Month: August 2021

There was a time when everyone was flocking away from cities to suburbia, but in recent years even that has lost its thrill. An ever-increasing number of people are seeking a simpler lifestyle away from all the noise and distractions that are a ‘normal’ part of life in populated areas. They are seeking homes even more remote than the suburbs and a homesteading lifestyle reminiscent of days long gone. It may sound simple but there are some important points to remember when preparing for that long-awaited day.

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Access to Services

This is perhaps one of the most fundamental aspects of choosing where you plan to enjoy life on a homestead. Unlike any populated area, some crucial services may simply be unavailable or so remote as to be almost nonexistent. For example, there are areas of the country where it is almost impossible for emergency rescue teams to reach you quickly. Services such as fire rescue may take as long as, or even longer than, an hour to reach you. Always have a family emergency plan mapped out for that necessary, but often remote, assistance you may require.

To Buy or Build

Then there is the decision to be made whether you would rather buy an existing home in the outer reaches of society or if you’d like to build your own. If you chose the former, remember that the asking price may not be in keeping with the real value of the home and property it sits on. Here is where you would want to understand the difference between home appraisals and home inspections. If you are going to require a home loan to purchase that property, the lender will most often require a home appraisal to set a market value to the home as a condition of the loan. Few lenders will offer loans above the valuation so that appraisal is an important factor. However, what you may wish to do even before seeking a loan is have that home inspected. Many of the necessary repairs can be dealt with before the home is valued with an appraisal. On a side note, this is also important to understand if you are selling your own home. You will get a better asking price if all major repairs are dealt with first

A Final Word on Emergency Preparedness

Homesteading really is an exciting lifestyle because you will be learning to do things you never imagined being able to do. However, the one thing many people don’t anticipate is that wherever you go you may be subject to natural disasters that would require preparedness on a new level. As mentioned above, rescue services may be too remote to reach you timely. Keep supplies at hand you can easily access if you are snowed in, for example, or should suddenly be cut off from major roadways due to floods or fires. Most veteran homesteaders have this down to a science but…

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Seeing a doctor probably doesn’t rank very high on most folks’ list of fun things to do. But, it’s a necessary part of maintaining your health and wellness over time. Luckily, there’s a solution to the more inconvenient aspects of the process: using a telemedicine provider. In telemedicine, you can speak with a professional, qualified, and licensed doctor about a number of medical concerns. Your health insurance likely covers telemedicine in some form or offers it as part of the overall membership package. Even if it doesn’t, telemedicine is an affordable and easy way to get treatment for chronic, urgent, and other issues quickly. It is not a replacement for a primary care physician or a means to attain emergency services (although proactive use of such services might actually decrease the likelihood of such visits). Here are five benefits of using a telemedicine provider for non-emergency medical issues.

Medical Consultation

Consulting a virtual doctor doesn’t have to be just for urgent care situations. Speaking with doctors about other conditions is a useful aspect of the service as well. A medical consultation is a great place to address your general health questions and any immediate medical concerns you might have. During a consultation, it’s important to ask about the severity and treatment of your condition. With a virtual visit, make sure you’re in a quiet place and ensure your internet connection is both secure and high-quality. If you’re doing a video call with the doctor, it’s a good idea to test your headphones/speaker and microphone prior to the appointment. If you’re on a phone call, a quiet space is almost necessary. Take notes, be very descriptive, and ask questions. Imagine that you’re speaking with your primary care physician in person and be sure to be completely honest with the doctor.

Urgent Care

Perhaps the most common and primary use for telemedicine providers is an urgent care situation. This could be any non-emergency medical issue that needs fast treatment or a prescription to treat the problem. Going to a physical urgent care facility takes time and often costs upward of $50 for a single visit. With a virtual doctor visit, you’re typically covered by your insurance, pay less, spend less time waiting (the average length of a telemedicine visit is around 12 minutes), and don’t have to leave your home. Better yet, online doctors can treat a wide variety of urgent issues remotely, including providing prescriptions for treatments. Here are just a few that can be addressed by a virtual doctor:

• Allergies
• Common cold
• Cough
• Ear issues
• Fever
• Flu
• Headache
• Rash
• Sore Throat
• Urinary Tract Infections
• Vomiting
• Insect Bites
• Nausea
• Pink Eye
• Respiratory infections

The doctor will talk you through the symptoms, determine your diagnosis, and help you develop a treatment plan. Often, they’ll provide a written summary of their findings as well for you to keep and reference for your records.

