NORWALK Window replacement will begin at West Rocks Middle School this summer as part of a number of major overhauls to Norwalk Public Schools over the next several years.

West Rocks phase one will be worked on this summer, said Michael Barbis, chairman of the Norwalk Board of Education Facilities Committee. Theyre doing half of windows this year and half of them next year. The windows were almost falling out. In the facilities study that was identified as the single-largest thing that needed attention at that building.

The Common Council allocated nearly $1.03 million in Norwalks 2017-18 capital budget for the first phase of the door-and-window replacement at the 61-year-old building at 81 West Rocks Road.

Were going to have windows that are not that old single-pane glass where you dont have that much protection from the elements, said West Rocks Principal Lynne Moore. Its really going to be an enhancement to the building.

Moore said window replacement on the front of the building will begin June 15 and be done by the start of school this fall. Windows on the Aiken Street side will be replaced in summer 2018.

Major construction on two other Norwalk schools is expected to be start by early 2019.

In April, the council approved $41.9 million in capital funding to build a new South Norwalk School next to the former Nathaniel Ely School site, which Columbus Magnet School will move into, and a $43.4 million to reshape Ponus Ridge Middle School into a pre-K through 8 STEM-themed magnet school.

The council advanced all three projects this month by authorizing the filing of grant applications for state reimbursement. June 30 is the deadline to apply for reimbursement, which Barbis anticipates will cover 32 percent of the construction costs.

The city will file the grant applications and learn early next year whether the reimbursement has been approved.

The State Bond Commission meets and votes in January, Barbis said. They have to review, they have to approve it. They bond it and then we get notified that its been approved by the state and then we move forward. In the meantime, we will put this out to an architect.

Officials would like to see construction start on the new South Norwalk school and new Ponus Ridge Magnet School by 2018 but that may not happen until early 2019, according to Barbis.

The goal is to have the classrooms up and running by September 2020 but that would be very ambitious, Barbis said.

The South Norwalk and Ponus Ridge Middle School projects are part of the school boards $172.8 million five-year capital plan.

Kevin Schultz contributed to this story.

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Improvements to begin with window replacement at West Rocks Middle School - Thehour.com

ASHTABULA A $108,000 window replacement project is in the works at Kent State University Ashtabula, school officials said.

Workers are replacing all of the exterior windows on the first and second floors of C-Wing in Main Hall,said Dave Schultz, director of business affairs and operations.

The project is slated for completion by June 30, he said.

"The current C-Wing windows are the original windows that were installed when Main Hall was built in 1966," Schultz said. "They will be replaced with new, high-efficiency windows, which will aesthetically blend with the windows installed during the recent A-Wing and Commons renovations."

The new windows are being installed in preparation for the renovation of C-Wing next summer, he said.

During the window replacement, the school will close the Main Hall South Lot the parking lot near the gymnasium, school officials said.

Last summer, the campus was the site of a$1.8 million project, which included a new sign and main entrance facing Lake Road West. The project also included resurfacing the east-side parking lot and adding more green space to campus.

With the addition of the Robert S. Morrison Health and Science building on the west side of the campus, college officials decided it was time to update the entrance.

Parking lots forboth the east and west sides of campus now extend from the new driveway, bringing students and visitors to the center of the campus before branching off to the various buildings.

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New windows installed in C-Wing at KSU Ashtabula - The Star Beacon

Like many young couples Lia and Warren Raum shared a dream of owning a beautiful home in a desirable part of town. But the Raums dream was complicated by the fact that their town was New York City, and their neighborhood of choice was the citys exclusive Upper East Side. In 1998, the couple bought a historic five-story brownstone fully aware that the only way they could afford to make it their home was to share it with others as a temporary home.

After we were married we bounced around a bit, initially living in Lias studio and my apartment, but we knew that we wanted to buy a townhouse, recalled Warren, a financial investment consultant who grew up in Connecticut. When we bought this place, our first daughter, Morgan, was nine months old. At first we lived on the third floor and began restoring the house. As the work progressed, we moved to different floors and rented the finished floors.

For the first five years, Lia handled most of the day-to-day managerial and housekeeping tasks for the 6,500-square-foot house herself, with Warren pitching in as much as he could. In the beginning, we had no administrative help whatsoever, and very little housekeeping help. The gals that helped watch our daughters also did a little housekeeping, she remembered. In 2004 we promoted our babysitter, a college student from North Carolina, to become our first part-time office assistant. Now our staff consists of a house manager who is responsible for the smooth daily operation and a housekeeper who comes in every day and stays as needed.

When the Raums had time to research their home, they learned that it was one of four rowhouses on the block designed by New York architect John Sexton in the Italianate style. It was built at 130 E. 62nd Street, between Park and Lexington avenues, in 1871, hence the dwellings name: The 1871 House.

We learned that it was originally part of some wealthy familys estate. Around the Great Depression, the house was sold and divided into rental units, explained Lia, a native New Yorker. When we bought it, it had been owned by the same family for about 50 years. Fortunately, it was structurally sound and mostly needed cosmetic workplastering, painting, updating bathrooms and kitchens. Much of the flooring is original, and we had it refinished. Whatever is not original is repurposed antique flooring, such as the wide-plank oak flooring in the foyer which came from a deserted North Carolina tobacco factory and we installed in 2005.

