Australian-American Houses

Solutions For Householders From America And Australia

Archive for the 'House Improvement Info' Category

16 February
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Utilising coloured glass splashbacks for your home

There are a lot of people who have actually used various types of classes for the home, and most of them have actually gone for coloured glass splashbacks. This is one of the best ways in order for you to decorate your home, and it would become the pride of your home and the envy of your neighbours. Read more…

12 February
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Fame Put on Foundation Here: Dallas’s Mary Kay Ash Home Hits the Real Estate Market Once Again, This Time a Steal at $3.3

For more details and all the local Dallas Real estate News, click on over to

Karen Luter of Allie Beth Allman tells me she has been working her fingers to the bone for weeks trying to get this home ready for sale. Will be in MLS next week. Not much besides the price has changed at 8915 Douglas since the late Mary Kay Ash do I need to add she was the famous founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics? moved out to return to her home off Boedecker because she thought the mansion was too big. It is ginormous: 12,000 square feet. Built in 1984, but remodeled in 2000.

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07 February
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Plywood: Material, Process, Form at MoMA

“Plywood,” explained Popular Science in 1948, “is a layercake of lumber and glue.” In the history of design, plywood is also an important modern material that has given 20th-century designers of everyday objects, furniture, and even architecture greater flexibility in shaping modern forms at an industrial scale. This in

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19 January
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Winter or not, plants love cold and snow

The leafy green residents of the great Northeast are beginning to ask, “Where are you, winter?”

Many of you are fine with the weather maps the way they are, others of us keep gazing upward just waiting to feel those flakes upon our nose. But it’s the grass, shrubs, trees and perennials that have come to expect and rely on that layer of winter white.

As cold as snow feels, its purpose in the plant world is somewhat ironic. Our plants utilize snow as insulation, moderating the temperature around their buds and roots when the air temperature drops.

Why do our lawns need good snow cover? During the growing season, when we are moseying across our green lawn, the individual grass plants under foot are in active growth.

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13 January
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Stepped Footings

Footings are the most basic structural support for buildings in contact with the earth. For houses on a level building lot the footings are very simple and end up all at one elevation. However, for more complicated designs the footings end up changing elevations and therefore require a step in the grade. Stepped Footings allow depth of footings to transition from one elevation to another.

The picture above shows a standard stepped footing for a residential home located in the Northeast. In this example the footing transitions from one grade level down approximately 4 feet to a lower level.

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