CITY CENTRE Surreys homeless along 135A Street have a water fountain, once again.

A Surrey woman who runs a soup kitchen met the Now-Leader on Surreys infamous Strip Wednesday morning after the city installed a temporary fountain for the homeless.

In late June, Erin Schulte was disappointed after she noticed the absence of a water fountain the city had installed in the past during heat waves.

It was simply hooked up to a fire hydrant.

Schulte launched an online petition that garnered close to 800 signatures calling on Surrey Fire Services and city hall to put it back.

Schulte, who visits the Strip almost every day to distribute food and lots of water, said the homeless were begging her to try to get it back.

They were out of energy, she said. They were lying on the ground. People with heat stroke. People really, really sunburnt. We go overseas and we do wells for third-world countries to get them access to fresh water. Although theres a sink inside the front room theres 200 or more people on this Strip.

The city said its reason for not installing the fountain this summer was because water was available through service providers and they could mobilize very quickly if the homeless were not getting water quickly enough. The city also cited health issues, specifically people bathing there in years past, as another reason it had yet to be installed.

But on July 26, the water fountain was installed, much to Schultes excitement.

The citys bylaw enforcement officer Jas Rehal told the Now-Leader the city has been monitoring the situation and given the extended forecast, we had the fountain installed to ensure there is adequate water supply.

Surrey's homeless no longer have to endure the heatwave without a water fountain. Meet Erin Schulte who started a petition urging the city to put back a water fountain that garnered hundreds of signatures. See more: http://www.surreynowleader.com

Standing at the freshly installed water fountain, which also has a spout for people to fill up water bottles or buckets, Schulte could barely contain her happiness.

Asked what she wanted to say to the city, she replied, Thank you.

She only wishes it was done earlier.

I just wish that they felt the same way that I did about the people down here because then this would have been here a month ago. Its a small effort, she said. We already had all the equipment, we already have the manpower to install it and the cleaning supplies are really at a minimum to keep it in good condition. Again, I think its just dragging feet and politics and things taking so long. Its a necessity. Its clean water. This is a big city. Were building all over the place. The least that we can do is give our most lost some dignity and some access.

She doesnt credit her petition as the reason the city put the fountain back.

I would like to think the right thing would have been done regardless, she told the Now-Leader. If you spend any amount of time down here with these people, you see how bad of condition they are later in the afternoon, when the sun is at its hottest. They already have to put their tents down so there isnt a lot of shade. As you can see theres not a lot of trees. There just isnt the ability to hide away in the heat. Its definitely necessary.

Schulte acknowledges its impossible to guarantee no one abuses the water fountain. And that was part of the citys reasoning for not installing it when the Now-Leader inquired about the fountains absence last June.

Back in 2015, she said people were abusing it, but added theres the mentally ill down here and theres people who really just dont know any better.

What I can promise the city is that there are people in place down here who have said they will monitor the fountain.

One is the same lady that takes it upon herself to bleach out the porta-potties for the homeless community, said Schulte.

The homeless have put together a plan, she noted, later adding, Theres a lot of of people really worried this is going to be taken away.

amy.reid@surreynowleader.com

View original post here:
VIDEO: Advocate thrilled water fountain for homeless put back on Surrey's 135A Street - Surrey Now-Leader

Around 2005, workers renovating the Dallas County Records Building in downtown Dallas removed some tiling on a wall near a drinking fountain and revealed the remnants of an old sign. It read, in faded discolored outlines on the marble wall: White Only.

The revelation was an embarrassment and a reminder that it was not long ago that the sign carried the weight of the law, that public buildings in Dallas were segregated, and by extension, the justice distributed within and rule of law represented by those public buildings was denied to thousands of Dallas residents simply because of the color of their skin. The discovery of the sign was also an uncomfortable reminder that such signs were once ubiquitous in this city, simple perfunctory instructions inserted everywhere into daily life not only to ensure that people of color did not enjoy the full rights, privileges, and protections of American society, but also to attempt to erase people of color from the white experience of that society.

