. The Centillion search engine that my team built was pretty cool!! See the October writeup of it, here and also the public GitHub page, here. The "On Commonsing" document we wrote up after a workshop on "Data Commonses" is something that I will be coming back to regularly! People interested in pragmatic standards development might be interested in Why Multiple Stacks are Necessary. I continue to think the FAIRshake portal is unreasonably cool... check out the projects. Personally, I learned a lot about interoperability and creating and growing community from this experience, and I think the same is true of most of the other participants. Completely apart from the technical and infrastructure efforts, the coordination and community aspects of this Pilot Phase seem likely to have long-term positive impacts on how many of us deal with these kinds of projects in the future. So what's next? I'm not sure! I think it's fair to say that the problems the NIH Data Commons effort was tackling are not going away (you can see more about these problems in my talk slides from my 2018 talk at the Dutch Techcentre for Life Sciences). And the NIH and broader biomedical research community will certainly be working on many things in this area. And I may not be involved but I'm sure to have opinions. So, stay tuned! --titus
- [i Heart Radio](https://basementremodelingnow.com/i-heart-radio/) - Sourced from: http://originateandrenovate.blogspot.com/2012/09/i-heart-radio.html Feeling quite happy about being home with these two munchkins after a spontaneous trip to Vegas with Steve to see the i heart radio music festival. Grandpa stayed over and we made the 6 hour journey on the hope of scoring tickets from someone down there, which was rather crazy considering this concert sold out in under 10 minutes. We did find someone to buy tickets from, but sadly he never showed. Thankfully, having a super chatty husband pays off and some of the clear channel peeps we met down there hooked us up with FREE TICKETS!! The lineup was insane. No doubt, Taylor Swift, Usher, Rhianna, Aerosmith, Pink, Green Day, Pitbull, Miranda Lambert, Deadmau5, Bon Jovi, Enrique Iglesias, Swedish House Mafia, Lincoln Park, Jason Aldean, Brad Paisley, Lil Wayne, Mary J. Blige (with a special appearance by Prince) and Calvin Harris. The best part was the little to no downtime between acts. However, I did feel old when we didn't even use our after party credentials because we were too tired. 1. Had time for a quick haircut by the fabulous Shep before we left.2. The set up at the concert, the huge screens were pretty deluxe. 3. The gardens at the Bellagio. That pumpkin is real and yes I'm wearing pants ;)4. i Heart Radio LED bracelets that lit up to the music.5. Scoring free tickets.6. My most favorite celebrity ever, Gwen Stefani.7. Pink. Ugh, love her. 8. After party credentials 9. UsAs glamorous as it all was, I must admit, I was missing Alfie and Juju something fierce by the end of the 2nd night. So while my real life looks more like this ^ and can feel a tad bonkers at times. It's nice to be reminded that no celebrity, or credential or lifestyle is quite as rewarding as a family. Glad to be home.
- [DIY Concrete Outdoor Coffee Table](https://basementremodelingnow.com/diy-concrete-outdoor-coffee-table/) - Sourced from: https://www.loveandrenovations.com/diy-concrete-coffee-table/ What happens when you fall in love with the perfect outdoor coffee table, only to discover it’s sold out? You make your own! Here are the details on my DIY concrete outdoor cofee table. This post contains affiliate links. Click here to read my full disclosure policy. I don’t mean to sound like a broken record, but I cannot believe how far our backyard has come in the last few months, y’all. I was honestly pretty nervous when you decided that I should tackle our back porch this summer because it felt like such a daunting task, but I am so (so!) glad we did. This space has become one of my very favorite places to be, and I can’t wait to wrap the last few projects up and call this space finished! If you haven’t been following along with this summer makeover, here’s everything you may have missed: The first outdoor projects we tackled this summer were painting our backyard shed……and sprucing up the rose beds.Then, we started the big makeover by building a DIY paver and pea gravel patio.Once it was done, we styled it and started using the heck out of it.Then we turned our attention to the back porch – first, we painted the metal covering.And then we built a DIY outdoor sofa for lounging! Finally, earlier this week I shared the DIY plant wall I created to add some life to the porch. Today I’m sharing the (gorgeous) DIY outdoor coffee table we built, and then there’s just one more big project to share before the official reveal (NEXT WEEK, Y’ALL!). This coffee table has been on my mind since the very beginning of this entire renovation. It started when I was shopping for furniture for the porch and I found the Palmera Faux Concrete Coffee Table from World Market (no longer available, but see the other stuff in the line here). It was everything I wanted for this space, and y’all agreed when I put it to a vote over on Instagram. Of course, it wasn’t until after this coffee table won the vote by a landslide that I discovered that it was out of stock. And, once I contacted World Market I was told they weren’t sure when (or if) it would be brought back. Perfect. Thankfully, the design is pretty simple and I felt confident that Corey and I could re-create the same basic look – and probably for a lot less money! This project was incredibly cheap, since we were able to use some scraps from our outdoor sofa for the legs. Even if you need to purchase the wood, the materials for this entire build should set you back no more than $100 or so – and you know I love saving money! Ready to learn how to make your own?! Let’s do it! DIY Concrete outdoor cofee table tools + Materials Needed: (1) 8-foot 4X4 board(1) 8-foot 2X2 boardBeadlock Pro Joinery SystemWood glue1/2 sheet of 1/2″ plywoodWood fillerDrill/driver setPower nailerHenry Feather FinishTrowels (I used a couple of different sizes, see below)Orbital sander + various grit sandpapersBlack Diamond Wet Look SealerSpar Urethane STep One: Build the Legs For the legs, we used pretty much the exact same process that we used on our outdoor sofa. We loved the invisible joints created by Rockler’s Beadlock Pro and it was the perfect tool to use again for this project. However, you could also use pocket holes or even just extra long screws (like these) if you don’t mind the visible hardware. Each leg is made up of two 14″ pieces with one 13″ piece in the middle. We put them together using the loose tenon joints but, again, if you aren’t comfortable with those joints or don’t have the jig, I’d recommend just using extra long lag screws and wood glue. Just like with the couch, I recommend sanding the wood for the legs (starting with 80-grit and working up to 320-grit) before assembling them! Step TWo: Assemble the top Frame Once the legs are built and dried, you’re ready to assemble the top of the table. We wanted a concrete look without the weight of an actual concrete slab, so we built a wood top and covered it with Henry Feather Finish. I’ve seen people use this stuff on countertops dozens of times over the years, and I’ve always wanted to try it so this was the perfect opportunity! To build the top, we started by making a 29″X44″ rectangle frame using 2X4s. We ended up deciding it was too thick, and we cut down the excess, so I’d actually recommend just starting with 2X2s to make your life easier! We used wood glue and screws to assemble this part of the table. Once the outside is built, you’ll add your supports for the legs. We just cut two 2×4’s to fit inside the rectangle, then placed them 5″ in from either side – they’re attached with wood glue and screws, just like the rest of the top! Then, we set everything up really quickly to see how we liked it – and, of course, this is when we noticed that the top was much too thick! Corey just ran it through the table saw to cut it down, but I’d recommend starting with 2X2’s for the outside pieces – that’s about what we cut it down to. To attach the legs to the top, simply apply wood glue to the tops of the legs and then drill the top into the legs from the top of the supports. Step three: attach plywood to top Next, we wrapped the entire frame with some 1/4″ plywood. You should have five pieces, cut to the specific measurements listed above (though, I recommend that you double-check the measurements on your specific table before cutting, just in case you made any small mistake along the way that would cause it to be a slightly different size!). Attach the large piece of plywood to the top using wood glue and nails (we use this power nailer), and then attach the side pieces on the sides of the frame with the same method. After you’ve attached all of the plywood, you should use some wood filler to fill in any gaps, cracks, or nail holes! It should look something like this when you’re all done! Step Three: finish the legs Now the bones of the table are finished and it’s time to make it look pretty! I chose to stain the legs using Varathane’s Dark Walnut stain, but you could also paint them if you prefer. My original plan was to actually paint them black, but I didn’t have any exterior paint on hand so I decided to use something I did have instead. Once you’ve stained the legs, be sure to apply spar urethane to protect them from the elements outside. It typically requires several coats with sanding in-between, so don’t rush this step! Step Four: Apply Feather Finish to top Now you’re ready for the fun (and slightly terrifying) part: applying the feather finish to the top! The most common brand of feather finish I’ve seen used for this kind of project is Ardex Feather Finish, but I didn’t wait to wait for it to be shipped so I just grabbed the Henry brand Feather Finish in store. I think they’re pretty comparable, so either should be fine. To apply your feather finish to the table top, start by mixing it up (mine had a ratio of 2 parts water to 1 part powder) in small batches. I just mixed mine in one of these little pails (with a liner) and I found that it was just the right size. If I tried to get too much going at once, it started to harden towards the end of the batch – and this stuff is much easier to work with when it’s on the looser side! Think of the texture you’re shooting for as a loose cake frosting – it should be super easy to spread but thick enough that it won’t just slide off the edges of the table when you apply it vertically. I applied three layers of feather finish (though, I probably could have gotten away with just two). The first two layers really just need to provide coverage – don’t stress too much about making them smooth! I used both an angled trowel and a wide putty knife to apply the concrete and I found that the best strategy was to get the concrete on the table and mostly spread out with the trowel, then switch to the putty knife to really spread it out and smooth it as much as possible. After each layer dries, grab some 80-grit sandpaper and your orbital sander and go to town – you’re looking to just smooth out the rough edges and the ridges in the table. You aren’t shooting for perfection with these first two layers! On the final layer, I worked much slower when applying the concrete and I really tried to focus on minimizing any lines in the finish. This is the layer everyone will see, and it’s the one you’ll be sanding to perfection, so really take your time with it! Once it has dried fully, you’re ready for the final sanding process. I started with 80-grit sandpaper, then slowly stair-stepped my way all the way up to 320 (meaning, I sanded the entire thing with 80-grit, then 100-grit, then 120-grit, etc.). It takes a long time to get it fully sanded, but the buttery smooth texture is worth it. Step Five: Seal the table top After I finished the table top, it was time to seal it. Thankfully, since this is just a coffee table and not concrete counters (which is where I see this product used most often), I didn’t need to worry about a food-safe sealer! I used this wet look sealer and it was a breeze to apply! I applied three thin coats using a regular old paintbrush. It’s very thin, so be careful not to allow it to pool at all as it’s drying. Each coat needs to dry for about an hour before applying the next one, and I found that it stayed really smooth and I didn’t need to sand in-between coats at all. Once it’s fully dry, you’re good to go! I am so, so happy with how this little faux concrete table turned out and I honestly can’t wait to tackle another project using feather finish concrete! It was so much fun, and the finished look is truly, absolutely beautiful. With this project complete, we’ve only got one big project left back here before we’re ready to accessorize and call this back porch complete! Be on the lookout for the final project later this week, and the full reveal is coming next week! What do you think I should use the feather finish on next? An indoor dining table? Nightstands? I kind of want to cover everything with it! The post DIY Concrete Outdoor Coffee Table appeared first on Love & Renovations.
