Home Sweet Home…!

Home fitness equipment is a great idea for those wanting to improve their overall conditioning, lose a bit of weight, or just tone their bodies. There are many different options for home fitness equipment on the market today and all seem to promise magical and amazing results with just five or ten minutes of workout time per day.

In reality, weight loss, toning or building muscle requires several different components and will always require consistent, sustained effort on the part of the person involved – i.e you! Advertisements and infomercials that try to indicate otherwise are misleading at best, and completely fraudulent at worst. According to leading health and fitness experts, the only way to improve cardiovascular performance, lose weight or tone your body is to eat optimally, exercise regularly and consistently, and to challenge your body to improve muscle tone and health.

Buying home fitness equipment can be challenging and costly, so knowing what you are trying to accomplish with your fitness goals is critical before you make a purchase. Keep in mind what you need the fitness equipment to do, so you buy the machines or devices that will help you reach your goals. Weight loss will require both cardio and strength training, toning will require strength as well as limited cardio, and muscle development or body building will require specific, increasingly challenging weight designed to work particular muscles of the body. Using the wrong type of home fitness equipment in your workout will only lead to frustration and disappointment in your results.

Not all home fitness equipment fits everyone, despite what the infomercials state. If you are planning to invest in some of the more costly types of home gym equipment, be sure to try it out at a retail store or sports store before actually buying it. All equipment is designed for average height and weight adults, so people that are heavier, lighter, taller or shorter than the average may find even the most expensive home gyms and equipment simply don’t fit their body. In addition, remember that most home equipment does not have the same safety features as some of the commercially available equipment and is not recommended for use by children or even young teens.

There are many advantages to having your own workout equipment right at home. It is easy to use, convenient, plus you may find time to work out in between activities at home that you would never be able to work into your schedule if you had to go to the gym. One final tip: consider looking around at used home fitness equipment if you are trying to set up an exercise space on a limited budget.

Not everyone can get to the gym or fitness center. Not everyone wants to make a special trip through busy traffic to get there. In some areas there may not be a gym within wasy reach of your home.

Whatever your reason for wanting to exercise at home it is possible to set up a very high standard of fitness facilities in your home. Equipment just like that in the most professional fitness centers can be purchased and installed at home.

At a gym you will typically find a range of elliptical trainers, treadmills, exercise bikes and cross trainers. All these can be bought for the home.

You may want to buy professional quality equipment or perhaps something a little cheaper. It depends how much use the eqipment is going to get. Remember that those machines in the gym are used all day everyday. At home they will not be used so intensively. But they still need to be robust because moving parts soon wear out and break. So don’t skimp on the price.

You may not need all the different kinds of machine you would find in the gym. An exercise bike might appeal to you. But you might prefer to get this kind of exercise on a real bike cycling with the family.

A treadmill can be an excellent machine for all the family. You can walk or run on a treadmill. The fittest person or the least fit can use a treadmill. But if there is somewhere near your home where you can walk or jog then perhaps you do not need a treadmill.

Cross trainers and elliptical trainers are perhaps the single most useful piece of fitness equipment whose effects cannot be reproduced by other means. These pieces of kit give you a whole body work out exercising both your arms and legs.

Skiing or Norwegian walking with poles is about the nearest thing to the kind of work out you get on this kind of fitness equipment.

Other pieces of fitness equipment you sometimes find in the gym and which are ideally suited to the home because they are so simple are gym balls and mini trampolines. Both can be used very successfully at home.

The gym ball provides what is called a core work out. That means it strengthens the muscles in the core of the body. Other types of gym equipment often do not do this.

Mini trampolines or rebounders as they are sometimes called are useful for an impact free aerobic work outs and to develop one’s sense of balance. They are particularly good for any one recovering from illness or who has suffered joint damage.

Weights can be a rewarding piece of fitness equipment for the home. A range of weights will provide something for the whole family. Light weights will suit beginners and older people. Heavier weights will suit men and the fittest members of the family.

Don’t forget that the simplest piece of fitness equipment you can buy is a gym mat. With a gym mat you can do yoga, abdominal exercises, or stretching exercises that are vital to fitness. A gym mat takes up very little space, is very cheap and is often overlooked. But this piece of fitness equipment is a real asset to any one who wants to get fit at home.

So whatever your budget there is home fitness equipment to suit your pocket and your needs.