In 2005 the Raums undertook another major restoration projectthe replacement of 23 windows in the front and street side of the house. Since the 1871 House is in the Upper East Side Historic District, one of NYCs largest landmark districts, the Raums had to apply for a permit to proceed with the window replacement. Although their request was approved, Lia noted that she and Warren received no grant or tax credit for the $60,000 project but said they consider it a necessary investment in their historic home. The new divided-light Landmark-approved windows look much like the original wood windows and provide triple glass insulation and superior sound-reduction qualities, important factors when youre providing lodging in the middle of Manhattan, smiled Lia.

One of the most satisfying tasks that Lia has undertaken for the past 20 years is decorating and furnishing the 1871 Houses seven apartment-style units, which range from a studio with kitchenette to a three-bedroom suite. Every detail in each reflects her discerning taste and passion for creating serene, comfortable quarters that resemble a guest room in the home of a genteel relative. For example, the rear library suite, which overlooks the private terracecovered with snow during our visithas soaring windows, floor-to-ceiling bookcases lined with an eclectic range of reading material (biographies, art books, cook books, New York architecture and history, and fiction), an original marble fireplace (one of eight in the house) with a resplendent antique mirror over the mantle, original parquet wood flooring and sumptuous ecru cotton bedding with a lofty duvet. Just the tonic after a day exploring the bustling streets of Manhattan!

In the beginning we furnished the rooms with pieces we already had, but we also love to hunt for antiques for the house, Lia shared. I just found a wonderful table the other day.

With their youngest daughter, Natalie, a high school junior considering colleges, Warren and Lia will soon be empty nesters. Having lived in most of the 1871 House at one time or another, their private nest is now the entire ground floor level which is connected to a restored two-story carriage house not visible from the street.

For us the house has always been a refuge from the hubbub of city life, and we hope that it provides this for our guests as well, Lia said. Its not just a business. We want people to be happy. People choose to come here because they want a home environment, not just a hotel.

For more information, visit http://www.1871house.com

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The 1871 Housea home away from home in bustling Manhattan - The Herald-Times (subscription)

Ever since the idea of holding an incentive auction to reclaim and repurpose broadcast spectrum for new wireless uses first surfaced, a major concern has been how to balance full power stations need to replicate their pre-auction signal coverage with low power television (LPTV) and TV Translator stations need for displacement channels in the remaining television band. Throughout the process, the FCC has announced a number of initiatives aimed at balancing those needs.

Included among these efforts is the FCCs creation of a new category of translator for full-power TV stations to fill in loss areas, a special filing window for LPTV, TV Translator and analog-to-digital replacement translator stations seeking displacement channels, and rules permitting LPTV and TV Translator stations to channel share, both among themselves and with full-power stations. Until last week, stations in these secondary services have had to stand on the sidelines and wait to see how these initiatives play out. That changed last Friday when the FCC released a detailed Public Notice outlining procedures and timelines applicable to LPTV, TV Translator, and replacement translator stations during the repack.

Most significantly, the FCC announced its intent to open a Special Displacement Window in the first quarter of 2018. The FCC stated that it anticipates releasing a public notice in November or December of this year that will give 60 days warning of the opening of the Special Displacement Window, which will remain open for 30 days.

Only LPTV, TV Translator, and analog-to-digital replacement translator stations that were operating on April 13, 2017 will be eligible to file displacement applications in the window. To be deemed an operating station, the station must have constructed its facilities and filed a license to cover application by that date. These stations can file a displacement application in the Special Displacement Window if they are displaced by a full-power or Class A TV station being repacked in Channels 2 through 36, or if they are on a channel higher than 36 and are displaced by the flexible uses envisioned by the FCC for the portion of the broadcast band repurposed via the auction.

In the filing window, applicants will have to provide interference protection to other users in the repacked TV Band and in adjacent bands, including land mobile operations, existing LPTV, TV translator and analog-to-digital replacement translator stations, full-power and Class A TV stations that were not repacked, repacked full-power and Class A TV stations as specified in the FCCs Closing and Reassignment Public Notice, and full-power and Class A television station facilities specified in applications filed in either of the two priority windows occurring prior to the Special Displacement Window.

Helping to balance those restrictions, displaced stations may specify as their displacement channel the pre-auction channel of a station being repacked or which relinquished its spectrum, subject to the condition that operations on the displacement channel cannot commence until the full-power or Class A TV station currently occupying the channel vacates it. To assist stations in developing their displacement proposals, the November/December public notice announcing the Special Displacement Window will also contain updated channel availability information identifying locations and channels that displaced stations cannot propose in their displacement applications.

To avoid a race to the courthouse when the window opens, all applications filed in the Special Displacement Window will be deemed to have been filed on the last day of the window for purposes of determining mutual exclusivity. In other words, an application filed on the first day of the window will have no higher processing priority than an application filed on the last day of the window. In cases of mutual exclusivity, the parties will be given an opportunity to resolve the mutual exclusivity among themselves via engineering amendments or settlements.