- [Comparing two genome binnings quickly with sourmash](https://basementremodelingnow.com/comparing-two-genome-binnings-quickly-with-sourmash/) - Sourced from: http://ivory.idyll.org/blog/2019-comparing-binnings.html tl;dr? Compare and cluster two collections of 1000+ metagenome-assembled genomes in a few minutes with sourmash! A week ago, someone e-mailed me with an interesting question: how can we compare two collections of genome bins with sourmash? Why would you want to do this? Well, there's lots of reasons! The main one that caught my attention is comparing genomes extracted from metagenomes via two different binning procedures - that's where I started almost two years ago, with two sets of bins extracted from the Tara ocean data. You might also want to merge bins that were similar to produce a (hopefully) more complete bin, or you could intersect bins that were similar to produce a consensus bin that might be higher quality, or you could identify bins that were in one collection and not in the other, to round out your collection. I'm assuming this is done by lots of workflows - I note, for example, that the metaWRAP workflow includes a 'bin refinement' step that must do something like this. I (ahem) haven't really read up on what others do, because I was mostly interested in hacking something together myself. So here goes :). How do you compare two collections of bins?? There are a few different strategies. My previous attempts were -- comparing two directories in bulk, focusing on summary statistics; reclassifying each bin set with the taxonomy from the other bin set In both cases, my conclusions ended with "wow, there are some real differences here" but I never dug deeply into what was going on in detail. This time, though, I had a bit more experience under my belt and I realized that a fairly simple thing to do would be to cluster all of the bins together while tracking the origin of each bin, and then deconvolving the clusters so that you could dig into each cluster at arbitrary detail. The basic strategy Load in two lists of sourmash signatures. Compare them all. Perform some kind of clustering on the all-by-all comparison. Output clusters. Conveniently, I had already implemented the key bits in a Jupyter notebook about a year ago (here), so it was ready to go! I turned it into a command-line script called cocluster.py and tested it out; on data where I knew the answer, it performed fine, grouping identical bins together and grouping or splitting strain variants depending on the cut point for the dendrogram. You do have to run it on collections of already-computed signatures; an example command line for cocluster.py is: cocluster.py --first podar-ref/?.fa.sig --second podar-ref/*.fa.sig -k 31 This version outputs a dendrogram showing the clustering, as well as a spreadsheet containing the cluster assignments. Speeding it up The problem is, it's kind of slow for big data sets where you have to do millions of comparisons! Since comparing N signatures against N signatures is inherently an N**2 problem, any work we can put into filtering out signatures at the front end of the analysis will be paid back in serious coin. So, I added two optimizations. First, you can now pass in a --threshold argument that specifies, in basepairs, roughly how many bp need to be shared by a signature from the first list with any of the signatures in the second list. If this threshold isn't met, the signature from the first list is dropped. Then do the same for each signature in the second list with respect to the first list. Second, you can now downsample the signatures by specifying a --scaled parameter. (Read more about this here.) The logic here is that if you're comparing genomes, you probably don't really need to look at a high resolution to get a rough estimate of what's going on. This optimization speeds up every comparison done. Together, this made it straightforward to apply this stuff to scads of genomes! More/better output Last but not least, I updated the script to output clusters, and provide summary output too! An example! Here is an annotated example of the complete workflow - this is done on the reference genome data set from Shakya et al., 2013, which we updated in Awad et al., 2017. This genome collection contains 64 genomes, some of which are strain variants of each other. Briefly, after computing signatures, cocluster.py calculates an all-by-all comparison for the two input collections, that results in a matrix like this (not currently output by cocluster.py) -- The dendrogram is then cut at some given phenetic distance - in this case I chose 1.8, based on visual inspection of this next dendrogram: The cocluster.py script then outputs a cluster details CSV file that lists all of the clusters and their members. (The clustered signatures themselves are also provided, along with singletons.) And, finally, all of this activity is logged and summarized in the results output: ... total clusters: 60 num 1:1 pairs: 56 num singletons in first: 0 num singletons in second: 0 num multi-sig clusters w/only first: 0 num multi-sig clusters w/only second: 0 num multi-sig clusters mixed: 4 The full set of commands is listed in this Snakefile, and commands to repeat it are in the appendix below. Playing with real data Since both the Tully et al. and the Delmont et al. papers have been published now, I first re-downloaded the published data and calculated all the signatures for the 3500 or so genomes -- see the instructions and Snakefile in github.com/ctb/2019-tara-binning2/. Once downloaded, computing the signatures takes about 15 minutes, using snakemake -j 16. Then, I ran the cocluster script from https://github.com/ctb/2017-sourmash-cluster like so: ./2017-sourmash-cluster/cocluster.py --threshold=50000 -k 31 --first ../data/tara/tara-tully/*.sig --second ../data/tara/tara-delmont/NON_REDUNDANT_MAGs/*.sig --prefix=tara.coclust --cut-point=1.0 This took about 2 minutes to run on my HPC cluster, and produced the following output with a cut point of 1.0 (which is pretty liberal). ... total clusters: 2838 num 1:1 pairs: 331 num singletons in first: 1886 num singletons in second: 443 num multi-sig clusters w/only first: 42 num multi-sig clusters w/only second: 4 num multi-sig clusters mixed: 132 When I re-run it with a more stringent cut-point of 0.1, I get: % ./2017-sourmash-cluster/cocluster.py --threshold=50000 -k 31 --first ../data/tara/tara-tully/*.sig --second ../data/tara/tara-delmont/NON_REDUNDANT_MAGs/*.sig --prefix=tara.coclust --cut-point=0.1 ... total clusters: 3520 num 1:1 pairs: 43 num singletons in first: 2557 num singletons in second: 906 num multi-sig clusters w/only first: 6 num multi-sig clusters w/only second: 0 num multi-sig clusters mixed: 8 Basically this means that: when doing stringent clustering, there are 3520 different clusters; 43 of the clusters provide a 1-1 match between bins from the Delmont and Tully studies; 2557 of the Tully signatures don't cluster with anything else; 906 of the Delmont signatures don't cluster with anything else; there are 6 clusters that contain more than one Tully signature, and no Delmont signatures there are 0 clusters that contain more than one Delmont signatures, and no Tully signatures; 8 of the clusters have more than two signatures and contain at least one Tully and at least one Delmont signature. I'll dig into some of these results in a separate blog post! --titus Appendix: repeating the podar analysis This workflow will take about 1 minute to run, once the software is installed. To repeat the analysis of 64 genomes above (see output), do the following. # create a new conda environment w/python 3.7 conda create -y -c bioconda -p /tmp/podar-coclust python=3.7.3 sourmash snakemake # activate conda environment conda activate /tmp/podar-coclust # grab the cocluster script and podar workflow git clone https://github.com/ctb/2017-sourmash-cluster/ cd 2017-sourmash-cluster/podar-coclust # clean out the existing files & run! snakemake clean snakemake -j 4 -p all This last step will download the necessary files, compute the signatures, and run cocluster.py.
- [kitchen reno part 1](https://basementremodelingnow.com/kitchen-reno-part-1/) - Sourced from: http://renovateanddecorate.blogspot.com/2009/02/kitchen-reno-part-1.html What I'm looking at right now. You should see the other side of the living room! Am completely knackered, so not going to bore with all the details just yet, but let me update you in numbers and pictures...Number of days without a kitchen: 8Number of sandwiches eaten: 42Number of arms incredibly sore from sanding and painting three times in one day: 2 (they would be mine)Number of hiccups so far: 6Most number of trips to the hardware store in one day: 6Number of cabinets in place: 5Number of cabinets to still be put into place: 10Number of taps working: 0Number of appliances working: 0Number of holes in the wrong place the electician cut into the wall that was already sanded and painted? 2Number of flies killed because the doors were open all day every day: 723. Wait. 724Number of times we've fallen onto our butts because the floor is so damn slippery from all the swept up sawdust? Me: 2; Steve: 1; Z: 4Number of days before my dad can come back and finish putting the kitchen in: 12 :(Number of hours before we can get water and power on in the kitchen: oh god please let it be no more than 15!Day 1: Looking better already!The mouse's house (left) and grass growing inside the wall!!Several floorboards had to be replaced. We nearly had this gaping hole overnight, but luckily the new floor was put in on time. Day 2: Electrical and plumbing workDay 5: new walls in and plastered and lights installedDay 6: dad and his little helper putting together the cabinets. Funnily enough, that plastic hammer worked: teh nails actually went in!Day 7: Pantry done. The other cabinets on that wall are not flush with the wall yet. Dad needs to come back and put the benchtop on. Am hoping the electrician can connect the oven and cooktop tomorrow. I'm tired of sandwiches and takeaway!My temporary benchtop!! These are the offcuts from the other side's bench and the cut out from the sink hole!And just because I don't have enough things in my life to keep me busy (!) I signed up to Twitter last week and actually spent longer than two minutes on it tonight working it out. I think I've got it. Here is where I'll be sending all those little quirks, annoyances or snippets of news too minor or time-consuming to blog about. And much excitement is the fact I can SMS the updates and they'll appear magically on my Twitter profile. How genius. Not sure how long I'll follow this fad (am really good at losing interest in things - Facebook? I only get on to look at friends photos now!), but for now, you can follow me at twitter.com/belindagraham
- [Dreaming of our little one.](https://basementremodelingnow.com/dreaming-of-our-little-one/) - Sourced from: http://originateandrenovate.blogspot.com/2012/10/dreaming-of-our-little-one.html Jennifer Fauset of Fauset Photography has put together an auction for her sister who has been trying for years to have a baby. She recently found out that IVF is her best option and to help a little with the enormous financial burden, Sew Obsessed has donated some items to auction away for a fraction of the retail price. Here are pics of the goods. click over to their Facebook Page to start the bidding (bidding ends Oct. 8). Moda's Lilly and Will Bundle and Cupcake pincushion Lot of: Mini Iron, straight pins, fabric circle cutter, fabric markers, measuring tape and Heather Bailey's smarty girl book bag pattern.I also donated a couple paper party crowns. Use them for a Bridal or Baby shower, or save it and use year after year for Birthday dinners. (One size fits Baby - Adult) Ahh yes, and what's more... The shipping is FREE! There are tons of vendors involved, so check it out. It's Great way to score some good deals and, of course, help someone fulfill their dream of becoming a Mother.
- [Kitchen Extension: Creating the Ultimate Kitchen Diner](https://basementremodelingnow.com/kitchen-extension-creating-the-ultimate-kitchen-diner/) - Sourced from: https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/how-to-create-a-kitchen-diner/ Including a kitchen expansion or knocking through? If you are looking to create an open-plan, sociable space but can not decide what to do, read our guide The article Kitchen Extension: Making the Best Kitchen Diner appeared first on Homebuilding & Renovating.
- [5 Outdoor Entertaining Tips That Will Have Your Summer Party Going All Night Long](https://basementremodelingnow.com/5-outdoor-entertaining-tips-that-will-have-your-summer-party-going-all-night-long/) - Sourced from: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RamblingRenovators/~3/3GgToubM-J8/5-outdoor-entertaining-tips-for-summer-party.html With the long weekend coming up and the kids all out of school in just a few days, we are ready to jump into summer. The weather here in Toronto hasn't been the greatest (can we have a week with no rain, please?) but that makes me all the more eager to embrace summer and everything it has to offer.One thing I am looking forward to is entertaining outdoors. We're hosting a 50th anniversary party for my parents later this summer and it's time to get our backyard into tip top shape. Summer parties can present unique challenges so it's worthwhile to put some thought into how to keep your guests comfortable, especially as the festivities extend from day into night. Here are 5 outdoor entertaining tips to ensure a great time is had by all at your next summer party.1. Create An Outdoor Dining RoomMoving the party outdoors can be as easy as taking your food out to the patio. But to really set the scene for a memorable summer party, consider creating an outdoor dining room. Treat your patio or deck as you would your finest interior space and outfit it with furnishings and accessories that are inviting and comfortable.Start with a quality outdoor table and chairs. Chairs with armrests and cushioned seats allow your guests to dine outside and linger in comfort. To add softness underfoot, and to make it easier for chairs to slide in and out on uneven or rough surfaces, place an outdoor rug beneath the table.If your space is large, create zones throughout your outdoor area, designating spots for dining and for lounging. Consider adding partitions or outdoor screens to bring a sense of privacy and to further define each room. In our backyard, I've used Philips Hue Calla Outdoor Bollards around the perimeter of our stone patio. The lights visually separate the dining area from the grass and make the patio seem more grand and special.2. Decorate With NatureSummer is a wonderful time to decorate with plants, indoors and outdoors. Though your outdoor dining space might already be surrounded by grass and trees, bringing additional natural elements into your decor can enhance the summertime feel. Here, I've used vibrant florals and leafy ferns to decorate the dining area. Their beautiful textures, gorgeous colours, and fresh scents make this outdoor scene come alive.You don't have to limit yourself to flowers or plants. Branches cut from the garden and simply placed in a vase can be a dramatic centrepiece, or use rocks, shells and driftwood to create a coastal inspired tableau. I've used the natural hues of the wooden lanterns and woven chargers to bring warmth to my table setting.3. Add Vibrant ColourNothing complements the greens of summer better than bright, bold hues. Opt for outdoor tableware or table linens in happy patterns and vibrant colours. A brightly decorated table puts everyone in a party mood. I love a good party theme and outdoor entertaining is a perfect excuse to be creative and have fun with your decor. Think a spicy Mexican fiesta, an ocean blue Mediterranean banquet or Miami pastel brights. Use colourful accessories like hanging lanterns, outdoor pillows, or garden decor to add personality.4. Use Lighting To Enhance The MoodOutdoor lighting can play an important role in enhancing the mood of your party. As the sun begins to set, lighting can keep the energy high and the food and drinks visible. Smart outdoor lighting provides enhanced versatility, ensuring you can provide the right backdrop for any occasion.Previously, I installed Philips Hue Lily Outdoor Spotlights in the backyard. They provide great accent lighting, up light the trees beautifully, and provide added security. With the addition of Calla Bollards, I now have a lighting system fit for entertaining.Using the Philips Hue app, I'm able to control the lights separately or in tandem. Smart lighting is wonderful because you can adjust the ambiance to any occasion: a big party, an intimate dinner or a moment of relaxation on a late summer night. By adapting the colour and level of the light, you create the right setting to fully enjoy any moment outside.5. Keep Guests ComfortableUnlike an indoor party, the environment will have a huge impact on the success of your summer party. There's two basic things every outdoor party guest wants: to be neither too hot nor too cold, and to keep the bugs away! The first goal is easily achieved by keeping the drinks cooler well stocked and having amenities available. Stock a small tray with sunblock, hand wipes, and stow a basket of throws and blankets nearby for guests to use at their convenience.Keeping bugs away is a bit trickier. Citronella candles, insect-deterring lanterns, and natural repellants like lavender or peppermint oil can help to keep mosquitos at bay. You can also pre-treat the party zone with repellant sprays. But if all else fails, move the party inside for after dinner drinks.Whether you're hosting an intimate dinner on the patio or barbecues every weekend, summer entertaining can be a breeze. Follow these easy outdoor entertaining tips and your next summer party is sure to keep going all night long.Disclosure: This conversation is sponsored by Philips Hue. All words, photos, and opinions are my own.