This tutorial explains how to paint brand new paintable vinyl exterior shutters and is not intended or recommended for the PVC type of exterior shutters or repainting old exterior shutters. You must have the paint grade shutters for this procedure to work correctly.

First you need to decide whether to spray or brush the paint on with a paint brush. It is recommended that you use a spray system to paint your exterior vinyl shutters, as the result will come out more consistent.

Next is paint selection. There are three basic choices to consider and the choice you make is very personal to you and the style of your home:

1. Exterior flat paint

2. Semi gloss/satin finish paint

3. High gloss paint

Choosing the quality of paint for plastics is different than the paint you would use for painting wood. Whether you are spraying or brushing, I always advise to use relatively inexpensive paints. I recommend this for two reasons. First, you will not have to deal with any moisture issues so the mil thickness of the paint is not important. Secondly, very high quality paints are more globular and intended for use with a roller, which makes the paint too thick for even spraying. Remember that a plastic product is inert and does not absorb or emit moisture vapors so protection from the elements is secondary.

Priming is dependant on the exact type of substrate you will be working with. If the material is a styrene like the Mid-America brand (only color #30) or a high quality copolymer like Alcoa Vintage shutters or other pre-painted product, and if you are using a flat exterior latex paint, you will get excellent adhesion without priming.

If you are using anything other than flat latex, always prime the surface of the exterior vinyl shutters first. The paint supply store will have inexpensive primer (wood primer is fine) and again it does not have to be high quality as it is only to provide adhesion for your top coats of paint.

Follow the directions and pay careful attention to the temperature guideline on the paint can for the best results.

You will need the following items to get started:

1. A pair of sawhorses (or two large boxes)

2. A drop sheet (either plastic or cloth)

3. An equal number of cardboard boxes to the number of exterior shutter panels you are painting (the boxes are for storing the freshly painted exterior shutter panels on while drying)

4. Paint spray gun or for brushing a two inch and a half inch paint brush

5. Paper towels or a clean rag

6. A respirator if recommended by the paint manufacturer

OK, Picasso time to get to work.

Open louver shutters present a big challenge because of the angle of the slats and resultant difficulty of getting full coverage. If you don’t address the space between the slats and you are installing the exterior shutters at eye level or higher, after you install your vinyl shutters unpainted spaces behind the slat will be visible.

If you are spraying, before you actually spray paint on the vinyl shutter use a test area for an even spray pattern and to make certain that the gun is working properly. The side of the cardboard drying boxes will work well for this. To paint louver vinyl shutters, lay the panel face down and begin to spray holding the gun at a forty five degree angle then aim the nozzle directly into the slat cavity. Spray with even strokes and begin before your paint zone and always follow through your paint zone. Go to the other side and repeat. Always inspect for adequate coverage of paint on the exterior shutter before going to the next stage. While the window shutter is face down it’s a good idea to paint the edges to ensure that they will be covered properly. I am always amazed at the missed spots on the edges when I don’t do this.

If you are brushing, you will need the small brush for this job. Paint liberally between the slats, making sure to also paint the sides of the slat about one-half inch. Painting the edges with a brush while the exterior shutter is face down is a good plan as well.

Turn the exterior window shutter over. You do not need to wait for the paint to dry as the back side of the exterior shutter is recessed and will not rest directly against the cardboard box.

If spraying, use the same angle of the spray gun as you used on the back side of the louvers and spray into the slat cavity on both sides. Next, go to the bottom edge of the exterior shutter and angle the gun so you can paint the bullnose (the edge of the louver). Hold the spray gun at about a thirty degree angle and spray from one side to the other in even strokes, again overspray your paint zone to ensure the finish is applied evenly. The next step is to go to the top of the shutter and spray the face of the slat. Here you will hold the gun at a ninety degree angle to the slats (perpendicular to the slat), again over spray your paint zone. Re-spray the edges and paint the stiles (vertical rails). Finish with a second coat, inspect, and re-shoot if necessary.

Brushing is fairly obvious and requires little other than using your two inch brush for the coat of paint. Be sure to inspect the edges of the exterior shutters for full coverage and that you indeed did cover the exterior shutter completely.

Move the freshly painted vinyl shutters onto one of the boxes you set up for the painted shutters to dry and repeat until all of the vinyl exterior shutters are painted.

