House Cleaning Tips

House cleaning is a tiresome chore for most of us. Nonetheless, it needs to be done regularly. Most of us fret by the thought of cleaning house regularly. Still, if it is done with a proper procedure and technique, it can be a fun and less time consuming job. Following are some tips for house cleaning.

House Cleaning Tips
You must be knowing that if work is divided, it is easier to do and also complete it. Therefore, split the work and do it part by part. If you start cleaning all the rooms and closets and walls and the laundry at one time, you will only end up in a bigger mess. Hence, the key lies in doing it part by part. Similarly, division of labor is also equally important. Distributing the work among family members can save a lot of time as well as energy. Let us make a start with the following household cleaning tips. Know more on house cleaning rates.

Clean the Clutter
One of the best house cleaning tips is to simply pick up the things lying around and put them in their places. With this, nearly half of your job is done. So start from the living room; pick up the magazines, papers, glasses and dishes from the coffee table and couch. The same things may also be lying on the side table in your bedroom. Also, throw away all the left over foodstuffs, empty cartons and other stuff from the kitchen and put the greasy dishes and utensils in the sink.

Clean the Household Appliances
With the help of a feather brush, clean the music system, television set and other things in the living room. In the kitchen, clean the refrigerator, oven and microwave according to the instructions given in the user's manual. Do not clean kitchen appliances by splashing water in it. Clean the mirror and dressing table with a semi wet cloth. Also clean all the wall hangings and decorative articles in each of the room with a feather duster.

Wash the Washables
Now take down the curtains and cushion covers from the living room and put them in the laundry. Similarly, change the bed spreads in the bedroom and replace with fresh ones. Do the dishes in the kitchen in one go. If they are extra oily or greasy, soak them in soapy water for 20-25 minutes and then wash them. Similarly, clean the kitchen counter top with soap and water. In the bathroom, clean the sink and toilet with suitable cleaners. Also take down the shower curtain for cleaning. Do not forget to clean the mirror and faucets.

Vacuum the Floors
This should always come last, as all the dust and dirt from other articles gathers on the floor as you clean them. Therefore, it is always advisable to clean the floors at the end. Vacuum all around the living room, kitchen and bedrooms. Clean the floor in the bathroom with water and brush. Also look out for the dust in corners, windows and window sills. Move the furniture and clean under it if possible.

Clean the Closets
Now once we are done with all the above, most of us will hardly have any energy and patience left to clean the closets. Therefore, this can be shifted to the next day. Start with the drawers in the living room. It is always better to start with the topmost one first and going downwards. In the kitchen cabinets, throw away all the unused and expired items and rearrange the remaining ones according to their daily necessity and usage. For e.g., keep the cornflakes at the front. Read more on housekeeping.

House Organizing Tips
There are certain tips for house cleaning that can help in minimizing the work and time required for cleaning. They include:

• Clean the spills on the carpets, mats, floors, counter tops, walls, refrigerators, etc. immediately when they occur. This way you won't have to struggle with them later.
• Cleaning the laundry daily instead of weekly can reduce a lot of weekend work.
• Organize and plan your work by making your own house cleaning schedule and house cleaning checklist.
• Make a habit of returning things to their proper places after use. This will also be helpful when looking for things during an emergency.
• Go through the refrigerator everyday and throw away whatever has expired or is empty.

Lastly, put on some good music or have someone to help you, and you will realize that house cleaning is not all that boring! I hope these house cleaning tips will be helpful in making this tiresome job more interesting! Also remember, multitasking can be extremely helpful!

Home Cleaning Solutions

A clean home not only looks attractive but also help you keep various health problems at bay. So cleaning your house regularly is something that needs no mention. If you follow the cleaning and vacuuming routine, you would hardly need to get into tough cleaning task. Well, cleaning home consists of kitchen cleaning, floor cleaning, upholstery cleaning and much more, which you need to do properly to have a clean and healthy place to stay in. Here are some home cleaning solutions to help you get the best results.

Best Homemade Cleaning Solutions

Vinegar
One of the natural and easy solutions for home cleaning is white vinegar. Keeping a gallon of the same at home can be useful in many ways. You can mix it in water and use for cleaning flooring and wall tiles, even the wood flooring. It is also one of the best ways to clean carpet. What's more, this easily helps you get rid of smelly washing machine or refrigerator after a wipe. You can also clean your hands with this after cutting an onion, and the smell will vanish. White vinegar and water mixed in equal parts makes an effective glass cleaning solution. For clean wooden furniture use 4 tbsp. white vinegar, 2 tbsp vegetable oil and 1 quart of warm water.

