FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va., July 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Sun Design Remodeling Specialists, Inc., of Fairfax County, Va., in the midst of one of the most successful periods in its 24-year history, has hired six new team members and promoted one.

The newly named members of the Sun Design team are: Scott Smith and Marc Brady, Assistant Project Managers; Hope Hassell, Assistant Specialty Designer; Mike Linder and Dwain Foltz, Lead Carpenters; and Kely Ta, Administrative Assistant. Ta is taking over for Heather Lapsley who was promoted to Production Coordinator. The company is planning further growth and is looking for additional sales and design staff. Sun Design was named by Virginia Business Magazine this year as one of the region's best places to work.

The new hires are part of Sun Design's recent growth and successes. During March 2012, the company had its best sales month ever -- more than $1.8 million -- beating its record of $1.6 million in June 2007.

Also, the company has won two national remodeling industry awards: a national Chrysalis Award for a residential basement project in Fairfax County (one of only 81 winners nationwide) and a national CotY Award as a "Contractor of the Year" from the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) this spring for a dramatic remodeling project in Fairfax, VA. Sun Design also won a 2012 Guildmaster Award (with Distinction) which is based on a lengthy track record of exceptional customer satisfaction.

Sun Design President Bob Gallagher, said, "Clients really love to work with our team members because they are highly experienced, creative and responsive to client needs. We're really pleased to welcome this new group of people to the company as they put their talents to work for our clients. Sun Design is in an exciting growth phase and it appears that we are going to have one of our best years ever."

About Sun Design Sun Design, celebrating its 24th year, has been the recipient of dozens of industry awards. Each year, Sun Design shows off its work during a series of home tours and other special events. For more information, visit the "Events" page at http://www.sundesigninc.com or call 703-425-5588. Sun Design is located at 5795 B Burke Centre Parkway, Burke, VA 22015.

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Sun Design Remodeling Specialists of Fairfax County Continues to Expand With Six New Hires

On Thursday, June 28, the Kangaroo & Kiwi Pub in the Old Carnegie Library opened its doors for a small pre-opening party hosted by pub owner Bradley Howe (pictured) and building owners Karoline Morrison and Dennis Beals. The event was a chance for community members to get a taste of what's to come: delicious foods, authentic Aussie and Kiwi culture, and lots of fun.

On Thursday, June 28, the Kangaroo & Kiwi Pub in the Old Carnegie Library on N.W. Market Street opened its doors for a small pre-opening party hosted by pub owner Bradley Howe and building owners Karoline Morrison and Dennis Beals.

The event was a chance for community members to meet the pub owner, sample some of Melinda Sims' delicious creations, and see the remodeling of the 3000-square-foot groundfloor space that formerly housed Carnegie's French restaurant and stood empty for well over a year.

Morrison first announced the new tenant in January and she's as excited now as she was then.

"I think it's going to be a great change for Market Street," she said. "It's something completely new for the building."

Morrison put to rest some of the public's concern about moving a pub into an historic building by stating, "Brad has done the interior in a way that it can be completely turned back into being an old library. The old shelves are still in the basement!"

The Kangaroo & Kiwi Pub is Seattle's only exclusively Aussie and Kiwi Pub that has been bringing the authentic taste and culture of down under to Seattle for the past 11 years. They offer all the "pub classics from down under" including steak pie, split pea soup, sausage rolls, and of course, vegemite sandwiches. They also carry imported beers and screen rugby, cricket, and soccer matches on their 'tellies'. Originally from Australia, owner Bradley Howe has been a Ballard resident for twenty years but waited to open up his pub in Ballard until the right place came along. The Old Carnegie Library is that place.

"It's unique, and in the heart of Ballard," Howe said. "When I had a chance to look at it, I walked in and knew right away what I was going to do and where everything was going to go."

"It reminds us of home," Brad's niece and head of the kitchen, Melinda Sims, chimed in.

