It is no secret that 2020 has been…different…so why would interior design trends stay the same. There are a few emerging trends for home décor in 2020.

Statement ceilings have been popular for years but 2020 is going beyond just tray ceilings, crown molding and paint. Ceilings are taking center stage adding more options for trim and molding as well as wallpapered ceilings and even fabric tented ceilings.

Natural textures are making a big comeback in 2020. Cane, rattan, natural wood, and bamboo have been popular for years but they’re getting an upgrade in 2020. They pop up in more structural applications like chests, dressers, accent tables, light fixtures and more. Ribbed, channeled, and tufted upholstery surface treatments are also increasing in popularity this year, offering a natural shap and texture to furniture.

Unique lighting fixtures are taking the limelight in 2020. Sculptural fixtures that mix stone and metal for a more industrial look are growing more popular. Geometric designs and designs with colored glass are also climbing the popularity ladder.

Blending traditional and contemporary designs is also growing more and more popular. Modern Farmhouse, and French Country are just two of the growing “traditional with a twist” trends in 2020. This type of layering old and new will continue to grow, especially with its versatile approach that allows you to transition or refresh your current décor without having to completely overhaul it.

Bold colors are big in 2020. Bold monochromatic, classic black and white in rooms, and dark painted doors are a way to show off both personality and elegance. They can also add warmth to a space.

Even if these trends aren’t for you, looking at current design trends can help you decide what you do want in your home.

Taking it’s toll. In times like these all of the restrictions and “information” start to effect the people around you and how they act/behave. Is there a way to be sure your work environment doesn’t deteriorate or become a place you no longer want to be?

I think the short answer is yes but it’s just not that easy. It becomes more difficult to enforce / follow rules when duties demand you do things that aren’t in line with what is expected to keep everyone safe.  Work environments that were once harmonious and pleasant can become tense and uncomfortable.

It’s important to understand that communication is the key. When things become overwhelming the best thing to do is sit down and talk to a supervisor. Right now all business are doing everything they can to follow the guidelines and ensure there is work for their employees. Lenient policies have gone away and you have to understand that things are being done to protect everyone as best as they can.

We would love for the same rules to apply to everyone but different positions require different rules. Be an adult and recognize that no one is out to get you. When you become the person in the office that creates dissension and ill feelings you have become the problem.  If you truly don’t want to be at your place of employ, do yourself and everyone around you a favor and leave.

After the year 2000, homes started to become more energy efficient. Even though homes built since 2000 are statistically 30 percent larger, new advances in energy efficient construction and technology have been able to make it so that even these larger buildings use less energy. In fact, newer homes use approximately 20 percent less energy to heat the inside space. This is also in part to stricter code regulations on energy use. Electricity used for air conditioners is actually up since 2000 but this is due to the increased use of air conditioners in general as the units themselves are actually 50 percent more efficient now than a few decades ago.

Energy code regulations along with improved standards for window and door insulation in new homes are primarily responsible for the advantages in energy efficiency. Builders have improved their building styles over the years so that the flow, duct work, and layout of each home is designed in a way to make the floor plan more energy efficient. The introduction of energy-efficient lighting also helps to use less energy and produce less heat waste. This lowers the demand on your air conditioner in the summer and saves you money year-round.

There are a few terms that may be thrown around in the early stages of hiring your contractor. They may all sound like they mean the same thing and it can get a bit confusing trying to determine what your contractor means. Let’s start with the word Estimate.

Contractors use estimates to calculate what costs are expected during a project. They determine the raw materials and labor needed to compete a project and use those costs to generate their estimated cost. These costs are determined by quotes they get from their supplies.

Quotes are figures that suppliers give contractors for the price of the materials needed to complete a job. Often, these prices are only good for a certain amount of time-usually a month. After that time frame, the cost of those materials could change because their prices fluctuate due to supply and demand. This is why when you receive a proposal from your contractor, it is typically only good for 30 days.

Proposals are detailed documents submitted to you by a contractor. It includes all work to be done during the process of the project and a cost. Our proposals at Chap also include a place for you to sign to accept the proposal which then makes it a contract.

Contracts are legally binding agreements between a contractor and a client. They state a start and end date and a schedule for how much and when payments are due.

What I do at Chap…

We have all seen the photos of the damage hurricanes can do and if you lived at the Jersey Shore in 2012 then you witnessed it first hand. As hurricane season rolls in, you may be thinking that there isn’t a whole lot you can do to protect your home should those damaging winds start up. There are however a few essential steps you can take to minimize a hurricane’s impact on your home.

Computer issues.

So I missed a blog post for yesterday and today is very late. You never realize how much you rely on your technology until you are without it. Luckily we have a great IT team and they have been working diligently to get us back on track.

Let’s take a minute and remember what it was like before we had all of the modern conveniences. How about a list of things we used to do that we don’t need to do anymore and would hate to go back to.

