Rotten wood on the porches of 64-year-old Amanda Singleton's St. Helena Island home created holes all the way to the foundation. It got so bad she was afraid to go anywhere.

"It was scary," she said. "I had to learn to maneuver around the situation to get in and out of my house."

With no cartilage in her knee, the retired certified nursing assistant already has problems walking -- having to pivot from one place to another around soft boards made the situation even worse.

Now Singleton can walk across her porches without fear of falling through. Last week, a group of hard-working teens replaced them as part of the weeklong Salkehatchie Summer Service project.

About 110 teens from 14 Methodist churches from across the state including Greenville, Myrtle Beach and Rock Hill, as well as North Carolina, repaired and renovated nine homes on St. Helena Island last week. Local churches helped by preparing two meals for the group each day.

This is the 30th year for the project on St. Helena Island. Salkehatchie has 52 other camps in North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina.

A BONDING EXPERIENCE

In addition to new wood on the porches and a new roof, much of Singleton's house got a fresh coat of paint.

Sitting in a white plastic chair on the new porch, Singleton clapped her hands and smiled as she watched a team of 20 teens and camp leaders work all around her.

"It was a blessing," she said of being chosen to receive renovations on St. Helena Island. This was the third year she had applied for help to repair her home, and the first time she was chosen. Each year about 50 people apply and about 10 are picked.

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Salkehatchie Summer Service volunteers repair homes, rebuild lives on St. Helena Island

26-06-2012 20:32 Compilation featuring a few videos and pictures of the best super cars I spotted in my first car spotting year, feel free to comment and rate. Cheers (;

The rest is here:
SuperCars in Portugal Vol. 1. GT-R, Astons, Lambos, Porches, Ferraris,M, etc!HD vids and pictures - Video

Thirty-five years ago, the owner of the home at 2947 Macomb St. NW, in the Districts Cleveland Park neighborhood, fell in love with her home at first sight.

The front porch, the beamed ceiling in the living room, the window seat and pale stained-glass windows grabbed her heart, while the tree-lined street and neighboring front porches provided a setting conducive to building camaraderie between her family and others in the area.

After 3 1/2 decades, the home has nearly doubled in size and has been completely restored and renovated.

Built in 1916, this Cleveland Park home is on the market for $1,350,000. Connecticut Avenue, the Cleveland Park Metro station, the Cleveland Park Library, shops, restaurants and the old-fashioned two-level Uptown Theater are all within a few minutes stroll from this residence. Also nearby are the National Zoo, parks, playgrounds and additional shops and restaurants on Wisconsin Avenue.

Macomb Street, possibly one of the loveliest residential streets in the District, is lined with single-family homes graced with elegant trim, flowering shrubs, trees and garden beds. This home has been professionally landscaped and includes both front and back spaces for enjoying spring, summer and fall evenings.

A flagstone walkway leads to the front porch, a cheerful space with red-painted wood flooring, a beadboard ceiling, columns and a skylight to allow more sunlight to filter onto the porch. Adjacent to the home is a private drive with space for off-street parking that leads to a detached one-car garage with a new roof. A flagstone patio wraps around the back of the house and includes a low stone wall with a few steps up to garden beds shaded by trees. The property is fully fenced.

A wood front door with elegant glass insets opens into the foyer, which has hardwood flooring and wood steps with wrought-iron railings to the upper level. Next to the foyer is the open living room and dining room, which have a wood-beamed ceiling and pastel stained-glass windows that come from a church. At the front of the living room are a window seat and built-in cabinets and shelves under a triple window. The living room has a wood-burning fireplace.

At the back of the house, the owner bumped out a narrow room into a spectacular two-story great room wrapped in windows on two sides. Floor-to-ceiling prairie-style windows form the back wall of this room, with transoms and a round window tucked under the peak of the cathedral ceiling. The windows frame a view of the back patio and gardens. One wall is covered with built-in cabinets and shelving for books, artwork and entertainment systems.

Nearby is a renovated powder room with a modern glass-topped vanity with a steel sink.

The kitchen, which has hardwood flooring, granite counters, stainless steel appliances, maple cabinets and a distinctive tile backsplash was renovated last year. Storage space has been maximized with a wall of custom-built floor-to-ceiling cabinets and additional cabinets with glass fronts. The kitchen has two sinks for efficient cooking.

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Resale of the week: Haven in Cleveland Park

The hated house feature

Remember when people once liked practical things on their houses? Porches and overhangs and aluminum awnings and such?

Well Greenpoint, for one, has had it with aluminum awnings, reports The New York Times.

