Archive for September 2011
Which Department Store Has The Best Range of Cool T Shirts?
September 28, 2011 | 
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As a dedicated follower of fashion you will know that one of the best places to get great designs at great prices is at one of your local department stores. With the in-house clothing ranges available in stores like Debenhams, Selfridges, M&S, House of Fraser and John Lewis all becoming better and better over time, they are now a fine place to go for all your fashion needs.
In the past, department stores’ own brand t-shirt departments were stocked nowhere near as well as their high fashion rivals, now departments stores ranges are of a quality which is really pushing the style levels very high and if high fashion stores had a comparable range of good value fashion t-shirts they would indeed be very good competition. For now though let’s just find out who has the best range of fashionable t-shirts amongst the department stores…
Debenhams
The casual clothing section at Debenhams is particularly good. With excellent designers like Ben Sherman available, those visiting this store are in for a treat. However, while they do have great range of clothing, if you are looking for more offensive t-shirts you will find it hard to find anything even a bit risqué.
Selfridges
Have been under fire in the past for dropping some of their plus size clothing ranges, Selfridges have a lot to answer for. Sadly, they have made no changes since this rash decision, leaving thousands of Selfridges mad, plus sized t-shirt wearing women forced to look elsewhere for their clothes. They do however have a range of cool t shirts which includes a particularly nice Guinness one.
M&S
Marks and Spencer has one of the worst ranges of cool t-shirts in the country. While they have a range of designers who make lovely plus size clothing like women’s dresses and coats, they don’t have a very good selection of fashion t shirts and certainly nothing that could be deemed cool.
House of Fraser
While House of Fraser has a good selection of big brand t shirts and a number of slogan t shirts, they still don’t cater for the retro t shirt market or have any funny t shirts. The t shirts they do have are quite cool though.
John Lewis
John Lewis has a fairly limited selection of cool t shirts. The ones they do have are good quality though but still, probably unsurprisingly, no offensive t shirts.
Winner: Selfridges
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Building a Modular Beach House
Years ago I was successful in buying a modest home at the shore, by modest I mean a unimproved Cape Cod style home, two bedrooms one bath, but it was on the water. The years passed quickly and family and friends helped us fill up our pleasant memories file at the “Beach House”. My wife and I enjoyed receiving the tax bill every year and laughed when we saw that our municipality evaluated our home being valued at 10% of the market value…with the land making up the rest of the valuation.
As grandchildren came along we reevaluated our needs and decided to build an addition.
(Step 1 ) We proceeded down the call small builder, call medium builder, call large builder route, all to no avail. Small builder said our joists were not 16″ on center as they should be, Medium builder said our foundation would not support a additional level, and our ceiling heights were too low to accommodate 42″ kitchen cabinets and on and on.
( Step 2 ) Call in the high priced architect, which we did and after preliminary elevations and budget discussions we put it out to bid with a handful of local builders.
( Step 3 ) Bids came back four times the budget. Upon architectural review the architect said “well what do you want to do”, my response was “nothing” for now!
Apparently my timing was way off, every builder on the island had more than enough work and their pricing was reflective of that simple fact along with the fact that everything in our zip code came with a surcharge, if you know what I mean. However, I put my time to good use by investigating modular design and construction. I discovered that most modular companies lived up to their collective “old” reputations of being cheaply constructed and designed with site work to match.
After many Goggles, phone conversations and tours I was successful in finding everything I was looking for by way of a modular company. I marveled over the many and varied options available to me in the modular design process. The modular company used “green” building technologies, and was designed with my input via CAD/CAM. I have what is referred to as a Superior Wall foundation formed in precast sections with steel rods inserted along with foam insulation and aluminum joists. The plan also included a Unico HVAC high efficiency air handling system, 9ft. ceilings, 12″ on center floor joists, 2″ X 6″ exterior framing, screwed and glued flooring, a elevator, etc., and came in on budget.
The house was set on the foundation the first week in February and we moved in the first week in July, plus my home has never been rained or snowed in! I’m glad we went modular.
The Best Beach House Designs
When we go about the home, many things to take into consideration. Building a summer home is no exception. Not only should your beach house designs take in to account the dimensions of your property, but also the specific details of its location. For example, when you purchase beach house designs, they cannot reasonably tell you how well their house would stand to a hurricane. That is the job of builders, inspectors and engineers. What’s about flooding and earthquake? Your holiday residence might be where you escape to dream a little, and take a break from your everyday life, but you shouldn’t be day-dreaming during the planning phases of its construction. Take into account all the details that may affect your beach house.
The fact of matter is that merrily getting a quality beach house design isn’t nearly enough. You must take extra steps to know where you are building, and insure that it is solid enough to accommodate your plans. Nature is never changing for and must realize that there are only going to be an increasing number of natural disasters, and you are wise to take into account all of the force of nature can affect your beach. It’s not about the aesthetics alone. Not by a long shot.
Before you delve into the various beach house designs, you would be wise to do some good research, due diligence about the location where you are going to build it. You should take into account the tides and available breakwaters, insure an adequate distance above sea level for protection, and do your research to insure that you are not building in a place of the planets which is often beset by storms. If you don’t want to be paying a fortune to build your dream cottage, you should also research what local materials are readily available at affordable prices, and then buy a beach house design which incorporates these materials in its design.
Probably the most important thing you could do would be to hire a builder that is intimately familiar with the area. All lands are different and have unique characteristics. There are probably tens of thousands of people who could draw out perfect beach house designs which will positively make you jump for joy, but a big part of building the perfect beach house is ensuring that it is designed for where you are going to put it.
Great beach house designs, like great designs for any building, always take into account the local geography and climate. They don’t foolishly seek to build the most sprawling, extravagant design possible, without factoring in the environment. You must also take into account the cost for homeowners insurance because they can get pretty damn pricey. Take care to do this to in a thoughtful fashion and you will be happier knowing that you have built a beach house which will keep you and your family safe for years to come.