You have a piece of wood or veneer furniture that you want to give a second life to. You’re getting ready to strip it. First you need know what product was used to finish so that you use the appropriate solvent.

You believe that you can tell what product was used just by looking at it? Don’t be too overconfident. The easiest way to identify the product is to perform a test on a hidden corner with different solvents.

Furniture that has an oil finish usually has a natural colour and a flat finish. Mineral spirits will remove the finish. Sanding will probably be required to remove the colour.[……]

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Summer is the season of every whim. Buy why reserve these whims exclusively for the kitchen, the dining room or the patio? The bathroom is an ideal place for fantasy.

Let’s start with the furnishings in case you are preparing to redo the bathroom. Designers are overflowing with imagination today. Bathtubs and sinks are taking on unexpected shapes. Add some lighting and the effect becomes mind-blowing.

It’s common to see an old piece of furniture transformed into vanity. But overlapping pink plastic bench, a bright orange pail and a round sink is quite original. The wall is also transformed with a yellow, blue, pink checkerboard panel that protects from splashing. You could choose a faux finish, like on the photo or opt for cyan blue.

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The statement is taken from a book that contains the predictions of a French scientific committee and it’s serious.

Baby boomers will not live on bridges, but their children might. At least according to the book Les 50 innovations qui vont bouleverser notre vie d’ici 2050 (The 50 innovations that will change our life by 2050).

It won’t be the first time in history. Building on bridges was common practice in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Take the Rialto Bridge in Venice and the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. But they are small bridges, or giant walkways, depending on how you look at it.

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Canada’s housing market rebounded in 2013 from the effects of stricter mortgage rules the previous year. In most regions, sales rose moderately above past-decade norms, supported by low interest rates and falling unemployment. Home builders kept pace with demand, encouraged by new household formation and steady price gains.

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Starting a new in a new country bears its share of challenges… thinking about education matters, finding a place to live and work, and understanding the intricacies of the local customs and language. Between settling in, managing finances and getting to know your new country, it is crucial to make sure that you obtain the right advice for your particular situation so that you can have the chance to accomplish every one of your projects in Canada.

On the financial front, you must also familiarize yourself with the Canadian banking system, such as your credit file, bank accounts, savings plans, taxes and currency. It’s with that perspective in mind that National Bank now offers banking solutions designed especially for newcomers to Canada.

A welcoming offer

In addition to standard services, which include online bank statements and access to our High Interest Savings Account, our newcomers offer affords you an array of benefits to help you transition into your new life with peace of mind, namely thanks to:[……]

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The Hobbit house has inspired the imagination because of its close ties with nature: grass on the roof, wood door, stone, dry mud, branches and other materials.

Artisans have reproduced the Hobbit house which, to a certain degree, has existed for a long time, as it is thought that author J.R.R. Tolkien largely based it on Viking houses, whose best preserved prototypes are found in Iceland.

In a decorative world, designers have more or less consciously pushed the concept of the Hobbit house further. It’s as if they invited nature to penetrate inside to create a new style of decoration.

The Earth House article in Wikipedia shows an interior that will make you smile. The contours of the window are astonishing. There’s little room for angles. Everything curves, as angles are rare in nature. If you read the article, you will also see many examples of the exterior of an earth house.

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The major obstacle: interior layout can be challenging because you have to consider where to place the furniture.[……]

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It’s the biggest swimming centre in the world, but that’s not where the interest lies. Rather dull during the day, the building turns into a marvelous blue at night. Seeing the moon reflect off this ice blue is a spectacle in itself. That’s already enough to make the building stand out, but there’s more.

What you have before your eyes belongs to an accelerating revolution in the field of building physics. The American pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal, known as the biosphere today, was a first timid step, just like the famous house over the waterfall, the work of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

It’s a revolution of organic architecture. The principle is simple: use organs of animated beings as inspiration to build. This revolution is riding the wave of recent scientific discoveries concerning nanofibers, intelligent textiles, plastic derivatives and other materials.

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The national swimming centre in Peking, also called the Water Cube, was built for the 2008 Olympic Games. The outer shell, with its 3000 air bubbles, greatly imitates the way human skin works. Exploiting the sensual side of skin and the way it self-regulates in terms of temperature and pressure is becoming increasingly popular among architects.[……]

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