- [Some questions and thoughts on journal peer review.](https://basementremodelingnow.com/some-questions-and-thoughts-on-journal-peer-review/) - Sourced from: http://ivory.idyll.org/blog/2019-questions-and-thoughts-peer-review.html Can I use comments from other people's prior reviews when reviewing a submission to a new journal? I just had the dispiriting experience of receiving a paper to review from Journal B, that was unchanged from a prior submission to Journal A. The "dispiriting" part of the experience was that the paper was completely unchanged, despite a host of minor and major comments on the paper from all three reviewers for Journal A. I ended up writing that I was disappointed that the authors had not seen fit to confront the bigger issues in any way, much less correct even the smallest and easiest errors; and then pasted in my previous review. What I wanted to do was paste in the expert reviews from the other two reviewers for Journal A, but I didn't feel like that was OK. (If I get the paper back with some revisions, I'll reevaluate it in light of the Journal A reviews, too.) I think the behavior of the authors is very questionable, too, and I hope they rethink this strategy. If your paper is desk-rejected by a hoity-toity journal without review, that's one thing; if reviewers put in hours of effort and give you detailed comments, you goshdarn well should put in an hour or two of your own time before resubmitting. Why don't all journals always send all the reviews to all reviewers? David Koslicki visited my lab yesterday, and I was reminded of the mash and MetaPalette situation from a few years back. Briefly: I was a reviewer on both the mash paper (Ondov et al. (2016)) and the MetaPalette paper (Koslicki and Falush (2016)) and in my final review of MetaPalette I mentioned the mash paper enthusiastically. (Both were already up on biorxiv.) At some point later on I sent David an e-mail to follow up on some suggestions I'd had, and we realized that he'd never received the text from my review of MetaPalette. He later told me that he thought that receiving my comments would have accelerated his research by a few months, by pointing him at a new area. So why didn't mSystems send him the review text?! (There are plenty of journals that are guilty of this. Nature Biotech is one that I've noted in the past.) Isn't it irresponsible not to make some portion of the reviews public when the paper is published? Peer reviews often provide important context that can help people understand why the paper is important and interesting. It's fine and dandy to say that that should all be in the final paper, but that's a hard task and often papers are space constrained (...for some reason). I think journals should make reviews public along with the article. The biggest argument against this is that it might take some work by someone to properly adjust reviews for fixes from earlier versions. A short term fix might be to have a box for "this is the part of the review that I would like to make public if this paper is accepted". Why don't journals behave as if reviews belong to the reviewer? I no longer review for PNAS, because they started including a provision that I couldn't make any part of my review available in any form, even anonymously. I can understand that they don't want reputation laundering (e.g. my previous behavior in posting reviews, which boosts my own reputation while also being a sign of my own privilege), but I see little harm in allowing it to be posted anonymously. Journals sure are proprietary about work they didn't pay for. That's a bigger theme here, I guess :) There is no conclusion other than that peer review seems really broken. Anyway. Those are my ranty off the cuff comments for today. --titus
- [Lead with LEDs, even without LEED](https://basementremodelingnow.com/lead-with-leds-even-without-leed/) - Sourced from: http://www.ccr-mag.com/lead-with-leds-even-without-leed/ At Columbia Construction in North Reading, Massachusetts supporting our clients’ goals in building energy-efficient green buildings is a priority. In fact, several years ago, we established an Energy Division tasked specifically with finding ways for clients to generate renewable solar PV energy, and reduce energy use and operational costs. While building energy codes continue to raise the floor on minimum performance, the high-performance heights reached by projects pursuing LEED, Zero Net Energy, and other 3rd party verifiable rating and certifications systems demonstrate that a motivated client and team can exceed expectations and end-user benefits. But our commitment to sustainability goes beyond user benefits. As part of Columbia Construction’s own sustainability evolution, we want to better understand how we can operate more responsibly and sustainably across all projects, during the building process itself. Lower energy consumption & greenhouse gases Upon research and reflection, we realized that a big opportunity for construction companies to reduce energy consumption is in temporary lighting during construction. Temporary construction lighting is required on every project, it typically runs 24/7 for safety and security, and unlike the finished lighting, it’s not specified by the client and designers. Temporary lighting during construction is within the control of the construction companies. We noticed lighting design in our finished projects trending toward all LEDs (Light-Emitting Diodes) and away from Incandescent, Halogen, and Fluorescent lighting. LEDs allow for more control on the quality of the light and can more easily be selected at specific color temperatures (from yellowish to white to blueish) and also specific brightness measured in lumens (from Latin, literally ‘light’; think illuminate). In addition to all this added control on lighting quality, LEDs use significantly less energy to produce equivalent light levels. LEDs can save up to 85% on energy compared to Incandescent and 50% when compared to Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs). No longer should we be thinking about brightness in terms of watts. Watts is actually a measurement of power, a proxy for brightness in incandescent lighting. Now, using the more accurate measure of lumens, we can think about brightness directly in terms of brightness. Since our electrical grids are still mostly powered with fossil fuels, lowering energy consumption reduces Greenhouse Gas emissions, which is necessary if we are going to be part of a sustainable future. Human health & safety The transition from incandescent lighting to fluorescent was an important step in energy efficiency — but also in terms of human health. Mercury is considered one of the top ten chemicals of major public health concern by the World Health Organization. The EPA has clarified that less mercury is released into the environment when using CFLs when compared to incandescent lighting. Power plants burning coal release mercury, so using less energy with a CFL also reduces power plant mercury emissions. Unfortunately, the actual CFL bulbs do contain small amounts of mercury (about 4-5 milligrams). This means that broken CFLs are a potential health hazard and must be disposed of properly and not thrown in the trash. This means that the healthiest solution is energy efficient LED bulbs that last longer and don’t have mercury in them. Also, LEDs lose less energy to heat and therefore operate at lower temperatures and are less likely to burn workers, melt plastic that comes into contact with them, or start a fire. LEDs are the most durable lighting option with no filaments, and bulbs that are available without glass housing. LEDs can also be produced without the glass housing typical in other forms of lighting. Eliminating the glass housing reduces the risk of cuts from broken glass. LED cost Initially, the higher cost of LEDs limited their adoption, but over the years purchase prices have come way down. US DOE Life-Cycle Assessment research shows that LED lighting improves the quality of lighting, saves energy, and reduces negative environmental impacts when compared to other common lighting options. Life-Cycle Assessment considers not only use, but also manufacturing, transport and disposal at the end of useful life of the product. At Columbia, we’ve surveyed our electricians and received feedback that supports what we we’re seeing on our job sites. LED bulb cost has come down to the point where cost no longer makes them a ‘non-starter’. The LED bulbs are more expensive to purchase initially, but their longer bulb life and better durability translates to less labor cost to replace broken or burnt out bulbs. Despite this, many projects had not fully converted to LED and typically still used a mix of incandescent, halogen, CFLs, and LED. We recognized an opportunity to initiate a company-wide policy to reduce the biggest negative environmental impacts from lighting, GHGs related to energy consumption. The new normal As of January 2019 at Columbia Construction, all new projects are required to use energy-efficient LED Temporary Construction Lighting on the build site (correct?) to reduce energy use, improve employee safety, and support sustainability in the environment through reducing GHGs and mercury emissions from energy consumption. It’s a simple fix with big benefits. We’ll continue to review our operations and identify opportunities that are within our control. We can do the right thing for ourselves, our workers and the environment, and be leaders towards sustainable construction practices. In this, we earnestly hope that others in our industry will join us. _____________________________________________________________ Conor McGuire, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP, is the Director of Sustainability at Columbia Construction Company (www.columbiacc.com)
- [これから聴きはじめれば間違いなし洋楽ロック5選 2019](https://basementremodelingnow.com/これから聴きはじめれば間違いなし洋楽ロック5選/) - Sourced from: https://basement-times.com/yougaku-band2/ 最近の洋楽のバンドが聴かれなさすぎる。是非聴き始めてほしい洋楽ロックバンド5選 Part1はこちら みんな邦楽か洋楽を聴いても昔のばっかりで誰も最近の洋楽バンドを聴いてないので、取っ掛かりになるような良いバンドを紹介する！という記事を前に書いたんだけど、割と好評だったので第２弾を。 去年サマソニに行ったんだけど、マジでガラガラで今ってホントにみんな洋楽聞いてないってのを痛感しました。 確かに遠目から見ると最近の洋楽はヒップホップ一辺倒だし、マジでバンドがいないので探す気も起きない気持ちは凄くわかる。それでも世界は広いので、毎年ちゃんと良いバンドが出てきてるし、どのバンドも着実に進化してる。 邦楽ばっかり聴くのも別に否定はしないけど、音楽が好きなら今の洋楽バンドを全パスするのはマジでもったいないと思う。 ということで、今回もみなさまの取っ掛かりになるような良いバンドをチョイスしましたので是非聞いていってもらえればと思います。 FEVER 333 FEVER 333 – WE’RE COMING IN 2017年に結成されたアメリカの３人組ロックバンド。メンバーそれぞれがハードコア界隈では名の通ったバンドの出身。去年フジロックに来たときも話題になりましたね。 音楽性はいわゆるラップコア。そういう風に言われると別段新しいわけでもなく、むしろ手垢がつきまくっているような印象だが、聴いてみると一気に印象が変わる。 再生ボタンを押したその先は、衝撃的な熱量。スピーカー越しとは思えないような迫力。iPhoneが凶器に変わる。Youtubeの画面越しで事件の当事者になれる。中学生の頃初めてレイジ・アゲインストザ・マシーン聴いた時のよう。 ロックという音楽で出来ることなんて、もうとっくの昔に出尽くしてしまったと思っていたが、そんなのは僕の勘違いだったと思い知らせてくれた。 ちなみに上の曲は、一曲通して”ファ”の音しかの一音しか登場しない。小学生のリコーダーの教科書の１曲目に採用したいほどのシンプルさ。スタンスがロック。こういうの大好き。 あと個人的に好感度が高いのは、メタル臭が少ないところ。最近はラップ＋ロックだとほぼ全部メタルっぽいというかラウドっぽいというか。でもレイジを聴いて育った俺達には、こういう音楽が必要なんだよな。 &nbsp twenty one pilots twenty one pilots – Stressed Out ラップ＋ロックはメタル系しかいなくなったと書いた直後に紹介するのもアレだけど、こちらも最近では珍しい非メタル系のラップロックバンド。ワンオクとかパニック・アット・ザ・ディスコ、フォール・アウト・ボーイなどが所属するエモ界の重鎮レーベルFueled by ramenの変わり種、といった感じの立ち位置。売れまくってるのでもう変わり種でもなくなった感じはするけど。 全体的にちょっと緩めで、ちょっと捻くれた感じなポップさがツボの音楽だと思うけど、個人的にはドラムが凄いいい仕事をしてるなと思う。楽曲の構成をみるとバンド音楽というよりも、わりと結構ヒップホップよりな作りをしているけど、ドラムの緩急で緊張感が生まれてちゃんとバンド音楽になってるんだよな。ジョシュ・ダンはここ数年のベストドラマー。 ビップホップやエモ系が好きな人はもちろん、個人的にはバンドマンに聴いてほしいバンド。2010年代以降のビート表現の手法を学ぶにはちょうどいいバンドだと思う。 &nbsp Pale Waves Pale Waves – Television Romance エヴァネッセンスじゃないよ。大丈夫。 10世代の代表格的なバンドthe 1975も所属しているレーベル、Dirty Hitの４人組。見た目と音楽のギャップが凄い。ちなみにあの格好はThe Cureが元ネタっぽい。因みに音楽も結構The Cure。やっぱりルーツがしっかりしてるバンドは強いなと思う。 レーベルメイトが売れすぎているせいで、どこで紹介されててもthe 1975～というくだりがあるし、僕も紹介にthe 1975と書いてしまったけど、1975フォロワーみたいな聴き方ではもったいないくらいくらいカッコいい。 この流れだと日本でも近いうちこういうサウンドのバンドがチラホラ現れるんじゃないかと思う。そういう意味でも要チェックなバンドだと思います。 &nbsp Portugal. The Man Portugal. The Man – Feel It Still 上に貼った曲だけ聴くとポップなメロディに、オーガニックな質感のバンドサウンドがよく合う今どきのオシャレミュージックだと思うだろうが、その正体はひねくれにひねくれたサイケデリックロック。ジャンキーのための音楽だ。リード曲とそうでない曲の差が激しいタイプのバンド。 サマソニでライブを見たが、最後まで一言も喋らなかったり、メンバーに一切照明を当てなかったり、ずっと後ろで意味不明な動画を流し続けたり、音楽は結構ハードな感じだったりと、Feel it stillだけ聴いて見に来た客をおちょくってるかのようなライブ、というか完全におちょくっていて最高だった。 これを聴いて良いなと思った人は是非アルバムごと聴いてほしい。アルバムは結構サイケだけど、メロはポップなので割と聴けると思う。そんで３回くらい聞いたら病みつきになる。みんなもこちらの世界に来て欲しい。 ちなみにバンド名はポルトガルザマンだけど、全然ポルトガルは関係ない。アメリカのアラスカ出身。この辺も意味不明で好き。 &nbsp Temples Temples – Shelter Song 男ばっかりの４人組、細身のルックス、モジャモジャの髪、ザラついたサウンド、もちろんベースはピック弾き。そう、まごうことなきイギリスのバンド。聴くイギリス。イギリスを蒸留して作ったテキーラをサイケで割ったような酒。それがTemples。バンドが流行らないこのご時世だからこそ、こういうの聴きたくなるよな。 2014年に出した1stの出来がとても良かったんだけど、こういうタイプのバンドって音楽の志が高すぎて２枚目からはポップさがほとんど無くなってとっつき辛いのが出たりすることが多くて。Kula shakerとかさ。Templesもそういう風になるんじゃないかと心配してたんだけど、大丈夫でした。2ndもそこそこにポップで初めての人にもちゃんと勧められる出来。 UK好きやサイケ好きのみなさんのプレイリストに加えてもらえればと思います。 &nbsp 洋楽はスポッティファイとかアップルミュージックで聴けて良いよな いかがだったでしょうか。ベタ過ぎるのよりはちょっと面白いのをと思ってたら、アクの強いバンドばっかりになっちゃって、ここから聴き始めると道を踏み外しそう感じになったけど。 何かピンとくるバンドがいたら、是非ここから色々手を伸ばしていってもらえればなと思います。洋楽だとスポッティファイとかアップルミュージックで大体聴けるし。関連アーティストとかで掘っていくと幸せになれるんじゃないでしょうか。 ということで今回はこのあたりで。 Copyright © 2019 BASEMENT-TIMES All Rights Reserved.