The letters, faded discolorations on marble, could not be erased. They were scars, indelible and unforgettable. The county responded by placing a historical marker on the wall next to the sign to recognize and explain the history of the Jim Crow south. But one Dallas resident, artist Lauren Woods, had another idea. Woods didnt believe that a historical marker was enough, that it couldnt carry the full weight of meaning contained in the fact that the sign had been placed on the wall and was somehow still on the wall of a public building in Dallas. In 2013, Woods was commissioned by the county to turn the water fountain into an art installation as simple and direct as the words on the wall.

Today, when someone presses the button to activate the drinking fountain under the old White Only sign in the Dallas County Records Building, a video projector turns on and a news clip appears that shows little girls being power-sprayed by fire hoses during a Civil Rights demonstration in Birmingham, Alabama. The art installation is as poetic as it is blunt. It doesnt soften the blow of the past, it amplifies it. In a single image, Woods makes explicit the abuse, torture, and hatred that is the real subtext of the White Only sign and exposes the racism that it truly represents: a moral world that attempted to deny and destroy African-Americans very humanity. With that simple gesture, Woods artwork completes and corrects the historical record.

The symbols and artifacts of the past and the nature of the history they convey has once again risen into the citys public discourse. Responding to a national trend that has seen cities and towns across the southern United States reconsider the value and meaning of various monuments to the Confederacy and the Confederate heroes of the Civil War, Dallas has been debating whether it should remove its Confederate monuments, of which two most notably stand out: the statue of Robert E. Lee at Lee Park in Oak Lawn, and the massive Confederate memorial that stands outside the Convention Center at the edge of Founders Cemetery.

The debate has been framed around the question of whether the monuments should stay as they are or be removed. (My colleague Glenn Hunter argued yesterday that they should stay.) I believe the binary nature of that debate sells it short. The monuments are very much like the White Only sign in the Dallas County Records building that is, historical artifacts that convey half-written or poorly written histories. They insert a historical reading into an aesthetic sphere, and so the response to the invalidity of that historical reading must also be aesthetic.

It is important to remember, as others have pointed out, that many of the monuments to the Confederacy erected throughout the South were born of a particular time and are the manifestations of a particular kind of cultural nostalgia, an early 20th-century attempt to come to terms with the complicated, contradictory, and conflicted history of the American South and to rescue from it its unique Southern cultural identity. But in reclaiming the valor of the imagined heroes of the past, the monuments reassert the primacy of the moral vision of that past. And regardless of any nuances of biography and history, the moral vision of the Confederate South was one of white supremacy.

It is impossible to separate that historical reality from the memorials erected in honor of that past, and so it is not at all surprising that African-Americans who have grown up in an America still very much shaped by racism and discrimination would understand those statues as nothing less than implicit conveyers of the power of the racist past extending into the present. Furthermore, to deny the validity of this response to the monuments is to participate in the very act of neutering engendered by the monuments implicit power that is, it is to deny or attempt to erase the validity of the African-American experience of America.

But like the White Only sign, it is not enough to remove these markers. The monuments should not be covered up, but confronted, and as Woods managed to achieve with her water fountain project what is objectionable about these monuments should not be mollified but amplified. Because if we are ever going to come to terms with the reality of racism in America, the history must be confronted in its fullness.

I see two options for achieving this:

The first is to handle the statues exactly as the county handled the White Only sign. The city should commission an artist or artists to create a new work of art that could engage with, re-contextualize, and complete the monuments. I wont venture to guess what this would look like, exactly. Im not an artist. But I believe that, as with Woods and Cynthia Mulcahys Negro parks project, which attempted to bring attention to the complicated history of this citys segregated parks and extend education around their historical research, the monuments offer an opportunity for Dallas to confront that history head on. Artistic approaches to re-contextualizing the monuments presence in the city would amplify the weight of their history while simultaneously symbolically reclaiming the public spaces they loom over for all the people of Dallas. Leaving them alone wont achieve this. They must be co-opted and appropriated. If allowed (and, as a warning, permission was a real obstacle for Woods and Mulcahy with regards to the Negro parks project), good artists can do this, and it is precisely their role in society to do so.

