Over the summer I made plans to spend four fall days in New York City. True to my hopes the weather was absolutely perfect this October weekend. Booking a flight was the easy part. Finding a place to stay was not. I have a few friends in NYC, but like many New Yorkers their places are small and or shared. I didn’t want to impose and preferred to be independent without worry of disturbing people when returning from jaunts around town or coming in late at night.

Recommended budget hotels like the Pod were all booked. I checked out a few sites like New York 50- a site devoted to hotels and rentals for around a night. Needless to say the reviews were atrocious. I found various lists of top rated budget hotels including this About.com collection, but they were booked too. I checked out a condo rental site with attractive rates, but balked when I learned they wanted a 50% deposit forked over via wire transfer.

Yeah right. Take a credit card already – This isn’t 1950. For a month I occasionally read reviews and prices. Holiday Inns, Hampton Inns and the other chains run north of 0 a night in Manhattan. The nicer hostels were booked. Tripadvisor’s reviews of budget hotels were actually amusing to read – if not frightening. When finding a place for under 0 I would pull up the Tripadvisor review and read horrifying tales of bugs, mold, surly staff, and even beetles crawling over people as they slept. I wish I had bookmarked some of the reviews as they’re hilarious. I’m far from high maintenance, but I do require my room beetle free.

Someone on Lonely Planet mentioned the Chelsea Pines Inn to another poster looking for accommodations. It was the neighborhood I wanted to be in, for a very good price, and they had availability.

Tired or searching and comparing I immediately booked it.

Chelsea Pines sits on 14th Street between 7th and 8th Avenue. Typical to the area its a narrow building with five floors, with about four to five guest rooms per floor. Giving the rooms a distinct style and character, each is dedicated to a former actor or actress from Hollywood’s golden years. There’s a sunroom and patio for socializing and meeting fellow visitors, and breakfast is served every morning until 11am. Even though I always travel with earplugs just in case I wind up above a noisy street, the sounds below on 14th Street didn’t wake me at all. It was fairly quiet at night, and central airconditioning helps too. (Above photo of 14th Street taken from room.)

Something else makes this place special though: The variety and diversity in their rooms and rates. The deluxe, modern rooms on the lower floors are decked out in granite, have iPod docks, flat screen TVs and modern fixtures. Standard rooms reside in the middle floors, and the fourth and fifth floor house smaller economy rooms with a partial shared bath – (not uncommon in NYC hotels.) My room wasn’t as modern as the updated ones, but that was ok by me because the rate was below average for a place of it’s overall superb quality. When I return I may opt for fancier accommodations, but this time my needs were simple. There are plenty of economy rooms dotting the city, but being able to find an economy room that’s also in a well hosted and well kept building is rare. I’m appreciative of proprietor Jay and the staff for offering their guests a variety of economic options, which results in a nice blend of guests too.

Although there were a few faces manning the front desk I didn’t meet, I chatted with the owner Jay a few times and met a small group visiting from Scotland. Chelsea Pines is clean, comfortable, and more than spacious enough for myself traveling solo – and I’d recommend it as a “second home” to anyone staying in the city.

They’re at 317 West 14th Street in Chelsea, and about 30 steps from the subway too. Check out Chelsea Pines Inn .com for rate details and their history. And any other hotel should be so fortunate to have their Tripadvisor ranking.

If you find them booked when visiting NYC check out this article in New York Magazine listing other highly rated budget hotels.

by James Van Dellen

Many people are unaware of the incredible qualities pertaining to bedroom pine furniture. The wood, pine, is one of the most natural looking of woods used in the production of bedroom furniture, with its innate and unusual knotty patterning, each item of furniture crafted from pine has its own distinctive feel. Even if you were to buy dozens of identical items, if they were constructed from pine, each would stand out from the rest.

As far as bedroom pine furniture is concerned, it is probably the most popular choice for many people. This is largely due to the cost of the wood; in comparison to many other woods, such as oak, cherry, and birch, it is a lot more cost-effective for use in construction.

Partly, this is due to the way in which we produce the wood on a global scale. Pines are extremely fast growers, and grow in many different soil types, meaning that they have a high turnaround value. Pines can be planted, then ready for use in construction within a couple of years, and can be grown in a lot more places than other types of wood.

In terms of its environmental effects, pine is a renewable source, as trees are felled, others are planted as replacement. Unlike other types of wood, such as oak, which take at least 30 years before they are suitable for felling and furniture construction, pine is more dependable. For the reasons that the wood is so much easier to produce, bedroom pine furniture is a lot better value for money.

