Amanda and Joe Boyle had big expectations when they built their Katy home: It had to be both elegant and indestructible.

The Boyles have a 5-year-old daughter, a 2-year-old son and a 10-year-old Labradoodle named Gus. So in 2013, when construction began on their five-bedroom, 5,000-square-foot home in Cinco Ranch, they enlisted the help of Karen Davis.

Davis specializes in designing interiors that are stain-resistant and "family-friendly." She calls her business Marker Girl because her own daughter, at age 2, had a tendency to use a Sharpie on herself and the furniture. That "marker girl" phase made Davis find ways to accommodate the unavoidable spills and messes of life with young children.

In the Boyles' home, which was finished last year, the family spends time together in several spaces, both upstairs and down. "We're all over, really, and that's what I really like about this house," Amanda Boyle says. That means several rooms needed durable furniture, stain-resistant textiles and an easy way to hide clutter. And the couple didn't want to compromise on style.

The living-room furniture is an inviting mix of pale blues and neutrals, the sort of colors that really show ink marks and juice drips. But Davis had them upholstered with Sunbrella fabrics, a woven fabric that can be cleaned. The soft rug that defines the conversation area is carpet made by Stainmaster. More stain-resistant carpet lines the main staircase and covers the floor in the playroom and the upstairs game room.

Built-ins abound too, so the children's toys can be tucked out of sight and don't litter the floor. Even the home's mud room has cabinets to hide the jackets and nap mats, backpacks and shoes that collect as the kids come and go. "That's one thing in our old house my husband hated," Boyle says. "There was a planning center by our back door, but everything was just thrown there."

Also downstairs, the couple's master bathroom includes two spacious walk-in closets with adjustable shelves and built-in drawers so that Boyle and her husband, an attorney, each have plenty of storage as well as a dressing area. The bathroom area itself was designed to be a retreat; a soaring ceiling, pale blue walls and large frosted windows make it light, bright and soothing, while Quartzite countertops and a chandelier add glamour. A deep-drop tub is the space's centerpiece - "not that I get to use it very often," Boyle says with a laugh.

The Boyles do use the media room upstairs, with its Kincaid sectional and ottoman, every day. "This is kind of our 'before bed' place," Boyle says. "The kids have their baths, we watch a little TV before bed, and my husband gets home about that time, so he'll come in here and hang out."

The game room next door is another natural gathering spot. "We built this so they can grow into it," Davis says. "The kids are little such a short time." When they're older, the built-in desks will be a place for them to do homework and keep their computers. And when toys give way to video games, the plentiful cabinets and cozy carpet will still meet the family's needs.

"We kind of decorated (our house) for their age, but we didn't invest a lot of money into it," Boyle says. "It'll be easy to change it out. As they grow, I think there are a lot of things we can do."

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Couple's Katy home is designed to be family-friendly

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is a term which refers to the air quality within and around buildings and structures, especially as it relates to the health and comfort of building occupants. IAQ can be affected by gases (including carbon monoxide, radon, volatile organic compounds), particulates, microbial contaminants (mold, bacteria), or any mass or energy stressor that can induce adverse health conditions. Source control, filtration and the use of ventilation to dilute contaminants are the primary methods for improving indoor air quality in most buildings. Residential units can further improve indoor air quality by routine cleaning of carpets and area rugs. EPA has guidelines for frequency of cleaning based on traffic, number of household members, pets, children and smokers. Carpets and rugs act like an air filter and must be cleaned.

Determination of IAQ involves the collection of air samples, monitoring human exposure to pollutants, collection of samples on building surfaces, and computer modelling of air flow inside buildings.

IAQ is part of indoor environmental quality (IEQ), which includes IAQ as well as other physical and psychological aspects of life indoors (e.g., lighting, visual quality, acoustics, and thermal comfort).[1]

Indoor air pollution in developing nations is by far the most deadly risk globally. A major source of indoor air pollution in developing countries is the burning of biomass (e.g. wood, charcoal, dung, or crop residue) for heating and cooking.[2] The resulting exposure to high levels of particulate matter resulted in between 1.5 million and 2 million deaths in 2000.[3]

Second-hand smoke is tobacco smoke which affects other people other than the 'active' smoker. Second-hand tobacco smoke includes both a gaseous and a particulate phase, with particular hazards arising from levels of carbon monoxide (as indicated below) and very small particulates (at PM2.5 size) which get past the lung's natural defenses. The only certain method to improve indoor air quality as regards second-hand smoke is the implementation of comprehensive smoke-free laws.