Baking Soda
Baking soda is another useful ingredient to clean your home. This can be used to unclog a drainpipe. Pour a cup of salt and baking soda in the pipe and leave for about 30 minutes before pouring water. Also, you can make one of the effective home cleaning solutions for tough stains using equal amounts of white vinegar and baking soda. You can clean wooden furniture and wooden window frames using a mixture of baking soda and toothpaste. Read more on carpet cleaning solutions.

Hydrogen Peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide is amongst the best home cleaning solutions. One of the cleaning tips for your home is that you must use hydrogen peroxide only on white surfaces. You can use this homemade house cleaning solution for the bathtub, white sink, white flooring, white bathroom tiles. The reason is that hydrogen peroxide can often discolor the surface. Check out these useful house cleaning tips.

Dishwashing Detergents
For cleaning your kitchen countertops it is safe to opt for cleaning detergents. Whether it is a marble or granite countertop, detergents works well in clearing the stains. Mix the detergent in water to make a solution and apply it on the marble with a sponge, rub the tough stains and wash off with water. Remember that using detergent on regular basis might lead to soap scum built-up on the countertop which will take away its shine. Hence, you can first try using lukewarm water and rub the countertop with sponge. If you have successfully cleaned it, no need to use a detergent. In case you opt for detergent, make sure you remove it thoroughly using clean water. One of the home cleaning tips is to restrict use of any ingredients like lemon, vinegar, hydrogen peroxide on marble surfaces as it can easily get discolored with these.

Lemon Juice
Lemon juice contains acid which helps remove tough stains. It also helps get rid of rust stains. Lemon can be used to clean dirty dishes, faucet, white tiles, grout cleaning, for cleaning plastic items, floor cleaning (except marble). Slice a lemon and rub it on the surface to be cleaned. Leave it as it is for 30 minutes and wash off with clean, cold water. This is one of the easy home cleaning remedies. It is one of the effective home cleaning solutions for your white laundry. Just add 1/2 cup lemon juice to the rinse cycle to get cleaner and whiter clothes.

Home Cleaning Services

Having your home cleaned by someone else can be a luxury to anyone, but having it done when you move into a brand new home and leave your old one can save you many hours of cleaning that you really don’t want to take part in.


House cleaning

can range from many various options, whether it’s a basic clean of your home or everything imaginable being cleaned. It will vary on what you select and the cost of the cleaning services.


It can be difficult determining whether you should or should not utilize house cleaning services over doing it yourself, and many feel that it can be a waste of money having someone else clean their home. In the end there are many pros and cons to having someone clean your home for you. When you don’t seem to have the time to clean your home you can find yourself getting frustrated.


One major time that it can be difficult to get your home clean is after you are moving. Usually when a house is sold it’s required to be cleaned for the next home owners. After you’ve just moved to a new home though one of the last things on your mind is having to clean the house you just left, so why not have someone else do it for you? Instead of wasting more time in a house that is no longer yours have a house cleaning company do it for you.


This is the same for when you are moving into a home that doesn’t seem to be overly clean and the previous owners didn’t take the time to clean the house. It can be quite frustrating to have to move into a home that is not yet clean, so having a house cleaning company do it for you can be less frustrating and allow you to move into a home that’s spotless.


When it comes to house cleaning services not all offer the same type of services. Some only do certain cleaning and others offer others. This will require you to do some research on your local cleaning services to find exactly what you need. Home cleaning services can be quite beneficial for those with little time to spare.


As you can see there are many benefits to having someone else clean your home, but if you are worried that they are not going to do it the exact way you want it give the cleaners a list of some things that they may not do. Do interviews with the companies and ask as many questions possible. You must remember they are going to be cleaning your home and if they can’t live up to your expectations then it’s just going to be a waste of time for everyone. Don’t find yourself wasting money with a house cleaning company that doesn’t do what you want, find the perfect one and you’ll be happy with the results and not be redoing things yourself. Remember it is your home; you live in it, not them.

