Totally Wired

A man walks down the street, waving his arms and talking to himself. No problem, he’s dictating an email. A woman sits on a park bench, stabbing at a pocket computer with a plastic stylus. Is she selling shares or checking the contents of her fridge?

A boy slumps on the bus, eyes concealed by dark glasses. He looks half asleep, but his busy studying for his college finals. Hands free computing, online fridges, glasses that double as video screens… the future is wired, but not in the way you’ve become accustomed to. Before long, you’ll be online in a dozen different ways, as and when you need to be.

You’ll connect to the appliances in your kitchen as easily as you do to computers on the other side of the world, and you’ll control them as if you were on the spot.

Wired Homes

The traditional double storey house, with two power sockets in every room and a single phone point, is due for an update. What’s interesting about the internet home is not so much the technology involved, but the fact that it isn’t a one off showcase. By the time you read this, wired homes will be the norm all over the UK and the USA.

From the outside, the internet home is just another five bedroom house. It doesn’t look that different from the inside either, unless you’re the sort of geek who goes around counting power sockets, data points, routers, PCs’, webcams, ADSL lines, and ordinary phone lines. Altogether it contains $1 000 of network gear, most of which is standard off the shelf equipment.

Future homes will have the ports, cables and switches built in. The extra wiring will add value. It’ll be a selling point when you move. If you want to make the most of your wired home, you’ll have to add the computers and other goodies. Probably you won’t do this yourself, because setting up a router isn’t as simple as plugging in a toaster. You’ll call an expert.

There will be companies that specialize. It is pretty straight forward to set it all up, and a lot of the boxes will arrive pre-configured, ready to be personalized for an individual family. Another key feature is the Hometronic Home Controller, a wireless system that controls the central heating and switches appliances on or off. It can be hooked up to the net for remote access, enabling you to log on to your house as you leave the office and turn up the heat. It isn’t on the market yet, but should be available sometime soon.

Being able to control your house from anywhere has its attractions, but you wouldn’t want some ne’er-do-well hacker switching on the lights at 3:00am, or turning on the aircon in the heart of winter. How secure is the internet home?

New for Old

You might not want to move house just to Netrify your life. However, the network infrastructure could be retrofitted to existing homes, just as people add central heating. High speed wireless networks will save you from ripping up the floor.
Why would you network your home? The benefits aren’t that great. You can play quake with your kids. Several people can share a printer and the internet connection. You can check on your new baby using a webcam. Wired homes will become the norm when companies start selling Internet-enabled appliances. Electrolux is working on a screenfridge that brings the Net into your kitchen. A web browser gives you access to online recipes, a video camera lets you record messages and a scanner keeps track of your food. When you run out of beer, it prompts you to visit an online superstore.

All these appliances could be built today, using current technology. They’d be expensive, but that’s not the sticking point. The reason they aren’t in your local furniture and hi-fi store is because there isn’t the infrastructure to support them. For the screenfridge to work, barcodes need to be replaced by radio tags that can be read from any angle. You aren’t going to pass your tub of butter over a scanner each time you put it away, so the fridge needs to be able to track it automatically. That means Electrolux has to work with supermarkets and food companies to change the way products are labeled.

Even then, how does the fridge know whether you’re putting back a nearly full tub or an empty one that need to be replaced? And supposing it decides to order a new tub, who’s going to take delivery of it and put it into the fridge? You are. Real life is full of real things that can’t be converted into ones and zeros.

Clothes, furniture… computers. If you’re going to be the brawn that moves everything around, you might as well supply some of the brains. And speaking of brainpower, wired life will involve more planning ahead. There’s no point in turning on the coffee machine from your bedroom if it doesn’t already contain water and coffee. Turning on the oven from the pub might save you a few minutes, but you won’t be able to check if it’s empty. Sure, your smart oven will sound the alarm when its contents catch fire, but you’ll end up making tea for the fire brigade instead of cooking pizza for yourself.

Wherever you Go

Once your house is totally wired, you could just stay in it and have all those real things delivered. You could even change your name to DotComGuy. More probably, you’re going to want to go out and take the internet with you.