If applications remain mutually exclusive after the settlement period, the FCC will give priority to any application filed by a full-power TV station for displacement of an analog-to-digital replacement translator station or for a new digital-to-digital replacement translator station. The analog-to-digital replacement translator stations were authorized to fill in areas of a full-power stations analog contour that were lost in the digital transition. The digital-to-digital replacement translator stations are a new class of station intended to serve a similar role in filling in areas of a full-power TV stations digital contour that its repacked facilities can no longer reach.

Full-power TV stations can apply for new digital-to-digital replacement translator stations beginning with the opening of the Special Displacement Window and continuing through July 13, 2021. Whenever filed, digital-to-digital replacement translator applications will have priority over all prior new, minor change, and displacement applications filed by LPTV and TV Translator stations. If applying this priority does not resolve mutual exclusivity among applications filed in the Special Displacement Window, the FCC will resort to conducting an auction among the applicants.

Stations that can avoid having to file a displacement application by making a minor change to their existing facilities prior to the opening of the Special Displacement Window are encouraged to apply to do so as soon as possible. A freeze on filing such minor change applications will be announced, likely in October or November 2017, in preparation for the Special Displacement Window.

Stations that are not eligible for, or that simply do not file in, the Special Displacement Window will have to wait until a public notice is issued after the close of the Special Displacement Window lifting the minor modification application freeze, as well as the freezes previously imposed on the filing of non-window displacement and digital companion channel applications.

Digital LPTV and TV Translator stations that receive a displacement construction permit will have three years to build those facilities. Construction permits related to an LPTV or TV Translators transition to digital operation, or for new digital LPTV or TV Translator stations, will expire on July 13, 2021. Stations that experience difficulties in meeting their construction deadline can seek a 180-day extension of time to construct. For permits expiring on July 13, 2021, requests for an extension must be filed by March 13, 2021. After March 13, 2021, stations needing additional time must file a request for tolling of the permit expiration date. The FCC indicates it will look favorably upon extension and tolling requests where the station is able to demonstrate that it is unable to procure resources to construct due to the demand for those resources by full-power and Class A TV stations being repacked.

Analog stations making their initial transition to digital operation must air viewer notifications during the time period when viewers are most likely to be watching if the station has the ability to locally originate programming. Stations that do not have local origination capability may use other reasonable means, such as notification via newspaper or a crawl on the full-power station being rebroadcast. Stations have discretion with respect to the frequency, length and content of their viewer notifications.

Finally, the FCC noted that LPTV and TV Translator stations can continue to operate on their existing channels until the initiation of service by a repacked Class A or full-power TV station or the receipt of a notice from a new 600 MHz wireless licensee that the station is likely to cause interference. Such notice must be provided in writing at least 120 days prior to the new wireless licensee commencing operations or conducting first field application testing. If needed, a station can seek authority from the FCC to go silent to prevent interference to the new user of its frequency prior to the station completing the move to its displacement channel.

While the numerous points discussed above may already have your head spinning, Fridays Public Notice actually contains many additional details that will be important to those seeking to navigate the repack. In particular, LPTV and TV Translator stations will now need to consider their options carefully. The good news is that with this latest release of information, they are no longer trapped in the role of spectators at the auction, and can begin taking the steps needed to assess the impact of the repack on their facilities and respond accordingly.

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Details of FCC's Repack Plans for LPTV and TV Translator Stations Emerge - JD Supra (press release)

(MENAFN Editorial) Superior Replacement Windows in Avondale, AZ has expanded their presence in the western part of Maricopa County, Arizona by renovating and growing the Avondale window and screen shop to include a showroom and customer services center.

Avondale, #UnitedStates - May 10, 2017 /PressCable/ --

Superior Replacement Windows in Avondale, AZ; a locally owned and operated residential glass service center, is excited to announce that its glass, window and screen shop has been expanded to include a showroom and customer services center. Superior Replacement Windows engaged in this expansion in response to the growing number of households and businesses in the Avondale area. The growing customer base for a products showroom and customer services center that will meet their product and service needs.

Superior Replacement Windows in Avondale was established with the primary aim of delivering premium affordable mobile residential and commercial replacement windows, glass shower doors and window repairs to customers scattered throughout Avondale and all its neighboring cities including Buckeye, Litchfield Park, Tolleson and Goodyear. Superior Replacement Windows specializes in delivering same day windows, shower glass doors, finest architectural glass, sliding glass doors, storefront glass and custom glass restoration for the residential and commercial buildings.

In order to achieve this worthy aim, the glass services company gathered experienced and well trained window glass experts coupled with the highest quality and cutting edge glass replacement and installation equipment. Through a perfect blend of expertise, experience and advanced equipment, Superior Replacement Windows Avondale has earned a standing reputation in the successful delivery of the most elegant glass, window repair, window replacement and installati services to the highest level of customer satisfaction, positive reviews and referrals.

