A vacuum elevator in your own home

Why would you need an elevator in your home?

There are many reasons people might have for having an elevator installed in their residence.

1. You might have a handicap that requires you to be in a wheelchair
2. You might need assistance going up the stairs due to knee or foot problems
3. You might be so overweight that the stairs just aren't an option anymore
4. Your house might be too small to accommodate a staircase whereas an elevator would take up less space
5. You might want the extra comfort of being able to take the elevator when you're tired
6. You may just want to show off as it's cool to have your own elevator.
7. You might need to shuttle stuff up and down in your house, like if the kitchen is downstairs

Surely this list isn't exhaustive and whatever your reason for installing an elevator in your house is valid as well. The reality is that more and more people are choosing to install a residential elevator.

How does a vacuum elevator work

The vacuum elevator is very different from the classic, counterweighted pull up mechanism that we all know as elevators. Instead it uses vacuum suction to transport you up and down the shaft. It's limited in that it can only lift you a maximum of 35 feet, but this is not a problem for most homes. You get into a type of cylinder that encloses you. The cylinder is inside a tube and in order to hoist you up, the air is sucked out of the tube above you creating a vacuum and you're pulled upward by the vacuum. Getting down is the same process but in reverse, air is gradually let back in the upper part of the tube and you're lowered down to ground level.

The system is extremely safe, with mechanical handbrakes installed just in case anything should go wrong and I think it's just simply beautiful too.

My experience with the vacuum elevator

A friend of mine is in a wheelchair. Has been pretty much all her life and she's not one to take such a thing lying down. She was born completely spastic and the doctors told her parents that she'd never amount to anything. Well, that doctor couldn't have been more wrong. Her father took it as a challenge and she picked up that baton after she became adult. When she was 15 she was in a special care hospital where they would help her with anything and everything and she had to fight to keep doing things for herself so she wouldn't lose the muscle control she had spent half her life gaining.

At 16 she was organizing mixed parties at the institute (mixed in the sense that there were handicapped and non handicapped people attending, and boys and girls of course). She fell in love with a handsome, non-handicapped man and they got a home together. Then she got pregnant and needed a bigger home. She didn't have a lot of money but she had a big dream. To have her house be a model for handicapped housing everywhere and with her smartphone she contacted architects and contractors galore and with shrewd bussiness sense and a lot of determination she now owns a beautiful two story home which is fully wheelchair accessible.

When installing her vacuum elevator she had a bit of a discussion with the builder. He wanted to install it so that she could go from the ground floor to the second floor only. "No need to go into the basement" he said. She nearly threw a fit! She was livid as it was her intent that she have a fully accessible home. Of course she got what she wanted, she's that kind of woman.

Anyway, the elevator moves smoothly and her rather large electric wheelchair fits it without any problem. Her daughter uses the elevator as well and proudly shows it off to her friends.
"There are advantages to having a handicapped mom" she tells them.

Wheelchair safe and luxurious to behold

Aside from residential installations the vacuum elevator is also being installed in buildings like a cinema. It's limited capacity is more than offset by the limited space it occupies and it's beauty. The installation is quite simple and the folks at vacuum elevators are working closely together with architects to make sure that your installation is working properly and installed beautifully into your home.

There's a type of turbine at the top that provides the suction that lifts the cabin but other than that no unsightly machinery, no basement full of bulky equipment to make room for
.

A nose job without surgery

Rhinoplastic surgery

Up untill recently the only way to get your nose fixed was by rhinoplastic surgery. The procedure sounds like something out of a horror movie and the only reason it was so popular in it´s time is the fact that people will do almost anything to look good and feel confident about themselves. Having a nose that is different from other peoples noses is seen as a liability by a lot of folks. For most people, fitting in is a very important thing, much more important in fact than the pain and suffering from plastic surgery.

Just so you know what we´re talking about... During the procedure an incision is made in the nose bone. In some cases (for instance if the nose has been broken before and is set crooked) the nose will be re-broken. This is how important fitting in and looking 'normal' is to some people: they've allready had their nose broken once, by accident. They know how excruciatingly painful a broken nose can be. And yet they have their nose broken again in order to make it look straight! Even without breaking the bone, the procedure involves chipping away at the bone to make it the shape that the patient wants it to be.

People who've had their nose done in such a way can be recognized for weeks by the two shiners they will have: bruising around the eyes from the procedure. If all goes well however, the bruising will disappear and the swelling of the new nose will go down in two or three weeks and all will be well.

All in all, I'm glad to be able to report that in many cases, this is not necessary anymore. Now you can have non surgical rhinoplasty Beverly Hills!

No more cutting into healthy bodies

I'm not against plastic surgery alltogether but I do think it's important to note that I'm not in favor of cutting into healthy body's for the sake of esthetics alone. Sure, if you're disfigured, horribly burned and people stare at you a lot... well I can imagine the individual choosing to have surgery done.

*rant warning*

I do believe however that we as a society need to take a close look at ourselves and examine why we find ourselves staring at people who aren't 'average' or even 'model-like' and judging people by their looks alone. I believe that it's time to re-examine what we've done in our advertising imagery, our entertainment industry, actually our whole culture. Where is the newsreader with a discoloration of the skin? How about: let's have our anchormen and women be a reflection of the range of ages that our society in general has? How can we ever hope to combat the excesses of things like anorexia if we're shunning people who are different from the standard Hollywood sizes.

*rant over*

Going it without surgery

With the new techniques and procedures rhinoplasty Beverly Hills is no longer a painful, horror story and we can do away with that, refer it to the history books, back into a time when, haha, people thought surgery was the only way to improve your noses look. Instead a filler is injected into the nose, smoothing over any bumps. Sure, it's still a little painful, but not anywhere near the former procedure.

The results are also more natural looking. Let's face it, nobody wants to see a nose like the one Michael Jackson had in the end, no matter whether it was done by surgery or perhaps some sort of weird illness, whichever the cause might be. Let it be said, I don't do the Michael Jackson bashing thing. I think he was a talented artist and perhaps a troubled soul. His history, the abuse at the hands of his father, all reasons for me to pay my respect to the man who, at the very least, gave us a lot of great songs. (even if there were bad/criminal things he was accused of and perhaps guilty of, there's no reason to throw out the good with the bad)

More natural looking noses, where bumps from earlier injury are smoothed over. Not making the nose smaller per se, but making it look more natural, more fitting to the face. This is the kind of thing where with a minimum of effort and pain, you can gain a lot.

In addition to the procedure being less invasive, less painful and less labor intensive, it's also cheaper, bring that perfect nose within reach of many more people than just the happy Hollywood rich and famous crowd.