Home and Garden Diva

You are here: Home / Archives for computer

Top Tools That Will Help You Choose Your Real Estate

by

Choosing real estate is one of the most important decisions you will ever make – probably just behind deciding on who you’re going to marry. Not only is this an incredibly expensive purchase and one that you hope will be a good investment, but it’s also a decision that will impact on your day-to-day life moreso than perhaps every other. The distance you travel to work, the options available for your entertainment in the evening, the comfort you feel when you relax in the evening… all will be dictated by your real estate.

Which is why you shouldn’t rely on just your instincts alone to choose your property. Of course you need a good estate agent and a good surveyor, but likewise you can also fall back on tools and gadgets that can help you too. Read on to see which devices will help the most and how you can take advantage of them.

Computer

The first job of a computer when choosing real estate is to help you browse the various homes available and to find an estate agent. Thanks to the marvels of the digital age, it’s no possible to replace ‘leg work’ with ‘finger work’ – you can have done the vast majority of your hunting before you have even left the house.

Phone

Your phone of course is also a crucial device, and the one you will use in order to call up and make bookings so that you can view various properties – as well as to hire all the other services you will use. If you have a smartphone (who doesn’t these days?) then you can even set reminders in your calendar to ensure that you never miss a viewing. What makes a phone most useful of all though, is almost undoubtedly the camera. This will allow you to take snapshots of the place you’re looking around to look back on later. This is a great strategy, because it will allow you to remember much more clearly what each place looked like and also to show it to friends and others who might be able to give you advice.

Tablet

If you want a bit more space to work with, then a tablet can be a useful device for running full-screen apps to let you plan layouts, take photos and schedule appointments. Plus they make you look and feel like a pro…

Notepad

It may not be particularly high tech, but the notepad should never be underestimated. Not only will it enable you to take notes on the places you are looking around, but you can also use it to write down questions that you want to ask your real estate agents. This way you can make sure that you don’t go to view the property with a million questions, only to come away realising that you haven’t actually asked any of them.

Meanwhile notepads can also be used in order to sketch things out, to take measurements, to write down phone numbers and more. A smartphone might be very handy then, but sometimes it’s the old fashioned gadgets that are the best…

Attached Images:

Kevin Preston, the author of this post, is a part time blogger and a real estate agent. He has many years of experience in the field and People consider him one of the best brains in the field of real estate. He likes swimming and playing football in his spare time.

Home Security – Where Are The Key Places On Your Property To Use Security Cameras?

by

More and more people are choosing surveillance cameras as an addition to their other home security measures, and these can give a real sense of peace of mind particularly if you have a large property which you can’t easily monitor from one place, or you live in an area with a high crime rate. You can also set up your cameras to feed to one central viewing room or computer, so that you can watch what is going on in and around your property if you are concerned, without having to go outside or open your door.

Deter and Catch Criminals

Cameras don’t just help you fight crime by allowing you to identify intruders and gather evidence against them more easily; they also deter criminals from targeting you. Knowing there is a good chance they will be filmed will make many criminals think again and target another address, because disabling camera systems is difficult and not a skill the average opportunist thief will have.

However, while the appearance of cameras does a lot to protect your home on its own, you still want to make sure they are doing a good job of filming the areas that are most likely to be targets, and where they are most likely to film something useful to police (for example getting a good shot of an intruder’s face). Here are some tips for choosing where to put your home surveillance cameras:

Entry and Exit Points

The most important places to capture activity are at the main entry and exit points from your home and any other buildings on your property, such as you garage or pool house. Don’t just consider the front door, although this is a good place to put a camera, but also think about entry points like windows which someone trying to break in might see as a weak spot.

Guard your Most Valuable Items and Areas

There’s not much point in having a CCTV camera system if it isn’t set up to protect the things and people most likely to be targeted by thieves, attackers or vandals. You should therefore consider where an intruder might look for valuables, and where trespassers may be most likely to gain access.

An outdoor pool area, for example, may be an easier place for opportunist trespassers to gain access to than your house. While there might not be much there people could steal, you probably don’t want unwanted guests in that area, so set up visible cameras there. You may also want to consider your garage if this is where your car is kept.

In your home, use cameras to protect the entry points to things like the bedrooms of children or elderly people, and rooms where valuables are kept.

Outdoor Spaces

If you have a lot of outdoor space, cameras can help you catch intruders who may hide in shady areas and also investigate any strange sounds or lights you can see or hear outdoors without leaving your house. Consider putting cameras in your driveway area, along with your gardens.

Attached Images:

The author of today’s post, Kate Harris, is a security consultant at AAA Satellite, one of the leading manufacturers of security cameras and other security equipment in KS. She believes that workplaces, these days, need to be well-equipped with adequate security systems and cameras.