If you’re the least bit interested in cell phones, you’ll have noticed a lot of fuss about WAP, the Wireless Access Protocol, which enables you to access the internet. It isn’t the internet as you know it. Instead, you get selected bits of selected sites, trimmed to suit tiny screens and the 9.6Kbps data transfer rate of GSM networks. (GSM, or Global System for Mobile, is the technology used by digital mobile phone networks in the UK and South Africa). More interesting services are being developed all the time and WAP will soon become full multimedia rich.

Bandwidth is now less of an issue since the inception of GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), a much faster data transfer service.

Everything, Everywhere

Ultimately, you’ll need to know whatever you need to know, no matter where you are. Remembering things will be less of an issue, because your technology will tell you where you’ve been, who you’ve seen and what you’re supposed to be doing next. Being in the right place at the right time won’t matter as much either, although there’ll still be times when your physical presence is required.

Don’t imagine that you’ll be able to give up thinking, because you’ll still have to make the hard decisions. Do you want to be a firefighter or a brain surgeon? Should you wait for him/her to call? Should we invade Iraq and Iran and get blown to pieces by suicide bombers? Will your kids end up in therapy if you make them eat all their vegetables, including the Brussels sprouts? Technology will bring you information, but it doesn’t have all the answers.

When you’ve got kids at university, when you’re not too busy missing their angelic little faces, you’re probably making the most of having a spare room in the house; where you can put old and new possessions without having to think too much about them. A spare bedroom is an excellent place to store all those objects of furniture and bits and pieces in while you decide what to do with them – but when it’s time for the kids to come home, you’ve got a great deal of work on your hands.

If you’ve been using their bedroom as a storing cupboard for some months, the chances are that a fairly large amount of stuff has accumulated. And, as the Christmas holidays last over a month as opposed to a couple of weeks, your not-so-little one probably isn’t going to appreciate having to wade their way through piles of books and old television sets in order to get a night of sleep.

So what can you do with all of the extra possessions when there’s absolutely nowhere else to put them?

You may be enjoying using the spare room as another room altogether, meaning that you’re not too keen on relinquishing its use for a month – but that doesn’t mean you can recreate the room again once your scholar heads back to the university campus – at least until summer, anyway.

However, there’s still the problem of what to do with your various possessions until then. The solution can actually be quite simple. Rather than clogging up the rest of your house as you attempt to evenly redistribute your accumulations in other places, why not hire out a self storage facility and simply store it away for a while?

You can rent storage facilities that you can place all of your extra things in while your kids are home. There are a surprising amount of companies operating all over the country, meaning they tend to be located in areas that are very convenient to you. And, by storing items rather than packing them all around your house, you can enjoy how not only are you ensuring your home stays neat and tidy, but your possessions are being kept in an incredibly secure place at a minimum cost.

In fact, you could find that you end up putting a lot more things into storage than you previously expected – including a certain student’s bed for those many months during the year that they’re not around!

It will not be tricky to find the’hottest’ home decor trends out there at the moment. Occasionally, though, you end up financially and stylistically limited. Some of those’in’ color schemes or themes may just not appeal to you. Ironically, perhaps you can’t afford the furnishings you desire in your house. Really, wood furniture doesn’t always have to be pricey ( or old ) for it to play a crucial role in the overall feel of your place. You don’t always have to go antiquing or spend enormous amounts of money just to decorate or furnish your house.

Straight off there’s always an option to BUY second user furniture for home-decor. Purchasing second user furniture may present a risk but the benefits far outweigh this. Almost all of the time, people simply give their perfectly usable solid wood furniture to charities or thrift stores. They even sell them in straightforward yard or garage sales. Always be on the look-out and you might be surprised if you find a cedar chest that looks precisely the same as the extremely pricey one you’ve been salivating over at the mag you latterly read.

With your buying comes your selling. Try and sell furniture that you infrequently use anymore or the ones which feel out of kilter in your house. This serves a double purpose — more space for new furniture that is more appropriate for your house and more money to buy them! Also, selling might help you create a network of other home dcor fans who can offer you tips in buying and selling hardwood furniture and at the same time lead you in working out the final feel and appear you would like to go for. Just post on your local classifieds or join online forums and you’ll be surprised at how much people are willing to help.