Small Bathrooms, Big Ideas

A leaky shower head this morning — drenching everything in our tiny bathroom but me — reaffirmed my long held wish for a real walk-in shower and not the kind that’s part of a tub. But we have very limited space (not to mention resources) so here are some examples to consider while I hire a plumber and start saving up.
Architect Jonathan Feldman is particularly adept at coaxing an airy functional elegance out of small bathing spaces. This shower occupies one end of the long narrow room. We don’t really need two shower heads but the idea of using the width of the space as a “shower room” is compelling. Another even more compact ensemble also appeals to me.

The deep window shelf, minimalist materials and fixtures, and natural light coming from two directions give this tiny bathroom a measure of serenity. On the other hand if one must have a bathtub then the Feldman approach seems right.

Again, he cleverly uses the width of the space; this time turning a tub into a liquid bay window (photos by Paul Dyer, courtesy Feldman Architects).
Architect Sarah Susanka used a novel window/mirror combination to make her narrow bathroom seem larger in her Not So Big Prototype 454-3 Plan.

The mirror and the window draw the eye to the end of the bathroom, blurring the edges of the space beside the steps up to the tub. Where there’s a little more space take a look at this example, with a platform tub and  shower, that’s in our Flexahouse Plan 445-3 by architect Nick Noyes.

Though the drawing is schematic you can see the orderly simplicity of the arrangement — there is no wasted space. Or look at a platform tub and shower design by Turnbull Griffin Haesloop Architects.

The skillful use of small mosaic tile to delineate the room-within-the-room make a fairly generous space feel even more open and bright and the skylight above the shower floods both the shower and the tub with light. This idea — of a wet corner — could easily be applied to smaller spaces.  And finally, because it’s summer and I am a fan of the outdoor shower here’s a particularly handsome example, also by the Turnbull firm:

Look closely or you might miss it — the shower is against the leafy wall in a private patio off the master bathroom. Now that’s a place where a plumbing leak could create a geyser and it would be just fine (photos courtesy TGH Architects).

House Plans made EASY!

House Plans
So you're looking for a house plan to build your new home, right? Well, where do you even begin?!

Building your own home is an exciting adventure, but you definitely want to start things off right by getting the right house plan. And that's where we come in -- The Plan Collection is here to help you find a house plan that is right for you.

If you're reading this article, you've probably seen quite a few online house plan sites. In fact, you've probably already been through hundreds -- if not thousands -- of different house plans. We know how frustrating it can be to find a website that boasts tens of thousands of house plans, but once you're on the website, you can't find anything you like. It's really discouraging, isnt it?

Well, we at The Plan Collection like to do things just a little bit differently. Take a look at our homepage; what do you see? Well, there's our house plan search tool, a few featured house plans, and of course, our main article. That's it.

We like to keep things simple, easy, and uncluttered -- that's why we just stick with house plans. We don't need to offer you free t-shirts or baseball caps, like other house plan websites. We don't advertise car insurance or gardening magazines. We at The Plan Collection are committed to helping you find your dream home, so we have designed our website accordingly.

House plans are what we know. House plans are what we love; so that's what we offer -- HOUSE PLANS.

Our Indoor Air

Think about how you spend your days: working, studying, playing, shopping, sleeping. Now think about where you spend your days. Most of us spend at least 80% of our time indoors, and that percentage increases during the winter. So how these indoor environments make us feel really matters.

While we usually think of air pollution as an outdoor phenomenon, the Environmental Protection Agency has found that indoor-air quality is often five times worse - and can be more than 100 times worse - than the air outdoors. In the mid-1980s, the World Health Organization determined that as many as 30% of buildings worldwide have poor indoor-air quality, causing "sick building syndrome" symptoms.

In the past, concern about indoor pollutants centered on the long-term diseases caused by cigarette smoke and by radon, asbestos and lead exposure. While these are still serious issues, health officials have become aware of a broader range of common indoor pollutants.

In many buildings, bad air is often the result of a buildup of fungi, mold and bacteria, which can cause everything from asthma attacks to the deadly Legionnaire's disease. In addition to these biological hazards, various building materials, finishes, furnishings, office equipment, heating systems and household products can create a toxic smog in our dwellings. Some building finishes and furnishings release, or "off-gas," volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, benzene and toluene - known or suspected carcinogens. Some electronic office equipment off-gasses ozone. Gas heaters and stoves release carbon monoxide.