Top Ways To Display Your Photographs Around The Home

by

Photographs are some of the most personal items we can use to decorate the home, and are a completely unique decoration that can help to show visitors who we are and what’s important to us as well. No home then is really complete without a few photographs then, but this doesn’t have to mean just putting images into square frames – there are many ways to display photography that are more creative and more interesting and that will provide a more interactive or creative look. Here we will look at some of them.

Frame 16 - Ornate Gold

Creative Photo Frames

Of course manufacturers and designers realise the demand for more creative and interesting photo frames which is why it’s possible to find all kinds of more interesting ways to display your pictures. These include photo frames that allow you to decide images on the sides of a cube (which can then be rotated), that show your images in tiered layers, or that allow the images to hang and sway.

If you want to get really creative with your photo frames, then you can even get more creative still and start making your own. There are a vast number of ways you can do this from working with wood and other materials to carve them into the shapes you need, to using 3D modelling and 3D printing to have complex designs created for you on demand.

80collage

Collages

The only downside of using photo frames is that they aren’t particularly efficient in term of the amount of space they take up and the number of pictures they allow you to display. If you really want to display a large number of pictures then one of the best ways to do so is by creating a collage whereby you can cut out multiple different images and then put them together by tying together a theme or just using a layout that will look great.

Embedding Them in Other Items

You can also use all kinds of other things as photo frames without that being the main purpose. For instance a placemat can easily make a great photo frame as can a coaster – and you can buy ones online that are specifically designed for this purpose. Alternatively clock faces, bottled drinks and even mouse mats can also provide great canvases for your photos.

Fall (painting and poem)

Canvases

If you have a particular image that you are especially proud of and you want to display well, then using canvases and mounting them is a great way to turn your memories into works of art. If you want to really make this look artistic meanwhile, then you can use this strategy with a series of similar side by side images that show movement, or by splitting one image across three or more thin canvases.

Using the Computer

Digital technology also allows for many more ways to display photos in unique and interesting ways. Of course photos make great backgrounds for computers, phones, tablets and other devices, but you can also buy specific digital photo frames that will enable you to have a slideshow of images you like rather than having to choose just one to display. Using the computer it’s also possible to edit your pictures using photo editing software and to this way make them look more stylish and more suited to the room they’re going to be used in.

Matthew Davison is a successful interior decorator who also maintains the website GrantElevators.com.au.

Will my hand ever get better?

by



I can’t believe how long it’s taking for my injured hand to get better. I fell and hurt my left hand in early June and I don’t know when it’s going to get better.


It seems that I stretched the ligaments in my thumb and the outside of my hand, as well as severely hurt a few bones in my wrist. It seems that I didn’t tear any ligaments or tendons or break any bones, but one particular bone in my wrist, the hamate bone, has swollen bone marrow and that has part of my wrist and hand all swollen. Of course the top of the base of my thumb is still swollen too. When it gets swollen it’s like there’s a pencil stub under my skin at the base of my thumb. It’s very weird.

Of course I’m left handed and this is the hand I’ve injured. It makes writing all these lovely blog posts just so much fun! I want to write and stay in touch with my readers and friends, but it’s difficult. I’ve been trying to use dictation software but I seem to only be able to use it when my house is quite. Noise seems to make it harder for it to decipher what I’m saying .. and my house has been noisy and under renovation lately so it’s hard to use the software that makes communicating on the computer with an injured hand easier.

Even thought I’m complaining my hand is better than it was a few weeks ago .. but it seems like it’s still going to take a few weeks or even a few more months before it’s truly healed.

Actually I don’t know if it will ever be the way it was before the injury. My hand is weak now. I drop things easily and my hand hurts and aches all the time. Yesterday I dropped something truly precious to me. It was something that I had inherited from my parents, a piece of bone china. I was moving it because my husband needed to move a piece of furniture so he could do some renovations in our dining room and the piece just fell out of my hand. I was terribly upset. Darn hand!

A netbook or a tablet?

by

I’ve been trying to decide whether I should get an iPad, a Netbook or perhaps another type of tablet.

I have a desktop computer and two laptops and I love them … but I don’t find my laptop that portable. Now compared to a desktop why yes it is portable .. but it’s still heavy and bulky to bring along, especially on small trips about town.

So … I’ve been trying to do some research as to what are the best netbooks and then comparing them to an iPad and other tablet types. As you can tell, tablet wise I think I’m more of an iPad person, the others just came along too late – although I might still be able to have my mind changed after more research.

That’s one thing about me, usually before I go out and spend hundreds of dollars on an item I do everything from price comparisons to reading reviews online and otherwise. I want to get the best product for my money.

If you were trying to decide between a netbook and a tablet which would you be more likely to buy?

Meta

Tags

basement bed bedroom clean cleaning clutter dog exercise family fitness flowers friends Furniture garden Health help home house husband ideas Kitchen laptop Lighting money Music neighborhood neighbors party plants room Shopping sick skin spring summer tips tired Toronto Travel tv Vacation walking warm winter work

Pages