Lastlyly, perhaps you may even try and make your own furniture! Naturally, this isn’t an individual job but maybe you can ask help from your youngsters or your hubby. It can be a time-intensive project but this is customization at its finest. You get to make furniture that’s tailor-fit to your same exact needs. You can have as many drawers as you need on your bedroom dresser and even color it as obnoxiously as you need. What’s important is that you’re making the furniture that fits well with your intended home dcor theme. There are various books on handiwork and/or carpentry that may strip down things for you. Don’t be afraid to look at home decor magazines, too, for ideas on style and functionality!

As you can see, you don’t always have to conform to current home decor trends that are enormously hyped by the media. You can make your own trendy baby crib that is more tailor fit to your concept of how your house should look like. Who else is the better judge but the individual living in the home, right?

When you try to sell your home, try to make it look like no one lives there. It sounds silly, but no one wants to see your fridge door with hundreds of magnets and pictures. Purchasers are not fancy about seeing your laundry on the floor or the baby’s diaper pail full to the brim. So here are some good tips to follow in order to get your house sold in Portland:

1. Paint all rooms a neutral colour if they are brightly coloured. Areas such as bedrooms, bathrooms and so on should be a taupe or beige colour which most purchasers can imagine their own furniture in. In Homes for Sale in Portland everyone can see the potential of your home in neutral shades.

2. Call a junk man or garbage removal company and start loading up the truck. Nothing is sacred, put all unused or overgrown articles in the dumpster or truck. Fill it and fill it again

3. Remove anything that smells old or musty such as old sofas or blankets from the basement. Old clothes in bags or boxes might have a damp and musty smell. Get rid of these culprits

4. Clean up the basement and wash all floors or steam clean carpeting. Repaint any cement floors and fix up the laundry center. Use organizational cupboard and storage units to store all articles.

5. Go through the bathrooms and remove any old prescriptions, old bottles of cream or shampoos, stuff that clutters up the vanity. Everyone takes out their makeup and brushes.

6. Get one bottle of hand wash and use it for hand washing and one set of hand towels that are set out for company. Put all other family towels away in individual bedrooms.

7. Bedrooms must be de-cluttered and all bedding washed and changed. Fresh bedspreads or duvets should be used and all toys and stuffed animals put into storage until after the sale.

8. Put all good items which you don’t need any more into a yard sale. Get rid of old furniture, clothing, kitchen gadgets and appliances, nick-knacks and old books. Make it a neighbourhood sale.

9. Now sterilize the kitchen from top to bottom, including the cupboards, pantry, sinks and counters, fridge, stove and dishwasher. Everything gets a super scrub using a disinfectant.

10. Clean the bathrooms similarly from top to bottom and remove all mould or mildew signs. Tiles and tub should glisten. See your realtor before you redo a bathroom in Portland.

11. The foyer should be free of shoes and backpacks, coats and bags. Pretend that it is the first thing that the purchaser sees and smells and it should pass the test for cleanliness and tidiness.

12. The living room should be free of any magazines or newspapers, ash trays, and used dishes. Polish all furniture and vacuum thoroughly. Spray with Febreeze or another air freshener.

13. If you have a dining room, set up a table of your best dishes and sterling. Put candles on the table and napkins, lower the lights and set up the room as if you were having company.

14. Turn on all lights and open a window in all rooms during the warmer weather or make sure the thermostat is set to 70 degrees for comfort.

15. If you have an air conditioner, put it on low during the cool seasons and full during the hotter days of summer. Portland homes for sale can weather any temperature.

16. Put out a vase of flowers, make a dozen cookies before the viewing or Open House. Now ask a neighbour or friend to go through the house and make comments or suggestions.

17. Do whatever it takes, inside or outside, to put your house on the market and get it sold! Good Luck! See your realtor when listing your home for sale in Portland.

Ask Tony and Libby Kelly any questions you may have when getting ready to sell your house. They have years of experience in the Portland area. You will get a better price if you follow the advice above.

An executive feels peaceful and relaxed when he/she enters home after 16hours of hectic work, if kept tidy, serene and airy with fragrance. The teenager gets the atmosphere to study and concentrate if his/her room is in order and well kept. The home maker will have a sigh of relief when she enters the clean, dry, odourless kitchen early in the morning.