Here are some examples of materials and products that are prime sources of indoor air pollution:

* Building materials: treated wood products such as particle board, adhesives
* Finishes: paint, carpeting
* Furnishings: upholstery fabrics
* Office equipment: copiers, printers, fax machines
* Heating systems: gas heaters and stoves
* Household products: cleaners, detergents, pesticides, air fresheners, perfumes and even those stinky dry-erase markers

Fumes from these materials typically do not make people sick in structures with good air flow. The energy crisis of the 1970s prompted construction of tightly sealed buildings with windows that cannot be opened, and inadequate ventilation. While this did help to conserve energy, it also contributed to the indoor air-quality problems we have today. Ventilation standards have since been raised, but the air quality in your home, school or office may still be poor.

Short of having an indoor-air-quality specialist do an assessment of the buildings where you live and work, here are some things you can do to safeguard your health:

* Open the windows from time to time to get some outside air flowing through the rooms.
* When using paint or chemical products, or bringing new furniture or materials into the building, allow the rooms to air out for a day before occupying them.
* When you're doing renovation work or interior decorating, look for formaldehyde-free particleboard and carpeting and VOC-free paints and adhesives.
* If you're ready to replace your carpet, consider switching to wood or linoleum flooring, since carpets make great habitat for bacteria and mold.
* Keep office equipment, such as copiers and printers, away from the area where you spend the most time.
* Make sure that your heating, ventilation and cooling systems get routine maintenance, such as filter replacement.
* Remove any water-damaged carpeting and ceiling tiles.
* Use a carbon-monoxide detector.
* Keep paints, adhesives, cleaning products and pesticides in well-ventilated areas away from your main living quarters.
* Reduce or eliminate your use of chemical cleaning products, air fresheners, pesticides and other chemical products.
* Buy indoor plants, such as the spider plant and golden pothos, which absorb carbon monoxide and formaldehyde from the air.

Parental Love

Parental love comes in many shapes and it goes to different lengths for each parent. Parental love has different boundaries – ones that nurture and ones that destruct or paralyze. For most parents; they consciously or unconsciously practise both boundaries. The one we as parents need to be more conscious and cautious of is the latter practice when our love for our children is not nurturing their being but paralyzing.
Are you smothering your child or preventing their natural potential to surface and grow?
Are you enforcing an "illusion" that distraughts their beliefs of life?
Where do we draw the line?
When does our love become paralyzing and when does our love become nurturing?
It's a fine gray line for many parents

to walk on.
Quite often you hear parents say they are doing a certain "action" because they love their children – be it good or bad "action". And how much is too much?
When your child "suffocates"; that would probably be one sign we as parents are stepping into the paralyzing zones. Does "suffocating" your child ever work? I don't think so unless you want their being to die slowly within where they no longer know who they are or what is anymore without scrutinizing everything.
Parents who stay together in an unloving relationship because oftheir children…
Are they really NURTURING or paralyzing their children of WHAT IS?
Parents who smother their children and being over protective…
Are they really NURTURING or paralyzing their children of their capabilities to TRUST?
Parents who are overly strict with their children…
Are they really NURTURING or paralyzing their children's GROWTH and POTENTIAL?
Parents who abuse their children…
Are they really NURTURING or paralyzing their children with an illusion of WHAT LOVE IS?
Parents who nag their children endlessly…
Are they really NURTURING or paralyzing their children's PATIENCE from being SUPPORTIVE and EMPATHETIC?
Parents who don't give a damn about other people…
Are they really NURTURING or paralyzing their children from RESPECTING OTHERS?
Parents who have no sense of self worth and love…
Are they really NURTURING or paralyzing their children from SELF WORTHINESS and LOVE?
Parents who live in fear with everything they do…
Are they really NURTURING or paralyzing their children from TRYING THEIR BEST and BEING BRAVE in LIFE?
The list goes on and on. Too much or too little of everything has its consequences – nurturing or damaging.
We are not perfect parents but perfect to the best of our abilities. Sometimes what we think as "being loving" may not always be translated as that by our children. Sometimes we may think "we've done our best"; yet our children do not see as that. Sometimes we think it's in their "best interest" – IS IT? We shouldn't confuse ourselves with "WHAT REALLY IS" and "WHAT I THINK MIGHT or COULD BE" when it comes to our children and "their best interest."
What kind of parents are you?
The nurturing or paralyzing?
Note: This article may not be re-published without prior permission from the author. You may share it through a link to this original article.

