Attend it
Anyone building a deck or concerned about the safety of an existing one might want to see what a deck in serious distress actually looks like. A group of deck safety experts will stage a live deck collapse at 10 a.m. Saturday [May 31] at The Home Depot in Evanston. And at 1 p.m., homeowners will have the do’s and don’ts spelled out for them in a free clinic (also held at the store) explaining the five warning signs of an unsafe deck along with tips for building a safer, stronger deck. The event is part of a consumer education effort led by university researchers, the North American Deck and Railing Association, the American Society of Home Inspectors and Simpson Strong-Tie, a California-based manufacturer of structural connectors for homes and decks.
The Home Depot, 2201 Oakton St., Evanston, 847-733-9200.
— Karen Klages
Recycle it
If you have an old cell phone you don’t want, let it help a senior citizen or victim of domestic violence. Cell phones can reach 911 even without a service plan, so the Ravenswood Community Council collects them, erases all the memory except for the 911 capability and distributes them to people, mostly seniors, who might need them to call for emergency assistance. “I think most everybody has extra cell phones lying around from old plans they’ve had,” says executive director Chris Schickles. Donating the phones — which contain toxic metals — will keep them out of landfills, at least for a while. The program is funded by a city of Chicago grant, so seniors citywide can request phones. Drop off phones and chargers or mail them (well-padded) to the Ravenswood Community Council, 1756 W. Wilson Ave., Chicago, IL 60604.
For more information, call 773-784-0400 or see ravens woodcommunity.org (and check out the June 16 green homes workshop).
— Beth Botts
Shop it
Flavour cooking school in Forest Park is having its second annual Food Drive & Big Sale on Saturday and June 1. Check out the sale prices on items such as Le Creuset and All-Clad cookware and summer grilling accessories, and while you’re there, drop off a food donation to benefit the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Bring in 10 non-perishable food items during those two days, and get a coupon you can use to sign up for a demonstration class in June or July for just $10. Bring in a 10-item donation from June 2 through 8 and get a coupon for 20 percent off any non-discounted merchandise in the store.
7401 W. Madison St., Forest Park, 708-488-0808.
— Cindy Dampier
Attend it
The lakeshore community of Union Pier, Mich., is the setting for a day of second-home ideas, shopping and inspiration this Saturday [May 31]. It’s the 2nd annual Revive Your Retreat event, held at Susan Fredman’s At Home with Nature. Scheduled throughout the day are trunk shows from sponsors Kohler, Wood-Mode, Kravet and Colori Chicago, as well as lectures from Chicago rug expert Oscar Tatosian, Master Gardener Roger Boike, Chicago Home + Garden magazine columnist Dennis Rodkin, and more.
Free. Hours: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. EST. 15998 Red Arrow Hwy., Union Pier, Mich. 269-469-9640. susanfredman.com/events
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— Shaila Wunderlich
See it
Few people will have the chance to live in a 9,000-square-foot home, but beginning this weekend [May 31 through Sept. 21], all will have the chance to see one. The Scottish Manor is the latest showhouse to be developed by Orren Pickell Designers & Builders. The spec home was built on one of 10 lots in Tarns of the Moor, Pickell’s sprawling, wooded luxury development in Bannockburn. The six-bedroom, five-bath, three half-bath home has been fully designed and furnished by Lincolnshire interior design firm K-HAUS and will be on the market during the three-month open house event. Some of the home’s more spectacular features include a reclaimed barn-wood ceiling in the kitchen, an authentic Scottish pub in the basement, arched windows throughout, stone and Acacia wood floors, and a handcrafted staircase. If you can’t make it to the showhouse, keep an eye out for Chicago magazine’s August issue and Chicago Home + Garden magazine’s August/September issue, which will feature the house.
Free. Hours: 4 to 8 p.m. Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, or by appointment. 30 Aberdeen Ct., Bannockburn. 888-742-5355.
— S.W.
Read it / Display it
They’re not your garden-variety garden books. Two handsome reprints of classics from the 19th and 20th Centuries — classics that meld the worlds of garden and design — recently were released by publishers who have turned these volumes into spectacular art books, as well.
The more wordy of the two is a reissue of Edith Wharton’s gem from 1904, “Italian Villas and Their Gardens” (Rizzoli New York in association with The Mount Press, 270 pages, $35). Better known as a novelist, Wharton also was quite the authority on interior and landscape design. And in this book, she threw her love of travel into the mix and explored 75 Italian villas and their Renaissance gardens, gathering information about the Italian gardening experience and later putting it into practice in her own country estate, called The Mount, in Massachusetts.
Rizzoli reproduced every detail of Wharton’s original 1904 volume and included all of the original plates including 26 paintings by renowned American painter and illustrator Maxfield Parrish. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book goes to support restoration efforts at The Mount.
The second reissue is “Plants and Their Application to Ornament: A Nineteenth-Century Design Primer” (Chronicle Books, 104 pages, $35) by Eugene Grasset, a Swiss-born, Paris-based graphic designer, teacher and author of graphic textbooks that became an inspiration for the late 19th Century Art Nouveau movement.
This is one of those graphic texts/pattern books (first published in 1897) filled not with words but exquisite color illustrations of flowering plants. Grasset, a champion of using natural forms as a basis for decorative motifs, directed nine of his students in producing these illustrations, explains David Becker in the book’s finely written introduction.
This book is just plain beautiful to look at; we like the idea of leaving it open on a coffee table or propped open in a holder, turning it into an objet d’art.
— K.K.
Surf it
Different areas of your garden may need different amounts of water, say the experts at Quamut.com. Parts that are in direct sunlight need more water than those that get a lot of shade, and windy areas need more because wind increases water evaporation. This and other useful advice can be found in articles for beginner gardeners at quamut.com/quamut/gardening(underscore)b asics. They are part of Quamut.com, a Web site of professionally written how-to advice on many topics from the publisher Barnes & Noble Inc. Another reliable site for professionally written gardening information is About.com.
— B.B.
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