Sims explained that in Australia the pub is the center of the community and you'll often find pubs in old buildings.

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Kangaroo & Kiwi's pre-opening celebration is a promise of good things to come

Points: 0 Article Discussion: $5 million in stolen artifacts returned

by SmileySometimes on Yesterday, 4:56 pm #2548852

Wow, this is great news. I love to hear about these items being returned. Kudos to Berk the antique dealer for being vigilant--and ehthical. If not for him, we'd never know of these objects' whereabouts--or extistence, even. I wonder if possibly this former curator didn't "steal" the items, per se...maybe he (I'm assuming it's a "he") took them home to his basement for safekeeping, planning to return them. Who knows, maybe the museum roof was leaking, or remodeling was scheduled, something like that, and he felt the items would be safest in his home temporarily. It was a long time ago; probably not as much museum protocol was in place, as there is today. So nobody objected. Then time passed, he may have forgotten about the box of stuff in his basement, or become ill...there could be any number of explanations. Whatever happened, it's fantastic that they've been found and returned. : )

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Comment on $5 million in stolen artifacts returned to Polish museum

Intermountain Healthcare issued a reminder than carbon monoxide poisoning is possible any time of the year.

Earlier this month, two people were treated for carbon monoxide poisoning. One patient was exposed while running a gasoline-powered concrete saw in his basement without proper ventilation, according to Intermountain Healthcare.

Basically anything that burns, anything that is powered by gas source, can put out enough carbon monoxide to overcome the individual quite rapidly, said Dr. Marc Robbins, Hyperbaric Medicine, Utah Valley Regional Hospital.

Carbon monoxide symptoms are similar to the flu and include headache, nausea, and dizziness

Be sure there is proper ventilation when working with gas-powered tools used in home remodeling projects. Do not use gas-powered generators, stoves or lamps inside a tent when camping. When boating, be sure to stay away from the exhaust and that the system is not blocked.

In 2011, Utah Valley Regionals Hyperbaric Medicine Center saw 11 patients for emergency treatment; five poisoned from emissions from being towed behind a boat on Utah Lake and six poisoned by placing gasoline-powered equipment too close to a living area.

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Intermountain Healthcare warns of carbon monoxide dangers

WATERLOO, Iowa --- The Waterloo City Hall lobby will become a construction zone this summer.

City Council members voted 4-2 Monday to approve a $97,800 contract with Prairie Construction Services Inc. of Waterloo to remodel the City Clerk's Office. Councilmen David Jones and Bob Greenwood voted against the project, citing concerns that Prairie was the only bidder.

City Clerk Suzy Schares said the project is expected to start in the middle of July and run through August. It will force the public counter --- the place people apply for licenses and pay parking tickets, among other business --- to be relocated temporarily to the basement.

Work involves moving the current counter farther into the large lobby area to create more space. The counter will be narrower, and additional walls would be erected for security.

"Human Resources will also have a separate access so people won't have to go through the clerk's office to get there," Schares said.

The City Attorney's Office, formerly located in the City Clerk's Office area, has been relocated already to the Mayor's Office. Most of the Human Resources activity has been moved into the clerk's office from the Carnegie Annex, a separate building across Mulberry and West Fifth streets from City Hall.

Schares was given the responsibility of overseeing Human Resources when Mayor Buck Clark laid off the former director, Bob Stringer, in January.

While the project will meet the needs of the Human Resources duties, it also creates more space for filing cabinets.

"We have kind of hit our maximum capacity for storage as far as files go," Schares said.

In other business Monday, council members unanimously approved:

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Waterloo Council OKs clerk's office remodeling

Students making music and art will soon have a space to call their own at Saint Michael School.

School administration said the schools basement will be remodeled into a dedicated art and tutoring space called the Fine Art Center as early as next fall.

Upon completion, the space will offer two classrooms for art and music lesions and three smaller conference rooms for tutoring sessions and after-school club meetings. Up to 50 students in total will be downstairs at any one time.