United States

In the United States, a "Skilled Nursing Facility" or "SNF" is a nursing home certified to participate in, and be reimbursed by Medicare. Medicare is the federal program primarily for the aged who contributed to Social Security and Medicare while they were employed. A "Nursing Facility" or "NF" is a nursing home certified to participate in, and be reimbursed by Medicaid. Medicaid is the federal program implemented with each State to provide health care and related services to those who are "poor." Each State defines poverty and; therefore, Medicaid eligibility. Those eligible for Medicaid may be aged, disabled or children (e.g. Children's Health Insurance Programs - CHIPs and Maternal-Child wellness and food programs).
In the United States, each State "licenses" its nursing homes, making them subject to the State's laws and regulations. Nursing homes may choose to participate in Medicare and/or Medicaid. If they pass a survey (inspection), they are "certified" and are also subject to federal laws and regulations. All or part of a nursing home may participate in Medicare and/or Medicaid.
In the United States, nursing homes which participate in Medicare and/or Medicaid are required to have licensed practical nurses (LPNs) (in some States designated "vocational nurses" or "LVNs") on duty 24 hours a day. For at least 8 hours per day, 7 days per week, there must be a registered nurse on duty. Nursing homes are managed by a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator. Unlike U.S. nursing there are no standardized training and licensing requirements for administrators, though most states require a Federal License, and many states such as California have their own licensure for administrators. In April 18, 2005 there were a total of 16,094 nursing homes in the United States, down from 16,516 in December 12, 2002.
There are states that have other levels of care offered to elderly and other adults who need assistance and are able to live in the community. For instance, Connecticut has Residential Care Homes or RCH that are licensed by the State Department of Public Health. These homes provide 24-hour supervision and typically offer a more "home-like" environment. Many are actually large homes that have been converted to dwellings that offer a residential community that promotes an independent lifestyle and fosters fellowship with others who need some form of assistance to live in the community. ^[1]

[edit] Services

Services provided in nursing homes include services of nurses, nursing aides and assistants; physical, occupational and speech therapists; social workers and recreational assistants; and room and board. Most care in nursing facilities is provided by certified nursing assistants, not by skilled personnel. In 2004, there were, on average, 40 certified nursing assistants per 100 resident beds. The number of registered nurses and licensed practical nurses were significantly lower at 7 per 100 resident beds and 13 per 100 resident beds, respectively.
Nursing homes that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs are subject to federal requirements regarding staffing and quality of care for residents.^[2] In 2004, 98.5% of the 16,100 nursing facilities nationwide were certified to participate in Medicare, Medicaid, or both.
Medicare covers nursing home services for 20 to 100 days for beneficiaries who require skilled nursing care or rehabilitation services following a hospitalization of at least three consecutive days. The program does not cover nursing care if only custodial care is needed — for example, when a person needs assistance with bathing, walking, or transferring from a bed to a chair. To be eligible for Medicare-covered skilled nursing facility (SNF) care, a physician must certify that the beneficiary needs daily skilled nursing care or other skilled rehabilitation services that are related to the hospitalization, and that these services, as a practical matter, can be provided only on an inpatient basis. For example, a beneficiary released from the hospital after a stroke and in need of physical therapy, or a beneficiary in need of skilled nursing care for wound treatment following a surgical procedure, might be eligible for Medicare-covered SNF care.
SNF services may be offered in a free-standing or hospital-based facility. A freestanding facility is generally part of a nursing home that covers Medicare SNF services as well as long-term care services for people who pay out-of-pocket, through Medicaid, or through a long-term care insurance policy. Generally, Medicare SNF patients make up just a small portion of the total resident population of a free-standing nursing home.
Medicare also covers nursing home care for certain persons who require custodial care, meet a state's means-tested income and asset tests, and require the level-of-care offered in a nursing home. Nursing home residents have physical or cognitive impairments and require 24-hour care.
The cost of staying in a Nursing home can cost several thousand per month or more.^[3] Some deplete their resources on the often high cost of care. If eligible, Medicaid will cover continued stays in nursing home for these individuals for life. However, they require that the patient be "spent down" to a low asset level first by either depleting their life savings or asset-protecting them, often using an elder law attorney.

