New York Renovator

Well, the outdoor activities will soon be ending here in the Northern Hemisphere.. and with it comes up to six months of dormancy for us in the Northeast. :-p The only nice things about it is that we have plenty of time to plan out our designs for the next coming outdoor season. In mid-autumn, I start to acquire a growing stack of books and software to help me learn and plan the next steps for my gardens and home renovations– and I SURELY hope to get that new kitchen in next summer!

So of course, the natural thing to do is look for deals while I’m acquiring. And the natural thing to do is to check out Buy.com! They have literally EVERYTHING– from toenail clippers to trowels to college textbooks to computer equipment and software! And better still, they have outstanding deals on them all! I visit Buy.com several times a week, to scour through their sale pages, looking for sales on stuff we need. And look what I found! Some very cool home design and landscape design software is selling for very low prices! That’s the 3D Home & Architect Home & Landscape, on sale for $36 with free shipping! That’s 40% off retail price. Plus, Buy.com has a wealth of other such software, including the popular Punch! Home Design series, all at great prices! See?! Didn’t I tell you that Buy.com has everything and anything, all for dirt-cheap prices?!

Seriously– if you have not taken a peek at what’s at Buy.com, then you should! It’s a great place. Not only do they have everything at spectacular prices, but they also have grat customer service and shipping policies. Plus, they have those very funny Howie Mandell video ads– nobody can top that! Check out Buy.com. You will love the place!

I have to say, I just love those interactive websites where you can choose various styles, shapes, and colors for things for your home, and test them with your own photo or an automated version. Home design and construction has come such a long way. How about a fancy online Door Designer? This is a cool site, hosted by Masonite, one of the premier door manufacturers in the business. I have several Masonite doors in the house, and I LOVE them.

You can see from the photo above that the online door designer helps choose the perfect door. You first choose your door design. There are just so many options that this took a while for me to do. There are interior, entry, and patio doors to choose from– dozens of styles! Once you manage to harness that option, you progress to door style and loads of other options, like color, height of the door, glass design, finish, and more. The neatest tool of all is the ability for you to upload your own photo of your home and view the different types of doors and how they would look in your home. It’s pretty impressive software. And it’s all free to use! Who’d have thought we could come to this point in design, where you can mix and match and preview such components of your home from the comfort of your home? Pretty cool.

Keep this site bookmarked!

I’ve always preferred drawing my house plans and ideas on graph paper, by hand. As much as I love the computer, and as much as I have incoporated a lot of my tasks to it, I just can’t seem to leave the age-old tradition of graph paper and pencil (and for me, a big eraser). I have seen some pretty fancy computer software in stores recently, that promise to help you design, plan, envision, and do everything for your home plans. I tried one of these programs, about 10 years ago, and I hated it. Software has come a long way, I know, but… is the software really worth it? Has anyone tried it and liked it?

The software is pricey, too– I’ve seen it listed for over $50 and some is as high as $100. Consider that when you realize that graph paper is $3 for 50 sheets, and pencils are just pennies (and if you are really cheap, you can always grab some of those promotional pens that businesses give away, for free).
The only problem with hand-drawing a floor plan are the multitudes of changes that you make on the paper. I like my plans to look neat; and a paper can only take so much erasing. So I have drawn tons and tons of floor plans, each with various changes. I’ve lost track of them all. :S Software has the benefit of instantly saving everything. But the software programs just don’t seem to be precise enough, unless things have changed and programs have realy improved. I have to recreate another floor plan for my first floor and I’m dreading having to draw it all over again. But on the other hand, I really wonder if software will be accurate and if I can learn the program quickly enough. What do you think?

This is the time all my domain names and web hosting renews. It’s also the time of year that I try to do a “review and refresh”: that is, I go through my blogrolls, check my template for errors, spruce up my database, and shop around for webhosting companies. I’ve been doing quite a lot of the latter lately. I recently purchased a new domain (more coming up on that later), and I’m wondering if I should add it to one of my existing web hosts or find another.

It’s wise not to pack all your domains with one host. I use two different hosts, but I’d still like to have another. You see, if one host has server problems, usually ALL your blogs on the host go down too (and I HATE that!). With my two-host plan, I can at least have one account up while the other is having technical problems. Of course, having a selection of various web hosts can be a little expensive. That’s why I shop around! One of my favorite sites to keep tabs on prices, new hosting companes, reviews, and other geeky-like articles is WebHostingGeeks.com. They have the best- by far– listing of companies and price guidelines. And I like to browse their articles on understanding SEO, which is something new I’m learning about and trying to improve for my blog.

WebHostingGeeks.com is the best! If you are dabbling into web hosting, or just curious about the topic before you delve in, this is definitely a site to check.

As many of you know, I work online, as a writer of articles and numerous blogs. I just love to write! I write best when I am at my desk– focused and surrounded by my computer, a good cup of coffee, and free from interruptions. However, I also have a back injury (a herniated disk) that sometimes forces me to bed rest for extended periods of time. This last time, just a few weeks ago, I was restricted to bed rest for four weeks! It’s excruciating to be stuck laying on your side in bed, unable to move much, and impossible to type at the computer.

When I was surfing blogs during that time, I came across a terrific product, Dragon Naturally Speaking. I wondered what on earth this was, something about dragons? This video explains it all.

In a nutshell, Dragon Naturally Speaking is a speech-recognition software program that is three times faster than typing, and almost 100% accurate! The video shows how it works, and I am very impressed. This is just amazing to me. It constitutes a whole new world of communication for those of us who have been hindered from sitting up to type at the computer.

Think about it– what if you typed as fast as you talked? Impossible? Think again! Check out Dragon’s typing speed test! to see how quickly you type- I’ll bet Dragon Naturally Speaking can match it! The software compared much better than my typing- I get 44 words per minute. :-p However, as a New Yorker, I probably speak 200+ words per minute, ha! Think of all the time I could save…

This is the beauty of this software program– you no longer need to type to express yourself through written word. And this software doesn’t *just* handle stuff like word documents– you can command your computer to open up email, open up your browser, search for a bookmarked site, and loads more. It’s been designed to be extremely accurate, even on windy days or for fast talkers (like me).

Dragon Naturally Speaking is a Godsend for those of us who are incapable of sitting up at the computer to type. I know of so many people who could benefit from Dragon Naturally Speaking! I’ll bet you do, too! This software is the hottest thing to hit the market; check out the rave

I heard about this new website through Kim Komando, Floorplanner.com. It’s a site that helps you develop floor plans. Or, if you just want to rearrange the furniture, it’ll help you do that, too. It’s really fun! It’s the best little floor planner I’ve ever tried. You can drag and drop, etc., and it looks like they have all sorts of furniture options, and more– even a spiral staircase! Hmm, now if I can just figure out where to put the hdmi cables and stuff…

The registration is free for personal use, but requires an email (don’t they all?). The website privacy policy says it will not spam you without your permission, lol! I’ve signed up for a bunch of new websites and networks, and my email address has been spammed. I don’t care, because I didn’t use my personal email. I don’t think this site will intentionally spam you, but it helps to be aware of such things these days.