The second option is to remove the monuments and place them in Old City Park, a setting already designated for the preservation and interpretation of the artifacts of Dallas past. Perhaps the monuments could better serve the historical import their defenders impart on them if they were not allowed to lord over Dallas public spaces, but were instead placed alongside the other artifacts of the society that they represent, like the Freedman Town shotgun shanties that already sit in Old City Park and testify to the abject poverty, abuse, and discrimination that was the flip side to the monuments nostalgic glorification of the Old South. But it would not be enough to simply leave the former locations of the monuments vacant. Rather, new monuments, historical markers, or artworks should be erected at the spot of removed Confederate monuments that reference the removal and the historical corrective the removal represents.

(Postscript: after writing the foregoing, I was reminded that Doyle Rader raised some of the same points for D Magazine in 2015.)

See original here:
A Better Solution for Dallas' Confederate Statues - D Magazine

The Israeli summer is blistering hot. Yet pedestrians strolling the steaming streets will find little succor from cool free water, because there isnt any. Drinking fountains have all but disappeared from the Israeli street.

There are two main reasons for their disappearance. The first is the successful campaign by bottled water companies, which seem to have persuaded people that paying money for something they can get for free water whose quality is supervised by government is a good idea. The second is that stores, kiosks and restaurants that sell bottled water dont want the competition.

Israel has eight months of summer each year, says city planner Ayal Zaum: Pedestrians need public water fountains as badly as they need shade.

Why arent there laws mandating public drinking fountains in Israel? When asked, the Health Ministry said that while there are standards for installing and maintaining public fountains, there is no requirement to actually have them.

Public drinking fountains are not the responsibility of the Environmental Protection Ministry, nor of the states Water Authority, which referred us to the Interior Ministry. Officials there said that city planning had been reassigned to the Finance Ministry, which suggested that we turn to the Union of Local Authorities, an umbrella organization for local governments. The ULA said it was not aware of any directive requiring communities to provide drinking water in public places.

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Israel is not alone when it comes to the gradual disappearance of public drinking fountains. Its a problem in the United States as well. The International Plumbing Code, which builders use to determine how many bathrooms an office building should have and how pipes should work, has halved the number of drinking fountains required in each building.

In the U.S., consumption of bottled water quadrupled between 1993 and 2012, to 9.67 billion gallons a year.

The snob factor

The real problem is the snob factor, claims landscape architect Michal Halevy Bar, who has been studying the development of water culture over decades: Ordinary tap water has lost status to the gods of bottled water. (She was referring, tongue in cheek, to an ad by one purveyor of bottled water.)

Once, the fountain was a place to relax in the middle of the day drinking, splashing water during heat waves. Strangers and acquaintances could interact. Any fountains around today are almost always clogged. They arent maintained, and there are puddles around them that attract mosquitoes. Who drinks from that? Only cats and dogs. The watering hole has morphed from a place to congregate, into a blight.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization defines water as the fundamental right on which all human rights depend, Halevy says.

But the water culture in Israel has changed. Even the ancients acknowledged the duty of the sovereign to provide this existential need. Arab cities and Rome too featured public troughs, fed by springs or some other source, going back centuries. Israel has some 400 of these troughs, most of which dont work anymore,

The modern eras first free public water fountain was unveiled in London in 1859. Thousands gathered to watch officials turn on the tap and at its peak it was used by about 7,000 people a day.

By 1930, access to free, healthy tap water in public places was so common that bottled water was disparaged, used only in offices and factories that couldnt afford plumbing. In much of Europe bottled water retained its cache, but the rest of the world began to imitate it starting in the 1970s, when Frances Perrier spent $5 million on an advertising campaign in New York, selling itself as a chic, upscale product. By 1982, U.S. consumption had doubled to 3.4 gallons per person per year.

That culture change, which privatized and commercialized an existential need, while causing ecological damage to boot, gradually reached Israel, too. So, when Israelis are wandering the streets and want a drink, theyre accustomed to buying a bottle.

The mineral water companies have appropriated public natural resources, with the approval of the state. They invented a new business of water consumption while piggybacking on the health trend, Halevy Bar says. Through clever branding, companies have created demand for a natural resource that already exists in the faucet. Moreover, they sell this free product in plastic bottles that are causing global contamination.