- [Our Crate & Barrel Sofa Slipcover {A Comfort Works Review}](https://basementremodelingnow.com/our-crate-barrel-sofa-slipcover-a-comfort-works-review/) - Sourced from: https://www.loveandrenovations.com/comfort-works-review/ This post has been a few months in the making, and I’m so excited to share our review of our new Comfort Works slipcover for our Crate & Barrel Lounge II Sofa! Oh boy, I’m really excited to share today’s post with you! I have so much to say about couches today (riveting topic, I know), and I’m also sharing the reveal of a little living room refresh we’ve been working on over the last few weeks! You may not know this, but one of the most popular topics ever here on the blog is couches. Hundreds of people find me each month through my review of our IKEA KARLSTAD sofa along with my review of our current Crate & Barrel Lounge II Petite sofa. I totally get it – a new sofa can be a big investment, and I personally always try to find a blogger who has reviewed furniture before I click that “order” button. So, I feel like it’s only right that when there’s an update, I give it to you – unfiltered and honest. An Update on our Crate & Barrel sofa We got our Crate & Barrel Lounge II Petite sofa in the “Taft” fabric (the color is Steel) about 18 months ago. We absolutely love the lines and the style, it’s incredibly comfortable, and it looks beautiful in our living room. I wrote a quick post about the sofa right after we received it, and I gave it rave reviews. We still truly do love our sofa. BUT. We also have a bit of a unique situation because we have a lovable but incredibly strange Doberman who lives approximately 70% of her life ON OUR SOFA. I could probably write an entire book on this one strange little animal alone, but the gist of it is that she’s got some personality, ahem, quirks that lead her to be afraid to enter about half of our (already tiny) house. She only ever goes into the living room, our bedroom, and outside. She sleeps on our sofa all night long, and spends a good chunk of the day hanging out on it as well. So, any sofa we purchase has to be able to handle a lot. The fabric we got for our Crate & Barrel sofa isn’t really one of their more pet-friendly fabrics. We just went with the standard option, and we learned after a few months that when a giant dog spends hours upon hours sleeping on it every day it’s going to start looking pretty rough pretty quick. It looked fine from far off. And even up close, it wasn’t bad. But, the fabric had started to noticeably pill, and because of the thick weave it really held on to the dog smell quite a bit. I washed the covers regularly, but every evening when I fell into the sofa after the kids went to bed I was often hit with a big ol’ whiff of dog. Not. Pleasant. I was feeling really frustrated and worried that this sofa just wasn’t going to work out for us, and then Comfort Works reached out. If you haven’t heard of them, they’re kind of famous for making gorgeous slipcovers for IKEA sofas. They’ve been around for years (and I actually almost purchased on a few years back for our KARLSTAD!), and they’ve recently started branching out into making slipcovers for other brands – like Crate & Barrel. They wanted to send us a slipcover to try out and we, of course, immediately jumped on the opportunity. Comfort works slipcover review So, let’s chat about the process of getting a Comfort Works slipcover, and then I’ll tell you my thoughts after living with it for a couple of months. The first step in getting your new slipcover is to send over some photos of your sofa and choose your fabric. Then, Comfort Works will guide you through getting the measurements for your sofa. They have templates already made for all of the different sofas they offer and know the measurements it should be, but since they want to ensure a perfect fit they have you measure as well. It’s a really easy process and is detailed and clear. Once you’ve measured your sofa and they’ve triple-checked everything, they’ll get to making it and you should receive it in just a couple of weeks. You can see more about the process (and the Crate & Barrel sofa slipcovers they offer) right here. Once the slipcover arrived, it was incredibly easy to put on our sofa. I did it by myself in less than an hour! You just have to add some velcro strips (that they send along!) to the bottom of the sofa for the new slipcover to cling to, and it just slips right over the existing fabric. We went with the Kino fabric in Navy, and I’m so, so in love with it. It’s one of their most durable fabrics, and while it’s actually rated pretty low on their “comfort” scale, we find it really soft and comfortable to sit on. It seems a lot less likely to pill than our old fabric, and it’s been on our sofa for a couple of months now and still looks brand new. The best part? It doesn’t seem to hold on to smells at all, and I haven’t had to spray it down with air freshener or wash it at all in the couple of months we’ve had it. I just vacuum it every couple of days to get rid of the dirt and crumbs, and we’re good to go. Of course, I’ll eventually have to wash the covers, but that’s the best part – most of their fabrics are machine washable! You may remember me saying that I washed my Crate & Barrel couch covers, but I technically wasn’t supposed to. They held up just fine but I always feel better about washing covers that actually say they’re machine-washable. And, since there’s a slipcover on the frame of the sofa and not just the cushions, I can also pull that off and toss it in the washer if I need to – that’s impossible with most sofas! Beyond the durability, it really is just absolutely beautiful. I love the rich color, and it (of course) prompted a little refresh throughout the living room. We grabbed a new rug, hung some new art, and did some re-accessorizing. Oh, and we hung those adorable (under $50!) sconces above the couch, which don’t really give off a ton of light but make me smile every time I see them. You win some, you lose some. I still have a few changes I want to make in here, but this room is finally starting to feel much more us. It feel brighter and a little cheerier, and it feels CLEAN, which really, is all I ever want. After living with the slipcover on our sofa for a couple of months now, I can officially say that I highly recommend you check out Comfort Works if you’ve got a sofa that could use a new look. They’re making slipcovers for several different retailers now (including West Elm, Pottery Barn, and Crate & Barrel!) and the process is really simple. It’s so nice to get a totally new look without shelling out the cash for a whole new sofa! SOURCES: SofaSlipcoverRugOttoman (it’s complicated – learn more here)Side table (thrifted – see the DIY here!)Tan throw pillowsYellow throw pillowFaux fiddle leaf figSconcesArtFrame The post Our Crate & Barrel Sofa Slipcover A Comfort Works Review appeared first on Love & Renovations.
- [Pattern Review: Lollipop Bag by Atkinson Design](https://basementremodelingnow.com/pattern-review-lollipop-bag-by-atkinson-design/) - Sourced from: http://originateandrenovate.blogspot.com/2012/10/pattern-review-lollipop-bag-by-atkinson.html The Pattern:My Finished Bag:I loved making this bag for a few reason:1. The directions were very clear and easy to follow.2. She used techniques I've never seen before, and I'm always happy when a pattern teaches me something new.3. It took very little fabric and even less time to make it. You can see I left the flower off my bag, but that was just personal preference (though, I think a ribbon work flower from my Stitched Workshop would suit it beautifully). I did however, read through her instructions for making the rosettes and they were fantastic. She used a method I've not seen before, so I'll definitely try it soon. I love the fact that this pattern only uses 2 fat quarters of fabric. Dare I say? You could probably make two small bags with the fabric required for one. Not to mention the pattern itself is only $5.50. The finished bag is great for holding makeup, jewelry, and of course, Lollipops. After seeing how simple it was to make I may just whip up a few more as Christmas gifts.Pattern and Fabrics used:
- [Mini Boden Pear Shirt Knockoff](https://basementremodelingnow.com/mini-boden-pear-shirt-knockoff/) - Sourced from: http://originateandrenovate.blogspot.com/2012/10/mini-boden-pear-shirt-knockoff.html Today I've got another "I could make that" project to share. Read on to learn how to make your own Mini Boden look alike. You will need:paper or freezer papera new or repurposed blank T-shirtas few or as many colors of felt as you'd likeembroidery flossneedlescrap of fusible interfacingbasic sewing essentialsDraw or trace a pear shape onto freezer paper (or regular paper) to create a pattern piece. Cut as many pears are you like out of felt using your pattern piece. **If you use freezer paper you can iron it directly onto the felt. It will stick and make cutting easier.(See my tutorial for Freezer Paper Patterns)Place the pears wear you'd like them on the shirt, then cut a piece of interfacing big enough to cover them. Flip shirt inside out and iron interfacing to wrong side of where you'll be placing your pears.Pin the pears where you'd like them and use a fabric pencil to draw a stem and leaf on each fruit. Use an embroidery needle and embroidery floss (only 3 threads of the strand) to sew a running stitch up the center of each pear and continue along embroidering the stem and the leaf.I only now realized I forgot to embroider seeds onto them. Perhaps I'll go back and do that, or maybe not ;)
- [kitchen reno part 2](https://basementremodelingnow.com/kitchen-reno-part-2/) - Sourced from: http://renovateanddecorate.blogspot.com/2009/02/kitchen-reno-part-2.html From the living room. I'm getting a light fitting put in over the dining table. I have a Tord Boontjie garland light fitting I was thinking of putting there but am worried it'll be too small - thoughts?Slowly, slowly the place is starting to resemble a house again. I spent the weekend putting the doors on and the shelves in place and tidying up the endless supply of sawdust lying around the place (thanks to the rain, the benchtop and sink hole was cut inside. So you can imagine how pleased I was about that). And this is how it looks now. The view from the hallway.I had to go back to Ikea today to get the plinths (kickboards to cover the legs) and a few other things they either didn't have before (like LACK wall shelves) or that I totally forgot to buy last time I was there (shelves for the end cabinets that face into the dining/living room). I also was desperate to get the benchtop oil because it hasn't been treated yet. I'm hardly precious about things and quite like the timeworn look of wooden benches and tables. But I'm NOT happy that on the second day of the sink side being completed I discovered this...Naughty naughtyLuckily, this should easily sand out (hope so anyway!). But people are still banned from my house now because I also discovered yesterday that the electrician had damaged one of the doors while leaning over to fix one of the power points with his tool belt. I'm going to turn it around and swap with the door next to it so problem solved but still highly annoying. Plates and random glass collection!Not annoying, however, is the fact I can access my plates and glasses by simply shoving my hand through the top of the cupboard (I haven't put the handles on the doors yet so the less opening and closing of doors, the better!). Obviously this is temporary until the benchtops get put on next week!The sink, gooseneck tap and dishwasher - my true love! How did I put up with handwashing for sooooo many years?So this is the sink side. I bought shelves for these base cabinets today and there will be an open shelf the full length of the wall just above the tap and then three horizontal wall cabinets above that. Now, my dilemma. I wasn't going to get a splashback for either side - just one little piece behind the stovetop. But I will, because I think it'll finish off the space and also because I'll need one!! The wall is so uneven there is a rather large gap between the benchtop and the wall. Plus, while being extra careful because of the non-oiled benchtop, I've realised how much water goes everywhere in a kitchen. Never noticed this before! Glass is out of my budget, stainless steel won't go and so I'm starting to lean towards tiles which I was sooooo against just days ago. Any other suggestions? I seriously considered pressed metal (a friend has it in her kitchen and it looks amazing) but I can't imagine that being very practical or easy to clean. So if you have any brilliant ideas/suggestions, I'd love to hear.Here are the holes the electrician cut in the wrong space. Steve patched them up today, but the eventual splashback will cover them anyway. Phew. But note to oven manufacturers: I'd happily pay an extra dollar or whatever it'd cost to put on vinyl stickers instead of those crap cheap ones that DON'T COME OFF. Gotta get some metho or something. GrrStill to do....- Paint the back wall properly (and the little wall with bathroom door in it - plasterer only finished patching it up with this most recent job)- Paint the ceiling- Paint the window architraves- Sand back and re-stain the floor- Build and attach the wall cabinets and open shelves- Place the other benchtop- Hook up the rangehood- Attach the plinths- Oil the benchtops- Get a splashback- Figure out what to put above the fridge - there will be cover panels on either side of it so you won't see the sides of the fridge. Wall cabinets will be too shallow and base cabinets too high for the space, so maybe shelves? But they'll be too far back too. Might need to custom-make deep shelves for the space.Hmm, that should keep us busy!!
