• Cost-Effective Ideas for Spending A Weekend at Home 

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    Everyone loves to spend time with their family. When it comes to weekends, it gets even more special because you get enough time to spend with them. You can plan a visit to a live concert in a newly opened club and go to a movie in a theater near you. But all these options can cost you a lot of money. 

    If you’ve got a big budget, of course, you can do that, but if you are not, you need to think about some other cost-effective yet interesting options. No doubt, when it comes to family time, we don’t think much and can spend a lot of money just to make the other members happy. 

    But if you wish to save some money, you can surely try the below-discussed ideas to have a great time with your family. Here are some:

    Plan A Movie At Home 

    No doubt you can go to a movie in some fancy and expensive theater with your family. That will not only cost you some money, but you will have to invest a good amount of time too. Whereas the best thing you can do is plan a movie at home. 

    Today, you can easily connect your smartphone to a TV and can easily watch anything from your phone to TV. whatever you will play on your phone will be displayed on the TV screen. For instance, if you are an Apple user, you must know that you can connect your iPhone to your Macbook and enjoy anything. 

    In fact, Apple has launched its own subscription streaming service Apple TV+ that has an array of movies and other shows to watch. If you wonder how to stream to apple tv from mac, there is an easy way out. If you have the Apple TV app, you are all set to go and make your weekend enjoyable with your family.

    Go For A Picnic 

    If you are not interested in movies and wish to go out, go for a picnic. And the best thing about a picnic is that you can involve your friends and their families too. You all can go to a beautiful place and spend some quality family time there. 

    You all can cook some special food items, and once you reach, enjoy delicious home-cooked food and embrace your day. This definitely will not cost you much money. You should go to a place that you might have on your radar but could not go to because of work or other commitments.

    Play A Board Game 

    If you just don’t want to go anywhere and relax at home, the best thing you can do is gather everyone in your room and play any board game of your choice. There are so many options for board games to choose from. You can go for Monopoly, Jenga, Carom, and so on. 

    This can be a great opportunity to get close to your family and have a good time. In fact, this can also help kids to learn new things in more interesting and fun ways. 

    You can try any of the ideas and have fun on the weekends without spending more money. 

    Happy Weekend!

    Closing Thoughts 

    No matter how hard you try, sometimes you can not avoid the expenses, especially on weekends. During the week, we may lay low because we don’t get that much time to spend with family. Similarly, to make your weekends enjoyable and memorable, go for some really interesting and cost-effective activities. After all, saving money is a good habit. But don’t be stingy.

    partnered post • cc-licensed image by Yoppy

  • The Sun Valley Seasons: Greene & Greene-ish in Idaho

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    The "Sun Valley Seasons" (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter) are four luxurious 4,000+ sq ft single-family homes designed by Ruscitto / Latham / Blanton and built by Intermountain Construction on three lots in Sun Valley, Idaho. What makes them interesting is the level of detail – they were designed and built to resembled Greene & Greene homes, and the gabling, roofline, and much of the interior architectural woodwork is certainly in that vein.

    I can’t speak to the quality of the homes – I haven’t visited them or seen construction pictures – and I sometimes feel a little odd looking at new construction that is so self-consciously "antiqued," in that it’s made to look very similar to a particular designer’s work in a particular era. However, you can see that at the very least the designers and builders certainly had a thing for the Greenes.

    The people who staged the homes and did some of the finishing, though, included a few items that are completely incongruous in such a home – an ornate chandelier and other light fixtures, for instance, that owe more to Louis XIV than the Arts & Crafts movement; white beadboard in the kitchen; fake-paneled appliances, and a fountain that looks like something out of a Berkeley hippie commune. Overall, though, the level of detail is certainly impressive.

  • Rest & Restoration: Volunteer Vacations at Historic Sites in Need of Some TLC

    Jamie Donahoe at the Heritage Conservation Network sends us the following note on their hands-on building conservation workshops. A number of photographs from recent workshops are available in a special Flickr set. Thanks, Jamie!

    If you had driven by the Francis Mill in Waynesville, North Carolina in July 2003, you might have stopped to take a photo of the picturesque but dilapidated structure nestled in Francis Cove. If you were to pass by the mill this summer, you would see a structure that’s neat and square, strong and weathertight. The difference: volunteers who joined a series of summertime hands-on building conservation workshops organized by Heritage Conservation Network in partnership with the Francis Mill Preservation Society.

    HCN, a Boulder, Colorado-based non-profit dedicated to the conservation of the world’s architectural heritage, specializes in recruiting volunteers to assist with hands-on preservation projects in association with local preservation partners. Volunteers spend a week or more at the site, working under the guidance of a technical expert.

    Back in 2003, with the mill in danger of imminent collapse, Tanna Timbes, great granddaughter of the man who built it and founder of the FMPS, contacted HCN and asked for assistance in saving it. Over the course of three workshops at Francis Mill, a total of 48 volunteers contributed more than 3,700 hours of labor, and that made all the difference.

    HCN volunteers are not necessarily experienced preservationists, with only half having experience in the field. Instruction and supervision are provided by the technical expert leading the hands-on work, and participants – of all ages – quickly find themselves replastering walls,
    documenting decorative paintings, shaping adobe bricks, chiseling mortises and tenons, or chipping out old cement mortar to replace it with lime mortar. The focus is on the use of traditional techniques and materials – the prescription for keeping historic buildings sound for many generations to use and appreciate.

    HCN has organized workshops at more than a dozen historic sites in the past four years. In Oplotnica, Slovenia, last year, volunteers worked painstakingly to discover the original decorative paint scheme of a 17th century chapel. The workshop, led by one of Slovenia’s foremost conservators, brought nationwide attention not only to the project but also to the need to safeguard Slovenia’s cultural heritage.

    HCN will return to Slovenia in 2008, when volunteers will help restore the oldest known vintner’s cottage in the Šmarško-Virštanj wine district; it dates to the 16th century and is in poor condition, much like the Francis Mill was four years ago.

    Volunteer opportunities this year include work at a Queen Anne style parsonage in Jonesboro, Illinois; the Old West town of Virginia City, Montana; and colonial and traditional buildings in Ghana. All still have space available and can also accommodate groups looking for a meaningful way to volunteer. Information about these and other opportunities to help build a future for the past can be found on HCN’s website or by calling HCN at +1 303 444 0128.