Even in the market for bottled water has it own internal snobbishness. The market research firm Euromonitor of the Israeli market found that increasing polarization. Premium brands such as Perrier and San Benedetto and low-cost brands such as Aqua Nova are gaining share, mid-priced brands are dropping.

Consumers are seeking more interesting beverages, and are willing to pay for premium bottled water offering specific value, Euromonitor said.

Infrequent fountains

Meantime, its hard to find a water fountain even in places such as courts, train station and government offices. Maybe its because there are no rules. Or they want to preserve the livelihood of the local kiosk. Malls dont have fountains as a courtesy to the restaurants: The only faucets with free-flowing water are in the restrooms.

Yuval Arica, owner of faucet manufacturer Shaham-Arica, says government bodies buy between 1,000 and 2,000 water fountains a year, some for parks, most for schools, where fountains are a rule (one per every 40 pupils). In fact Arica cant remember the last time he was asked to install a fountain in the street.

But even if they had, Halevy points to a poll showing that not a few parents forbid their kids from drinking from public water fountains. Thats how effective the bottled water companies campaign has been, she says.

However, while fountains have been disappearing, kicky displays featuring water spouting around have been proliferating. Decorative fountains and pools have been delighting the urban citizenry for millennia. Today there are even fountains featuring music and light shows. Another modern trend is ecological pools, which are an imitation of nature, featuring plants and animals that are supposed to keep the water clean, without need to pump through filters or add toxic chlorine.

Landscape architect Asif Berman describes the function of fountains and ponds in cooling down towns in arid climes. Take the Roman city in Israel, Beit Shean, where water installations the empire built for the welfare of its inhabitants were preserved.

Water works like an air conditioner, and when the wind passes through it, it cools far-off places, says Berman.

The latest wrinkle in facilities where water is used for amusement and play. Berman, whose office designed and designed the Beer Sheva beach in the middle of the Negev desert, distinguishes these facilities from pools and fountains: This is water that can be touched.

The most common model is surfaces from which fresh water erupts in gushes. These facilities are so fashionable that they were recently installed in London, between Kingston Station and nearby residential and commercial buildings a bit of a silly gesture given how much it rains there, and in Montreal schools.

Decorative fountains can cost millions of shekels, and their maintenance is costly too. Cities that sport them have to maintain special staff to take care of them.

A standard public drinking fountain costs about 4,000 shekels ($1,000.) A fancy one that cools the water first can come to as much as 15,000 shekels, plus an additional 1,000 shekels a year for maintenance.

In other words, for the price of one fancy decorative fountain, a city could install 150 regular drinking fountains. But they dont, and when the public fountains break down, the cities often simply block them up.

Local governments really should provide their citizens with free drinking water outside, Zaum says: At the very least, water is healthier than sugary drinks. It contributes to equality and to the environment, too. He suggests installing drinking fountains next to places that rent out bicycles. Perhaps these businesses could foot the bill.

Here is the original post:
Drinking Fountains Have All but Disappeared From Israel's Streets - Haaretz

Still image from Brennan Gerard and Ryan Kellys "Modern Living," courtesy of Seattle Art Fair.

Summer at SAM Dog Night

You dont need a reason to take the pooch to the Olympic Sculpture Park since its always dog-friendly. But itisFirst Thursdayandthere are all sorts of special canine-oriented activities planned for this special night: make apet tag and keychain; decorate a sun hat for your fur baby; or treat the four-legged creature to their own food trucks. They can chow down on something from The Seattle Barkery while you munch on a Dante Inferno dog. Your dog might also want to be a literacy buddy for children who practice reading to dogs through the Reading With Rover program. Water stations and a misting tent will be on hand.

If you go: Summer at SAM Dog Night, Olympic Sculpture Park, Aug. 3 (free)F.D.

Seattle Art Fair

The third annual Seattle Art Fair returns,bringing in exhibits and galleries from afar and celebrating art and artists of the Pacific Northwest, as well. Theres a lot to look forward to this year: the interactive family exhibit See/Saw;BorderLands, a local exhibit in which a variety of local artists explore nationalism and belonging; and Jessica Jackson Hutchins large-scale sculpture (featuring stained glass!) installation Reason to Be, among so many others. This year, the launch date happens to coincide with First Thursday in which the usual host of Pioneer Square art galleries open their doors to art fans. Check out Crosscuts guide by local art insider Michael Upchurch for his picks.