Radon is an invisible, radioactive atomic gas that results from the radioactive decay of radium, which may be found in rock formations beneath buildings or in certain building materials themselves. Radon is probably the most pervasive serious hazard for indoor air in the United States and Europe, probably responsible for tens of thousands of deaths from lung cancer each year.[4] There are relatively simple tests for radon gas, but these tests are not commonly made available, even in areas of known systematic hazards. Radon is a heavy gas and thus will tend to accumulate at the floor level. Building materials can actually be a significant source of radon, but little testing is carried out for stone, rock or tile products brought into building sites; radon accumulation is greatest for well insulated homes.[5] The half life for radon is 3.8 days, indicating that once the source is removed, the hazard will be greatly reduced within a few weeks. Radon mitigation methods include sealing concrete slab floors, basement foundations, water drainage systems, or by increasing ventilation.[6] They are usually cost effective and can greatly reduce or even eliminate the contamination and the associated health risks.

Main articles: Mold health issues, Mold growth, assessment, and remediation

These biological chemicals can arise from a host of means, but there are two common classes: (a) moisture induced growth of mold colonies and (b) natural substances released into the air such as animal dander and plant pollen. Moisture buildup inside buildings may arise from water penetrating compromised areas of the building envelope or skin, from plumbing leaks, from condensation due to improper ventilation, or from ground moisture penetrating a building part. In areas where cellulosic materials (paper and wood, including drywall) become moist and fail to dry within 48 hours, mold mildew can propagate and release allergenic spores into the air.

In many cases, if materials have failed to dry out several days after the suspected water event, mold growth is suspected within wall cavities even if it is not immediately visible. Through a mold investigation, which may include destructive inspection, one should be able to determine the presence or absence of mold. In a situation where there is visible mold and the indoor air quality may have been compromised, mold remediation may be needed. Mold testing and inspections should be carried out by an independent investigator to avoid any conflict of interest and to insure accurate results; free mold testing offered by remediation companies is not recommended.

There are some varieties of mold that contain toxic compounds (mycotoxins). However, exposure to hazardous levels of mycotoxin via inhalation is not possible in most cases, as toxins are produced by the fungal body and are not at significant levels in the released spores. The primary hazard of mold growth, as it relates to indoor air quality, comes from the allergenic properties of the spore cell wall. More serious than most allergenic properties is the ability of mold to trigger episodes in persons that already have asthma, a serious respiratory disease.

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Indoor air quality - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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insurance

Dear Insurance Adviser, Termites have been attacking our home. Will my home insurance policy pay for the damage? -- Tom

Dear Tom, Sorry, but even the best homeowners policies don't cover damage caused by termites and other insects. Home insurance also doesn't cover damage done by raccoons, squirrels and other rodents. Nor does it cover destruction caused by birds, such as woodpecker damage to cedar siding.

Compare quotes on home insurance today

But -- and not that this is any consolation -- if the termites chew through an electrical wire and a fire ensues, the resulting fire damage would be covered.

You will need to call pest control to deal with your termites. Be sure to buy the extended warranty on those services.

Bankrate's content, including the guidance of its advice-and-expert columns and this website, is intended only to assist you with financial decisions. The content is broad in scope and does not consider your personal financial situation. Bankrate recommends that you seek the advice of advisers who are fully aware of your individual circumstances before making any final decisions or implementing any financial strategy. Please remember that your use of this website is governed by Bankrate's Terms of Use.

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Does home insurance cover termite damage?

Canary Home Security Overview 2015
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Amazon.com, is one of the more mystifying companies in the business world today. It is disrupting seemingly every industry it can reach from retail to book publishing to cloud computing and delivery. Sales have been unstoppable since the company's inception in 1994. Last year, it grew revenue nearly 20% to $89 billion, however it still reported a net loss of $241 million for the year. Following its most recent earnings report, the stock soared as results topped analyst estimates, but with a market cap near $178 billion and no profits last year, the company is an anomaly on Wall Street as no other publicly traded enterprise is anywhere near as valuable with a similar lack of profitability. Its balance sheet has less than $2 billion in retained earnings, the best measure of accumulated profit over a company's history.

CEO Jeff Bezos has made a mantra out of "long term" and so far the market has kept faith in him. With its tentacles wrapped up in several different industries, Amazon could either turn its competitive advantages into huge profits, or the paradigm could shift and outside competition prove too fierce, forcing a slowdown in sales growth before profitability arrives, which would crush the stock price. The debate continues to rage about Amazon's future prospects, but at least one meaningful indicator is signaling that the company is taking significant steps toward profitability.