- [Playtime](https://basementremodelingnow.com/playtime/) - Sourced from: http://originateandrenovate.blogspot.com/2013/03/sundays-are-our-best-chance-at-some.html Sundays are our best chance at some real downtime with all the household. Following church we hit up the neighborhood playground as it was a warm 45 levels (yes, you read that right). Together with the winter we've had here, anything above 40 sounds delightful. I wish we had more time to be, to simply sit and enjoy each other. Alfie and Juju are increasing before my eyes and I am always trying to shoot as many pictures as possible to recall how perfect and beautiful they are right now. Every baby I visit gets my heart flutter thinking that I get to have another and love them in the start again. We played in the playground and I pushed Alfie around the swing"but maybe not overly high" and Juliette bossed me and allow me to return a little twisty slide many occasions I felt ill, and I loved each and every minute. We stopped to pick up a few pallets to create a bed for Juju, then to top off a great afternoon. A project I have had pinned for a calendar year, but that baby is arriving I have finally got the inspiration. I am sure it has nothing to do with watching too many episodes of West End Salvage on HGTV while I am up at night not able to sleep. Have you seen that show? Either way, I am glad I have finally got my own to do list back to play. The cloths used to make Juliette's Dress, Moda's Sophie lineup:
- [Oh Hello.](https://basementremodelingnow.com/oh-hello/) - Sourced from: http://originateandrenovate.blogspot.com/2013/03/oh-hello.html Well, Hello there. I've finally stepped foot in my sewing room now that my morning sickness is gone. Did I forget to mention that? Yes, I'm pregnant and now that I'm finally feeling myself again I've been sewing up a storm. I've recently had the realization as to how much I prefer books to patterns. I'm not sure if it's because they always seem to have reference guides to techniques that may be new to me, or if they just have much better editing, but I really do love a good sewing book. My latest obsession is Little Girls, Big Style. She gives fabulous directions on all the patterns and has a great chapter at the beginning that explains custom sewing and measuring for garments. This book is fabulous if you have some sewing experience, but would like to venture more into clothing. The only thing I could possibly complain about is that the sizes for her patterns run a bit small, but if you familiarize yourself with how to measure for clothing, then it doesn't really matter because you can make them to fit your little one perfectly. After getting her measurements, I figured out that Juliette wears a size 2 in width and size 3 or 4 in length and I've had fun sewing her these new tops. The top left photo was a little shirt I made after learning a little more about customizing, It's a combination of a few of her patterns combined. I really have had a blast making them, now if I could just get Juju to take off her dress ups and wear them. A few of the fabrics I used:
- [Our Next Room Makeover {YOU DECIDE!}](https://basementremodelingnow.com/our-next-room-makeover-you-decide/) - Sourced from: https://www.loveandrenovations.com/summer-budget-makeover/ Can we try something…different this summer? I’ve been blogging for a long, long time and one thing that I sincerely and deeply miss about the old days of blogging is that it used to be so much more free. Photos didn’t have to be perfect (in fact, they were usually terrible), and you didn’t have to know exactly what your plan was before you started on a project. Most of us were winging it all the time, it everyone was just along for the adventure. I’ve seen some movement back towards the older attitudes on Instagram – like Suzy’s #reclaiminstagram journey, this article about how teenagers are using Instagram, and the fact that Instagram is testing out hiding the number likes photos get. It’s refreshing to see a renewed effort to simplify and bring the good old days back, and I’m hoping some of it extends to the blogging world as well. I was brainstorming how I could do my part to bring some whimsy back to my little corner of the internet, and I thought maybe it would be fun to do a little experiment this summer. Want to join me? We just wrapped up our hallway bathroom renovation, and we’ve been bouncing around and working on various projects before diving into another room. But, we do have a few rooms we want to make some changes in over the next few months and I’m making you a part of it! Our Summer Budget Makeover So, here’s the deal. We’re going to choose one room in our house to make some changes in this summer. I’m going to let you help me pick the room, I’m going to let you help me pick the budget, and I’m going to let you help me determine the to-do list. This is going to be a collaborative effort every step of the way. I have no idea what to expect but I think it’s gonna be fun. How can you get involved? I’m going to be posting about the makeover regularly across all of my platforms (here, Instagram, and the newsletter). Choose your favorite platform to hang out on and that can be where you share your input. At every step of the way, I’ll be asking for opinions – leave a comment, shoot me an email, or DM me on Instagram. I’ll be tallying opinions from across all of the platforms, so no matter where you like to consume your content your voice will be heard! I’m putting myself out there a bit with this one – something like this is no fun if you don’t play along. I’m counting on y’all to get invested and be a part of this! Step One: Choosing a room And here is where the fun begins. Let’s choose a room! I’m going to list a few different rooms in my house that I want to make some changes to, and I’m going to put you in complete control of which one we put our focus into this summer. Remember that the room makeover won’t be the only thing we’re doing. We still have tons of fun, random projects planned over the next few months, but I’ll be putting the majority of my focus into whatever room we choose here. Let’s do it. Option 1: Master Bedroom I’ve been unhappy with our master bedroom for a while now. There are lots of things I want to change, the biggest of which is the wall color! I love the dark blue walls but I’m itching for a change in here, and I think that’s where we need to start. A few thoughts I have in here are that we’d like to lighten up the walls, get new bedding (our dog recently managed to drag red paint all over it!), DIY some nightstands, and get a new dresser. We’re also missing window treatments and the rug has to go. Option 2: Laundry Room Honestly, I hesitate to even call this a room. Laundry closet?! Our little laundry room is a tiny little hot mess and I’ve spent a long time dreaming of how we can make it more functional. I want to paint the walls to freshen it up, maybe add some wallpaper, and get creative with some serious storage in here. I think some sort of cabinet with a countertop would be a great way to add some working space, and I want to come up with some creative solutions to add as much storage as possible. This is really the only place we have to store random things in our house (we have two hallway closets but they’re taken up by all of our board games!), so it needs to be able to pack a big punch. Options 3: The Patio Our final option is a space that’s just fine right now but has the potential to be so good! We have a cute covered patio in our backyard, and as it is right now we don’t use it all that much. We’d love to swap out the dining table for some cozy seating (maybe a DIY sectional sofa?!), fill it to the brim with gorgeous plants, and possibly even do something crazy like tile or paint the concrete. Oh, and we’re already planning on painting the exterior of our house this summer, so that alone will make a pretty big difference back here! Your turn: Time to decide! Here’s where you come in. Leave a comment below (or head over to Instagram) to let me know what room you think we should tackle this summer! Feel free to toss in any ideas you have about the room you vote for, and if you want to see more of each option be sure to watch my Instagram stories today – I’ll be giving a tour of each space! I’ll leave the voting open for about a week, then I’ll be back soon to reveal the room you chose and start talking budget and project lists! I’m really excited to try this out (and, I’ll be honest, a little nervous that no one will care!), and I hope it’s as fun for all of us as I think it’ll be! So, which room do you think we should make over this summer?! The post Our Next Room Makeover YOU DECIDE! appeared first on Love & Renovations.
- [i'm moving!](https://basementremodelingnow.com/im-moving/) - Sourced from: http://renovateanddecorate.blogspot.com/2009/02/i.html Not house (goodness, who'd buy it?!) , but internet address. Also changing: blog name a few of the articles and look. You can read about over there. If you've linked to me , I'd like for you to update your hyperlinks to thehappyhomeblog.com - in case you still believe it worthy of connecting of course! Bxx
- [RT Specialty Promotes Altomare to Snr Account Mgr](https://basementremodelingnow.com/rt-specialty-promotes-altomare-to-snr-account-mgr/) - Sourced from: http://www.ccr-mag.com/rt-specialty-promotes-altomare-to-snr-account-mgr/ Hannah Altomare has been promoted to senior account manager within R-T Specialty, LLC’s National Environmental and Construction Professional Liability Practice (ECP). She is responsible for supporting the company’s new business and marketing efforts in addition to providing brokers, agents and their customers with timely and insightful renewal and coverage information. “Hannah is a driven professional who has quickly demonstrated her value to our organization and clients,” says Tim Farrell, senior vice president of R-T Specialty’s ECP. “In a short time, she has become extremely adept at sizing up renewals and helping brokers to both understand and execute plan strategies.” Prior to joining New Day in 2017, Altomare served as a claims consultant at Conner Strong & Buckelew in Philadelphia, Pa. and commercial lines account manager at Dash & Love, Inc in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., where she was actively involved in exploring and identifying new coverage lines for clients. A resident of Bensalem, Pa., Altomare holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the Fox School of Business at Temple University as well as Associate in Claims (AIC) and Associate in Risk Management (ARM). In addition, she is pursuing the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation. Altomare can be reached at Hannah.Altomare@rtspecialty.com or 609.528.3901. RT New Day, a division of R-T Specialty, LLC, is a specialty resource for agents and brokers, assisting them and their clients find appropriate, high-quality environmental and construction-related professional liability insurance coverages. RT New Day offers agents and brokers single-point access to an ample portfolio of products and services provided by the nation’s largest environmental and professional liability insurance providers. In California: R-T Specialty Insurance Services, LLC License #0G97516. For more information please visit newday.rtspecialty.com or call 609-298-3516.