If you go: Seattle Art Fair, CenturyLink Field and King Street Station, Aug 3-6 ($20)N.C.

Fantagraphics Yard Sale

In the Fantagraphics shop in Georgetown, off the main rooms of dreamy records and alternative comics culled from near and far, theres a walk-in-closet-sized room of sale books. In there, Ive seen everything from Peanuts to Prince Valiant to Daniel Clowes and R. Crumb. Now, imagine a giant version of this room with $1 and $5 books, and You-Fill-Em Bags for $25. Partake in this treasure hunt by heading to Lake City to the Fantagraphics Warehouse where theyll have water, soda, and smiles, and, of course, a huge selection of rare, out-of-print and like-new and damaged books.

If you go: Fantagraphics Yard Sale, Fantagraphics Warehouse, 12 p.m. Aug. 5N.C.

Happy Hour at Westlake

Its looking to be a scorcher over the next three days, as Seattle could hit triple digits. Cool off in the shade at Westlake Park, sip on a cold drink and listen to some live music to beat the heat. The Downtown Seattle Association does this event twice a month, where it pairs Washington state Wineries, live music and free drop-in painting classes. You have to be over 21 years old, but a glass of wine from Eagle Harbor Wine Co., Robert Ramsay Cellars and Eternal Wines will only cost you $5. Interested in cooling off with water? The Westlake Park water fountain will be flowing.

If you go: Happy Hour, Westlake Park, 4-7 p.m. Aug. 3 ($5 for wine)C.R.

Science and a Movie: Jaws

Growing up, I had a deep, crippling fear of sharks. Nevermind that I swam only in pools, in Wisconsin and that my grandma never let me swim in water above my knee. Thus was the power of the movie Jaws, which remains just as haunting and suspenseful today as when it was upon its release in 1975. Head to Central Cinema for the next edition of Science and a Movie (co-presented with the Pacific Science Center) to watch the classic film and hear from Dr. Aaron Wirsing, a wildlife scientist at UW. Drawing on his own research in Western Australia, Dr. Wirsing will talk about the ecological importance of these unmatched predators and participate in a Q&A after the film.

If you go: Science and a Movie: Jaws, Central Cinema, Aug. 8-9 ($10)N.C.

Originally posted here:
5 things to do in Seattle this weekend - Crosscut

Event organizers are taking extra precautions to keep fair goers safe by having Canyon County Paramedics on site.

Natalie Shaver, KTVB 10:18 PM. MDT July 28, 2017

Mary Kinzle/ KTVB

CANYON COUNTY -- Triple digit temperatures are expected again this weekend, which could spell trouble for the thousands of people expected to attend the Canyon County Fair.

However, event organizers are taking extra precautions to keep fair goers safe by having Canyon County Paramedics on site.

"In this heat, you need to be drinking [water] constantly from the first hour youre out there throughout the whole day," Daniel Bates, Deputy Chief of Operations with Canyon County Paramedics, said.

There signs to look out for: feeling sick, tired, light headed or dizzy.

"We get them in the shade, take them out of the sun, get them into air conditioning, Bates said. Then we replace their fluids get them a bottle of cold water and some Gatorade to get fluids in them, or if they're severely dehydrated, we can start an IV."

Fair organizers also put $80,000 worth of upgrades to infrastructure this year by adding fans to buildings to create better air flow. They also put up shade tents and cooling areas.

Rhea Allen, the Media Relations for the Canyon County Fair, says they want to make fairgoers' experience a comfortable one.

"Considering [its] 100 degrees out here... there have been some water bottle and some water fountain installation that's gone on."

Fair goers are allowed to bring their own empty water bottles and fill them up for free.

2017 KTVB-TV

Read more:
Event organizers preparing for triple-digit temps - KTVB

Baltimore health tech company Aperio Health is getting a boost of confidence and funds from TEDCO. Aperio is one of 10 recipients of TEDCOs latest round of seed funding.

Aperio cofounder Drew Clark said the funding from TEDCO goes a long way in building the companys credibility.