Those humble providers of shelter are so mid-century, and not Eames chairs/ skinny ties/ birth of the cool kind of mid-century, but smoking around children and eating TV dinners kind of mid-century.

Its almost like theyre deliberately trying to be unattractive, a la that golden girl of Greenpoint Lena Dunham, who films herself doing things like awkwardly hitching up a pair of flesh-colored panty-hose.

Youre never going to go on Craigslist and find someone whos looking for a vintage 1950s fiberglass or aluminum awning, architect and Greenpoint-dweller Jonathan B. Held told The Times. They are despised.

Even the general manager of a scrapyard takes calls them an eyesore. Ouch!

However, apparently some practical-minded people still want these functional coverings to block the rain and the snow and to keep their newspapers (we hope they dont read The Times) dry. In fact, in an indication of just how much attention they pay to such passing fancies, Brooklyn-based Aluminum Awnings informed us that they hadnt even heard about The Times article when we called their office.

Indeed, we found several other purveyors of awnings, including General Awnings and Home Depot, who are still selling the product, focusing, we suppose, on the small segment of the population who are not part of the ever-fickle tastemakers. Why just last year The Times was singing the virtues of vinyl siding in nearby Williamsburg:

To Mr. Canfield, replacing vinyl siding that is in good shape, as some homebuyers do as soon as they have the deed, is like carelessly restoring antiques that came over on the Mayflower. He views vinyl siding facades as the key to preserving Williamsburgs working-class traditions, which arguably has become its own facade.

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Aluminum Awning Companys Not Yet Aware Their Wares Are Considered Démodé

CARLISLE -- Pennsylvania State Police Carlisle are looking for a man who's making a habit of stealing food off people's porches and leaving his bike behind while he walks awa eating.

On June 24 at 10:25 p.m. Hannah Darhower, 24, of the 200 block of Alexander Spring Road in South Middleton Township, just finished making food and placed it on her front porch while she went back inside to get something, according to police. When she came back, she saw a man kneeling beside her house eating her food.

The man is described as a white, non-HIspanic male approximately 5'10" weighing 140 lbs., in his early 30s with dark hair and possibly a ponytail.

The man stood up from where he was kneeling and carried the plate away from the residence, walking through the grass toward Walnut Bottom Road. The man left his bicycle at the scene, an older style 10-speed Raleigh bike.

According to State Police, this incident is similar to a food theft on Bonnybrook Road on June 13 at 1:20 a.m. when a man left behind a bicycle at that scene as well. The description of the man is similar in both incidents.

Anyone with information - especially those living on the southern end of Carlisle Borough near State Route 34 and Walnut Bottom Road, and South Middleton Residents, are encouraged to contact PSP Carlisle, Trooper Boardman, at 249-2121 ext. 3.

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Police looking for man making a habit of grabbing dinner off porches in Carlisle

Scotty McCreery photo courtesy of UMG Nashville.

Scotty McCreerys latest video, Water Tower Town, takes fans to his hometown of Garner, North Carolina. The video features footage of the small town Scotty grew up in with shots of his church, Garner Magnet High School, the local fire station and front porches as well as plenty of footage of Scotty hanging out with his friends and baseball team.

The video also showcases the other side of Scottys life. Cameras follow Scotty on stage for his live show, backstage, meeting fans and on the bus, capturing candid moments such as Scotty snoozing on a bus seat. Directed by Todd Cassetty, the Water Tower Town video is an ode to the place Scotty calls home when hes not on the road and ends with a shot of Garners very own water tower.

Watch the video:

Scotty is currently a special guest on Brad Paisleys Virtual Reality Tour. A recent high school graduate, he will attend North Carolina State University in the fall, continuing to balance his career with his education.

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Watch Scotty McCreery’s “Water Tower Town” Video

SAVE THE DATE

Come enjoy music and a cocktail buffet on the porches of two beautiful Victorian homes in the Heights at the Shelter Island Educational Foundations third annual porch party on Sunday, July 1 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $50 and may be reserved by calling Jody Thompson at 749-2352.

DICK CAVETT TO SPEAK

Emmy Award-winning talk show host and comedian, Dick Cavett, and his wife, fellow author Martha Rogers, Ph.D., will speak on Saturday, June 30 at the Shelter Island Librarys 22nd annual Book & Author Luncheon. Sponsored by the Friends of the Shelter Island Public Library, the event will take place at noon at the Rams Head Inn and Gary Paul Gates will moderate. Tickets are $75 for open seating and $125 for reserved seating and an autographed book. Call the library at 749-0042 for information and reservations.