"The company provides repair, restoration and replacements services for all types of glasses including custom glass, tempered glass, laminated glass, insulated glass and tinted glass" stated Mr. Peterson, the spokesman for Superior Replacement Windows in Avondale. Mr. Peterson continued, "We opened the new showroom and customer services center to ensure that we meet and surpass the needs of our valued customers. The showroom is for products display while the customer services center is the contact point of our valued customers".

The qualified and experienced team of experts at Superior Replacement Windows takes pride in the delivery of quality custom home and architectural glass, window repair and window replacement services. The team works with only the best residential and commercial glass and frames which exceed the builder's specifications.

"Our certified installation is supported by a lifetime warranty and we offer speedy and easy appointment setting and mobile technicians who bring the glass and materials to your home to seamlessly complete the installation job" stated Mr. Peterson, spokesman for the Avondale location of Superior Replacement Windows.

For more information about Superior Replacement Windows and its repair and installation services in Avondale, Arizona, please visit http://replacementwindowsavondale.com

Contact Info: Name: Todd Peterson Organization: Superior Replacement Windows Address: 103 West Lower Buckeye Road, Avondale, AZ 85323, #UnitedStates Phone: 1-602-492-9074

For more information, please visit http://replacementwindowsavondale.com

Source: PressCable

Release ID: 198314

MENAFN1005201700703638ID1095473589

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Superior Replacement Windows Avondale Announces Expansion of Window Glass Shop - MENAFN.COM

Now in its second century as a Madison public school, Lowell Elementary is honoring its historic roots with a new cafeteria that sets it apart from any other lunchroom in the Madison School District.

Formerly two kindergarten classrooms, the new cafeterias centerpiece is a large, original fireplace with tiles that illustrate the Jack and Jill story. The fireplace is flanked by original, built-in bookcases.

Across the room a wall of nearly floor-to-ceiling windows and an alcove overlook the school courtyard, which has been turned into a mini forest. Underneath the windows are built-in seats with drawers still featuring the original pulls. Decorative tile surrounds a pair of drinking fountains.

When we look out the windows we can see most of the mini forest, first-grader Georgia Klipstein said.

Kindergartner Ione Courtier-Hewson said she likes the space because its smaller and less loud than the old cafeteria, which was in the basement. Others were excited about the fireplace and student artwork that was displayed, which is easier to do now that the cafeteria is across from the art room.

When its not raining outside, we get to open the windows, kindergartner Hazel Gunneson said.

Its also a nicer place to work, food service worker Kim Ryan said.

When the school was undergoing renovations to make it more accessible, Principal John Burkholder suggested the cafeteria switch. While an elevator now goes all the way down to the lower level, putting the cafeteria on the ground floor makes it more accessible for everyone, including parents dropping off their children in the morning for breakfast. It is right across from the front door and a short trip from the playground, so the transition requires less staff supervision and its quicker to access, leaving more time for students to eat lunch.

Burkholder pushed to save historic features like the window seats when their removal was proposed to gain more floor space.

When a more energy-efficient front entrance was installed, which necessitated the replacement of a half round window with a new replica, Burkholder asked that the old one be mounted over the archway between the lunchroom and adjacent kitchen.

Burkholders appreciation of historic buildings may have been planted when as a youngster he attended Dudgeon Elementary School, a 90-year-old building that now houses the private Wingra School. He also said he became impassioned when he gave tours of Lowell for the schools 100th anniversary last year and some early students talked about assigned drawers in the window seats where they kept their sleep mats.

Once others saw the space firsthand they realized how the original features made the space special, Burkholder said. Chad Wiese, director of building services, said the project cost $100,000. Mindful of the historic nature of the project, district crews paid special attention to details like staining the new baseboards to match the old, he said.

They really made this vision become reality, Burkholder said about the building services and food services departments.

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Once in the basement, Lowell Elementary cafeteria now a room with a view - Madison.com

Flood Warningissued May 13 at 11:07AM EDT expiring May 15 at 8:00AM EDT in effect for: Fountain, Parke, Vermillion, Warren

Flood Warningissued May 13 at 11:07AM EDT expiring May 15 at 12:30PM EDT in effect for: Parke, Vermillion, Vigo

Flood Warningissued May 13 at 11:07AM EDT expiring May 15 at 2:00AM EDT in effect for: Lawrence, Martin

Flood Warningissued May 13 at 11:07AM EDT expiring May 14 at 11:06AM EDT in effect for: Jackson, Lawrence, Washington

Flood Warningissued May 13 at 11:07AM EDT expiring May 16 at 8:51AM EDT in effect for: Lawrence, Martin

Flood Warningissued May 13 at 11:07AM EDT expiring May 14 at 5:00PM EDT in effect for: Daviess, Greene, Knox

Flood Warningissued May 13 at 11:07AM EDT expiring May 14 at 4:00AM EDT in effect for: Lawrence, Martin

Flood Warningissued May 13 at 11:07AM EDT expiring May 17 at 2:00PM EDT in effect for: Parke, Vermillion, Vigo

Flood Warningissued May 13 at 11:07AM EDT expiring May 14 at 8:00AM EDT in effect for: Fountain, Parke, Tippecanoe, Vermillion, Warren

Flood Warningissued May 13 at 11:07AM EDT expiring May 14 at 12:00PM EDT in effect for: Daviess, Greene, Knox

Flood Warningissued May 12 at 10:39PM EDT expiring May 13 at 12:26PM EDT in effect for: Jackson, Lawrence, Washington

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Call 6 helps woman lower misquoted repair bill - TheIndyChannel ... - WRTV Indianapolis

OTTUMWA Andrew Birch, building maintenance manager at Wapello County Courthouse, promised to take contractors to the dreaded fifth floor Wednesday to see how bad the windows are.

