For the past 6 months Jen and I have been house hunting. Actually, more like the past 2 years, but we didn’t really get too serious about it until 9-10 months ago. We got a Realtor and began casually looking here and there. We weren’t really sure what exactly we were looking for at the beginning but as time has gone by our seriousness has increased more and more and likewise our target has become more and more specific. A couple weeks ago we had a very, very close call and made it all the way to the bidding stage on a house. It was a great deal, in a nice location, and the house looked to be more than we could have asked for. Unfortunately our bid was either too little, too late, or both. We were mildly heartbroken but shook it off saying “we’re probably better off, somehow”. After that discouraging blow we began looking at different houses in different locations. Again, our target became more specific and with each passing day we’re getting a better idea of what we really want.
With all of that said, here are a few sites and designs that I’ve been really digging lately-
Hive Modular - (here are pics) check out B002, C001, C003, & X001
Rocio Romero - LV or LVL
Clever Homes - Now House (CH1) and CH10
Nutter Home (blog) - this is a blog detailing a modern, green home built 35 miles from where I live!
If you don’t like any of these, that’s ok. You don’t have to…just don’t expect me to change
So, this site has undergone minor surgery. I modified my k2 theme and worked on some customization. It’s a far cry from what I have in my mind, but it’s a change and change is good. I also took the liberty of giving Jen’s site a revamp. I used this little program called CSSEdit, which is Mac only (unfortunately). I can say beyond doubt that it is the best and easiest CSS editor I’ve ever come across. Dreamweaver is nice but cumbersome, the webdev toolbar is handy but lacks some intuitiveness, and everything is just falls short.
It’s really been fun working things out and solving little issues…I’m looking forward to my next site already…
1. Amazon Prime - right before the holidays I read a post from some guy saying that he didn’t shop at any B&M (brick & mortar) stores, but did all of his shopping on “Amazon Prime”. Prime? Never heard of it. So I did a little digging and basically Amazon Prime is a subscription to free shipping. You pay $80 a year and for it you get unlimited free TWO DAY shipping on any item that comes directly from Amazon.com ($4 gets you overnight service). The only downside of this is that not all of the stuff on Amazon is actually from Amazon. They have partnerships with hundreds of companies and a lot of the stuff isn’t eligible. But there are still plenty of things and I’m pretty sure that I’ve already got my $80 worth and it’s not even February yet. The added bonus- I get to say that I’m an “Amazon Prime” member which makes me sound special.
2. Vimeo.com - For a while I’ve been looking into an upgrade on my church’s video camera (and partially curious for personal use as well). I did a search for some high def sample footage and ended out at this site called Vimeo. Essentially Vimeo is a youtube like site, only with a much smaller community and a much stronger focus on the artistry of film making. The real bonus from the site and what sets it apart from many others is that there are hundreds if not thousands of HD clips. I have a pretty big pipe to get this stuff, but I’m still amazed at how fast it buffers and plays at such incredible quality.
3. 24″ iMac - Yes, it’s true I’ve finally decided to switch and as we speak my new 24″ iMac is on it’s way here. I will admit that there is some hesitation and wonder as to how I’m going to like working in OS X all the time, but I have a feeling it’s going to be all good. The added bonus- the ability to watch and record true HD.