Therapy

While teletherapy is not suitable for treating severe conditions like schizophrenia, it can be useful for a variety of mental health concerns such as panic, depression, OCD, and anxiety. Teletherapy appointments center…

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The UK is famous for its lush and beautiful gardens, but behind every great garden is a talented landscape designer hard at work. Throughout history, the United Kingdom has been the home of some of the world’s most famous landscape designers that have dedicated their lives to creating stunning outdoor spaces for generations of Brits and tourists to enjoy.

Gertrude Jekyll

In this blog, we’ll be taking a look at some of the most famous landscapers in history and the impact their systems and ideas still have on today’s garden landscapers.

Gertrude Jekyll

Our list of famous landscapers who made their mark on the UK would be incomplete without mentioning the late and great Gertrude Jekyll.

Jekyll was known both for her solo design work and for her partnership with the architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens. The pair created over one hundred landscape designs together and laid down a foundation of firm planting and garden design principles that would be used for generations to come.

Jekyll was famous for her enormous herbaceous borders and complementary colour schemes that ran from cold colours (blue and white) to hot colours (red and orange) and back again. Jekyll’s focus on architecture as a garden’s main framework to display certain plantlife is still implemented today and has left a lasting legacy.

Vita Sackville-West

Vita Sackville-West was not a gardener by profession. In fact, she was a writer and a poet that had developed a love for gardening after buying the stunning Sissinghurst Castle with her partner in 1930.

Sackville-West spent years transforming the ruined outdoor space into a private and intimate garden that had five separate enclosures; the Nuttery, Cottage Garden, Orchard, Rose Garden and White Garden. After the Second World War, the garden was cleared of debris and opened for visitors, and her experimental and practical approach to gardening caught the interest of the gardening public.

Sackville-West’s principles of ruthlessness and experimentation, allowing self-seeded plants to grow where they fell naturally and mixing cultivated plants with wildflowers, has left a lasting impact on the gardening community and today’s visitors to Sissinghurst.

Margery Fish

Any fan of English cottage gardening will likely have heard of Margery Fish. Like many other landscape gardeners, Fish didn’t turn to gardening until later in life, when she coined the concept of a cottage garden.

In her famous book, ‘Cottage Garden Flowers’, she wrote, ‘Nowhere in the world is there anything like the English cottage garden. In every village and hamlet in the land there are these little gardens, always gay and never garish, and so obviously loved.’

Her abundant garden at East Lambrook Manor is a monument to her work and was exceptionally popular throughout the 1950s and 1960s. After two decades of neglect, the garden was once again restored and visitors from all over the world come to marvel at its natural gullies, winding paths and domed Chamaecyparis. Her natural ability and passion for mixing plants in small spaces…

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The millennials are bringing into question the knowledge that has been known about the lawyer’s office design. Whether it is for a car accident lawyer in Boise or an estate planning lawyer in Texas, no attorney will fail to admit that the legal workspace has evolved. There are significant generational shifts in the type of offices that law professionals desire. 

Forget about the idea that a law office should be so substantial to accumulate the piles of case files, these days offices are just a few hundred square feet; enough for what needs to be done by the professionals. However, law firms have realized that the kind of office space they possess plays an imperative role in attracting clients. 

Despite the massive changes in office design, some entities should still stand out in the workspace.

Does One Style Fit All?

Right now, working from the office full time is not considered ideal. The older generation will prefer sitting at the office to finish their tasks, while the younger generation will gladly choose to work from home. It will be quite unfair for a firm to put in place one style and leave the other. 

With that consideration in mind, it is advisable to set up a space that will not go to waste; not too big or too small, just a comfortable size to accommodate the employees. 

Figure out a decor design that impresses the most, but don’t forget your profession’s rules.

Basic Principles for a Modern Lawyer’s Office

1. Fit in the Appropriate Lighting

The proper lighting is crucial for an office and can influence how people feel in the office. Installing dull lighting may affect a lazy and sluggish mood at work. Consider putting bright bulbs and having expansive windows to allow natural light to sip in. Utilize lighting that will make the clients and lawyers feel comfortable. Think about installing many fluorescents if it is hard to allow natural light into the workspace.

2. The Work Space Keeps on Evolving

Without doubt, what works today in the lawyer’s office might not be valid five years from now. The rate of change over the years in the office setting indicates that the office strategy needs to be flexible.

3. Choose the Right Decor

Your decor will have a significant impact on how people feel in the office. Make sure the set makes people feel calm and warm. Do not choose a dark colour palette on the walls. Decorate your office with bright colours to keep the space alive. You can display some pictures on the wall; photos of the employee team, or paintings to enhance a personal connection to the clients. 