Douglas J. Steinmetz, an architect out of Cedar Rapids, and Victor Amoroso Jr., president of A and J Associates consulting firm, examined windows at the courthouse, inside and out, and took copious notes for a project years in the making.

In March, the county board agreed to have Supervisor Chairman Jerry Parker contact Amoroso for advice on replacing the windows. Because the building is on the National Register of Historic Places, there are certain things we can and cannot do, Parker told the board.

I think its a timely project, said Steinmetz Wednesday. These windows have served their purpose.

Steinmetz estimates that the current windows were installed in the 1970s. [They] dont reflect the character of the building at all, he said. The goal of the project is to give the courthouse windows that will reflect the character of the building and still be energy efficient.

Steinmetz said the contractor will attempt to keep the new windows historically accurate. Fortunately we have drawings of the original building, he said. The drawings and photos will be used as a reference and will be the basis of design of the new windows, he said.

The project will not require any additional money from taxpayers. Weve been saving every year out of our sales tax money, said Parker.

Supervisors contracted with A and J Associates in March to prepare a study that would address the historical requirements of the window replacement, grant options or other financial incentives for historic preservation, window options, lead time for the windows and estimates of construction costs.

A and J Associates is in charge of the specifications; Steinmetz makes sure the designs meet the standards of the Secretary of the Interior for historic buildings.

We want to retain as much historic fabric as we can, Steinmetz said as he examined the windows.

Amoroso said the contractor will try to get the windows back to historic relevance. He thinks the study will be finished in a month or so, and then the designing process will begin.

Amoroso hopes the project will be out for bids in the fall. That will allow the windows to be manufactured over the winter months.

Steinmetz estimated that making the windows would take about three months. The windows would be installed when the weather allows in the spring of 2018, Amoroso said.

Parker said the county has more than $700,000 in sales tax money available for capital projects. Weve been able to accumulate it every year. Thats an accumulation from just 25 percent of the sales tax. The other 75 percent of the sales tax is earmarked for other uses.

Parker said the county has kept the cost of capital improvements low enough to save part of the money each year; that means the county wont have to levy more taxes or pass a bond issue and pay interest.

Parker doesnt know how much the windows will cost, but he said, Wouldnt surprise me if they [were] half a million."

Reporter Winona Whitaker can be contacted at wwhitaker@ottumwacourier.com and followed on Twitter @courierwinona.

The rest is here:
Window replacement begins with study - Ottumwacourier

By Stephanie Vanderbilt

Q: My home exterior needs some updating, but Im not sure whether to repair or replace. Im specifically referring to our windows, roofing and gutters.

A: Beautiful weather makes most New England homeowners want to boost curb appeal from every angle. This time of year, an exterior home remodel is an excellent choice. Not only does it make your home look more beautiful, but it also increases home value and energy efficiency.

With that said, sometimes it can be difficult to determine if your exterior home remodel project requires repair or replacement. These are the top signs to keep in mind for windows, roofing and gutters.

1. Repair or replace worn out windows?

Should you repair or replace your windows? This is one of the most-common questions for any replacement window companyin New England. The truth is that this question is best evaluated in person by a professional. A replacement window company can help you determine if your windows need replacement or just a quick repair, but these are the top signs that replacement is in your near future:

-- The window frames are deteriorating. Many old homes in New England have wood window frames. Although wood frames complement the character of homes in our area, deteriorating frames wont do you any favors. When your old wood frames are deteriorating and the wood is becoming soft, thats an indication of rot.

-- Your energy bills are skyrocketing. As temperatures rise with summer approaching, escalating energy bills are a common sign that its time for new window installation. New replacement windows can save you up to 40 percent on your energy bills.

-- You constantly feel drafts. Drafty windows are inefficient windows. Choose new energy-efficient windows with low air-infiltration ratings.

What qualifies for a window repair? This depends a lot on the condition and age of the window. Seal failures can sometime be fixed under a manufacturers warranty. Other times, you might be better off replacing the entire window, especially if its old, inefficient and no longer under warranty.

2. Repair or replace damaged gutters?

Gutter repair or replacement is essential to keeping costly clogs at bay. There are numerous reasons why gutters get damaged, including ice dams from the winter or brackets pulling off the side of your home.

How do you know if your gutters need replacement? Some telltale signs of gutter replacement include:

-- Water damage occurring directly underneath the gutters, which is damaging to soffit and fascia board.

-- Sagging gutters that pull away from your home.

-- Large sections of rust spots.

