Category: House Project

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Home Improvement Tips – Should You Renovate During a Recession?

2 years ago
Author

Right now the economy is going through a recession. Home prices are down and unemployment is up. People have cut back on their discretionary spending and are more cautious than ever about their spending.

This has caused a lot of people to put off renovation work on their homes. They are concerned about the economy and are stalling until things turn around.

But there are some really good reasons to do your project right now because of the effects on the economy.

Contractors Are Looking For Work:

This will mean you the buyer are in the drivers seat. It might even make it easier to get a better price for your work. More contractors than ever are looking for work. They want to keep themselves and their employees busy.

Better Deals On Materials:

Even the large box stores are hurting. Shop around and you’ll find better deals on the materials that you need for your project.

Better Scheduling And Faster Work:

With fewer people doing renovations it is more likely that you’ll be able to get your work scheduled quicker and it will be completed faster.

Upgrading Your Home Will Help Maintain It’s Value:

The real estate market is getting hard hit right now. If you need to sell your home right now, doing upgrades to make it stand out and help it sell faster.

Interest Rates Are Down:

The Fed has slashed interest rates to banks so they are in turn offering better rates as they try to recover … Read More

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How to Outsource Your Business Through Effective Project Planning

2 years ago
Author

Before you decide to do any outsourcing at all, you need to identify which areas of your business might benefit from outsourcing. Then consider the benefits to your organization when outsourcing a particular task. If you already have excellent in-house skills in a particular field, you may decide that that role should remain at home. However, some financial aspects of the business, such as payroll operation, can be done just as effectively and often cheaper by an outside organization. Other common tasks that are outsourced are customer service, technical support and software development. Once you get started you can learn how to outsource almost anything.

An equally important thing to consider is how much training you would need to provide in order for the project to be a success. If the task requires intensive training, is it really worth the expense?

If I was asked how to outsource successfully, I would say that there are three vitally important things to take into consideration.

  • Project Planning
  • Project Management
  • Communication

Project Planning

You would not start a new in-house project without careful planning and the same applies when you think about outsourcing your work.

The project planning stage is where you set the goals and objectives for the project. You should also set time lines and consider all the different scenarios that could cause the project to be delayed. Project planning is basically the foundation around which the project will grow.

During this stage you also need to consider the human resources … Read More

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Aqua House – Architecture That Integrates Water Technically and Aesthetically

2 years ago
Author

Stephanie Madison of Habitus Living interviews the author about his book “Aqua House, Architecture that Integrates Water Technically and Aesthetically” Can you please elaborate on what inspired you to write Aqua Houses and the key ideas in the book?

Current concerns about global water usage and the increasing pollution of it’s environments is what inspired me to write Aqua House. The book focuses on the relationship of water and architecture. It re-examines the place that it occupies in architecture in order to determine how current practices in architecture contribute to the pollution of water environments and to what is believed to be an unsustainable usage of it. The book then seeks to investigate how some of these practices in architecture could be modified in the future in order to mitigate the water problem.

The key idea in the book is how can the design of a house integrate the technical and aesthetic functions of water?

I have attempted to answer this by designing a building (Aqua House) that works with both the aesthetic and technical functions of aqua. In addition, the design integrates water and architecture in a way that could contribute to reducing contamination of the water environment. While Aqua House is a small project, focused on the problem of residential architecture it can perhaps help raise awareness of wider water issues. The lessons learned can perhaps be extrapolated to a re-examination of other types of buildings and urban environments, where a wider set of water issues could be … Read More