- [Dining Room Updates](https://basementremodelingnow.com/dining-room-updates/) - Sourced from: https://www.loveandrenovations.com/dining-room-updates/ We haven’t shown our dining room a lot of love in the last year since we finished it – it was high time for an update! Here are some small changes we’ve made, plus a peek at how we entertain in our small dining room. It was right around this time last year that Corey and I took the little dining nook in our home and transformed it from a tiny, boring space into the gorgeous and functional dining room that we all know and love now. You can read more about that makeover right here! Since we finished the renovation, however, we’ve done very little to this space. That’s kind of the peril of constantly working on your home – when you finish a project you move onto the next one so quickly that you don’t take the time to sit with things and tweak – and tweaking is the best part! I’ve been wanting to make a few small changes in the dining room for a while now, and I’ve also been wanting to make a commitment to have people over more often. We used to love entertaining but we’ve really shied away from it in this house because most of our friends have multiple kids and it just seems so overwhelming to cram everyone into this small space! But, now that warmer weather is here and we’re finally finding our stride and feeling more confident with this house, I’m determined to start hosting more – even if our house is by far the smallest among our friends! This post is sponsored by Tuesday Morning, but all opinions are 100% mine. Thanks for supporting the brands that support Love & Renovations! I headed out to one of my favorite places to shop for home decor, Tuesday Morning, for a few new pieces to freshen things up in here. I wanted to create a more neutral feel with a lot of the decor (the wallpaper speaks for itself, you know what I mean?!) and I had really rushed a lot of the decorating elements the first time around – a six-week renovation will do that to you. I quieted the shelves down quite a bit, and added a gorgeous, simple vase to the table to act as a centerpiece. I’m so pleased with the little updates and now I really smile again when I walk in this room instead of looking at all of the small things I still want to change. We also hosted some friends for dinner and some games this weekend. There’s just something about a refreshed space that energizes me and makes me want to invite others over to enjoy it with us! We’ve learned a few tips and tricks about how to make the most of a small space when you’re entertaining, so I thought I’d share them here. TIPs for entertaining in a small dining room Have a landing spot for food. In our old home, we had a massive dining room table and we generally placed all of the food on the table so it was within easy reach of everyone. Now, however, it would just feel crowded! Instead, we pile the food up on the counter near the dining room table and allow guests to serve themselves. It’s a little more casual and works really well in our small space! The only catch is that whoever is sitting at the back of the bench will likely need some help getting seconds – and sometimes when we’re serving something like chips and dip, we’ll bring a couple of things over to the table for easy snacking! I also only invest in serving dishes that I love – cooking becomes a lot less of a chore when you get to serve up your food in a gorgeous dish. I snagged two new ones at Tuesday Morning last week, and I think it might be time to admit I have a problem with collecting way more serving dishes than I’ll never need.Consider bench seating. I cannot say enough good things about the built-in bench seating in our dining room. It was the perfect solution for the small space, and we can comfortably fit so many more people than we ever could before! It’s easy to fit 6 people at the table, and we’ve squeezed in as many as 8 – if you’re just working with regular chairs this is just about impossible. I highly recommend some sort of bench (or built in) seating whenever possible – especially if you have a more casual space like we do! Keep decor simple. Fancy, elaborate centerpieces and small dining spaces do not play well together. Instead, keep things as simple as possible so the room doesn’t feel crowded. This is a large part of the reason we chose to install floral wallpaper and a dramatic chandelier in the room – they get to be the stars of the show and the room feels nice and decorated without too many other things. I like to keep our centerpiece as simple as I can, and I am very mindful when I’m decorating the open shelving. As soon as things get too colorful or crowded, the room starts to feel even smaller.Use place settings and decor that you love. On that note, since you’re only going to have a few things in the space for decor you should always make sure you’re head over heels in love with what you bring in. A perfect example of this for us are all of the throw pillows along the bench – it was quite a headache to style the first time around, and we lived with the original setup for about a year before I finally admitted I just wasn’t a fan of what we had. I replaced a few of the pillows with some gorgeous patterned pillows from Tuesday Morning and I instantly fell in love with it again. They’re the perfect counter-weight to the super girly wallpaper, and I just can’t get over how perfect they are for the space. If you want to love the room as a whole, you’ve got to make sure you love all the little details along the way! Stick to simple, easy to prepare foods. I love an elaborate dinner party and nothing makes me happier than cooking all afternoon for a gathering with friends. BUT. I’ve learned that in a smaller space it’s actually much more enjoyable for everyone if I skip the cooking marathon and stick to really easy to prepare and easy to serve meals. If you’re still wrapping things up when your guests arrive (and, let’s be real, we almost always are!), the clutter and chaos in the kitchen can overtake everything when you’re working in a small space! Instead, stick to things that can be fully prepped ahead of time (like slow cooker meals) or things that come pre-prepared – the less work you have to do, the less chaos there will be in your kitchen. One of my favorite strategies is to prepare something that can be served multiple ways (instead of feeling like I need a lot of sides for options) – for this dinner, we cooked up some delicious grilled chicken, and then we had tortillas, tostada shells, and chips, so our guests could make nachos, tacos, or tostadas! You could even whip up some quick quesadillas for the kids. It’s really helpful to serve something versatile because then you don’t feel like you need as much other stuff. We kept the sides simple – beans and rice, along with some queso and salsa. Add some homemade sangria (I have the best recipe ever) and you’re done! Finally, don’t stress or apologize! When you live in a small space, it can be so tempting to apologize to guests for the tight accommodations. I sometimes find myself blurting out an apology as I watch someone slide into the back of the bench or have to ask for help getting seconds. I cringe when I realize that our dining room is about half the size of our guests’ dining room…but guess what? Or guests don’t think about this or care! If you have a beautifully decorated space that you can be proud of (regardless of its size), you’ll find yourself apologizing a lot less and simply welcoming people into your space. Your friends want to spend time with you and don’t care if your dining room is a bit cramped – especially if they’re busy enjoying your delicious food! I just love how this room is looking now and I’m excited about the prospect of beginning to host a few more gatherings here – especially now that the weather is warming up and we can kick the kids outside to play for a while! What rooms in your home are needing a little refresh for the spring? I encourage you to spend a little time this week showing them some love and then having some friends over to enjoy the spaces with you. There’s absolutely nothing better than sharing your home with the people you love, no?! Click here to find your closest Tuesday Morning and get shopping – every time I head in, I’m amazed at the fantastic deals and the quality of what I find. It’s like a little hidden stash of treasures just waiting to be found! The post Dining Room Updates appeared first on Love & Renovations.
- [Living Green Wall Grows Talent via Branding/Biophilia](https://basementremodelingnow.com/living-green-wall-grows-talent-via-branding-biophilia/) - Sourced from: http://www.ccr-mag.com/living-green-wall-grows-talent-via-branding-biophilia/ Competition for employees is fierce. As the labor market tightens toward full employment, companies continue to develop new and innovative ways to attract and retain top talent. Two major tools are branding, the values and aesthetics that set companies apart from their competitors, and employee experience, the day-to-day amenities and aesthetics of the workplace. Interior designers for some companies are adopting a solution that boosts workplace allure on both counts and energizes spaces: living green walls. Attracting Millennial Employees with Green Branding For many organizations, adapting to the demands of the information economy is a priority, and the talent pool skews younger for digitally savvy professionals. As a result, many companies are updating branding and experience to satisfy Millennial tastes. So, are there any discernible trends in the generation’s preferences? According to a National Gardening survey, 5 of every 6 Americans to take up gardening in a year were between 18 and 34 years old. When making purchasing decisions, nearly three-out-of-four Millennials are most willing to pay extra for sustainable offerings. Seventy-six percent of Millennials consider a company’s social and environmental commitments before deciding where to work. In a word, Millennial taste is green. Interior designers and architects for major companies are taking notice and installing sustainable design elements in high-profile locations at their properties. Some companies take the branding opportunity literally. A recent article in the New York Times described the recent real estate upgrade by footwear and apparel company ASICS in an attempt to attract and retain the best shoe designers. In the employee break bar at a new downtown Boston location, a Versa Wall® designed by GSky Plant Systems, Inc. sports the company’s logo. GSky’s unique tray system sets individual four-inch pots in the wall so plants of different shades can create the curving lines of a signature figure most commonly seen on sneakers. These plants can later be swapped out to change the design and add a seasonal look to the wall. For other companies, the medium of the living wall conveys much of the message even with a more naturalistic design. The National Geographic Society—a brand inextricably linked to the outdoors— greets visitors to their Washington, D.C. headquarters with a more straight-forward living green wall by GSky Plant Systems. Indeed, important corporations in a variety of markets are adopting the novel architectural element. Walls have cropped up in such diverse settings as healthcare centers, law firms, and the corporate offices of global car manufacturers, not to mention their high popularity in the hospitality and retail sectors. Perhaps the most telling endorsement of the living green wall as a Millennial magnet comes from technology corporations, including digital first companies like Etsy, Mashable, and AWeber. Microsoft, Google, Twitter and others have a Versa Wall® by GSky®. Biophilic Design for Office Productivity Green design is not simply a question of appearance. Plastic plants would be a cheaper investment, but fake green walls miss the point for employees. Ultimately, while young people today may be more interested in green design than past generations, there is a growing body of evidence that all of us are inclined to be around live plants. Prominent biologist E.O. Wilson argues that there is a genetic proclivity on the part of humanity to focus on and affiliate with nature, or more specifically with biodiversity. The Biophilia Hypothesis, as it is termed, draws from the fields of evolutionary biology and psychology for support. As a body of scholarly work continues to grow, the various benefits of exposing people to nature become clearer. For example, findings suggest that “even unspectacular natural settings can promote stress recovery faster and more completely than urban environments lacking nature.” Other research suggests that exposure to nature can induce positive shifts in emotion, facilitate high-order cognitive functioning, and even increase creativity and productivity. As a result, living green walls are not only for hip new office layouts or companies looking to exude a start-up energy. Even a staid company can get more out of their employees with a touch of biophilic design. Walls offer psychological benefits, and the calming colors of a vertical garden can reduce stress on an individual level, with obvious positives from an organizational perspective. Additionally, a major benefit of living green walls is its effect on health. Plants in living walls remove toxins from the air to improve workplace wellbeing. Research has found that indoor plants can clean the air of pollutants such as formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, ozone, toluene, and benzene, and can reduce particulate matter (dust) by as much as 20% in a room. Fewer colds and headaches might result in fewer sick days, and could enable greater efficiency as the slowing effects of poor health are mitigated. Clearly, living green walls can improve employee experience of the workplace, and while health factors may be difficult to describe in hiring material, the overall effect of biophilic design can influence healthier, happier, and more productive employees to stay with a company. Living Green Wall Considerations for the Modern Workplace Of course, the growing trend toward living walls is not completely independent of other workplace changes. The open-plan office, for example, creates certain issues that segmented offices avoided if not by design then by accident. The door and the cubicle divider in traditional office spaces provided semi-private work spaces, but it is important to consider their qualities. Certainly, these dividers created visual barriers, but they also controlled the auditory environment by trapping sound waves in compartments. Living walls are excellent at absorbing sound, making them a solution to an issue created by novel office design. Nevertheless, living green walls are a commitment for space planners. Some walls run water to plants several times each day, increasing water bills and running counter the environmental concept. Plus, any living thing requires specific conditions for survival, and a living wall calls for a certain amount of maintenance. The system used in many offices, the GSky® Versa Wall®, is designed for high water efficiency with an irrigation system that runs less than once a week. However, even the most conscientious office manager or in-house decorator should make sure their living green wall dealer guarantees maintenance. The Versa Wall® comes with a plant guarantee, but not all living green wall companies offer support after installation. Build A Living Wall for Employers to Energize Workers and Retain Talent Office architecture and design earns a reputation for drab repetition, and even sleek new offices are in danger of seeming sterile. Biophilic design and corporate branding may seem at odds at first, but Millennial fondness for flora means that both can help hire young professionals and get the most out of them. GSky’s Versa Wall® system provides architects and interior designers a canvas for creating living art that helps people breathe and boosts their productivity. When designing a space to advance the objectives of a corporate client, living green walls are a sustainable option with the flexibility to meet the specific demands of any indoor space or corporate imagination.
- [Our submission for the NHGRI Human Genome Reference Center call](https://basementremodelingnow.com/our-submission-for-the-nhgri-human-genome-reference-center-call/) - Sourced from: http://ivory.idyll.org/blog/2019-nih-hgrc-proposal.html For the past month, I've been consumed in writing and submitting a grant for the NHGRI Human Genome Reference Center funding opportunity. This is a planned $12.5m / 5 year effort to coordinate the new Human Genome Reference Program (also see the Frequently Asked Questions). We submitted this grant proposal a week ago Tuesday! I joined with three collaborators on this grant proposal: Curii, Genome in a Bottle, and the Church Lab. We also partnered with the Personal Genome Project and the Open Humans platform. Since we're all open-science-y people, we agreed to make the grant public after submission. I was thinking about how best to present it in a blog post, but then I remembered that grants are supposed to stand on their own with respect to the RFA. So ...here it is, with only a little bit of organization to make it more approachable! The HGRC call asked for what was in effect one R01 and two R21 grants, along with another R01-sized grant on top. The first R01 was Component 1, a 12 page section discussing how the center would maintain, improve, and provide the Human Genome reference. The first R21 was a 6 page Component 2, describing the community outreach plans of the center, to do training and gather feedback. The second R21 was the 6 page Component 3, describing the logistical coordination of the rest of the Human Genome Reference Program (running meetings, providing materials, etc.) And the last R01 was an overarching summary of the three components, 12 pages in length. The end PDF submission was over 300 pages in length. Good fun... One last comment before I provide the links: just like reading someone else's submitted dissertation, your sole responsibility in reading someone else's ALREADY SUBMITTED GRANT is to make nice noises, like "Hey, that's great congrats on submitting it!" and "There are some great ideas in there!" You don't say "ooh, look, a typo on p3! (How unprofessional! Sucks that you can't fix it now!)" or "Gosh I would have written that completely differently." Basically, you should just be nice - we're going to go through a NIH review panel experience, and I'm sure they'll be properly critical :) The Actual Grant Research Strategy - OVERALL - a high level overview of the thing. Research Strategy - Component 1: Maintain, Improve, Provide the Human Reference Genome - check out our cool validation strategy with Genome-in-a-Bottle-like data sets! Research Strategy - Component 2: Do Community Outreach and Needs - here we proposed not just doing outreach but also building a community of practice! Research Strategy - Component 3: Provide Logistical Coordination for Human Genome Reference Program - here we added a standardization effort! Enjoy! --titus
- [Lavender sinks, tubs and toilets in bathrooms from 1927-1949](https://basementremodelingnow.com/lavender-sinks-tubs-and-toilets-in-bathrooms-from-1927-1949/) - Sourced from: https://retrorenovation.com/2019/04/09/lavender-bathroom-history/ The article Lavender sinks, baths and tubs in toilets from 1927-1949 appeared initially on Retro Renovation. Pam here. Since Jan. 1, I’ve been tenaciously focused on performing a lot of technical tidy up of this site. This has included moving through stories in draft form. And ack! Did I publish this one? It wasn’t a draft — it had been finished and waiting for me! Kate finished it over […]
- [One Room Challenge Week 2: Planning a French Bistro Inspired Bathroom](https://basementremodelingnow.com/one-room-challenge-week-2-planning-a-french-bistro-inspired-bathroom/) - Sourced from: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RamblingRenovators/~3/UMP60mXrFPY/french-bistro-bathroom-orc.html Ch-ch-ch- changes. It's week 2 of the One Room Challenge and I'm still designing on the fly, making decor changes as we go. In week 1, I shared an initial design plan for our bathroom renovation. I wanted a look that was timeless and classic... but the design just wasn't feeling quite right.It turns out all I needed was the right inspiration.I've talked about Cluny here on the blog before. It's one of my favourite bistros in the city, and is overflowing with decor inspiration. I took the above photo in their bathroom three years ago and I've had it filed away in my brain for reference ever since. I love how the simple subway tile is elevated when paired with wood trim and panelling. Taking that idea, of mixing materials, led me to this new and improved design plan for our bathroom renovation:As you can see, I've taken that French bistro inspiration and run with it! ;)There's a moment that happens in design or architecture that you call 'unlocking the plan'. It's difficult to explain but you know it when you reach it... when you push the design far enough, try out options, until you reach "perfection" and all the elements fall in place and feel right. I've only reached that moment only occasionally but when I do, the plan turns out infinitely better.To remind you, here's the room we're working with:To test my concept, I did a rendering. I printed out the photo above in black and white on my printer, and then using tracing paper, I created a rough sketch on top of what the new bathroom would look like. Here's a little video of the sketch in action:Sorry for the small size, but hopefully you get the idea. You can also see it on my Instagram highlights. Doing a rendering is a great way to see how your idea will look in real life. Taking inspiration from Cluny, we're going to be putting moulding and trim on almost all of the walls. On the vanity wall, the moulding will be restricted to a border around the perimeter, with a field of subway tile inside. The juxtaposition of high (moulding) and low (subway tile) in design always inspires me. The effect will be reminiscent of Paris subways and French cafes. Paris is one of our most favourite cities in the world so to have that feeling at home is exciting.What are the elements of French bistro style?Typically, it involves:- subway tile- black and white- globe lights- rattan bistro chairs- brass hardware- antiqued mirror- marble- open shelving- chalkboards or vintage art- linen- warm woodsYou can see how I've incorporated many of these in my bathroom design. French bistro style is popular for kitchens - why not use it to inspire a bathroom as well? The marble floor tile and vanity from The Home Depot Canada and the champagne gold Trinsic features from Delta Faucet Canada are the design heavyweights in this scheme but I can truly say I love every element shown in the plan.All of that sounds well and good, but how much progress have we really made around here? This is what the vanity wall is looking like...And here's the tub area:We've taken out most of the wall tile and have had the electrician in to install new boxes for the lights and to disconnect the jacuzzi tub. Once we finish removing the shower wall tiles, we'll take out the tub and then the floor tiles. And then we can start building everything back up! New cement board and new drywall will go in first followed by the new tub and so.much.tiling!!***Want to see how everyone else is doing? Head to the ORC blog to see progress on 300 other renovation projects!
