LAKE OF THE WOODS, Calif. People in the mountain town of Lake of the Woods, which straddles the San Andreas Fault, are used to scrapping for water. The lake for which it is named went dry 40 years ago. Now the tiny community is dealing with its most unsettling threat yet: It could run out of water by summer.

As of last week, two of the five wells drilled into the dry lake bed that serve the towns 300 homes were producing water. The mountains of the nearby Los Padres National Forest got their first dusting of snow and it was a light one last week; it is the winter snow that feeds the wells come spring.

People are watering trees with discarded dishwater, running the washing machine once a week and letting carefully tended beds of flowers and trees wither into patches of dusty dirt.

There are scenes all across California that illustrate the power of the drought. A haze of smog, which normally would be washed away by winter rains, hung over Los Angeles this week. Beekeepers near Sacramento said the lack of wildflowers has deprived bees of a source of food, contributing to a worrisome die-off. Across the rich farmland of the San Joaquin Valley, fields are going unplanted.

But for 17 small, rural communities in California, the absence of rain is posing a fundamental threat to the most basic of services: drinking water. And Lake of the Woods, a middle-class enclave 80 miles from downtown Los Angeles, a mix of commuters, retirees and weekend residents, is one of the most seriously threatened. Signs along its dusty roadways offer red-on-white warnings of a Water Emergency, and plead for conservation.

I didnt think it would come to this, said Diane Gustafson, manager of the Lake of the Woods Mutual Water Co., as she greeted a team of county and state officials reviewing the communitys request for emergency funds to drill more holes. Our wells are so deep. I have lived here for 40 years, and this is the first time weve had a problem like this.

Nothing has helped ease the water crisis: not the yearlong ban on watering lawns and washing cars, not the conscientious homeowners who clean their dishes in the sink and reuse the gray water on trees, not even the 3 inches of rain that soaked the area last weekend. Three attempts to drill new wells, going down 500 feet, have failed.

For a while, Lake of the Woods bought water from Frazier Park, 5 miles up the road, but that community halted sales as its water table dropped. Now the community is trying to line up alternatives, and fast. State officials predict the existing water supply will last no more than three months.

The town, which covers an unincorporated square-mile of Kern County and has a population of about 900, says it is prepared to truck in water should the wells run dry, an expensive remedy it employed briefly during a dry spell last year and which now looms as a potential fact of life.

Bob Stowell, a general contractor who is the unpaid chairman of the board of the water company, promises that no faucets in Lake of the Woods will go dry.

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Dry California town struggles to save water

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How to find the right Interior Decorator in Kolkata ?
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Pnina Wilkins, an interior designer and past president of Hadassah, died Feb. 22 of heart failure at Seasons Hospice in Randallstown. She was 90.

The daughter of Benjamin Laikin, a wiping cloths manufacturer, and Anna Golomb Laikin, a homemaker, Pnina Laikin was born in Baltimore and later moved with her family to Detroit.

After graduating from high school in Detroit, she attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison for a year. She left Wisconsin after she met her future husband, Stanley Wilkins, in Atlantic City, N.J., during a family vacation.

The couple married in 1943, and after living for a few years in Detroit, moved to Mount Airy and then to Pikesville in 1963.

After owning several businesses, Mr. Wilkins went to work in the automobile business in 1950 and founded Wilkins Buick Inc. in Glen Burnie in 1969, which is now Wilkins Automotive. During the 1970s, he established Wilkins Yacht Sales in Edgewater that specialized in selling Hatteras Yachts.

Mrs. Wilkins, an interior decorator, was the founder in the 1980s of Bay Country Interiors, Dibert/Wilkins Associates of Towson, that designed residential interiors and later yacht interiors.

She was a longtime member and served as president of the Baltimore chapter of Hadassah from 1975 to 1977.

A resident of Pikesville for more than 50 years, she was an accomplished pianist and studied at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. She also designed and made jewelry and her own clothes.

Later in life, she designed and produced luxurious multi-colored blankets, throws and shawls, that combined wool, silk and cotton yarns.

Mrs. Wilkins and her husband, who died in 2001, enjoyed spending time on the Arrowhead, their 61-foot yacht.