Smart capital is much more important than just capital, he said. The support from TEDCO helped us raise additional funds.

The money from TEDCO is going towards building the software for their health intelligence platform. Instead of trying to sell to big hospitals like Johns Hopkins, Clark said Aperio is focused on community service providers and outlets who work with people on Medicare and Medicaid.

We believe the healthcare system is going to evolve, and community service providers and clinics will be at the forefront of healthcare, he said, adding that the technology used by many behavioral and mental health providers is outdated.

Aperio offers a new take on the tech.The company is launching the platform in October with their first client ncgCare. The company provides community-based treatment services such as substance abuse and mental health services in Virginia and several other states.

Baltimore is a great city for healthcare potential and we want to be a part of the brain power that is taking advantage of that, Clark said.

In addition to the $100,000 Aperio received from TEDCO, Clarks said theyve also raised $650,000 in other funding and are looking to raise $300,000 more by the end of the year.

The full list of TEDCOs latest Seed Investment Fund companies, excluding Aperio, is below:

The rest is here:
Aperio Health wants to work with those on the front lines of healthcare - Technical.ly Baltimore

Feeling pressed for space? The solution might be right under your feet.

Finished basements are a low-cost way to add resale value to your home at a fraction of what it costs to build up or out. And while they certainly come with risks, including leaks, most of these obstacles can be avoided with a little research and planning.

Finished basements have steadily become among the most popular renovation projects during the past two decades, according to surveys conducted by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). About 30 percent of contractors report it as the top homeowner request, following kitchen and bath remodels (about 80 percent) and additions (40 to 50 percent). Many home experts attribute that to todays volatile real estate market.

For lots of people, moving just isnt an option right now, said Karen Vidal, a partner in the Los Angeles firm Design Vidal. They want to squeeze as much out of their current homes as they can.

Vince Butler, a former chairman of the NAHB who works for Butler Brothers in Clifton, Va., says that most home basement renovations take one to two months to complete and cost between $50,000 and $75,000. Additions often cost twice that yet have lower returns on investment because they add less space. In 2017, Remodeling magazines annual Cost vs. Value survey reported that the average basement remodel cost $71,000, with the potential added value estimated at $50,000.

Courtesy of Rob Karosis

Butler calls basements the low-hanging fruit of home renovations: Theyre fairly simple, the bones are usually there, and you can knock it out in a summer.

Youve already got floors, walls and a ceiling. Most of the time, youre just adding finishes to an existing box, said James Crisp, a principal at Crisp Architects in Millbrook, N.Y., who has helped clients transform their basements into gyms, wine cellars, pubs, soundproof playrooms and state-of-the-art home theaters.

You can do almost anything so long as you secure the permit, he said. Really, just about the only thing you cant do is a sunroom.

If youre considering a basement remodel, youll need to hire a contractor to look at your plumbing and heating systems, identify any red flags, and help you crunch the numbers. That can get complicated, so here are some key things and a few tricks to making the most of a dark and dingy room.

First, its a good idea to familiarize yourself with local building codes, even if you plan on hiring a professional to carry out the project. Different renovations require different permits and inspections, so having a sense of the rules will help you settle on a realistic timeline. Check your countys website for guidelines. (A tip: Construction permits can be terribly dense, so when its time to file, many homeowners have their contractor, designer or architect submit on their behalf.)

If you plan to turn your basement into a rental unit, be prepared to meet a separate set of requirements that, at a minimum, include a separate exit or point of egress and bathroom. Crisp called the cost difference a big leap, especially when you consider how tenants affect your mortgage rate and taxes, along with regular maintenance.

Provided by Mary Parker Architectural Photography

Clients often dont realize how involved it is to make a unit legal, said Bruce Wentworth, owner of architectural firm Wentworth, of Chevy Chase, Md. I tell folks its only worth it if theyre committed to renting long-term, he said. If not, keep it for yourself.

Home offices are less of an undertaking, depending on how much traffic youre expecting. When her company moved from an awkward office to a 1,400-square-foot open-plan home basement two years ago, Cathleen Gruver spearheaded the horse-country-inspired redesign.

