Columbus Day Video: Visit to a Fishing Village on the Italian Riviera

Irwin Weiner ASID - As a South African, and essentially a long-term guest in the United States, it's fascinating to me that we celebrate Columbus Day throughout most of the country. Of course Christopher Columbus didn't "discover" America - it was always here, native americans were here first, other explorers may have traveled here long before, and so on. But the holiday has morphed into more of a celebration of Italian American heritage, focusing on the Genovan Cristoforo Colombo, and it's in that spirit that we feature today's design video on the architecture and street scenes of the small Italian fishing village of Camogli, not too far from Genova (near Portofino, on the Italian Riviera). The video is beautifully photographed by noted nautical and sailing photographer Onne van der Wal (Dutch born, he grew up in South Africa, and now lives in Rhode Island).

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Is Your Home's Front Door Making a Good First Impression?

Irwin Weiner ASID - I don't think we notice our front doors very much while we're in the thick of designing and decorating the rest of our homes. But this is a certainty: Other people notice your front door, and it makes either a positive or a sour first impression.

A realtor just told me that the care and upkeep of each element of your home tells others whether or not you take good care of yourself, your belongings, and your home's general upkeep. A front door with peeling paint, a cracked window, faded varnish, or bad door hardware will give everyone the wrong signal when they visit you.

I picked some of my favorite contemporary front doors from an excellent UK supplier, Urban Front Ltd. Click on each image for more product information. Their doors are steel-reinforced hardwood, and you can also use this company for garage doors and interior doors. Some of the interior doors come with matching frames built with acoustic seals on all four sides and concealed or pivot hinges. A great resource to put into your Home Improvement file!

In today's featured video, we go behind the scenes at Urban Front and hear the designers talking about what goes into their products.

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Video: Triathlete Helps Us Plan Ahead with Fall Garden Design

Irwin Weiner ASID - I admit that I'm an interiors kind of guy, but I love a beautiful garden. It's more than curb appeal - those lush outdoor rooms add so much charm and extended living and entertaining space to a home. Now that autumn is officially here, it's time to start planning your fall garden design process, using these optimum weeks to plant new specimens, flesh out beds, and make those key transplants. My gardening goals are always to have a "swath" of color and texture and to try to have plants that add color and interest throughout the growing season - not just a burst of springtime hues and then washed-out greens throughout the rest of the summer and early fall. This video features an interview with Tracy DiSabato-Aust, triathlete/gardener and author of the book The Well-Designed Mixed Garden, and her tips for how to best plan your garden around this time of year.

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Solar Power Panels on Your Roof - It's in Your Home's Future

Irwin Weiner ASID - This election year is bringing lots of talk about Dirty Energy and providing new Clean Energy jobs for United States citizens. I looked into Danny Kennedy and his new business, Sungevity. The former Greenpeace activist is now actively calling on all homeowners to Solar-Up your home. His company has the software to estimate how effective a specific number of solar panels will be to power your home, and with a US Bank homeowners loan, you can install solar panels on your roof for roughly half the cost of materials and labor, enjoy the energy savings "off the dirty energy grid," and pay back your energy loan in easy installments.

Go to Amazon and learn more about Danny Kennedy's new book, Rooftop Revolution.

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