-- Eroded landscaping.

-- Peeling exterior paint.

If the condition of your gutter system isnt up to par, gutter replacement may be in order.

What qualifies for a gutter repair? If your gutters are leaking, you can repair just a section by adjusting or adding gutter hangers as needed. You can also patch small holes with roofing cement and smooth it out with a putty knife.

3. Repair or replace roofing?

Whether your roof needs repairing or replacement, this is a big exterior home remodel for any homeowner. The rainy spring season isnt the time to let roof damage linger, but it can be tough to determine if you need a whole new roof or just a couple new shingles.

How do you know if your roof needs replacement?

If you need to replace the entire roof, youll notice numerous danger signals such as:

-- Large dark patches that span over your roof, which indicate moisture damage.

-- Excessive growth of mold and moss.

-- Interior damage from water leaks.

-- Aggressive staining from lichen and algae.

-- Exterior decay of your home siding.

-- Shingles that break or crack at the touch of a hand.

-- Numerous shingles are missing.

-- Shingles are cracked, buckled or curling.

-- Your home is losing excessive amounts of energy without explanation.

-- Roof is 15 years old or older.

What qualifies for a roof repair? You can typically get away with roof repair when youre missing a couple shingles here and there.

What should you look for in a new roof? Key components include quality asphalt shingles that are extra durable, to ensure they will hold up against the elements. Furthermore, investing in roofing that can withstand 130 mph is smart for any New England homeowner, especially if you live along the coast. In addition, adequate ventilation and insulation are important, as well as all six parts of a roofing system, as it's more than just applying new shingles.

Dont forget that you should never hire a roofing contractor in Massachusetts who is not fully licensed, insured and trained by factory regulations.

-- Stephanie Vanderbilt is owner of Coastal Windows & Exteriors. She would love to answer any questions that will help you make your home beautiful, warm, safe and energy-efficient. Do you have other home improvement questions she can help answer? Ask her atsvanderbilt@mycoastalwindows.com or call at 978-304-0495.

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AT HOME WITH STEPHANIE: How to decide on home remodel - Wicked Local Saugus

Last week, a key event occurred in the history of personal computing. It marks the beginning of the death of the operating system that we recognize today as Microsoft Windows.

This euthanizing of Windows has been planned for at least five years, and Microsoft knows that it is necessary for the company's software business and for the PC industry to evolve and stay healthy.

In order for the Windows brand and Microsoft's software business to live, Windows -- as it exists today -- must die.

It is important we have some historical perspective of what "death" actually means for Windows, because it's already happened twice.

The first of Windows' lives occurred in the period between 1985 and 1995. During this time, Windows was a bolt-on application execution environment that ran on top of the 16-bit DOS operating system, which was introduced with the original IBM PC in 1981.

That OS "died" in 1995, when Windows 95 -- the first 32-bit version of the OS -- was released.

From 1989 to 2001, on a separate track, Microsoft also developed Windows NT, a 32-bit, hardware-abstracted, full pre-emptive, protective memory, multi-threaded multitasking OS designed for high-performance RISC and x86 workstations and servers.

The commonality that the consumer version of Windows and Windows NT had was that they shared many of the same APIs, which are collectively known as Win32.

Largely implemented using the C programming language, Win32 became the predominant Windows application programming model for many years. The majority of legacy Windows applications that exist in the wild today still use Win32 in some form. (This is an important takeaway that we will return to shortly.)

In 2001, Windows NT (at that time branded as Windows 2000) and the consumer version of Windows (Windows ME) merged into a single product: Windows XP.

Thus, the second generation of Windows technology descended from Windows 95 "died" at this time.

Shortly after the release of Windows XP, in 2002, Microsoft introduced the .NET Framework, which is an object-oriented development framework that includes the C# programming language.

The .NET Framework was intended to replace the legacy Win32. It has continued to evolve and has been slowly adopted by third-party ISVs and development shops. Over the years, Microsoft has adopted it internally for the development of Office 365, Skype, and other applications.

That was 16 years ago. However, Win32 still is the predominant legacy programming API. More apps out in the wild use it than anything else. And that subsystem remains the most significant vector for malware and security threats because it hosts desktop-based browsers, such as Internet Explorer and Chrome.

A lot has changed in the technology industry in 16 years, especially the internet. Web standards have changed, as have the complexity and sophistication of security threats. More and more applications are now web-based or are hosted as SaaS using web APIs.

Microsoft introduced a new programmatic model with the introduction of the Windows 8 OS. That framework, which is now commonly known as Universal Windows Platform (UWP), is a fully modernized programming environment that takes advantage of all the new security advancements introduced since Windows 8 and that are in the current Windows 10.

While Windows 8 was not well-received in the marketplace because of its unfamiliar full-screen "Metro" UX, the actual programmatic model that it introduced, which was greatly improved for desktop-style windowing in Windows 10, is technically sound and much more secure than Win32 due to its ability to sandbox apps.

In addition to including the latest implementation of .NET, UWP also allows apps to be programmed in C++, C#, Objective C, VB.NET, and Javascript. It uses XAML as a presentation stack to reduce code complexity.

