Royal flush: how toilet paper shortages fuelled an interest in high end 'smart toilets'

Though they’ve been big in Japan for decades, Covid-19 has accelerated Australians’ curiosity about ‘alternative toileting devices’

Before the Great Toilet Paper Shortage, alternative means of washing were not top of mind for most Australians. We laughed at the eccentricity of the French with their peculiar, rather-too-intimately fastidious bidets. Then, in March, Google searches for bidets skyrocketed by at least 1,000%.

Having a French mother, I was more familiar with their low slung, stocky design, but not with its origins. I always assumed it had been invented by a Monsieur Bidet. But non, it turns out that the word originates from the term for a pony which makes sense, given that it is straddled like one.

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Coronavirus outbreak will halt 520,000 UK house sales in 2020

Freeze on transactions will cut sales by 38% with wide-ranging knock-on effects for economy, warns leading agency

More than 520,000 UK home sales will be abandoned this year, after the government ordered a temporary freeze on the housing market last month due to the coronavirus outbreak, new research shows.

Property consultancy Knight Frank said the 38% drop in the number of house sales in 2020 would have a ripple effect across the property industry, hitting retailers, removal companies and even government coffers.

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How not to get caught out with first-time buyer stamp duty exemption Nottingham Estate Agents

Exemption from stamp duty has undoubtedly been a boon for many first-time buyers but a lot of property purchasers who thought they were eligible are still finding they have to pay the tax. That’s the verdict of Simon Nosworthy, Head of Residential Conveyancing at Osbornes Law, who writes here for OnTheMarket about how home buyers […]

The post How not to get caught out with first-time buyer stamp duty exemption appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

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Old master makeover: an art history fan's dream home

In a five-floor house on a leafy square, an art history fan has created his dream home – a Georgian blend of English and Dutch styling

Glimpsed through half-open doors, the panelled rooms of Frank Hollmeyer’s Georgian terraced house remind you of a Dutch old master painting. Light slants across wooden floors; paintings and porcelain are arranged as if in a painting by Vermeer. For Hollmeyer, an art historian by training, those 17th-century artists excelled “at intimate scenes of everyday domesticity, where everything feels composed”.

It’s an approach he’s applied here. The five-storey house, set on a shady garden square in south London, is Hollmeyer’s “canvas”. It’s where he takes a quiet pleasure in re-ordering books or piling a blue and white Delft bowl with fruit, like an artist tweaking a composition.

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Old master makeover: an art history fan's dream home

In a five-floor house on a leafy square, an art history fan has created his dream home – a Georgian blend of English and Dutch styling

Glimpsed through half-open doors, the panelled rooms of Frank Hollmeyer’s Georgian terraced house remind you of a Dutch old master painting. Light slants across wooden floors; paintings and porcelain are arranged as if in a painting by Vermeer. For Hollmeyer, an art historian by training, those 17th-century artists excelled “at intimate scenes of everyday domesticity, where everything feels composed”.

It’s an approach he’s applied here. The five-storey house, set on a shady garden square in south London, is Hollmeyer’s “canvas”. It’s where he takes a quiet pleasure in re-ordering books or piling a blue and white Delft bowl with fruit, like an artist tweaking a composition.

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It’s harvest time for nutritious, tasty weeds | James Wong

Show a little old-fashioned ingenuity and dine like a prince on foraged plants

It’s amazing how quickly everyday things can suddenly come to feel quite extraordinary. After queuing for 45 minutes to do my weekly food shop, walking through the supermarket doors felt strangely emotional – the sight of such bewildering choice, particularly of fruit and veg, stopped me in my tracks. Despite having seen this thousands of times before, the ability of the modern food system to offer up such plenty, even in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, really felt like a minor miracle.

Many traditionally foraged foods have disappeared from our diets

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It’s harvest time for nutritious, tasty weeds | James Wong

Show a little old-fashioned ingenuity and dine like a prince on foraged plants

It’s amazing how quickly everyday things can suddenly come to feel quite extraordinary. After queuing for 45 minutes to do my weekly food shop, walking through the supermarket doors felt strangely emotional – the sight of such bewildering choice, particularly of fruit and veg, stopped me in my tracks. Despite having seen this thousands of times before, the ability of the modern food system to offer up such plenty, even in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, really felt like a minor miracle.

Many traditionally foraged foods have disappeared from our diets

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