All these positive vibrations at home are possible only when the entire house is kept spotlessly clean.. The prerequisites for maintaining the house well are optimum usage of moving space as well as an intelligent arrangement of utility articles. There has to be a system of piling up disposable articles like mineral water bottles, plastic bags, newspaper/magazines etc., Today’s modern flat living culture , garbage and kitchen waste are also to be tackled on a day to day basis.

Let us go segment by segment. If we take the Hall, that is, drawing room or living room, the floor to be broomed and mopped every day. Sofa sets, carpets, electronic items like TV, music system etc be vacuum cleaned once in a week. The upholstery and curtains are to be changed once a month, by having another set washed or dry cleaned ready. The ceiling fans, glass windows, mirrors, and glass doors are to be cleaned every week.

The furniture is to be cleaned with dry cloth or with solutions meant for cleaning wooden articles. There is an excellent view across the gardens to the rose parterre and down to the main lawn. The dinning room regularly used for dinner parties and receptions. This room is used for formal luncheons and dinners.

The Drawing Room is used for most official entertaining including important visitors, diplomatic callers and small receptions. The drawing room is one of the most used rooms in the house, hosting many receptions, pre-dinner drinks, and meetings. The Drawing Room is the venue for small receptions, presentations and investitures. It is the central stone hall of the original Residence and is the oldest known European structure in Darwin.

Due to paucity of space in flats, the study room and bedroom will be the same, or used with a two-in-one concept.. In such cases the study part should have more moving space with only furniture and book shelves. The bed covers and pillow covers are to be kept tidy for the sake of hygiene and good atmosphere. Just a wash through washing machine weekly is enough for this. But the entire room to be vacuum cleaned once a fortnight and dusted.

A typical study might contain a desk, chair, computer, and bookshelves. A spare bedroom is often utilized as a study, but many modern homes have a room specifically designated as a study. Such rooms are usually located in a convenient area on the main floor of the house and may be referred to as a den, home office, or library. A study is a room in a house which is used for paperwork, computer work, or reading. Historically, the study of a house was reserved for use as the private office and reading room of a family father as the formal head of a household, but today studies are generally either used to operate a home business or else open to the whole family.

We now move to the very sensitive area, the bathrooms. The toilet, floor and wash basins are to be cleaned on a daily basis. We get many brands of cleaning material and accessories to aid this. The sink and the toilet are to be kept infection free, hence quality disinfectants that do not harm the hands and feet are to be used at frequent intervals for a healthy living. The other general cleaning like dusting the ceiling, wiping the mirrors, window panels, the shoe racks etc are also to be done periodically. In the United States, “bathroom” commonly means “a room containing a toilet”. In other countries this is usually called the “toilet” or alternatively “water closet”

The kitchen, the homemaker’s place of dwelling for 60% of the day deserves special treatment as the healthy survival of the family depends on the quality food that is being prepared from here. The toughest task indeed is the closed cabinets, which will be the paradise for ants, cockroaches and lizards. Cleaning the cabinet with insecticides is a must to prevent them from entering. The cabinet with wooden doors to be cleaned with dry cloth or with solutions which give some additional glow. The counter top and floor to be degreased and wiped/moped every day. The stainless steel vessels and the sink to be washed everyday and wiped. The gas stove, mixie, wet grinder and micro oven to be serviced periodically. The glass doors and windows to be kept tidy by periodical dusting and wiping. The refrigerator/freezer to be cleaned/defrost periodically.

Ground floor flats or independent houses may have the fortune of having small garden/lawn. Upkeep of garden gives immense satisfaction to the owner/ dweller. Watering the plants on daily basis, removing the cobwebs , weeds etc gets one rich dividend.

Nowadays we get house cleaning materials of high quality in departmental stores and also through direct marketing people. There is a growing awareness among people to use these products and pay more attention on keeping the house sparklingly clean.

There are also professional home cleaning services available in the market. People who can afford can enter into a contract and utilize their services.

samehta is a Copywriter of http://www.allphaserenovations.com Houston home remodeling. She written many articles in various topics such as http://www.allphaserenovations.com Houston Home Repair, Home Remodeling in Houston. For more information visit: www.allphaserenovations.com. Contact her at allphase.articles@gmail.com