I don’t get involved much in interior decorating, so I don’t care what kind of table lamps you buy. My job does involve including on the plans for the contractors what kind of installed lighting fixtures will require electrical boxes, mountings, and installed fixtures. There are a  staggering number of good website catalogs for shopping for lighting fixture styles. You can shop for them now and specify them for the plan, or we can specify only the type of fixture on the plan, and you shop locally when you are ready to attached them. For the architectural planning, I need to know the locations of the fixtures, and whether they are recessed, flush, semi-flush, wall-mounted, tracks, pendents, sconces, or chandeliers.

Here are some nice lighting catalogs for you. Have fun shopping.

http://www.lightinguniverse.com/

http://lightingbygregory.com/index.html

http://www.lampsplus.com/

http://www.kichler.com/

http://lightingfixtures.com/index.asp

In all cases, I recommend using flourescent or LED bulbs in the lights, but not flourescent fixtures, which tend to be stark and commercial in appearence. Remember, if you want to use LED bulbs, which last forever, and hardly burn any electricity, you will want to add a few extra fixtures here and there to compensate for the lower brightness of LED lighting.

written by pencilman \\ tags: Lighting Fixtures

How would you like a calculator for giving you the angle of your cuts and the length of board you need to make the stringers on stairs? Just decide what you want for a riser height and a tread depth, then try one of these calculators:

http://www.decks.com/Calculators/Stairs.aspx

http://www.inspectusa.com/rise_run_stringer_stairs_calculator.php

http://www.blocklayer.com/Stairs/

http://shalla.net/index.html

written by pencilman \\ tags: Stairs Stringer Calculate

Brosco supplies most of the interior and exterior trims and mouldings made of wood for my region and many others across the country. Here is a good catalog for browsing the possibilities.

http://www.brosco.com/mouldings.cfm?page=contractor

The other option is synthetic moldings and trims and ornamental components. Here is a good supplier website that also supplies other products.

http://www.architecturaldepot.com/

written by pencilman \\ tags: molding moulding wood

The most common material for finishing interior walls is gypsum wallboard, also known as sheetrock. There are a few different kinds for different purposes and different thicknesses for various levels of waterproofing, fireproofing or soundproofing.

http://www.nationalgypsum.com/

http://www.bpb-na.com/us/english/gypsum_wallboard/index.php

http://www.americangypsum.com/index.cfm

If you are remodeling a house, and need to remove and replace gypsum, try to recycle it. Ask around for who can collect and recycle it for you in your region if there is anyone close enough.

http://www.gypsumrecycling.us/

written by pencilman \\ tags: wallboard gypsum