The Nuts and Bolts: Connect Instantly With DIY Experts Via New App

Meet Fountain, a Home Expert in Your Pocket

From the founder of Mint.com, meet Fountain, an iOS app that helps you whenever you're stuck on any home & garden project by connecting you with a highly rated expert instantly over live video chat.

Think of it as having an expert in your pocket that you can work with one-on-one through video chat, text and photos with annotation. You can show a room to an interior designer with live HD video and talk through options, prices, and style choices. Or, work with a gardener on implementing organic or biodynamic practices. Leaky faucets, dying plants, IKEA assembly gone awry…people have little recourse but to spend hours Googling solutions or spend their hard-earned money and limited time on waiting for contractors to fix the issue. With Fountain, that can change.

To download the app and bypass the beta wait list, visit this link via your smart phone or tablet: https://www.fountain.com/login

American Society of Landscape Architects Annual Meeting & EXPO To Have 130 Educational Sessions

The 2014 Annual Meeting and EXPO of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), held Friday to Monday, Nov. 21-24, 2014 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, is expected to draw more than 5,000 attendees, and will feature almost 500 exhibitors. The theme is "Resilience."

Keynote speakers include environmental justice activist Robert D. Bullard and a panel on landscape architecture on TV featuring veteran hosts, producers and programmers of hit home improvement shows: landscape architect and Grounds for Improvement co-host Dean Hill, ASLA;architect and the host of the HGTV hit show Curb Appeal John Gidding; nine-time Emmy winning producer Mila Holt of JOHLT Productions; network executive Steven Lerner, senior vice president of programming for HGTV, DIY Network, and Great American Country; and Academy Award-winning producer Michael Williams of Green Harbor Productions.

More than 130 education sessions are offered on such topics as agriculture and local food production, green roofs and living walls, healthcare and therapeutic design, parks and recreation design, plants and soils, sustainable design, transportation and complete streets, urban design, stormwater management, and wetlands. All sessions are approved for continuing education credit with the Landscape Architecture Continuing Education System, and many are also approved by AIA, AICP and USGBC/GBCI.

For advance press registration, contact Karen Grajales at ktgrajales@asla.org and include your press affiliation, audience/circulation, business address and email/phone. Press passes provide working journalists access to the EXPO floor, general sessions, education sessions, and the working press room with computers, internet access and refreshments.

TerraMai Launches New Era in Reclaimed Wood

TerraMai pioneers a new evolution in reclaimed wood with the launch of its Commercial Line, which now makes reclaimed wood viable for large-scale budget-sensitive projects such as hotel chains, retail rollouts, residential developments and other high-volume projects.

The new line delivers the classic looks and timeless appeal of prefinished reclaimed wood floors and walls in large quantities of tens of thousands of square feet at budget-conscious prices around $10 per square foot. This breakthrough defies existing perceptions of reclaimed wood as a high-priced product with limited availability and opens up new markets like large resorts, restaurant chains, condominium towers and more.

"We are leveraging our extensive international network of sourcing and mill partners along with our own full-service mill to offer classic reclaimed wood aesthetics at prices and quantities that allow designers to use reclaimed wood throughout large-scale projects like hotels and retail rollouts," said Ken Westrick, TerraMai's owner and CEO.

The new line features 18 products in a range of looks, from rustic to highly refined, and a variety of species including teak, walnut, redwood and oak. All of the products are FSC-certified reclaimed. Each comes prefinished and ready to install with no additional onsite finishing expense, time or hassle. Virtually all of the products are available with short lead times of one to four weeks, depending on quantities. This is another key advantage for designers and builders accustomed to long lead times for reclaimed wood.

For more information, visit TerraMai.com.