Beautiful Home

A few weeks ago, we introduced you to what we considered the Top 10 Ridiculous, Obnoxious, and Just Plain Ugly Celebrity Houses. Now, we’re going to do an about-face and show you the homes we believe to be the top ten most beautiful, amazing and unique celebrity homes. While some homes on this list teeter on the border of obnoxious, even the most expensive or largest homes have been saved by tasteful touches. We were not surprised to discover that the most beautiful homes were those that were modest, that seemed to fit into their surroundings, and that supplied just enough panache for each celebrity to call that house a “home.”

The list below is in no particular order. While the home sites are numbered, the numbering does not indicate that we favor one home over another or that they are listed in order of value.



1.Oprah Winfrey: This home, located in Santa Barbara, California, belongs to Oprah Winfrey. The property covers approximately forty-two acres and the house is 23,000 square feet. It has six bedrooms, fourteen bathrooms, ten fireplaces and a home theater. Oprah added a man-made lake stocked with rare fish and she had local Montecito sandstone bricks hand-laid into a quarter-mile long driveway. Although this house is nicknamed, “Oprah’s Hearst Castle,” we like it because of the landscaping, which is meticulous. To Oprah’s credit, this property contains the largest amount of green space in Santa Barbara. Its balanced elegance reminds us somewhat of the famous historic Biltmore estates located in Ashland, North Carolina.

2.Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn: Actors Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell moved to Vancouver, Canada to support their son’s fledgling hockey career. This home, a Tudor-style creation located in the Shaughnessy area, is now on the market again and listed at $5.4 million Canadian. It contains five bedrooms and eleven fireplaces, a gym and a built-in theater room, and the house sports a grand oak paneled entrance hall with fireplace, two dens, new kitchen, private yard and a separate coach house. There is a formal living room and separate dining room, a conservatory, and the master suite contains a separate dressing area. The couple purchased the home in 2002 for $2,995,000, or $1,875,000 US dollars, and its charm and settings make the grade for this list.

3.Madonna: This pop-singer icon made a bid on Ashcombe, the former home of late photographer Cecil Beaton, in 2001. Friends including Rex Whistler, Salvador Dali and Augustus John returned Beaton’s hospitality by painting murals in the house. Located in Wiltshire, England, this 1,200-acre carried a guide price of £9 million. This was the first time that Ashcombe had been for sale on the open market since the First World War. It is an exceptionally private house, hidden in its own valleys which contain one of the country’s best shoots. The pop star learned how to fish, hunt and ride horses, so this home seemed to fit Madonna to a “T” in 2001. The couple also owns a mansion in London, and the Wiltshire property is within easy reach and close to the Wiltshire estate of Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler. They are close friends of the singer and first introduced her to her husband, Guy Ritchie. It appears recently, however, that Madonna has put Aschombe on the market again, this time to the tune of £12 million.

4.George Clooney: This sexy and talented actor purchased this 25-room Italian villa in 2001. Known as Villa Oleandra, it is said to contain an outdoor theater, a large swimming pool and a garage for Clooney’s motorcycles. Italian journalists and tourists swarmed to the small town of Laglio, where this villa is located, when they heard rumors that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie would wed at pal George Clooney’s lakeside estate. Clooney has some illustrious neighbors as well - designer Donatella Versace owns a home on Lake Como near the burial place of her late brother Gianni. Singer Avril Lavigne and husband Deryck Whimbey honeymooned in Lake Como a few years ago as well. Clooney really admires this home and says, “I go there whenever I can. It’s where I wrote Good Night And Good Luck and where I finished the script for Leatherheads. It’s a really peaceful place to go and write.” Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas are regular guests at the mansion, where Clooney also shot scenes for the film, Ocean’s Twelve.

5.Joel Horowitz: The co-founder for Tommy Hilfiger found his home - named Tranquility - in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. This home, conveniently located on the tax-free side of Lake Tahoe, contains a 20,000-square-foot main house that is modeled after a northern European mountain home. It also contains a 3,500-bottle wine cellar, an indoor swimming pool and an atrium as well as a 19-seat movie theater. It also boasts nine bedrooms, fourteen full and five half-baths, a private lake with docks and two par-three golf holes. While this home could be called “ostentatious,” it carries a glamor reminiscent of Europe. The living room features a double-height ceiling adorned with carved beams, large windows at one apse-like end and hand-carved antique fireplaces. The dining room’s floor dates back to the 17th century, and was salvaged from a French chateau. Its ceilings are hand-painted, not with Old World themes, but images of animals indigenous to Lake Tahoe. Want to purchase the home? It’s on the market again for a cool $100 million.