Microsoft Edge, the completely re-designed browser that was introduced in Windows 10, is a native UWP application with none of the security drawbacks of Internet Explorer. Other native UWP applications include Windows Mail, Skype for Windows 10, and some of the applications in the Windows Store.

It could be said that the third Windows death, the end of the Win32 API, is long overdue. It has existed in some form or another since at least the late 1980s. But what has been keeping it alive?

Some of it is developer laziness. It's not like they haven't had 15 years to learn and adopt .NET and the past five years to adopt Metro/Modern/UWP.

To be fair, many of them have incorporated certain aspects of .NET into their apps as they kicked the can with their legacy codebase down the road, such as with the use of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) in .NET 3.0. But in a lot of cases, fully migrating code bases to UWP from Win32 would mean complete re-implementation.

That takes time and money.

Not all of this is developer laziness; it's also the systemically bad end-user and IT organizational habits of keeping old versions of apps around rather than move into newer licensing models and newer versions of the apps.

These legacy apps, many of which are running long past the expiration of their last service pack and ISV recommendations to decommission them and end-of-life notices, are of course far more likely to be susceptible to security threats.

A lot of ISVs are going the SaaS and web app route, or are providing their legacy apps in hosted desktop environments while they develop modernized web and SaaS apps to replace them.

Win32's persistence and hanging on extended life support puts Microsoft in a bad situation.

So what kind of shape is UWP in today? Is it ready for developers to move to as a complete replacement programming model for Win32?

With Windows 10 and UWP, the company finally has a modernized OS that is ready to host the desktop and mobile application workloads of the 21st century. It's secure and it finally makes good on the company's Trustworthy Computing initiative that it began in 2002.

A lot has changed over the last five years since the original Metro/WinRT programming stack was introduced with Windows 8.

Indeed, many of the API changes have not been rolled out in a developer-friendly fashion and a lot of the applications currently delivered in the Windows Store are based on older API versions and are not "universal" by any stretch.

That being said, the current implementation of UWP is quite good, and anything written to it will run on any architecture that UWP runs on, which includes all the versions of Windows 10, XBOX One, and the Hololens.

There aren't many notable examples of them, but if you have a Windows 10 phone, which uses ARM and Windows 10, which is x86, and if you buy a UWP app on the Windows Store, the developer has the option of offering one that runs on both, using the same code.

My preferred Twitter client, Tweetium, is one of these -- so are the built-in Mail and Calendar apps on Windows 10.

The more web standards that are incorporated into your UWP apps, and the more code that is executed directly on the cloud itself, the more portable, the more lightweight, and more mobile your code is.

Unfortunately, the only problem with Windows 10's advanced security model is when you run legacy apps on it. That's the double-edged sword of backward compatibility.

Microsoft's only choice to move forward is to throw the Win32 baby out with the bathwater. And that brings us to the introduction of Windows 10 S.

Windows 10 S is just like the Windows 10 you use now, but the main difference is it can only run apps that have been whitelisted to run in the Windows Store. That means, by and large, existing Win32-based stuff cannot run in Windows 10 S for security reasons.

To bridge the app gap, Microsoft is allowing certain kinds of desktop apps to be "packaged" for use in the Windows Store through a tooling process known as Desktop Bridge or Project Centennial.

The good news is that with Project Centennial, many Desktop Win32 apps can be re-purposed and packaged to take advantage of Windows 10's improved security. However, there are apps that will inevitably be left behind because they violate the sandboxing rules that are needed to make the technology work in a secure fashion.

Read also: How IBM can avoid the abyss | Intel x86: No cloud for you | Four years at Microsoft: My ringside seat to unprecedented transformation | Windows 10 S has the potential to create lifelong Microsoft customers (TechRepublic)

One of the key benefits of Centennial apps is that even though they run with normal user privileges, they still take advantage of some OS isolation so they can be seamlessly removed from the device. They are packaged/compartmentalized and are updated directly from the Windows Store (which helps to avoid "Windows rot").

Win32 apps put a tremendous drag on the on the developer ecosystem -- and Centennial is a straightforward and easy step toward removing that drag. For application developers, it also provides some great analytics tools as well for software distribution to various markets.

Centennial is also an acknowledgment on Microsoft's part that Win32 apps are here to stay and developers aren't going to move off of them wholesale. Instead, it gives developers the ability to take baby steps with their application and get them into the Windows Store (which in turn helps Microsoft, because it makes the store ecosystem more relevant to customers).

Some Win32 apps can probably be remediated for Centennial easily, some cannot. The more legacy an app codebase is, the worse shape it is probably in.

A casualty of those sandboxing rules is Google's Chrome browser. For security reasons, Microsoft is not permitting desktop browsers to be ported to the Store. In theory, Google could build its own compatible UWP browser, but it would bear little resemblance to Chrome on the desktop. The default browser, for now, is Microsoft Edge, period.

As it stands, you also can't change the default search engine to Google from Bing either. All of this is done under the premise of improved security.