READING CLUB BEGINS

Dream Big, Read! is the theme of the Summer Reading Club at the Library. Kids can help fill the childrens room with stars by putting up a star for every book they read, while collecting stickers, books and weekly prizes. Registration begins Friday, June 22; book reporting starts on Tuesday, July 3. Call the library at 749-0042 for information or to register.

FIRST CONCERT AT PERLMAN

The Perlman Music Program will open its summer season on Friday, June 22, with its annual Faculty Concert, which will take place under the tent at the schools Shore Road campus. This concert is an opportunity to hear performances by the programs faculty, including violinist Itzhak Perlman.

The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public and kids of all ages. Call 212- 877-5045 or 749-0740 for more information or go to perlmanmusicprogram.org for a season schedule.

Excerpt from:
What’s happening on Shelter Island and beyond

Here's what stink bug eggs and newly hatched stink bugs look like. (AP/USDA)

WASHINGTON - They swarmed in the garden, covered screen doors and camped out on porches across Washington this fall. This summer, the stink bugs will be back.

"They are on the same schedule they were in 2010, and if you recall, 2010 was their breakout year," says Mike Raupp, professor of entymology at the University of Maryland.

But stink bugs don't seem to be popping up in great numbers yet.

"They're beginning to show up in our commercial fruit orchards now," Raupp says. Soon, gardeners will see the beetles go after tomatoes and peppers.

"Given the warm weather, we're going to see that awful second generation of that nefarious pest," says Raupp. "So I wouldn't be surprised if the worst is yet to come."

Raupp suggests homeowners arm themselves with a jar or bucket of soapy water and drop adult stinkbugs into the mix.

"I've found these guys are not good at the backstroke, so if you drop them into the soapy water, you'll cut down on future generations," Raupp says.

To take it a step further, look for egg masses on the underside of leaves around the garden.

"They're round like little globes, and they're white to pale green in color," according to Raupp. "They turn darker just before they hatch."

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Stink bugs: They're coming back

OLDSMAR

Here's the vision: 52 cottages, each one a little different. All of them will have front porches and rear garages that open onto back alleyways. The mostly modest-sized homes will be different colors. They'll be energy-efficient. They'll be spaced close together, but every home will border green space or another special feature of the neighborhood.

On Tuesday night, Oldsmar leaders got a first look at initial plans for Hayes Park Cottages, a 52-home development that would be built on vacant city-owned land near downtown.

They liked what they saw. After viewing a proposed neighborhood layout and artists' renderings of cottage designs, the Oldsmar City Council unanimously approved a site plan for the project.

"We still have a lot of work to do, but we're making great progress," said John Bews, an Oldsmar resident who has a home design company and is partnering with the city to develop the site. "We think we've got something special here in a built-out county."

The goal is to provide affordable workforce housing that is near businesses, schools and recreation, said Marie Dauphinais, Oldsmar's director of planning and redevelopment.

The 3.8-acre property south of Hayes Road and east of Pine Avenue is near Richard Rogers Park, Cypress Lakes Industrial Park, Brooker Creek Corporate Center and Forest Lakes Elementary School.

No one is ready to break ground yet. City Manager Bruce Haddock noted that the city and Bews haven't finalized a development agreement at this point. "We've got a long ways to go," added Vice Mayor Jerry Beverland.

Bews intends to start construction next year.

The size of the homes will range from 840-square-foot "micro houses" or "studio cottages" to 1,700-square-foot mid-sized homes. A few will be duplexes. Many will be clustered around a "village green" area.

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Oldsmar leaders get a look at plans for new cottage community

BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) -

It seemslike snakes areall over the place: yards, roads, porches and of course the woods.

Just this weekend a Jefferson County Sheriff's deputy chasing a suspect in the woods near Saint Vincent's East shot and killed a rattlesnake. The deputy says it was ready to strike him or his K-9.

Experts say, if you are bitten, the best thing to do is to rush to get medical help.

"In general it's always safe to come present to an emergency department for an evaluation," UAB ER Dr. Jim Galbraith said.

Galbraith says it can take four to five hours for symptoms or swelling to appear after a snake bite.

"So if you get bit by a snake, the first thing you want to do is get yourself out of the area where the snake is present. It is not advised to capture or go after to identify the snake," Galbraith said.

He says rattlesnakes, copperheads and water moccasins are typically the snakes that live in our part of the country.

Chris Patterson with CritterControl says he's going on more jobs to get snakes out of homes and yards.

"We've probably gone from having one to two jobs a month, to 20 or 30 calls a month," Patterson said.

Read more from the original source:
How to stay safe when you encounter a snake