- [Things to think about when developing shotgun metagenome classifiers](https://basementremodelingnow.com/things-to-think-about-when-developing-shotgun-metagenome-classifiers/) - Sourced from: http://ivory.idyll.org/blog/2019-developing-metagenome-classifiers.html So I was talking to someone about how we think about benchmarking and developing sourmash, and then it got long and kind of interesting, so I decided to write it up as a blog post. (I asked Luiz Irber for comments, and he had the best reaction ever: "many feels, no time to write them, mostly agree, publish") When benchmarking, often people end up comparing their tool to tools developed to tackle different problems. To no big surprise, the first tool ends up winning out. Here are questions that we asked ourselves, or decisions we made implicitly, when developing sourmash. Many of these have direct or indirect implications for benchmarking. Are we developing a library, a command line application, or a Web site? It's hard to do more than one at a time well. We've decided to focus on command line with sourmash, as a light wrapping around a Python library (which was a light wrapping around a C++ library, and will soon be a light wrapping around a Rust library). I think after 3 years we've reached a level of maturity where we could also support a Web site (but we don't really have the focus in the lab to do a good job of it, and would prefer to support someone else if they want to do it). How sensitive to coverage do we want to be? Phillip Brooks showed that sourmash is really specific and very sensitive, until you have fewer than (approximately) 10,000 reads from your genome of interest. Once your data set has fewer than 10,000 reads from a genome in it, we can't really detect that genome. (This is of course a tradeoff in terms of speed, underlying approach, database size, etc., and we're happy with that tradeoff.) Do we envision our tool being used in isolation, or as one part of an exploratory pipeline? We are firmly in the camp of using sourmash to do hypothesis generation, following which more compute intensive approaches are probably appropriate. For example, sourmash can tell you which known species are in your metagenome, but we haven't focused too much on assessing how much of those species' genomes are there - after all, that's (fairly) easy to do once you narrow down the list of possible genomes. And again, there are tradeoffs with many of the other design considerations below. But if we wanted to have a single software package that did everything we would design it differently (and it would be a lot harder, since you'd probably want to use multiple methods). Do we envision our tool being used by programmers? We really like having scriptable tools in our lab. That means the tool has decent command line behavior, has a high level Python API, and consumes and emits standard formats. This may not be what everyone wants to focus on though! Do we care about speed? Premature optimization can make your codebase ugly and complex. We've chosen (for now) to instead go with a fairly simple code base, which we then test the bejeezus out of. It supports optimization (Luiz Irber has done some amazing things with a profiler :) but we are against trading simple code for speed, because this is a research platform. What are our desired memory, disk, and time performance metrics? Do we care about one over the other? In general, we have chosen to prioritize low memory over performance, and performance over low disk space. But this isn't clear cut, and depends a lot on what methods we find interesting and implementable. What's our desired database resolution? Do we want ALL the genomes? Or just some genomes? We made the decision with sourmash to go for ALL the genomes. This causes problems when you think about the next few questions... What's our desired taxonomic resolution? We implicitly settled on strain-level resolution as our goal for sourmash gather, largely because of the algorithm we chose. (It works quite well for that!) But, unsurprisingly, sourmash gather performs quite poorly when looking at organisms from novel genera and families. It's actually quite hard to do both well. Who updates the database? And is it easy and straightforward to build new databases, or not? We worked hard on a friendly and flexible database building toolchain, because we expect new genomes to come out on a (very) regular basis (and we wanted to include them in our databases, based on our desired resolution). Do we want to support private databases, or not? We really like the idea of people using our tool in the privacy of their own lab to search their own collections of genomes. This means that we need to forego certain requirements (e.g. an NCBI taxid). Do we want a big centralized database, or not? One of our big concerns about models for database distribution & update that require one massive database, that can only realistically be updated by one group, is that they tend to go stale over time (as the group loses interest, etc.) Maintenance is not the strong suit of academic researchers :). So Luiz Irber has been working on IPFS and Dat-based models for database decentralization. This will (soon) permit incremental database updates without massive database download, among other things. What's our publication model? Do we want others to use our software for cool things? Or are we trying to publish our own innovative methods that we try and get into high impact-factor journals? Are we building a platform for others to build their own tools? Are we playing around with different methods and ideas and so on? We're not particularly interested in high-impact factor journals for sourmash, and we have a surprising number of people just using it do their own thing, so we've opted for providing citation handles via JOSS and F1000Research. How do we decide what functionality belongs in sourmash? Did we have explicit use cases that we decided up front? Or do we discover them as we go? I'm much more comfortable doing iterations, finding users, and waiting for inspiration to strike, than I am in planning out sourmash years in advance. But then again, I'm an academic researcher and this fits our needs; we're not trying to serve a particular community. What's our contribution model? Are you interested in supporting collaboration and community development? Or are you interested in limiting external contributions to potential use cases? We are OK interested in both, but it adds a certain level of chaos and coordination challenges to the situation. --titus
- [Self Build: The Complete Guide](https://basementremodelingnow.com/self-build-the-complete-guide/) - Sourced from: https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/self-build-the-complete-guide/ Opting to self Assemble is a Excellent way to create a home that's exactly tailored to Suit your needs and Tastes and can often enable you to get more bang for your Dollar The post Self Build: The Complete Guide appeared first on Homebuilding & Renovating.
- [Bathroom Tiling Tips {Bathroom Renovation Week 3}](https://basementremodelingnow.com/bathroom-tiling-tips-bathroom-renovation-week-3/) - Sourced from: https://www.loveandrenovations.com/bathroom-tiling-tips/ It’s week 3 of the Jeffrey Court Renovation challenge, and we’re chugging right along! Today we’re looking at the progress we’ve made so far and I’m sharing some bathroom tiling tips. Well, I’m officially exhausted. Doing a major bathroom renovation in six weeks is no joke, and this week I am feeling it. But, oh boy, do we ever have some progress! If you’re new here, let me catch you up. We’re participating in the Jeffrey Court Renovation challenge, which is a competition-style challenge where 15 different bloggers are all renovating rooms in their home in just 6 weeks. One person will win $5,000 at the end, and we’re seriously hoping it’s us – you can VOTE FOR US beginning today by clicking right here! We’re renovating our kids’ bathroom, and I’m so, so excited to get it done. In WEEK ONE, we shared the before photos of the bathroom, along with our design plan.In WEEK TWO, we started demo and shared some details of how to demo a bathroom. This week was all about the tile. As a reminder, we’re using Jeffrey Court’s 6X18 Carrera Ink Jet Tile for the shower and the 7X7 Castelletto for the floor. You can see this week’s renovation log below, or you can click here to watch the video on YouTube! This post contains affiliate links. Click here to read my full disclosure policy. I’ve already done a full tutorial on how to tile, so I’m going to skip that here. Instead, I’m going to share a few tips and tricks specific to tiling in the bathroom, and just show you some pretty pictures of how things are looking so far. After demo was complete and everything was cleaned (including replacing some insulation and plastic moisture barrier), we re-installed backer board. We’ve learned through renovating a couple of bathrooms that a lot of homes just have drywall behind the shower tile. This isn’t ideal! This one actually had two layers of drywall under the tile, which you can tell if you look back at the before photos and note how far the tile sticks out from the wall. It was strange, and the look always bothered me! We installed cement backer-board, which is meant for areas that are exposed to a lot of water, and it should be much longer-lasting. You can see here that we also had a bit of regular drywall to replace in the room. We put up the drywall but haven’t done any taping or patching yet. The walls will need a bit of work before I paint, including taping the drywall, removing some wallpaper that we discovered under the trim, and adding some texture on the new drywall to match the old walls. I’m a bit nervous about making it all look good, but that’s a problem for future Amanda. Current Amanda is just glad the tiling is done! Once all of the concrete backer board was taped and sealed, it was (finally!) time to tile! Here are a few quick tips and thoughts about tiling in a bathroom that will hopefully help you out: Tips for tiling in a bathroom As a reminder, we’re using this tile in the shower and this tile on the flooring.It’s much less messy to apply the mortar to the tile and not the wall. It took me a long time to learn this, and it’s especially effective with large-scale tile like the ones we used in the shower. When you’re applying mortar on the wall, it can often drip down and create a mess on the tiles below it and in the bathtub (or floor). Instead, just apply some mortar to the tile then put it on the wall. If you need to cut a hole for the bathtub or shower faucet, you can just attach one of these simple hole saw bits to your regular drill. It’s incredible easy (I was honestly surprised), and the bit costs less than $20! Be sure to lay out a row of tile in both the shower and on the floor to dry fit it before you install anything. It would be terrible to just start installing and then realize that the last tile in one of your rows will only need to be 1″ thick! Just lay them on the floor to get a general idea of what the sizing will be, and as long as one side isn’t absurdly short, you’ll be fine.If you need to stop for longer than an hour or so, take the time to clean up your work area. Use a bucket of water and a wet washcloth to scrub any of the drippy mortar from the bathtub and the tiles you’ve already installed. It’s a huge pain to scrape it off once it’s fully dried, but it’s easy before it sets. I had to do this a few different times, since I was mostly working after the kids were in bed or during nap times. Use a level as you work to be sure each row you lay is level, and you can also use it along the ends to be sure the row going up the wall is level too. We’ll be installing some trim pieces to finish out the bathtub surround, so it was important that the main tile was laid in a perfectly straight line. If you have a small bathroom, consider a large-scale tile! As soon as I started tiling, I notice how much bigger the bathroom felt with the large tiles in the shower. It feels so luxurious, and I love how it looks. I cannot emphasize enough how excited I am about how this bathroom is coming together. This tile is beyond gorgeous, and I’m pretty thrilled with our choices. On the agenda this week is grouting (which will make aaaaall the difference!), installing the tub and shower faucets, and hopefully getting the toilet installed so we can have more than one functioning bathroom again! Be sure to go check out the progress from the other designers, and this is the first week you can VOTE for your favorite (which is us, right?). I can’t tell you how much I’d appreciate if you’d click over and vote for us! The post Bathroom Tiling Tips Bathroom Renovation Week 3 appeared first on Love & Renovations.
