Finding a kitchen designer in Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the centre for many things, festivals for one, museums? Art Galleries aplenty. In fact when it comes to high class design houses, Edinburgh has a huge array to choose from. The same (bear with me here) can be said for Kitchen Designs. OK, you can get an economical kitchen from a large DIY outlet, it'll have factory quality finishes and will require replacing in 12 years or so, but will it be truly original? Enter the real experts, bespoke kitchen designers. Choosing from the number of Kitchen Designers in Edinburgh may seem like a daunting task initially. Opening up a phone book or doing a web search may lead you to the designer, however great designers come by recommendation and referral routes - there simply is nothing quite like a word of mouth recommendation for the best kitchen designer. Once you get an idea who to engage it becomes a whole lot easier to make an educated choice about who to use, particuarly one who will take into account full planning and layout and will stick to your budget.

So how do you find such a good Kitchen Designer, particularly a bespoke kitchen designer in Edinburgh? One of the best ways to find the right person who will provide first class guidance and design services is, ask. Ask everyone, your friends or family who have recently had their kitchens replaced and ask about their experiences. More importantly if you have found a decent looking kitchen designer, go them directly and get some insight into the planning process and get testimonials. Also sit down and have a coffee and a chat - if you believe you can work with the designer, all the better!

Choosing from the sheer volume of kitchen designers you find may actually be quite easy, prepare your list of services you are looking for in your kitchen designer, the type of kitchen design you want, and a budget outline for the work you can afford and present it to them, any designer worth their salt will try their best to make a decision whether you can afford them or if you are looking in the right place. As cost is the primary limitation for a lot of people, decent early on which area of the kitchen you want to focus on, if it's worktops or finishes or just the best quality appliances then be true to yourself, you're investing a lot of money in this, so demand the best.

Preparing your list and then taking the time to ask friends, family and the designer themselves about their experience can make finding a Kitchen Designer in Edinburgh so much easier than you probably expected!

jQuery Window Handler (target="_blank")

I love jQuery. I make no bones about it - it's been a revelation for many developers who want to utilise code blocks as reusable elements and by golly it does speed up development both client-side and server-side!

However there are occasions when the traditional view on using "legacy" HTML is sometimes the only way we can perceive a solution. Take this example - we had a colleague who was at his wits end as he'd spent ages trying to use the good ole image map for a map of Scotland to make a clickable map for guest houses. All very well and easy to do. Problem was that the code used another jQuery handler to overlay a replacement map of the area clicked to make it look pretty which in turn played havoc with the internal target="_blank" directive.

After much swearing he dropped me a note to see if we could help. We took a look at the code and it all seemed fairly ok and we encountered the same problem, wtf was going on here, we couldn't use the traditional means above nor could we see how the href wasn't being looked at by the jQuery function.

After much looking and wondering (god bless Stack Overflow, by far one of the best troubleshooting websites ever) we pulled together a code block which may suit one or two others who have need of it.

Image Map Code:

<map name="mymap" id="map">
<area coords="6, 234, 17, 235, 35, 205, 37, 22, 44, 163, 56, 152, 76, 122, 82, 115, 80, 91, 66, 83, 28, 183, 25, 137, 22, 151, 7, 160, 7, 179, 16, 181" class="newWindow" href="#" rel="http://www.bbc.co.uk" id="12" shape="poly" alt="altname" title="title" />

</map>

We added the class to the area to make it a little easier to pass into the jQuery function

jQuery:

$('.newWindow').click(function(e){
e.preventDefault();
var url = $(this).attr('rel');
window.open(url, "_blank");
return false;
});

So, basically, breaking down the code the following happens:

$('.newWindow').click(function(e){ //render a new function each time the class newWindow is clicked

e.preventDefault(); //stop any links from working (note this could probably be left out, we kept it in for convenience)

var url = $(this).attr('rel'); //create a variable "url" from the rel value on the area

window.open(url, "_blank"); //good ole JS to handle the window event

return false; //stop other shit from happening

So, in summary, the little function allows image maps to open URLs in a new window by making the existing link a # (null) link and placing the URL into the rel tag. Grabbing the rel tag into the url variable we push that into the window.open event and voila the target="_blank" emulator kicks in.

There are probably numerous ways of doing this but I thought this may help some poor troubled soul out!

Scripts pooled from various links including

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4813879/window-open-target-self-v-window-location-href

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/970388/jquery-disable-a-link

Getting a Landscaper in Edinburgh

Many homeowners love the idea of landscaping their gardens or surrounding land (depending on size) since it is one way of increasing the value of their property. You may have a beautiful home, but an untidy front garden makes it look boring and less homey. By hiring a professional landscaper, you will be able to achieve a perfect design to make a bold statement about who you are, as well as adding value to your property.

One of the many my someone would choose not to hire a profession landscaper is largely down to cost. This is one of those situations where experience speaks volumes and it really does boil down to "are you prepared to spend many weekends getting dirty" against an initial outlay which can pave the way for long term ease of maintenance.

There are many reasons to hire a professional Landscaping Company in Edinburgh. Here are just a few that you should bear in mind:

Unnecessary Expenditure

It's a fact that some landscaping projects can amount to many hundreds. This usually involves professional fees, labour charge, and materials. However, if you compare the cost of trying to undertake the project yourself; hiring machinery, tools and equipment that will basically be used once, making poor choices of plants (and any other features like ponds or rockeries) and the potential for falling behind on the project as well, you'd be better spending a little bit and getting professional service.

Do you really know where to put that thing?

As mentioned above the "unnecessary costs", there is also potential risk for things to go wrong. If you are not great with the planning of proper landscaping projects, then maybe leave it to the experts. There is a real chance that you can do damage to your home or the existing plants, lawns and other parts of your garden. Landscapers can plan and design a beautiful garden for especially for your home, focussing on a larger picture. A full and open discussion will be part of the process.

So, you're an expert huh?

Don't get me wrong, if you've a limited budget or the necessary know-how then perhaps doing the landscaping yourself may be a solution, especially if it only involves basic planting,pruning or moving furniture about. But if it will involve major paving, patio design or building of walls, it's probably best to let the experts do it. Any decent landscaper will know the correct processes, tools or machinery, materials, and how to manage the schedule to maximsie the landscape design for your property.

Having recently completed a website for John Lessels Ltd, a Midlothian Landscaping Company covering Edinburgh and the Lothians, I thought it might be a nice touch to present my thoughts.