On summer weekends, happy orange umbrellas flutter in the warm Lake Simcoe breeze and inviting bright blue lounge chairs beckon to anyone playing in the pool. Squeals of delight from children ripple across the patio. Through the wall-to-wall sliding glass doors that line the back of the cottage, friends and neighbours can be seen leaning on counters with cool drinks in hand or laughing against a backdrop of the sun-sparkled lake.

Once covered in taupe siding, the cottage was hardly a picture perfect purchase. Plus, there were a couple of ramshackle outbuildings on the property. “But for years we’d experienced lake life at our friends’ place, so we knew what we had here,” says the homeowner. “It was just a matter of taking a deep breath and imagining what it could be.”

Sit back and relax 1970s furniture that once belonged to the homeowner’s in-laws is now upholstered in durable Sunbrella fabric. “I can live w Read more…

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This table from Chul An Kwak was inspired by images of running horses to break with static and rectilinear forms in these creative works that are somewhere between industrial design and artistic sculpture. The legs of the table seem to lead a life of their own. The top is simple and elegant but the legs below are dynamic and appear to be moving. It reminds a calamari in some way, too. Though it gives the look of having fragile legs, this table can amazingly take a heavy load without crumbling. The table is available only in one color but it’s neutral and matches many interiors.

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Netgear has announced its 3DHD Wireless Home Theater Networking Kit, a set of high-performance 802.11n wireless adapters designed to transmit HD and 3D HD video throughout your home. The 3DHD kit, which received a CES 2011 Innovations Award, delivers multiple jitter-free 1080p high-definition video streams without additional wiring or cabling. Each 3DHD adapter can be connected to a home theater device with a network port, and features four transmitters and four receivers for 4×4 MIMO connectivity. As HD video devices spread throughout the home, home networks need more bandwidth to reliably carry the data streams. And where HD requires significant bandwidth, 3D HD requires two separate streams (one for each eye).

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Earlier this summer the folks at Black & Decker asked me to review their latest cordless string trimmer (Model LST220). Last year I reviewed their 24V NST1024 cordless trimmer so this was a fun comparison. Before digging into my thoughts on this new  trimmer I wanted to quickly share some basic product information.

• Voltage:  20 V
• rpm:  7200 rpm
• Cutting Swath:  12
• Line Diameter:  0.065
• Feed System:  Automatic
• Weight::  5.2 lbs
• Power Source:  Electric

The Black & Decker LST220 takes about 5 minutes to assemble out of the box. It comes with two batteries and a charger. The fir

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More posts on modern landscaping, YES! Jeffrey Gordon Smith Landscape Architecture really does have a great portfolio full of amazing landscapes. They use elements like fire, concrete, grasses and stone in the most correct applications. They even have a book out that may give you some more of the inspiration you need.

The main objectives of our designs strive to marry architecture to site and to develop a cohesive landscape design that looks and feels as though it belongs in the overall context of its surroundings. This concept is sometimes referred to as regionalism.

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