From 2011 to 2014, gross margin and gross profit improved significantly as the chart below shows.

Source: Amazon.com SEC Filings

As you can see, gross margin improved incrementally each year from 22.4% to 29.5%, and along with it gross profit jumped nearly 150% from $10.8 billion to $26.2 billion, which is much faster than the 85% total revenue growth in that period. Amazon, however,downplays the importance of those figures, saying, "We believe that income from operations is a more meaningful measure than gross profit and gross margin due to the diversity of our product categories and services."

Despite that statement, the increasing gross margin offers perhaps the best evidence and insight into the ways the company is changing and how it's moving closer to profitability.

What is gross margin and why is it important? In accounting terms, gross margin is the percentage of revenue left over after deducting the cost of goods sold -- the costs directly associated with the sale of a product or service. Essentially, gross margin represents the money that is left over after variable costs are taken care of. The remaining gross profit can then be spent on fixed costs or investments, returned to shareholders, or hoarded on the balance sheet.

Amazon attributes its gross margin expansion "primarily due to service sales increasing as a percentage of total sales. Service sales represent third-party seller fees earned (including commissions) and related shipping fees, digital content subscriptions, and non-retail activities such as AWS, advertising services, and our co-branded credit card agreements." Each of those categories represent more profitable revenue streams than its core bottom-dollar e-commerce business.

As gross margin has increased, the percentage of expenses for fulfillment, technology and content, and marketing, which better reflect fixed costs, have increased.

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This One Key Metric Says Amazon.com, Inc. Is Well On Its Way To Profitability

(Contributed fotos/Britz Bryan Briones)

THE local music industry can be peppered with canned opuses, greedy commercial pursuits and crab mentality. In Cebu, this hard reality is probably pushing Cebuano musicas in music written with the Cebuano dialectto the gutter of the imported-sound driven scene. Its a hard world but many homegrown artists are not quitting the dream of being heard. Not yet, or maybe never. As long as platforms for exposure are available, the game is on.

The 35th staging of the Cebu Pop Music Festival (CPMF) concluded last January with the same hope every year of catapulting original southern music to the limelight. The edition produced three champs from three separate categories. Evolution

A Cebuano composer can revel in the fact that Cebuano music has evolved for the better over the years. Although marketing the songs is another story, we just have to believe that we will get there one day, Manolito Languido encouraged.

The 45-year-old electrician from Carcar City, Cebu bagged the grand prize for the rock genre. Interepreted by Jamila Albino (who won best interpreter for this years festival), Languidos piece Padayon Sugboanon reflects on the message of resiliency amid the series of crises that hit the country.

The high school undergraduate who finished a vocational course in building wiring installation had no formal orientation with music. He was a choir member when he first picked up a guitar and was 15 then. Two years later, he started writing songs. Eventually, he assumed the choirs guitarist position and also learned the keyboardthe instrument he would play every Sunday mass in his hometown chapel and every Wednesday at South General Hospital in Naga City, Cebu where he currently works.

Potential

The composer stint of the part-time reporter and program anchorman (dyRF AM Radio) progressed from writing his first recorded song Dagat Atong Ampingan in 1997; being a finalist the next year with Palamboon Nato Ang Binhi at the Huni Sa Paglaom: Songs for the Third Millennium, to landing as CPMF finalist in 2009, 2014 and finally emerging as champion this year.

A lot of potential composers are all over the place. But in a scene where a nonsense song can become an instant hit, its as if music is already losing its essence. We shouldnt undermine Cebuano music but there must be a decent way to preserve it. A competition is one, an avenue to gauge ones worth especially those who are digging the dialect, Fr. Lyndon Ruiz challenged.

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For the love of Cebuano music

Countryside Gazebos Canada is the exclusive Canadian retail distributor of premium quality wood and vinyl pre-assembled gazebo kits for deck, cottage, poolside, and garden landscape. Our maintenance-free gazebos are made by skilled Amish craftsmen at a competitive price. Read More

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2015 Feng Shui Directions
BoshyShoy 2015 Feng Shui Bad Directions and corner remedy and cure.

By: Boshy Shoy

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Yakuza - Walkthrough Part 14: Swinging For The Fences
Chapter 6: Fatherhood ~ Side missions, Including: finding a lost bag, hitting balls at a batting cage, a drunk guy and collecting/delivering a suspicious p...

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Yakuza - Walkthrough Part 14: Swinging For The Fences - Video