By Terry Henman

It is a like love gone bad, an affair that started of great but has now turned sour! The panel of oak wood that made your heart race, now makes you feel gloomy and dark. The alcoves, the turrets, the oddly shaped rooms seemed so inviting and romantic before, but now you have no idea on how to furnish and decorate your home!

After few years living in a small Victorian terraced house you can find yourself craving for a big modern bathroom, a simple open floor and ample storage space.

Older homes are beautiful and may seem like living a dream, but the truth is they are simply not designed for modern living.

The plan of a Victorian House seems cluttered and open spaces are hard to come by, instead you may find a maze of small rooms of almost closet size connected by a series of doors and hallways.

But none the less, Victorian houses have a lot of charm and with the right remodelling they can be a dream come true. Most people look to create more space by tearing down old walls, but look out!

Many of these seemingly insignificant walls are actually load bearing. They actually support the upper floors! While your house may not come crumbling down if you remove one wall, there is a risk of the floors beginning to sag. If you want to remove walls you should check with a reputable builder as it may be necessary to have supporting lintels put in place to support the upper floor.

You will have to ensure that any major refurbishments made meet building regulations and planning permission is obtained, where applicable, before starting any major renovations.

Luckily there are many ways to update that older house and still keeping structure intact. Don’t remove the entire wall, but cut openings in existing walls. The result will be more space, while still maintaining ambiance.

The number one complaint about Victorian houses is usually the bathroom. Even though modern plumbing were largely available at the time, Victorian bathrooms are small compared to many modern standards. But you can transform them into havens of peace and practicality by adding a few personal touches of Victorian or modern soft furnishings and clever decorating.

Finding extra storage space in a Victorian home has always been a problem, but here are some tips:

* Use the area below the main staircase. This can be opened up to provide space for bureaus and desks, if large enough computer stations can be placed here very effectively.

* Install bookcases or shelving around windows, doors and in alcoves.

* The number one rule is ‘No harm’- meaning do not purposely destroy the original styling and materials.

* Use the same fabrics and original styles wherever you can.

* Think creatively about the possibilities instead of the limitations of your house.

* Decorate in pale or neutral colours or bright vibrant colours to make small rooms appear larger and brighter.

* Choose full length curtains to add height to a room, coordinate with rugs, runners, cushions and throws.

Many Victorian houses are now seen as very desirable residences, so rather then moan and groan about your older style house reflect back and remember the unique assets which you fell in love with and turn your house back into a home your adore!

About the Author: Terrys Fabrics offer a wide range of curtains, fabrics,

cushions and throws

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By Sky Joe

Being a teacher can be a very challenging and enriching career for a lot of people. The task and responsibility of a teacher is to enrich the knowledge of the young, preparing the students for their future endeavors. In the midst of doing all these, the teacher is actually shaping the future of the whole nation. If you have chosen to become one of them, you should be proud of yourself.

However, being a teacher who is able to conduct effective lessons is not an easy task to achieve. This is mainly because its very difficult to capture the full attention of the students throughout the whole day. For a typical student, the time to concentrate fully can only last up to two hours. This means that schools are spending more efforts to employ teachers who can engage their students in interesting lessons.

One of the basics for teaching is to conduct lessons that interest your students. Bored students won’t remember much of the lesson. Refrain from giving long lectures that will only encourage your students to wander to slumberland. Instead, keep students involved and interacting with them in English. Some students may prefer to listen quietly as they are shy to make any comments. If this kind interaction makes your students nervous, provide plenty of support by giving clear and very specific directions. In addition, make your lessons livelier by adding games or using real-life objects such as a telephone, cook book, or musical instrument. You can also bring your students out of the classroom for a educational tour. This will greatly increase their attention lifespan and assist to absorb the knowledge easily.