Before the creation of the floor, school Principal Susan Gosselin said art and music classes would take place where the school could find space for them, whether area empty classrooms or cafeterias.

The kids (currently) just use whatever space we have, she said. Turns out were able to build downstairs. Now there will be permanence.

Before repurposing the space, the schools basement was used for storing excess furniture, broken technology and miscellaneous donations.

Elliott Jacobowitz, a music teacher, said hed look forward to setting up a set classroom space and able to keep notes on guitar chords on the board for extended periods.

Not being in a classroom makes it difficult to learn, he said. (The students) really feel a difference.

The new classrooms will feature computer smartboards, expansive corkboards for hanging up art and computers for the teachers.

The project is expected to cost about $500,000 for a full remodeling. The schools parents, alumni and private donors have raised $420,000 since starting a fundraiser last fall.

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St. Michael School to expand art space

Written by Patricia Gay Thursday, 14 June 2012 00:00

Although La Roue Elayne at Cobb's Mill Inn is the town's newest hot spot, things got a little too hot early Monday morning when a small fire started in the basement.

The Weston Volunteer Fire Department responded quickly to an alarm at 2:43 a.m. on Monday, June 11, and found a pile of rags on top of a dryer in the basement had caught on fire. The fire was quickly extinguished and did not spread. Smoke in the basement and lower level of the restaurant was blown away by fans and the restaurant reopened in the afternoon in time for a luncheon.

It appeared the fire was caused from the spontaneous combustion of greasy rags that were lying on top of a clothes dryer. The dryer was not running at the time of the fire.

Weston Fire Chief John Pokorny, who is also the town's fire marshal, said the fire's cause is still under investigation; however, it appears it was accidental.

Mr. Pokorny said he has seen instances of spontaneous combustion, where a material ignites without the application of external heat or flame. He said fires caused by spontaneous combustion are not uncommon at places that use massage oil and towels, or linseed oil and rags.

"A fire can be caused from cloths that have oil on them, are heated, and then left in a clump," he said.

When the call came in from the restaurant's alarm company at 2:43 a.m., Mr. Pokorny was the first on the scene, arriving just six minutes later.

Domenic Cocchia, the general manager of La Roue Elayne, credited the alarm system and fast action by the fire department for preventing the fire from spreading.

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La Roue Elayne at Cobb’s Mill Inn: Alarm thwarts fire in basement

Let's say the EPA has finished its work cleaning up the asbestos contamination from the vermiculite mine and has left town. You need to put a new building on your property, but you know that the basement will go below the level that was excavated and you may find more vermiculite down there. What do you do?

Questions like this one will be discussed at a forum co-sponsored by the CAG (Community Advisory Group) and TAG (Technical Advisory Group ) at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 12, at the Flathead Valley Community College Lincoln County campus. A representative from the EPA will give a brief overview, representatives from Lincoln County will present the main focus and the MDEQ will be present to answer questions. Practical, legal, medical and other consideration about what happens in a post-EPA world will be the focus of the meeting.

When the EPA finishes its work at a site, it leaves in place a system to answer questions about vermiculite, such as: how to handle it, how to protect ourselves and what new people moving in should know. Before deciding on these procedures, they need to hear from county officials, the city council, the county health board and ordinary citizens about what needs to be included.

Some of the possible responses might be an excavation ordinance explaining the process to follow, who to call, how to handle asbestos contamination encountered during an excavation or home remodeling project. Permit requirements for a new business that wants to use an old site may be developed. A discussion will take place on how neighbors can respond to someone who has not allowed the EPA to clean up his property, especially if the property is to be sold. Guidelines will be developed by the county health board to cover exposure from vermiculite found after the EPA has gone.

The EPA will fund someone to help develop the proposals and list the resources that will be available. They also return no less than every five years to see how the process has been working and to make any necessary adjustments.

