Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

(PRWEB) January 15, 2014

The Outdoor GreatRoom Company, the leader in outdoor living products and design, is pleased to announce the newest addition to their line of gas fire pit tables, the Grand Colonial Dining. It is UL listed for safety and made of durable, yet beautiful products. It will be featured at upcoming trade shows including the Northeast Pool & Spa show in New Jersey, January 28-30, the International Builders Show in Las Vegas, February 4-6, and the HPBExpo in Salt Lake City, March 5-8.

The Dining Height base was added to the Grand Colonial top to give new life to entertaining and dining outdoors. It is the perfect table for people who enjoy living their life outdoors and want durable, beautiful products to do so. The top is made of durable British Granite with a removable lazy susan burner cover, when the flame is not in use. The base can also be added to our original Colonial Gas Fire Pit Table with Supercast topanother favorite for backyards and patios.

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ABOUT THE OUTDOOR GREATROOM COMPANY Founded by industry veteran Dan Shimek, co-founder of Heat-N-Glo Fireplaces, The Outdoor GreatRoom Company (OGC) manufactures unique, upscale products with design appeal for indoor and outdoor living spaces. Products include grills (gas and electric), outdoor kitchen islands, indoor/outdoor fireplaces (gas, electric, gel), outdoor fire pits and fire pit tables, outdoor heaters, outdoor lighting (gas, solar), outdoor patio furniture, pergolas and accessories. Visit http://www.outdoorrooms.com for more information.

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New Product: Grand Colonial Dining Fire Pit Table

Where Can Domestic Abuse Victims Find Shelter?
Marie Lazzara, host of "Community" interviews Michelle Meyer, Executive Director of Mutual Ground in Aurora and Ray Pillar, co-owner of Molly Maid Aurora-Nap...

By: Fred McMurray

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Where Can Domestic Abuse Victims Find Shelter? - Video

Molly Maid and the Ms. Molly Foundation, with the help of people like you, are making a difference in the lives of women and children who have been victimized by domestic violence.

Having a clean, comfortable home is important. Finding the time to conduct a thorough house cleaning is difficult, especially with all the pressures and demands already placed on you. For more than 25 years, Molly Maid has offered bonded, insured residential maids who pride themselves in quality home cleaning services that create "me time" for our hardworking homeowners. Before joining the Molly Maid family, each maid is professionally trained to perform the detailed residential maid services we provide. Only passionate, caring people have the honor of wearing our nationally-recognized uniform.

We clean your home the way you want. That means our professional maid services are designed with your needs in mind. We listen and provide customized plans that make you proud of your clean, fresh home.

Your satisfaction is our guarantee. At Molly Maid our professional maids clean based on your customized plan. If you're not satisfied, our maids will come back and clean whatever area didn't meet your expectations. Simply notify us within 24-hours. Read More

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Residential Maid Services: Molly Maid Professional Maid Services

Another case of brutal mistreatment points to a systemic failure to protect domestic workers

A foreign domestic helper holds a placard as she takes part in a May Day rally in Hong Kong on May 1, 2013.

When Indonesian domestic worker Erwiana Sulistyaningsih departed from Hong Kong last Friday, she left a nightmare behind her. Eight months of alleged beatings by her employer had disfigured the 23-year-old so badly she was barely recognizable. A gaunt, pockmarked face with chipped teeth had replaced her once smooth, girlish features. Her feet, scalded with hot water, were black in color and had open sores.

Her case is another damning instance of the abuses faced by foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong. Foreign maids have been a ubiquitous feature of Hong Kong life since the 1970s, when the citys economy began to boom. Local women entered the labor force on a large scale and hired domestic workers from the Philippines, and subsequently Indonesia and Thailand, to keep households running.

After decades of toiling away in the anonymous confines of Hong Kongs high-rise homes, domestic helpers, now numbering around 300,000, are making their voices heard more effectively, campaigning for better working conditions, higher wages and entitlement to permanent residency.

(MORE:Indonesia Pushes for Better Migrant-Worker Protection)

True, legal protections are better in Hong Kong than in the Middle East and other East Asian countries that are large markets for foreign domestic workers, such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Singapore. But helpers in Hong Kong are nonetheless vulnerable and often defenseless once disaster strikes. A 2012 Mission for Migrant Workers survey found that 18% of migrant domestic workers in the city had been physically abused. The Indonesian maid Kartika Puspitasari became a cause clbre last summer, when her two-year-long torture in the hands of a sadistic couple was made public. The revelation of Erwianas ordeal throws an uncomfortable spotlight on the treatment of domestic workers yet again.

