Antiquing in Leesburg, VA

Happy Wednesday!

So more about my trip to Leesburg, VA...first here is a map of all of the antique stores below. Luckily most of the shops are off King Street and Market Streets.

Before we could do any shopping we had to build up our strength. We ended up at this super cute cafe called Shoes Cup and Cork Club. I highly recommend it! Located in the former Arthur's Shoe Repair building on historic King Street, Shoes Cup and Cork Club loving restored the building with an eclectic mix of reminders of the shop's past and present.

And then we hit up the shops. I found two great pieces. An absolutely huge lamp for just $28! Seriously this pic doesn't do it justice. It is large, and totally reminds me of something you'd find at Restoration Hardware for $250. I think I'll put a charcoal shade on top...now I just have to find space for it in my house!

The second find was this super fun mirror for $39. This mirror will look great in my NEW office design! I already like the color green, but Ryan hates it...so I might spray it gold to go with my navy and gold theme...we'll see. Also, that hideous chandelier on the mirror is just a sticker so it's coming off faster than you can say "ewww."

There were also about 10 other beautiful gold mirrors and a pair of crystal sconces I wanted to bring home with me...but I literally have run out of room in my house for all of these great finds! Which gets me thinking again about opening up an Etsy store so I can share my finds with others :) Oh if I only had about 5 more hours in the day...

Check back tomorrow to see how Amy's family room paint came out...and the super bold colors we are considering for her dining room!

My Office Redux

In addition to sprucing up my guest room...I'm also thinking about redoing my office. We plan to rip up the carpet in my office and have my floors refinished so I thought now would be the perfect time to redecorate!

Here is my inspiration pic:

My plan is to have Angel add wainscoting 3/4 of the way up the wall, and then paint navy and white horizontal stripes up the rest. This will make the room feel so much brighter.

You know I have been jonesing to put gold/bronze/brass accessories in my house, and since this isn't Ryan's favorite idea...I figured my office was the perfect space to get this gold out of my system :) So I hoping all accessories will be

I love the idea of incorporating a rug like this one from Dwell as well as some throw pillows. I love how flexible this color scheme can be...I can change up the color from Nantucket red to bright yellow, to even turquoise and Kelly green. The options are endless.

I also got a great lamp and mirror at the Leesburg antique stores this weekend. The lamp is literally larger than life and reminds me of something from Restoration Hardware. All it needs is a huge, maybe charcoal lamp shade, and we are good to go. The mirror is super cute and swirly...and is currently green. Ryan hates it so it might get turned into a new color...stay tuned!

I'll post pics of my Leesburg finds tomorrow!

Sustainable construction for education

Sustainable construction is now one of the agenda. There is currently the social, political and legislative pressure to ensure that new school buildings are considered "sustainable". It is a part of your disk for an eco-school. This includes any shelters and viewpoints, so that new classrooms.

With so many things to think about everything mainly focused on the budget and on time, how can you ensure that your school building is truly sustainable and causes minimal impact on the manufacturing, construction, life environment; and, at the end of his life, demolition. Our recommendation would be to choose wood for sustainability and the site of manufacture of the budget and the speed of delivery.

Wood is the material of construction only natural, renewable, recyclable in the world: it has been used in the construction of several thousand years. Now with the FSC or PEFC certification you can be confident in its way of sourcing.

To keep the focus on the budget with sustainability, we suggest that you look at off-site manufacturing: buildings that are prepared before delivery to the site, factory and provide large savings on the costs of construction during the periods of build reduced and disruption of the site: systems such as shell's Cabinco MPL buildings. Newspapers are factory of precision designed and then delivered to the site ready for fast and precise, to an individually designed sustainable building construction.

More the proportion of wood in your new school building, most likely a fully recyclable building envelope. Wood does not have to be restricted to just the outer skin which gives the appearance of sustainability, but may extend to interior walls, floors, Windows, doors, roof and same structure the final roofing material through such options as the Cedar shingles. A solution of solid wood.

Checklist for sustainable buildings

Materials Noise sustainable supply, odor & dust in the construction Waste to landfill sites in the course of manufacture and construction Maintenance and energy required in the use of the building Recyc lability after the end of life of the building.Global carbon footprint

Carbon footprint

Carbon footprint is an assessment of the impact of the building on the school environment. It focuses on all aspects of the processes involved in the delivery of your solution built in detail and includes such things as the energy used in manufacturing, where this energy source, if it is renewable; energy used in the transport of materials, including used fuel; energy of phase of construction and waste; energy service; and, finally, the end of the energy of life - or step in the case of wood that can be reused as fuel.

Research shows that wooden buildings have the lowest carbon footprint of the life of all.

A company with a real focus on providing sustainable buildings will provide all the information on its Web site.