Another effective way to attract their attention is to provide some rewards during the lessons. Studies have shown that students will be able to learn better when they perceive a personal reward. To boost internal motivation, remind them of the benefits that English can provide, such as English-speaking friends, better job opportunities, easier shopping, or less stress at the doctor’s office, and then teach language that will bring them closer to those benefits. External motivation can be achieved by praise and encouragement as well as tangible rewards like prizes or certificates. These rewards have been proven to be very effective in encouraging the students to put in extra efforts in their daily learning.

Learners will remember material better and take more interest in it if it has applicable contextual meaning. This means that good teachers should be able to relate the teaching materials to daily usage or practical examples. By providing appropriate applications, students will be able to remember them better and longer. Arbitrary rote learning (word lists or grammar drills) may be useful in solidifying language forms, but unless there’s a real-world application, sooner or later it’s likely to be forgotten.

Experienced teachers usually motivate their students to build up their self-confidence. In other words, teachers should allow them to use their own ability to complete a task. If they lack self-confidence, they tend not to take risks, and risk-taking is necessary in language learning. By trying out new or less familiar language, they may find that they are indeed capable of more communication than they thought. On your part, you can encourage them to interact more by reducing feelings of embarrassment when mistakes are made, and give far more compliments than criticisms. You can also instruct them to perform tasks that are easily achieved so that everyone is guaranteed success. This will help to develop their confidence gradually and increase their learning abilities.

For more information on the different ways of teaching English, teaching opportunities available or getting a teaching degree, please visit the following website: http://teaching.mygeneralknowledge.com/

About the Author: Skyjoe is a well-known author, website publisher and owner of

teaching.mygeneralknowledge.com

. Skyjoe. All rights reserved. This article may be freely distributed as long as it remains unaltered and the copyright notice is intact.

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By Aaron Hoos

Accountants have a critical role to play in helping individuals and businesses with their finances. But as essential as their role is, an accountants’ work is undervalued by prospective clients. Often, clients bring too little too late and expect miracles, or they simply don’t understand the full value that an accountant can provide.

By following these accountant marketing tips, accountants can educate their potential clientele to build a relationship earlier and to get more value from the accountant/client relationship.

Accountant marketing tip #1: Create a website or blog. Many accountants are very busy and don’t think they have time to set up a website. However, a simple blog (even a free blog) can add tremendous marketing value without taking a lot of time, effort, or money to manage.

Accountant marketing tip #2: Your clients will general come to you from a specific geographic area so target your marketing to that location. Use simple “local search engine optimization” techniques so that the people who visit your business’ website will be more likely to buy from you.

Accountant marketing tip #3: Don’t be scared off by social media. Accountants can approach social media with some skepticism because so much of their work is private and very specific to their clients. However, accountants can still participate in social media and derive a lot of value from it without risking their client’s privacy.

Accountant marketing tip #4: Develop a sales funnel. Most businesses that are new to internet marketing or social media marketing approach it in a haphazard way. However, with some sales funnel strategy, internet marketing becomes so much simpler to execute.

Accountant marketing tip #5: You don’t have to do everything. There are a lot of internet marketing opportunities out there and the choices can be almost overwhelming. Fortunately, you don’t have to do everything. Pick a few internet marketing channels (like Twitter, Facebook, and a blog, for example) and excel at those. Only bring other channels on board if you have the time and if they will serve your sales funnel.

Accountant marketing tip #6: Be consistent. No matter what marketing channel you use (offline or online), consistency is the key to success. Posting a single blog post or a single tweet and then waiting by the door for a stampede of clients just won’t cut it. You need to plan for months of targeted marketing. (Fortunately, that’s not as hard or costly as it sounds).

Accountant marketing tip #7: Measure your marketing. You’re already a genius at numbers or you wouldn’t be doing what you do for a living. Apply those same skills to your analysis of your marketing to improve your marketing so it becomes more effective.

By following these accountant marketing tips, you’ll increase the number of new clients that come through your door and you’ll increase your clients’ awareness of what you do so you can offer higher value and more services to them.

About the Author:

Aaron Hoos

is a freelance writer and internet marketer for financial and real estate businesses. Visit his blog for more

accountant marketing tips

.

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