Moreover, although many people may believe that because other woods are more expensive, that pine is not a high-quality wood, this is simply not the case. Pine is an incredibly durable, strong, and resilient material, making it ideal in the construction of household furniture. The reason other woods are so expensive, is not down to a difference in quality or beauty, but down to the ease or difficulty of obtaining the wood for construction purposes.

In terms of bedroom pine furniture, certain treatment methods used in furniture construction can give the wood a fantastic effect. A particular favourite amongst discerning individuals, is the antique effect, whereby the wood is finished using a specialist techniques that lends it even greater character.

Pine is extremely popular because the wood gives off a natural air of warmth, easily evoking sentiments of winter days, wrapped up in front of a log fire, surrounded by home comforts. The wood has a light natural colour, so imbues a natural brightness to any room in which it can be found. With its unique, gnarled, and twisting knots, each piece of furniture constructed from pine is given a unique and interesting quality.

Pine is also versatile in another respect, it complements most other woods, so the addition of pine furnishings to a room decorated with different woods does not cause any clashes to the senses, which would occur were the furniture a mix of other types of wood.

Treated pine for timber flooring is a form of wooden flooring that has been made more durable and attractive and that is highly practical for many homes. These can be used as decking, for kitchens, living rooms or bedrooms and create a great looking natural and light colored flooring that is easy to maintain and look after. There are countless benefits to having treated pine for your flooring over using carpet or other types of flooring. Here we will look at what those are and why you should consider treated pine for your own home.

Benefits of Treated Pine Flooring

Easy to Clean: First of all, treated pine is highly easy to clean and maintain. This is because it is a single flat and firm surface that has few places for dirt, dust or fluff to hide. When you use carpet, you have a material that has many fibers and gaps between those fibers where many small bits of dirt, mess, fluff and dust can collect and hide.

This then brings down the overall color and look of the carpet and makes it feel dirty and less pleasant. On the other hand if you use wooden flooring such as pine, you will find that there is just one flat surface and so nowhere for these things to gather. As such your will get dust and dirt just landing on top of the surface and this can easily be collected with a dust pan and brush, or with a vacuum cleaner. It will take minutes and there will be no need for washing or professional services. Likewise while carpet will soak up spilled wine etc, you will find it just pools on your treated pine and this makes it easy to clean up.

Durable: Wooden flooring is also highly durable and won’t get damaged over time. While scuffing your foot on carpet will cause it to rip and look damaged, doing the same on wood will not have the same effect. While wood is a little more expensive than carpet then, what this means is that you don’t have to replace it as regularly and that in turn makes it a smart investment that will save you money. This is even more true when you come to sell the property. Because of the durable nature of pine, and the greater value, this means that when you install it you increase the value of the property so you get much of the cost back this way.

Appearance: Treated pine is also a particularly attractive wood that has a light tone and that looks very modern. At the same time as looking modern though, it is also timeless. This is because it is a naturally occurring substance. Thus, while you would find that your carpet pattern quickly dated, the same can not be said of pine which will always look fashionable and will never be too associated with a single era. The natural look is also perfect for relaxing in and looks perfect with many other natural design choices such as fountains, fireplaces and wooden furniture.

For some time now, the extremely destructive Pine Beetle ( Dendroctonus ponderosae ) is ravaging huge areas of Canada’s forestlands and its destruction is so virulent, that it is leaving massive and easily visible scars across otherwise green foliage landscapes. In numerous areas where the pine beetle is active, various solutions for its eradication have been tried and some of these in themselves, are so toxic in nature that they would normally be classed as being a larger risk than the beetle they are attempting to destroy.

These beetles have an average life span of about one year and generally, their eggs are laid through the bark of a tree where they develop into larvae that stay under the bark all through the winter months. During the spring the larvae continue to feed under the bark and then they will change into pupae during the months of June and July. During the rest of the summer and into fall, the new adult pine beetles leave the infested tree through emergence holes they create and after drying themselves in the warm sunshine, they take off to mate and commence a new cycle by laying the next generation’s eggs under the bark of new trees. 

During the time they remain under the bark of a tree, they are known to transmit a fungus type substance that stains the sapwood of the tree a blue colour. Other than discoloration, this blue colouring appears to have no adverse affects on the actual structural integrity of the tree.