- [How to Gather Fabric using Bakers Twine](https://basementremodelingnow.com/how-to-gather-fabric-using-bakers-twine/) - Sourced from: http://originateandrenovate.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-to-gather-fabric-using-bakers-twine.html Inevitably, if employ a basting stitch to gather a complete skirt or a large piece of fabric, curse words ensue. At my house. That is my beloved new way to gather fabric on big projects and lets just say it has come in handy since I am sewing 7 women dresses for a wedding day. Test it, you may thank me later;-RRB-Here is How:Cut a part of baker's twine (or any string) long enough fit round the fabric you want to gather and then a number. You want about 4 inches of hangover where you start and where you complete. Place you sewing machine to some zig zag stitch and make the width and length or your stitch long enough to sew the baker's twine with outside really attaching it into the cloth. I put mine to a 6 width and a 3 length. Hold a series set up and zig zag on it (photo 1) leaving tail about 4 inches of string in which you begin. Do not hurry and get it. It should appear something like picture 2 when you are finished and as shown in photograph 3 leave another tail where the end. Then simply pull on the string while pushing the fabric in the opposite direction. It is nearly impossible to break the series so that you may be as aggressive as you'd like. Just pull out the string When you've sewn your piece that is gathered to the remainder of your job and save it.
- [Dollar General details store openings, improvements](https://basementremodelingnow.com/dollar-general-details-store-openings-improvements/) - Sourced from: http://www.ccr-mag.com/dollar-general-details-store-openings-improvements/ Money General will open 975 new places and redesign 1,000 existing shops this season, together with self-checkouts and improvements to segments including beauty and health, the company said. The 15,300-store merchant will also enlarge its new food and home products offerings, also it’therefore developing a digital plan designed because of its core base of lower-income customers. Read the CNN story here
- [Pouring a Large Slab by Yourself with Sakrete Crack Resistant Concrete](https://basementremodelingnow.com/pouring-a-large-slab-by-yourself-with-sakrete-crack-resistant-concrete/) - Have you ever wanted to pour a large concrete slab on your property but felt like the only way was to hire a contractor or bring in extra help? For most DIYers the idea of pouring concrete is firmly in the realm of “hire a pro”, especially if we’re talking about something more than a few square feet. I’m going to show you that’s not always true. I used Sakrete Crack Resistant Concrete to create the garden area slab shown here over a weekend. Here are a few design highlights: The slab is 9’ x 9’ for a total of 81sf The grid pattern forms look great and make this an easy one person project Sakrete’s Crack Resistant Mix requires no extra reinforcement This is a very low-cost, high-durability, beautiful hardscape project This project allowed me to easily convert an unused and kind-of ugly portion of my backyard into my new favorite outdoor spot. Large Slabs Usually Mean Extra People, Equipment, and Expense The thing with larger slabs is that they usually require the entire amount of required concrete at one time. If you don’t pour the whole thing at once, you get cold joints. Cold joints happen when concrete poured into a slab is allowed to partially or completely dry before more concrete is added. Cold joints usually don’t look good at all. In order to get all the needed concrete ready to pour at once, people often call for a concrete delivery from a ready-mix company. Unfortunately, a slab this size only requires about one cubic yard of concrete. Ready mix concrete trucks (the big concrete trucks that deliver concrete and spin) usually have a three yard minimum order. So that won’t work for a slab this size. In this situation people often go for “U-Cart” type concrete where you go to a provider who rents you a trailer with a yard of mixed and ready-to-pour concrete in it. The problem with that is that you need to be able to get the trailer pretty close to the work area, or you’re going to need to wheelbarrow the concrete a long distance. Wheelbarrowing wet concrete isn’t fun. I promise. The other issue with pouring one yard of concrete at one time is the manpower. In order to place and finish that amount of concrete before it starts to set-up, it usually means extra people are required. I wanted to do my project by myself, without any heavy equipment or trailers to return, and I didn’t want to be rushed. The Grid Form System The solution to my problem was the grid shaped forms you see in the photos. This simple “tic-tac-toe” pattern form made of pressure treated 2×4’s provided me with a number of solutions. An improved look – I love the grid pattern and the way the slab looks like large tiles. Easy Placing and Finishing – Doing a good job on a 3’x3’ section of concrete is much easier than doing a good job on a 9’x9’ section of concrete, especially for a novice. Timing flexibility – I could do one square a day if I wanted to. There is no need to pour the whole slab at once. I did my project over a period of two days. Creating the grid was easy and only took a couple of hours, eight 10’ long pressure treated 2×4’s, and a handful of coated deck screws. My area was already sufficiently level, but you would easily be able to level your form with some fill dirt as needed. A Few Embedded Screws Will Help Long Term There is a chance that EVENTUALLY (many years from now) the screws holding the forms together could rust through, so in order to keep the perimeter forms from ever falling away, I placed a few screws inside the forms to connect them to the concrete. These aren’t meant as reinforcement, it’s just a little insurance to keep the wood from falling away from the edge. Sakrete Crack Resistant Concrete I chose the Sakrete Crack Resistant Concrete Mix after having been so pleased with it on a driveway repair I did last year. This is the perfect concrete for a slab like mine because I wanted to be able to just pour the concrete in without the need for steel wire reinforcement. For a garden type slab like this I just needed a great, easy to mix concrete that would be less likely to develop cracks. This product fit the bill perfectly. It was easy to finish and will stay looking great for many years to come. I needed about 5 bags per square… 9×5 = 45 45 Eighty pound bags… no problem. I went and picked it up so loading and unloading the truck (two trips) was a chore! Save yourself the trouble and just have your retailer deliver it! Mixing is Easy I did all my mixing in a wheelbarrow right in the slab area. This way, after the concrete was mixed I could just dump the wheelbarrow. Dump a bag or two into the wheelbarrow, the less concrete you mix at once the easier it is to mix-up, but the more times you have to repeat the process. You can decide what’s comfortable for you. Add water per the mix ratio shown on the bag. Extra water can be easier to mix, but it weakens the concrete. In my case I wasn’t too worried about the concrete being at the full specified 4000 psi, so I added a little bit of extra water. Mix it up well, then pour it in the square. Each 3’x3’ square takes about 5 bags. Finishing the Concrete One thing about being a general contractor is that the skills you develop are often exactly that… general. I’m generally able to finish concrete. I understand all the steps and the general principles. But I do not think I’d do well finishing a 9’x9’ slab by myself. But 3’x3’… that I can handle! The beauty of this project is that the squares can be finished one at a time using simple tools. Here’s all I needed: steel tooth garden rake (not shown in photo) a 16” trowel a concrete edger A straight board for leveling off the concrete A flat shovel Water Follow these simple steps to finish the concrete: Use the rake to spread and roughly level the concrete. Use the board to level off the concrete and get a trowel ready surface. Use the trowel to smooth off the top of the surface as it begins to dry. Use the edger tool to create a nice edge along the perimeter of each square. This video shows these steps: Leftover Concrete in a Rubber Baking Mold Makes for Awesome Concrete Candles!That’s about all there is too it! Here are a few more pictures showing the finished product. Leftover Concrete in a Rubber Baking Mold Makes Awesome Concrete Candles! This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Sakrete. The opinions and text are all mine. var ts=document.getElementById('ti-pixel-tracker'); var axel = Math.random() + ""; var num = axel * 1000000000000000000; var ti=document.createElement("img"); ti.style.display="none"; ti.src="http://tracking.tapinfluence.com/trk/91xEj/yTDVb/p.png?p=JHX8z" + String.fromCharCode(38) + "i=R5EQ3" + String.fromCharCode(38) + "ord="+ num + String.fromCharCode(38) + "s=" + encodeURIComponent(document.referrer); ts.parentNode.replaceChild(ti,ts); JSON.stringify("program_id":"7ae15f2e-4244-11e8-b67b-0a1731e943ec","post_id":"66aab9ca-4252-11e8-88e4-068617ee6438"); The post Pouring a Large Slab by Yourself with Sakrete Crack Resistant Concrete appeared first on RemodelingGuy.net.
- [How to Sweep a Floor, Remodeler's Edition](https://basementremodelingnow.com/how-to-sweep-a-floor-remodelers-edition/) - I experienced the custom of college once I lived with a half dozen additional reprobates in a shambolic wood-frame home on the border of campus in the reduced Iowa prairie. Our home was a standard undergraduate hovel, together with yellowed linoleum tiles which curled up at the seams and a Sears stove that had not been cleaned since the 1950s. Some sort of rodent dwelt behind it.One of my roommates, a true free thinker, was that the first to carry up sweeping. Gradually, it caught up with the others of us and me particularly. Sweeping perceptibly improved your home in almost imperceptible ways. Though our rooms had been still cluttered with novels and bongs and beer bottlesand no one could possibly be bothered to choose the full garbage bags out to the curb (we stacked them from the kitchen), the flooring surely felt cleaner. The linoleum was filthy, but there clearly is no grit between the cracks. An individual could wander around barefoot, without worrying about beer bottle caps sticking to one's feet.In time, I came to understand the way the rigorous act of crossing would be itself as rewarding as the result of experiencing sailed. Sweeping, like washing the dishes after a huge social gathering, strikes a satisfying blow against entropy. It's mechanical and meditative. One may certainly get lost inside itif you do it right. Let us get going.Inch. Arm your self. Above: a couple of 54-inch brooms out of Haydenville Broomworks; as stated by the manufacturers,"Together with the design pioneered by the Shakers, the eyebrow heads are stitched horizontal to supply a larger sweep and the broomcorn is secured to the deal with wire." I possess the Traditional Broom (shown above L) with an extended Sassafras handle that's smooth to the touch; $65. The no frills Shaker Broom (shown preceding ep ) has a flat head and a walnut handle; even $40 in Haydenville Broomworks. You're going to require an adequate broom, a dustpan, and a hand broom. From"adequate," after all that a Shaker broom, formulated by the same individuals who snore a sternly sex-less way of life and embarrassing ladder back chairs. (Formerly brooms had"round" heads bound at a form of cylinder. Think of the racket that a witch rides) An round rectangle is an OK contour for sweeping out narrow spaces, like fireplaces and also the spot supporting the oven at which the bark lived, however it's inefficient for sweeping a wide, indoor floor.My Shaker broom, with a pleasing-to-touch, crooked sassafras natural and handle claws, originated from Haydenville Broomworks and put me back $65. I believe it an investment decision. Or you may go to a hardware store and get a inexpensive, $10 broom that will begin to lose its bristles a week, that I wouldn't recommend unless you desire to devote the remainder of one's life hating your broom.Get your self a hand broom to sweep your debris stack in your dust bin. The dust-pan yet is another, much darker story. 99 out of 100 are defectively designed: the single have a dustpan truly needs is just a razorthin lip. With a milder lipgloss, you're going to be left using a thin, accusatory stripe of dirt to the floor. I really don't care if you get a dust pan that's made from metal, beechplasticbut do your self a favor and make certain that the lip gloss is no more than an eighth of a inch thick. Otherwise you'll have to learn the Drawbridging Technique to sweep up the very last bit of dust. (We'll deal with this in Step 8, below.) Above: The Chiltern Dust Pan out of Turner & Harper is 35. For much more of our picks, go to 10 Easy Pieces: Design-Worthy Dustpans. 2. Decide on a central dust-collection spot. It ought to be from the doldrums of the house, in a low point (we sweep from high to low) and preferably at a corner--but absolutely protected from airflow. Within our house, that is actually near the utility closet at which the broom and wrongly designed dustpan are all stored. The airflow thing is key: With no breeze blowing in through doors, it's much easier to corral dust bunnies and ammonia along with other lighterthanair stuff tends to carry flight during sweepage. 3. Start in the furthest room. Sweep in short strokes, but with all jurisdiction. Make sure that to receive under chairs, pub shelves, tables, and sofas. Indeed, do not be reluctant to move individuals from the way. Then move them backagain. 4. Periodically clean your forehead. I am sorry your mother didn't tell you this, however from time to time, you need to turn your broom up side down as well as with your hand, get rid of the lint, pet hair, and other woozies from the bristles. If you're still far from the collection time, you could want to get that fistful of fuzzy and dump it directly on your garbage can. Move with intention. Firmly move from room to room, furthest to nearest, collecting your debris from your central spot. Depending upon where your staging area is, you might zero in on it from 1 side of the home, then your other. This is ultimately of little effect.6. Admire the pile of debris you're collecting. You may find yourself wonderingHow the hell is that even possible? It resembles a barber shop! Hard to trust you last swept five days past. Photograph through Insta-gram . 7. Publish the Dust Pan. Pointing your dustpan in a 45-degree angle into the floor, make your initial gross sweep, and empty the bin into the garbage. Do Not Be GREEDY. The last point you need to would be to repackage the dustpan and emit a contrail of filth en route to the garbage can. Assume this measure will require you two to three trips. 8. Finally, we must eliminate that tiny wall of filth that some nitwit with a degree in industrial design from the reputable university might not be bothered to be worried about. To properly execute the Drawbridging Technique, angle the dust pan at approximately 80 degrees to the floor (or 1 1 o'clock) with a deft strokefirmly and immediately throw the dust up and in to the pan. Whilst the dirt piles on, drop the angle of the pan (the draw bridge boils down).It might take you a few tries to understand the technique, but stick with it, for the only thing worse than a sloppily swept floor is the one that will be, sadly, unswept.More National Science: Domestic Science: How to Clean a Mattress Domestic Science: How to Wash a Pillow National Science: How to Load a Dishwasher
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