The old space didnt have an area for us to come and work together, so this was an opportunity to solve that problem, she said. In fact, Gruver suggests that anyone tackling a renovation ask two questions to stay on track: What isnt working, and how will this solve it?

In Gruvers new offices, the walls are lined with custom cabinetry that doubles as desks. Theres a large round table in the center of the room for meetings that, fittingly, makes for a family-around-the-dinner-table feel. Gruver used light paint colors to make the space feel airy and added a $7,000 wet bar and full bathroom for resale flexibility ($18,000). All told, the redesign cost $73,000, or about $52 per square foot. She estimates that it would have amounted to closer to $75 per square foot, but trade discounts and a long line of family contractors helped keep costs low.

Her favorite trick: Splurge on statement pieces like a chandelier or small areas like the shower floor. You need less of it, so you can opt for something nicer, she said.

For families that want an out-of-the-way space for kids to play, the basement can be a great rec room. Some designers have found clever ways to up the ante. In 2010, Melanie Morris, an interior designer in Brookville, N.Y., turned her basement into an indoor hockey rink for her three sons, ages 7, 11 and 13. The surrounding walls are hidden storage closets, and the rink is made out of poured rubber, a custom alternative to rubber mats.

Basement flooring should never be an afterthought, she said. Dont make that mistake. It should be able to weather leaks, floods, condensation. And if you have kids, it should be able to take a beating.

Regardless of what you plan to do with the room, Crisp agrees that its crucial to install water-resistant flooring. He recommends installing a moisture barrier on top of the concrete or using wood grain ceramic tiles on the concrete. Gruver used vinyl flooring, which is water-resistant, durable and cost-effective. If it scratches, you just peel that plank up and put a new one down, she said.

As cool and calm as designers sound, its hard not to wonder whether basements test their patience. Along with fickle floors and leaky pipes, most basements have low ceilings (the average height is seven feet) and little to no natural light. Thin-lined, low-profile furniture will help the room feel more spacious, and if adding windows is too costly, layer light throughout the area with lamps, sconces and track lighting.

Finally, nearly all basements are interrupted by at least one bulky beam or interior column that so often sits in the middle of the room. If thats the case with your basement, whatever you do, dont remove it. Its supporting your house. Instead, follow Wentworths lead and use strategic decorating to trick the eye.

When he was hired to turn the basement of a 1920s rowhouse into a play space for a family in 2011, he had to design around two awkward beams that flanked the planned seating area. As a solution, he covered them and a few surrounding ducts, pipes and wires with drywall to make them look like structural columns. Then, he painted them charcoal gray and lined them with thin strips of birch plywood for a dose of architectural flair.

Now its the most interesting part of the room, he said.

Link:
Time to upgrade your downstairs? Here's what to know before you finish your basement. - The Denver Post

MANKATO Despite a little uncertainty over a large price tag, the Blue Earth County Board of Commissioners plans to move ahead with plans to renovate and add onto the county's government center on South Fifth Street.

Commissioners voted 4-1 Tuesday morning in support of a resolution on the project.

The project comes after three years of work by county officials. It's split into four parts: $7.3 million to replace the center's parking ramp, $7.5 million for a 38,000 square-foot addition to the government center, $6.3 million for renovation costs, and $2.7 million for design, testing and other associated costs. Blue Earth County will pay for the project using a combination of borrowed money and funding reserves.

The county is embarking on the project to free up more space for departments and growing resident service needs. The new building will help bring together multiple departments in one central location, which will free up space at the nearby historical courthouse.

To that end, the county will replace its current 220-spot parking ramp with a 340-spot parking structure, along with some additional parking spots along the street. The new two-story addition to the south of the building also will include an unfinished basement, which will house a shower and potential gym equipment for county workers.

The renovations will address current and upcoming maintenance issues at the 60-year-old government center, according to County Administrator Bob Meyer.

"Because we are going to be doing an extensive remodeling, it is an opportunity to not only bring it up to code but address some of the deficiencies that we're likely to be faced with in the near future regardless," Meyer told the board Tuesday morning.

Several commissioners initially balked at the project's high price. In response, county officials have cut about $500,000 out of the project's cost estimate. Commissioner Drew Campbell hopes the county continues to look for savings as construction continues, while Commissioner Will Purvis said he was undecided on the project up until a day or two before Tuesday's meeting.