However, we must not forget that the damage has already been done and like a rolling snowball, it gather momentum and range of spread with each summer that comes. These beetles prefer mature trees such as lodge pole pines which are considered mature after eighty years of growth and in the Province of British Columbia, current statistics show that there are three times more mature lodge pole pines than they had over ninety years ago. Hot and dry summers make the trees more stressed and thus more susceptible to attack and infestation by this ravenous little creature. Trees which have been attacked will turn red roughly one year after the infestation and then, between one and two years later the affected trees will turn grey and all of their needles will fall off.

Another interesting fact about these little guys is they do not like it too cold! Their eggs, larvae and pupae are very susceptible to very cold temperatures and if these temperatures remain below minus 35 Celsius for a prolonged period of maybe a week, then this will kill off the eggs, larvae, pupae and generally sizeable portions of the beetle population in that area of cold weather. This being said, unless we suddenly enter the start of a new ice age all across Canada, these sporadic cold spells are unfortunately not enough to rid us of this continually spreading plague of destruction.

Yes, there are action plans prepared and in place and yes, the Canadian Ministry of Forests and Range are really trying to get to grips with finding a solution to this costly problem but to date, the efforts and methodology being used has had little or no effect on the overall problem.

The good news is that an answer to this massive problem does exist and better still, it is an answer, which consists of no chemicals, no toxins, no poisons and no danger to either the forest or to the people who would apply the solution. This answer can be found right now in the form of a golden all natural organic fluid formulated around a cedar oil base. This fluid can totally eradicate the pine beetle and a few other nasty insects at the same time. It is not cheap but then again it is not as expensive as some of the other treatment that have been tried. It is non hazardous and will not harm the environment in any way and it is here and available right now. Unfortunately, for now it appears that here it must stay as the Ministry of Forests and Range are continuing their quest with what they feel they know best. Maybe someday, hopefully soon, they will realize that we can defeat this natural pest by using a totally natural substance.

Of all the softwoods, pine is arguably the most popular amongst both, craftsmen as well as end users, for its delicate color, pleasing texture and the distinctive knots that impart a pleasantly rustic impression. Pine furniture is also amongst the more affordable although care needs to be taken as it is prone to being scratched and dented.

Pine furniture is most appealing in a child’s room or to give a carefree teenage ambience. Its pale, whitish gold timber accommodates a variety of colors and textures in soft furnishings while giving it a friendly, non fussy air. The darker knots add to its character and easily camouflage any additional damage that one could anticipate in a young person’s field of activity. A pine wood bed, or bunk beds in pine, if there is more than one occupant in the bedroom, look extremely appealing.

Study tables and chairs in the same wood, a book case and a wardrobe or two, and your children’s room is complete without too much expense or time involvement. Curtains, bedspreads, cushions and a rug in imaginative designs and colors create a wholesome, user friendly ambience. The pinewood will not restrict your selection of furnishings, but you will find that happy country style textures and patterns will suit it best – and your young ones too.

The next time you are remodeling your study, consider Pine furniture. Fabricate wall units in pine for all your requirements. A work bench or a desk with copious drawers and a fold out work area, with pine wood partitions to section off your notebooks, writing implements and memorabilia will offer you hours of working comfort. Add a pine wood cabinet with sufficient storage space for files, reference material and the like, and a chest of drawers. If you wax the pine surfaces in your study you will find it brings out its inherent soft glow and grains to provide a very charming finish. Pine wood has insect resistant properties which will keep your papers safe from silver fish and other insects.

Despite the soft character of the wood, Pine furniture is popular in kitchens too. One needs to be handy with a mop and not allow water to linger on pine surfaces, but otherwise it provides you with a bright, welcoming kitchen. Patio and garden furniture in pine wood are all time favorites. Rustic style chairs, trestle tables, porch swings and rocking chairs are all popular items in Pine furniture. You might like to paint your outdoor furniture for better protection from the elements, and pine lends itself equally to painting. Despite the coat of paint it does not lose its charm.

Apart from Pine furniture, you might consider using pine for your flooring. It brings in a warm, friendly atmosphere and is compatible with a large variation in carpets or rugs. Pine also makes for good paneling and partition material which comes in useful if your two children are keen on personal space to themselves. It is simple to erect a light pine wood partition in the bedroom to provide each child with his own room.

Enhance your Home with excellent Pine furniture – Visit our site for the full catalog of furniture for every room in your home – http://www.mercuro.co.uk/