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Pnina Wilkins, interior designer

Thursday, March 6, 2014, by Sarah Firshein

Photo courtesy of the Kips Bay Decorator Show House

NYCThis year's Kips Bay Decorator Show House, the decades-old annual project in which interior designers kit out an absurdly lavish mansion, will take over the north wing of the Villard Mansion, an 1884 McKim, Mead & White design that was renovated in 2011 and is currently seeking retail tenants. The list of designers hasn't been announced yet, but it's safe to assume these 20+ rooms within the Renaissance-style structure will be filled to the brim with gold-leaf Venetian plaster, geometric ombr sinks, fish-themed wallpaper, and other such typical Kips Bay flourishes. The showhouse opens to the public on May 1; proceeds from ticket sales will benefit the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club youth organization. [CurbedWire Inbox]

NYCHouse Beautiful's fifth annual Chair Chase will take place this Wed., March 12 in New York. The magazine's going for an eco-friendly twist this time around: all 20 chairs are sustainably produced by manufacturers ranging from Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams to Kravet. Follow House Beautiful on Twitter (@HouseBeautiful) on Wednesday for clues about where in the city these pretty perches landas always, it's finders, keepers. More info, right this way. [CurbedWire Inbox]

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CurbedWire: Kips Bay Decorator Show House; House Beautiful's Chairs

TAMPA A day after Gov. Rick Scott made a $194 million pledge to help pay for the biggest expansion in Tampa International Airport history, the board that governs the airport cut its first big check for the project.

The Hillsborough County Aviation Authority voted Thursday to pay Austin Commercial up to $29.9 million to design and oversee construction of the newest additions to the airport.

The board approved nearly $1billion in new construction in April, then voted in December to hire the Texas firm to design and build the project by 2017. Austin will get $27.1 million for the job and can be reimbursed up to $2.8million for expenses.

Austin pledged to hire Tampa Bay workers and firms, something Hillsborough Commissioner Victor Crist, who is on the board, said he will keep an eye on.

"I'm going to be watching you closely," Crist said. "If you don't make me happy, I won't make you happy later."

The plan calls for the airport to build the Tampa Gateway Center, a five-story, 2.3 million-square-foot car rental and retail facility south of the main terminal, by the economy parking garage. The new building will be connected to the terminal by a 1.3-mile people mover. The purpose of the new building is to move the car rental counters and cars out of the main terminal, freeing up space to expand the terminal in the future.

The total cost of the project is expected to be $943 million. Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday he's earmarked 21 percent of that cost $194 million in his next transportation budget, which has to be approved by the legislature. The airport will finance the rest.

The airport will pay for the rest of the $749 million cost of the project with bonds. On Thursday, it voted to approve new car rental fees to help finance some of that debt.

The board raised a rental car fee and approved a new fee. It voted to double its customer facility charge, or CFC, fee for each vehicle rented at the airport from $2.50 to $5 per day.

It also voted to institute a new fee, a transportation facility charge, or TFC, of $2 that will be charged for each off-airport rental per day. The new fee will be a condition imposed on rental companies that do business with the airport but are based off-site.

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Tampa International Airport cuts first $29.9 million check for expansion

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BRECKSVILLE, OH - A woman from Brecksville was just beside herself after she said she kept getting the cold shoulder from Lowe's about carpet installation. She contacted the 5 On Your Side Solutions Center for help after two months went by and no customer satisfaction.

Joni Robinson moved into her Brecksville condo four years ago and had brand new carpet installed by Lowe's. She was happy with the carpet when it was done initially. I loved the carpet and had no problems at that point," Robinson told us.

Fast forward about a year and a half, Robinson said she started noticing big wrinkles in the carpet. She called Lowe's and they came out to fix the problems. She told us she did some research and realized that the installers didn't use a power stretcher during the initial installation. "I kind of thought that was where (the wrinkles were) coming from, but thought that maybe it was a one-time deal and we would be over and done with," said Robinson.

But after that first stretching, about a year-and-a-half later more problems show up with the carpet and more stretching needed to be done.

Robinson said she called Lowe's over and over and got no response. She finally got a call saying she would have to pay for someone to come out and fix it. At her wits end she contacted us. We then called Lowe's corporate headquarters about the carpet. Then Robinson's phone rang.

"Three phone calls of We're so sorry. We stand behind our product. We know there was a problem and you are 100% correct," said Robinson.

Now an installer is set to come out to Robinsons condo.

"I want to say thank you, said Robinson. Thank you very much for stepping in and making them listen to the fact that there was a problem. And that they need to come out and take care of it, she added.

Lowe's was quick to respond to Robinson's problem after we got involved and they tell us they will address the carpet issues.

On your side advice: When you deal with a big box store, ask who the installer will be and that way you can do your own research about the contractor.

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Advice about dealing with big box stores