Commissioner Vance Stuehrenberg cast the lone dissenting vote. Though Stuehrenberg supports most of the project, he took issue with the $1.1 million basement that's part of the addition plans. Stuehrenberg tried to separate out the addition from other plans through several motions and amendments but didn't get support from the rest of the board.

Stuehrenberg is concerned the basement represents a waste of taxpayer money because it won't be utilized right away and more space would be opened up in other county buildings.

"I don't believe we need this $1 million basement underneath our new building," he said. "I believe it's not right to be charging our constituents, our taxpayers, levies that end up to be about a 3 percent levy to put an extra basement underneath there."

Other commissioners and county officials pointed out putting a basement in during construction now is cheaper than a future project to put in a basement. Representatives from architecture firm ISG said a full basement would only require digging down 4 to 5 additional feet from the building's foundation without one, and would be cheaper per square inch compared to other parts of the building. In addition, the basement will remain largely unfinished until the county needs more space in the future.

"This is not an easy task," Commissioner Kip Bruender said. "Nobody likes to spend this kind of money. But it's an infrastructure piece that we have to have."

Bruender agreed building the basement now compared to even three years in the future would save the county money and represents a better opportunity than potentially adding a third floor in the future.

Construction is set to start next spring and run through the next year.

Follow Trey Mewes on Twitter at @MFPTreyMewes.

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Update: Blue Earth County moves forward on $24M government center renovation - Mankato Free Press

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Jonathan Porter has seen his share of pets walk through wet concrete poured by his construction company, but when he checked on a basement floor last week, he could only laugh at a sight he'd never witnessed.

Standing in the middle of a wet concrete floor with a panic-stricken look was Izzadora Millaway, 2, wondering how to get herself out of this mess.

"I looked inside and about 25 feet away from me I see this child standing dead center, and she had a look on her face that was priceless,'' Porter told TODAY. "She didn't know whether to back up or move forward."

"We were kind of taken aback by the whole situations, and we figured Jonathan was going to be extremely irritated because they were working hard, but it was comical,'' Izzadora's mother, Sara Millaway, told TODAY.

Porter, the owner of Porter Concrete Construction Company, had poured the concrete with his four-man crew about 45 minutes earlier in the basement of the Millaways' home in Cleveland, Tennessee.

Porter is also a member of the local fire and rescue team and had left to assist with a nearby automobile accident after pouring the concrete. When he returned, he was telling Izzadora's parents about the accident when the little girl heard them talking outside and wanted to see what the fuss was about.

She was upstairs with her brother, Colten, 3, and sister, Tapanga, 14, along with their grandmother when she sneaked away. There are no doors between the upstairs and the basement because of the remodeling work, so Izzadora walked right down the stairs and across the wet concrete while trying to make her way outside.

"To her, I guess it was just squishy on her toes and she was going to keep walking until she found us,'' Millaway said.

"When I saw her, I said, 'Oh my God,''' Porter said. "I told her to stand right there. Her parents looked like they were going to get irate, but it was just funny."

"They had just poured that section, so I was hoping that it wouldn't dry that quickly,'' Millaway said. "Had they already left, I probably would've had to call 911 because we didn't know what to do."

Porter had them take a picture of Izzadora standing in the concrete as a keepsake before washing her feet off with detergent and water. He then poured concrete over Izzadora's trail and left a small section where he immortalized the footprints of Izzadora and Colten in the corner of the room as a memory for the family.

As far as Izzadora learning her lesson, the jury is still out.

"Probably not,'' Millaway said. "She's probably going to do it again the next time she sees some. I think she enjoyed it. She stood there like it was fun."

Follow TODAY.com writer Scott Stump on Twitter.

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2-year-old accidentally walks across wet concrete and her reaction is priceless - Today.com

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"This little girl was trying to go see her mom and dad, so she came from upstairs to the basement to find them," leaving her footprints behind her.

"This little girl was trying to go see her mom and dad, so she came from upstairs to the basement to find them," leaving her footprints behind her.

"+r+"

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Oops! Little girl walks through basement's newly poured concrete - Tucson News Now