Persons attending the meeting will be invited to ask questions and to help identify other discussion topics.

Although it will be several years before the EPA is ready to leave, it's not too early to think about a post-EPA world and how we will be affected. The forum will be a beginning to the process and interested persons are encouraged to attend.

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EPA officials to answer question during CAG, TAG meeting Tuesday

INDIANAPOLIS, June 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Unique Home Solutions, a leading home remodeler in Indianapolis, has been awarded a 2012 Guildmaster Award for exceptional customer satisfaction. GuildQuality, an independent customer satisfaction surveying company, has powered the Guildmaster Awards since 2005 to celebrate service excellence in the building, remodeling, contracting, and real estate professions.

Unique Home Solutions was one of the nearly 200 home builders, remodelers, developers and contractors throughout North America recognized for their superlative performance by GuildQuality. When Unique Home Solutions applied for a Guildmaster Award, they verified that they had provided GuildQuality with a complete and unabridged customer list. In addition, Unique Home Solutions achieved a recommendation rate of greater than 90% from their clients surveyed through GuildQuality.

"We are honored to have been awarded the GuildMaster Award. The reason it means so much to us is because it was solely based on our customer's feedback. We strive to not only give our customers a quality product, but a lifetime of quality workmanship and quality customer service. Winning this award means we are meeting these expectations, and we will use this award as motivation to continue providing our customers with the service they deserve," said Bob Dillon, President of Unique Home Solutions.

For more on the 2012 Guildmaster Award winners and qualifications, visit http://www.guildquality.com/guildmaster/.

About Unique Home Solutions

Unique Home Solutions is Central Indiana's largest home remodeling company specializing in interior and exterior remodeling. As an employee owned and operated company, Unique is proud to have served over 25,000 satisfied customers in our 29 years in business. Unique provides Indiana homeowners with custom designed energy efficient solutions for the home, from the top of the roof to the basement floor. For more information on Unique Home Solutions, products or services visit http://www.UniqueHomeSolutions.org

About GuildQuality

GuildQuality's community of quality includes the best remodelers, homebuilders, developers, and home services contractors in the United States and Canada. By using GuildQuality's independent surveying, members collect objective feedback from their customers and use that feedback in their pursuit of continuous improvement in the quality of their service.

Contact: Lindsey Richardt 317-337-9300 lrichardt@uniquehomesolutions.org

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Unique Home Solutions Recognized among the Nation's Best in the Building Industry for their Commitment to Customer ...

The renovation of Waylands University Center calculated at $4.9 million is the lions share of $5.5 million in building permits issued by the City of Plainview in May.

But its not the only commercial construction now under way.

The University Center renovations include an updated cafeteria, giving students easier access to food and drink stations. The long table seating will be replaced by more intimate round tables to better simulate a dining experience. While changing the seating structure will remove some seats, the cafeteria will increase the number of operating hours throughout the day, allowing more flexibility in eating times for students.

Other changes to the University Center will include the remodeling of the student lounge area. Petes Place, located in the basement, will reopen as a coffee shop, serving Starbucks products to students.

The area also will house a grill and a stage area with lighting and sound systems. The south portion of the basement will be turned into offices for student activities and student government.

The courtyard area will be remodeled, and actions will be taken to control the bird population in the outdoor area.

To accommodate the project, the University Bookstore has been moved into McDonald Hall. Other offices from the now-closed University Center have been relocated throughout the campus.

Two commercial remodeling permits for $140,000 and $125,000, respectively, were issued for 3220 Olton Road in the Village Shopping Center.

While no formal announcement has been made, officials with both shopping center owner R-K-R and Ramsowers Furniture acknowledged last week that a national sporting goods chain has signed a lease to locate there.

According to the citys report on building permits, that chain is Big 5 Sporting Goods. The company, along with R-K-R, were issued the construction permits with Randall Roberts Construction listed as contractor.

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University Center renovations boost city building permit totals