1. Remember things – there was a time when you had to just flat our remember. Maybe you had a little notepad that you wrote things on and reviewed a couple times a day. You always had a pen and a piece of paper on you because you knew you would need it.
2. Memorize phone numbers – I knew the phone number of every one of my friends and contacts. Probably still remember some of them today.
3. Always had a copy of the white pages and yellow pages. That phone book used to be classified as a weapon it was so big and heavy.
4. I had lots of pictures in show boxes. I loved taking pictures and ways had a camera with me. Took me a bit to get that film roll onto the catch before I closed the back cover but once i got it and heard that noise that says the roll engaged I was ready to go. Then I waited a week to get the pictures back.
5. Using a typewriter – It was great until you made a mistake and had to back space and put the “correction” paper in there and type the same mistake over the original to make is disappear.  Lots of work, so becoming an accurate typist was a necessity.
6. I can read a map. There was always a road trip with someone holding the map and telling the driver which roads to take. When you took potty breaks, you spent half the time analyzing the map and which roads to take.
7. I can add, subtract, divide and multiply in my head!
8. My phone always had a cord. If I wanted to talk to my friend I would stretch if from the kitchen to my room and close the door. I’m sure people got clothes lined if they walked down the hall and didn’t see it.
9. Mopeds were huge
10. I shopped from a mail order catalog. JC Penny’s  sent out a HUGE one.
11. I had a beeper and knew all of silly codes to put in to make the numbers spell words
12. I used a pay phone and made collect calls from school to my mom when I needed to be picked up. She would answer the phone and the operator (yes a live person) would ask if she accepted the collect call. She would “No” and then head to the school to get me.
13. I have had a car that played cassette tapes and 8-track.
14. The video games we played were little triangles that shot little lines at large blob like things. It was called Asteroids
15. I had a TV that you had to play with the antenna to get better reception, and even that was fuzzy.
16. I had actual conversations with my friends. If I needed to talk to them, I had to call.
17.  There was a time where the ONLY place you could see a movie was at a movie theater.
18. We used to sit at the radio listening for our favorite song so you could hit record on the tape recorder. That was how you made a mix tape.
19. We rode our bikes everywhere. The street lights were our alarm to get home.
20. If we had to go somewhere in a car and there were 4 or 5 kids in the car it was LOUD. We talked and laughed with each other, out loud.

Please feel free to comment with some of the things you did before technology.

Smoke alarms are one of the most important things in your home, but when was the last time you checked on yours? Most people do not realize that smoke alarms are not an install and done thing and need to be maintained. Most manufacturers have instructions on how to maintain your smoke alarms but there are some general rules of thumb.

Love to watch a new build come together

There is a legend about the day of our nation’s birth in the little hall in Philadelphia, a day on which debate had raged for hours. The men gathered there were honorable men hard-pressed by a king who had flouted the very laws they were willing to obey. Even so, to sign the Declaration of Independence was such an irretrievable act that the walls resounded with the words “treason, the gallows, the headsman’s ax,” and the issue remained in doubt.

The legend says that at that point a man rose and spoke. He is described as not a young man, but one who had to summon all his energy for an impassioned plea. He cited the grievances that had brought them to this moment and finally, his voice falling, he said, “They may turn every tree into a gallows, every hole into a grave, and yet the words of that parchment can never die. To the mechanic in the workshop, they will speak hope; to the slave in the mines, freedom. Sign that parchment. Sign if the next moment the noose is around your neck, for that parchment will be the textbook of freedom, the Bible of the rights of man forever.”

He fell back exhausted. The 56 delegates, swept up by his eloquence, rushed forward and signed that document destined to be as immortal as a work of man can be. When they turned to thank him for his timely oratory, he was not to be found, nor could any be found who knew who he was or how he had come in or gone out through the locked and guarded doors.

Well, that is the legend—but we do know for certain that 56 men, a little band so unique we have never seen their like since, had pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.

What manner of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists, 11 were merchants and tradesmen, and nine were farmers. They were soft-spoken men of means and education; they were not an unwashed rabble. They had achieved security but valued freedom more. Their stories have not been told nearly enough.

John Hart was driven from the side of his desperately ill wife. For more than a year, he lived in the forest and in caves before he returned to find his wife dead, his children vanished, his property destroyed. He died of exhaustion and a broken heart.

Carter Braxton of Virginia lost all his ships, sold his home to pay his debts, and died in rags. And so it was with Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Rutledge, Morris, Livingston, and Middleton.¹

Nelson personally urged Washington to fire on his home and destroy it when it became the headquarters for General Cornwallis. Nelson died bankrupt.

But they sired a nation that grew from sea to shining sea. Five million farms, quiet villages, cities that never sleep, 3 million square miles of forest, field, mountain and desert, 227 million people with a pedigree that includes the bloodlines of all the world.

In recent years, however, I’ve come to think of that day as more than just the birthday of a nation. It also commemorates the only true philosophical revolution in all history.

Oh, there have been revolutions before and since ours. But those revolutions simply exchanged one set of rules for another. Ours was a revolution that changed the very concept of government.

Let the Fourth of July always be a reminder that here in this land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with certain God-given rights; that government is only a convenience created and managed by the people, with no powers of its own except those voluntarily granted to it by the people.

We sometimes forget that great truth, and we never should.

Happy Fourth of July.

Ronald Reagan

Complete article below

What July Fourth Means to Me