Obviously, not everyone is going to be able to run an OS like Windows 10 S overnight. So Microsoft is using the Surface Laptop and other low-cost systems in the $200 to $300 range made by OEMs as a trial balloon to test the waters of the end-user market.

Who is Microsoft targeting? Education and Home users and those who mostly use the browser to do daily tasks and don't use legacy desktop-based line of business applications. That's the exact same demographic that Google is targeting with Chrome OS.

You can accuse Microsoft of many things, but sitting on its laurels and being risk-averse is not one of them. There's a lot of risk in releasing a version of Windows and accompanying systems that cannot run a preponderance of legacy Windows applications out of the box.

However, the reward, if successful, will be tremendous. Not just for Microsoft itself but also for the end-users that will have a much more secure computing experience to show for it.

There is clearly much more work that has to occur to ditch Win32 beyond getting the majority of users on a Windows OS that doesn't run legacy code.

Microsoft needs to build modernized versions of Office in order for enterprises to move, for starters. And we are years out from that becoming the desired deployment model for Office, even if Microsoft wanted the next version of 365 to be UWP-based, which we presume it does.

To realize that endgame, another half of the future Windows OS has to mature that end-users don't see. And that's Azure.

I like to think of this as like the building of a transcontinental tunnel, like the kind they built between England and France. One-half is the modern, security-enhanced version of Windows 10 that runs only UWP and Centennial stuff. The other is the cloud back-end that makes much of it possible.

Like burrowing out the transcontinental tunnel, at some point, the tunneling machines will eventually meet in the middle.

Today, Office 365 is deployed as "Click-to-Run" desktop code. It is a type of application packaging technology that is derived from App-V, which is a virtualization technology that is also referred to as application sequencing.

The Office client applications are also updated every month as part of your Office 365 subscription, so as long as you don't turn updates off you are always running the most current version of Office.

But it still all executes locally on the device. It is not hosted remotely, like Citrix, nor is it a web app.

How does Click-to-Run get around the problem that the installer is Win32? It copies the sequence of files that gets installed, but that doesn't change the fact that the Office code that runs is still Win32.

Third party installer tools developers use can also create Centennial compatible app packages.

All Windows 10 users can still be able to get a lot done out of the box because the web-based Office Online already runs well using Edge. You can be reasonably productive in a business environment using strictly those apps, especially if you need to share and collaborate on Office docs with other people.

There are definitely some limitations but I would say for at least 50 percent of workers who use Office on a day to day basis, the web versions of the Office apps get the job done.

Surface Laptop owners will get a free one-year Office 365 subscription that will work with the Office desktop software pre-loaded onto their devices and updated from the Store. Qualifying educational customers -- who have free licenses of Office 365 for Education --will also be able to use that desktop app with their Office subscription. In fact, anyone with an Office 365 subscription, using any edition of Windows 10, can use that Store app.

Today, the Click-to-Run/App-V software distribution technology is tied largely to the x86 platform because of the way desktop apps are written. But UWP apps don't have this limitation; they can run on Windows 10 Mobile, or in theory, a Windows 10 PC running on an ARM processor.

Those types of ARM-based systems don't exist today. The original Surface RT, which was an early attempt at this, failed. It was also underpowered, which didn't help.

But in a few years, they could return, because Microsoft has done all of the hard work since its Windows 8 mishaps to undergo full platform convergence.

The ARM architectural licensees like Qualcomm, Samsung, TSMC, Nvidia, Huawei, and others now manufacture powerful, 64-bit, multi-core SoCs that have plenty of CPU and RAM headroom as well as fast bus speeds to run an OS like Windows 10 S easily.

As Microsoft's Azure cloud evolves and the 365 Online offerings become more and more sophisticated, more apps using web APIs can be wrapped as UWP. This also goes for third-party web apps, including Google's, if the developers put some minimal effort to optimizing their web apps for the Edge rendering engine.

Just take a look at Kiwi for Gmail, which a single, third-party developer wrote. No Chrome engine or desktop code required. It makes all the Google apps look like modern Windows apps. A company with Google's resources could certainly make UWP apps look very polished indeed. Whether it's actually willing to is another matter altogether, due to its own desire to control its application ecosystem and userbase.

There will be less and less need for legacy desktop apps running on client devices, particularly when legacy code can be isolated in Azure using virtual machines and containers for improved security. That's where stuff like XenApp Essentials and XenDesktop Essentials by Citrix and other third-party desktop hosting technologies like IndependenceIT come in.

It also wouldn't surprise me either to see some type of Windows container technology to be deployed on the client device directly in a future version of Windows 10 S so that UWP and Centennial apps can be totally isolated from each other, a la Bromium.

Windows, as we know it today, based on the legacy Win32 APIs that have been around for decades, will die. That's Microsoft's intention as well as its current mission to improve the overall computing experience for everyone. But Windows as a brand will continue, as a secure operating system optimized for applications that heavily leverage public and private clouds.

However, our definition of personal computing and also the PC will also change with it.

Will you embrace the death of the Windows desktop environment and migrate to UWP applications? Talk Back and Let Me Know.

Originally posted here:
Why Windows must die. For the third time - ZDNet