For more information about installing, removing, and measuring for vinyl exterior shutters visit http://www.shuttercontractor.com/.

Many an afternoon has been suffered in my house with my two teenagers desperate for their next fix of MTV’s Cribs. This is a programme where we are taken on a tour through a celebrity house, looking at each of their four kitchens, marvelling at the size of the indoor pool with sauna, steam room, Jacuzzi and gym.

We get to see their oversized American sofas that I could sleep a family of eight on. We see acres and acres of luxurious cream shag pile, at which point my nose is pressed to the screen analyzing it for dirt smudges and collections of dog hair. No such luck. These people are so rich, they don’t worry about dirt on the shag pile, they just buy a new one when it gets grubby.

And there’s no way that dog hair would be allowed to accumulate in unsavoury places. These people only have dogs that are virtually hairless and that fit neatly into a handbag. Not your huge, matted, mental beast that most of us call ‘Rover’.

The only thing I like to see is the home cinema systems these people have installed. It amazes me that they can spend long enough at work to earn the sort of money that sustains this type of lifestyle yet still get time to watch a film from start to finish!

It would be amazing to have my own home cinema system. Can you imagine the transformation to a Sunday afternoon? If the kids wanted to turn green with envy over other people’s cribs they could do that from the comfort of their own rooms. But me, I would be in my element, relaxing with my home cinema system watching back to back black and white St Trinians films.

Do these home cinema systems come with in-built alarm clocks? Or sensors to know when you’ve fallen asleep so that the film would pause until you wake up? How about the manufacturers take this idea on board? It would be great to have my own cinema but if you don’t have the laid back lifestyle to accompany it, how the hell do you stay awake through a film to make the most of it?

Given the chaos that surrounds my life, I’d give anything to disappear in the afternoons with nothing more than my home cinema system to keep me company. Curled up on one of those huge sofa’s with no distractions seems like absolute bliss. But whether or not I would stay awake is a different matter. The chances are minimal.

Home cinema systems are becoming more and more popular with the screening of this ‘cribs’ series. Many ‘wannabe rich’ people try to create their own with TV’s, videos and surround sound speaker systems but it’s never quite the same. Get a professional installation and you’ll never want to come out.

Proper home cinema systems are installed in a decent size room where the walls have been treated specially to balance the sound within the room. They are usually sound proofed so you can enjoy the same sort of volume and ambience as a real cinema and they are equipped with large squashy seats.

In fact, the only thing missing is the ice cream lady but I’m sure the owners of one of these ‘cribs’ could get one installed at a price.

In their training, student interior designers often learn about the history of their profession. This can be a really important way to give context to their subsequent careers. In this article, I will draw on my experience as an interior designer and educator to discuss the history of this exciting field.

The earliest professional interior designers were based in London – the British had become intrigued by Egyptian techniques of decorating household objects and wanted the same for themselves. London families became desperate to employ an interior designer to create magical spaces and accessorise their interiors. As interior designers came to be recognised as professionals, they increasingly found a need to draw on history to create fabulous results. This was particularly true when creating designs for historic London mansions or listed buildings – they saw historical reflections as a way of preserving the past while also looking to the future.

THE ANCIENT ROMANS

In Ancient Rome, citizens demanded comfort, luxury and wealth. These elements are still important in the work of interior designers across the world today. The lavish decorations, tapestries and iconic stonework today remain as timeless and popular in London as in Tokyo or Sydney. The Ancient Romans adored bespoke furniture and loved quality textiles and expensive fabrics.

MONASTIC TIMES

After the collapse of Roman rule, the church assumed power and largely discouraged the most creative interior designers. Opulent interiors were taken out and interior designers were instructed to install quiet and simple oak panels with dark lines and sharp edges. This influence was felt throughout Europe – from London all the way to Florence.

RENAISSANCE AND REVIVAL

The Renaissance saw the emergence of professional French or French-inspired interior designers. It was a new age of elegance and sophistication, which saw the rebuilding of the London Interior Designer community and a fresh take on creative and beautiful living spaces. A “palatial” feel was rediscovered, and interior designers began to take advantage of new transport axes going through London to the continent and to the Americas in order to rediscover their profession and herald the next generation of design.

This brings to an end my article on how the work of interior designers has changed over the ages. In my next article, I’ll reflect on how interior designers use interior fashions for great effect.