Quote of the week

"A good plan is like a road map: it shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there," H Stanley Judd.

Pictures by StudioIlse

Quote of the week

"Be anything but obvious."

(Unless you're Brad Pitt, in which case it's obvious he should move his house-loving self in with me, right?)

Pictures: by Harry Benson for ArchitecturalDigest

Property sport: watch out for my story in Sydney Morning Herald

This house overlooks Whale Beach and has only ever been used as a holiday home.

Here's a sneak preview of some of the gorgeous homes I've written about for a prestige property special appearing in tomorrow's Domain. If I owned any of these houses, I would count my blessings and NEVER EVER sell! The news isn't great for the top end of Australia's residential property market, with prices slipping in double digit figures. If you are one of the lucky few who are cashed up and ready to go, you can snare some well-priced glamour homes for less time than it takes to get rid of 2000 jobs and see the sharemarket slide by thousands of points! Bonus!

This Dover Heights pad is on the cliff overlooking the ocean and has a gorgeous pool.

Related stories:
Outlook for property in 2009
Millionaires Road - the most expensive street in Sydney
How to buy at auction

Pictures: Domain

Bed inspiration

Would an $80,000 bed help you sleep better? I loved this story aboutinsomnia (the link is below and its written by one of my favourite journos, Daphne Guinness) and when I came across this bed designed by Agnieszka Bernacka, I wondered if it would be more helpful than a Valium or 95 to make you sleep at night. The bed was created after two years of research into sleep habits and uses light, sound and massage therapies to "create an environment to enhance all the senses - forming a place to rejuvenate, meditate and above all sleep". The viscoelastic memory foam mattress has an in-built massage system (mmm, massage). That egg-like shell of the Lomme bed has a special system which blocks harmful electromagnetic waves and radiation, while a specially designed sleep button isolates all electricity away from the bed. Wow. Sounds better than what I sleep with.

Related stories
Creating a sleep sanctuary
5 ideas for kids' bedrooms
How to buy a bed 

Insomnia story by Daphne Guinness

More about Lomme

Photo: Simon Sorted, Copyright Cycle13 Transformation Establishment via Lomme

Renovate for profit: be energy efficient

Tomorrow marks the first time I will deliver one of my very own Renovate-For-Profit seminars ... but mine will be about spending small amounts of money on repairs and refurbishments to lower the running costs of your home, rather than taking on lashings of debt to build a second-rate investment portfolio.Renovating to improve energy efficiency makes perfect sense - you may have to invest a small amount upfront, but it will pay back. Especially now that we know energy bills are set to skyrocket. In the last 12 months, electricity bills in WA have been mandated to go up by 40 per cent and the state government says bills there could rise even more. If the Australian federal government implements its Emissions Trading Scheme in 2010, all Australians' energy bills are likely to rise in the order of 20 to 25 per cent. Electricity is one of the largest greenhouse polluters, so the energy companies will be heavily taxed and that means passing those costs on to people who use electricity. That's not to mention price rises that were already planned to upgrade aging infrastructure. The three easiest and cheapest things to improve energy efficiency are:

- installing insulation AND RIGHT NOW IT'S FREE. If you don't do it, you're mad. Simply ring an installer and keep the receipt and the federal government will reimburse you up to $1600 in July.

- changing light globes to CFLs and putting in a AAA shower head

- resisting the urge to over-cool or over-heat our homes with air-con or heating. In summer the thermostat should be around 21 and in winter around 18

These are very simple measures that cost virtually nothing except a bit of time and effort. And, boy, will your wallet thank you in the next couple of years! If you want to hear more, please come along to the Homebush Energy Efficiency Centre at noon. You'll not only see some of the best new technologies to save energy, but you'll score a free copy of my Planning Your Perfect Home Renovation book and a new copy of House & Garden PLUS be in the chance to win a solar hot water system.

Related stories:

Save energy and the world

How to renovate without overcapitalising

Easily reduce energy bills

My terrible twitter addiction

This is the picture @MrsKutcher uploaded to Twitpics just before the Oscars ... is it the real Demi and Ashton?

Fact: Twitter is more fun that Facebook.
Another fact: Twitter wastes more time than Facebook.
And another fact: It's SOOOO much fun to follow the celebrities, the fakes and the dead people that have suddenly been born again on Twitter.
For those who have been busy with real life rather than the internet, Twitter is a social network that limits you to 140 character "tweets", which are like a cross between blogging and updating your status on Facebook.
I'm following @MrsKutcher, which is Demi Moore. She takes pictures of her and Ashton Kutcher which give you a real insight into their life. But while the pics LOOK pretty real, my suspicious internet partner in crime, MC65 (his blog link is on the left, too) insists @MrsKutcher is about as real as Demi's ironed-smooth forehead. Apparently Ashton is also mad, keen twitterer who posted live pics from the Oscars parties, too.

I'm also following @hugh_jackman who is a wonderful, delightful fake Hugh Jackman that Tweeted all the way through the Oscars ceremony he was hosting. I don't care that he's fake coz he's funny. I'm enjoying plenty of other fakes, too. (There is even an @fakecelebritywatch who is following me ... no doubt to spoil my fake-watching fun!)

And while I'm on the subject of MrsKutcher-Twitter-love, I came across these pics of Ashton Kutcher's Beverly Hills bachelor pad which sold recently. I was most distressed at the he-manliness of those interiors ... if they smell like they they look, then I reckon Ashton's house has an odour of beer-swilling frat party sprayed with Lynx deodorant. Demi wouldn't possibly allow him to live like that, right? Not so sure what @MrsKutcher would do, though.

What do you think of Ashton's bachelor pad? Would Demi approve?

Related stories
How to furnish with finesse (not frat-party-esse)
See MrsKutcher's Twitter profile
See the fake but real Hugh Jackman Twitter profile
Stalk other celebrities on Twitter

Pictures: Twitpics and RealEstalker

RENOVATION INSPIRATION: Why wood is good

How can you not love a bit of timber? It sequesters carbon. Lives and breathes like a dynamic material (it expands across the grain yet is stable with the grain) and with a bit of love and care will last longer than you. I especially love the books made of timber. Cute, no?


Pictures: Livio De Marchi via The Blog On The Bookshelf