4. Distinct Working Spaces for Collaboration

Most firms embrace coworking space because of its distinctive nature of office design that allows lawyers to work together as a team in a coworking space. In open environments, people get to share ideas and complete a large amount of work…

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If you have sustained injuries and other damages after an accident, you will expect to get a fair settlement from the at-fault insurer. The settlements are meant to compensate you for the damages to your property, pain and suffering, out-of-pocket expenses, hospital bills, and loss of income, among others. 

To start off the process, you will need to file a claim with the insurance company and negotiate a fair settlement. If negotiations fail or the claims are in dispute, arbitration might be a viable option. Arbitration is an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) method that involves a neutral third party.

The neutral person’s main job is to hear from both sides and decide the outcome. This method works in both fault and no-fault states. Here is what you need to know about the car accident arbitration process.

Preparing for the Arbitration

The first step in the process is to choose an arbitrator. This can be an experienced lawyer or a retired judge because they are familiar with the law. Your arbitrator is the judge and jury in your case. Therefore, it is crucial to select the right candidate because they significantly impact your claim.

Your state’s laws and the insurance policy will determine how many arbitrators should hear the case and how they can be selected. However, the victim also has an equal say in the selection process. The American Association for Arbitrators (AAA) also has several rules that should be adhered to.

Once you have an arbitrator, you will have a deadline for exchanging documents to support your claim with the insurance company and set a date for the arbitration hearing. Review every bit of information or evidence the insurance company has against your claim with your lawyer, understand it, and prepare evidence to support your claim. 

What to Expect During the Arbitration

Though an arbitration hearing is an out-of-court procedure, it takes almost the same shape. All parties involved will be in the same room, and the arbitrator will hear the back and forth discussion of the claim. The hearing mostly lasts a few hours, during which your lawyer will make an opening statement, call witnesses and cross-examine them, present evidence that supports your claim, handle the opposition, and make a closing remark.

The Car Accident Arbitration Process

If you do not have a lawyer, you should be prepared to handle the process. Try not to rush through your presentation to ensure that you cover every step, and present all the evidence you have. 

The Award

After the hearing, the arbitrator can take a week or two to review the case and look at the evidence presented. This can take a week or two. Once the arbitrator can determine the outcome of the hearing, both parties will sit down together again.

The arbitrator will issue an award statement and explain why they have come to that conclusion. If you have a binding arbitration…

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Kitchen interior design is constantly changing, and that’s because there are always new appliances and designs entering the market that can make your kitchen look better and more functional. Similarly, kitchen cabinets are also a crucial component of this design. 

Kitchen cabinets aren’t just functional. They are an important design statement in any home. It is why many homeowners decide to invest in replacement cabinet doors to increase the value of their homes. 

While you could change your kitchen cabinets entirely, many people opt to replace just doors. It is because kitchen cabinet doors face a lot more wear and tear, from constantly being opened, sunlight damage, and so on. 

Replacing kitchen cabinet doors can also prevent damage such as mold and water damage from reaching the interior of your cabinet. Damaged cabinets are detrimental not only to your house’s functionality but to its value as well. 

Match with Your Kitchen Interior Design

You may have gotten your kitchen remodeled at some point while owning your home, but your cabinet doors have now become outdated and odd with your new kitchen design.

While you should buy new cabinet doors that match your kitchen interior, you could also consider other alternatives. These include investing in timeless, classic designs that will not require frequent upgrades, such as Shaker or Flat style cabinet doors.

You may also want to consider designs that are easily customizable in the future by adding a new coat of paint or wood polish. It lets you change the look of your kitchen at regular intervals and upgrade it with different designs you might have over the years. 

Budget-Friendly Remodeling

Whether you don’t want to spend a large amount of money remodeling your kitchen or are on a tight budget, changing the cabinet doors can be an inexpensive way to give your kitchen a new look and feel.

You could also personally change your cabinet doors, which would further cut down the cost of hiring a contractor or handyman. When choosing the right cabinet door for your kitchen, opt for sophisticated but simple designs that will go along with any design type and interior. 

Depending on the type of material you choose to go with for your kitchen cabinets, you could make the price even lower. You also get the option of picking colors and different hardware for the cabinet doors, which can dramatically switch up the aesthetic of your kitchen. 

Makes Your Kitchen Modern

Replacement cabinet doors are an easily achievable method to make your kitchen look modern and minimalistic, one of the most popular trends for 2021. Opting for a Flat or Beadboard cabinet door can easily make your kitchen look modern and high-quality.

It would help if you also considered designs that are easy to repair and durable because you do not want to be reinvesting money repeatedly for cabinet doors. You can also customize your cabinet doors any way you want to make them more modern. 

More Functionality

Certain cabinet door styles like Partial Overlay are not meant to be…

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