Unable to walk when she arrived home, Erwiana needed the help of a fellow domestic worker she met at Hong Kong International Airport. Five days after arrival, she is still in hospital, but her uncle Shomat tells TIME she is doing better. We were shocked, and we feel pained seeing her in this condition, he says.

(MORE:Hong Kong Employer May Have Tortured Second Indonesian Maid)

If she is lucky, Erwiana will get justice.Her family says they are determined to seek legal action against her former employer, and the Indonesian government has pledged to provide a lawyer for her. Other Indonesians, however, may never get redress. In a November report, Amnesty International singled out Indonesians as particularly vulnerable in Hong Kong. Unlike Filipinas, the other major group of domestic helpers in Hong Kong, Indonesians are required to find employment through recruitment agencies. These agencies are supposed to provide them with training, set up their contracts and arrange their visas. However, Amnesty found that the agencies failed to adequately represent the interests of women on their books.

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Indonesian Maids are Hong Kong's 'Modern-Day Slaves'

Lawn care is very essential for any type of lawn or garden as the lawn in a house is the place that adds fresh sir to the house. It also rejuvenates the mood ofthe people if it is clean and well maintained. But unfortunately, people these days have started neglecting their lawns due to busy schedule as well as hectic life. Thus it is advised to go with an effective company in Virginia Beach for Lawn care.

There are different types of companies that offer their lawn care services to their clients these days. Most of these companies offer the services that are related with maintenance as well as they also offer different types of agronomic programs to their clients. It is highly advised to settle on a particular kind of service before you choose a particular maintenance company for your lawn. In general there is a huge range of tools as well as techniques that are used by these services. It is seen many a times that the people do not know what exactly has happened to their lawn that is the reason that you must seek for a genuine advice from a professional that offers different types of lawn care services. He would thoroughly inspect your lawn and provide the garden with a suitable treatment. One can browse through the various services offered by these companies from the official website of these lawn care service companies.

There are different types of lawn care packages that are delivered by these companies.

There are different types of services available and the customer has the freedom to choose the one that suits his needs the best. These services could be availed daily, weekly or even yearly as that depends upon the care and treatment that is needed by your lawn.

The price of the company that you have chosen for yourself must be competitive enough. There are many false companies that charge extra high prices that are absolutely not fair. You must cross check the prices of the company that you have chosen for yourself from the other companies of the same expertise.

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Lawn Care: Essential for a beautiful and flawless garden

Free Sign Up CP Newsletter! Related Veterans Group Wants Congressional hearing on VA Dept.'s Alleged Religious Liberty Violations Police Chief Refuses to Remove Cross From Lawn Following Atheist Complaint in Ark. Mark Driscoll Fires Up His Detractors, Social Media-Minded Christians With 'Going to Hell' Tweet

January 16, 2014|10:12 am

An atheist organization has taken up the cause of a Florida man who has complained for several years that the display of a Bible in one city council's chambers is a violation of the Constitution.

Randy Heine, the owner of Rockin Cards and Gifts in Pinellas Park, Fla., told The Christian Post he was "stonewalled" by city officials when he tried to have the Bible removed from the dais in the city council chambers back in 2005. He could not afford to take legal action against the city, he says, so his mission was put on hold.

In June 2013 he reached out to the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), an organization that promotes the separation of church and state of which he is also a member, to share his concern.

An FFRF staff attorney sent a letter to Pinellas Park Mayor Sandra Bradbury shortly after claiming that, among other things, displaying the Bible is a government endorsement of religion and is therefore unconstitutional.

"No legitimate purpose is served by having a bible [sic] on the dais. Its presenceonly appears to express approval of its contents and of Christianity," wrote FFRF attorney Andrew Seidel.

Seidel told CP his organization sent several follow-up letters to the city, including one sent earlier this week, but city officials have not yet responded. The city has, however, worked with FFRF on an open records request that was included with the first letter.

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Several federal courts have declared that displaying the Bible on government property is a violation of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause, he says. He also says he hopes city leaders will see that they can still exercise their beliefs privately and that FFRF is concerned with protecting the First Amendment.

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Atheist Group Challenges Bible Display at Fla. City Hall, Calls It a Violation of the US Constitution

Democrats plan to demagogue income inequality and the wealth gap for political gain in this years elections. Most of whats said about income inequality is stupid or, at best, ill-informed. Much to their disgrace, economists focusing on measures of income inequality bring little light to the issue. Lets look at it.

Income is a result of something. As such, results alone cannot establish whether there is fairness or justice. Take a simple example to make the point. Suppose Tom, Dick and Harry play a weekly game of poker. The result is: Tom wins 75 percent of the time. Dick and Harry, respectively, win 15 percent and 10 percent of the time. Knowing only the games result permits us to say absolutely nothing as to whether there has been poker fairness or justice. Toms disproportionate winnings are consistent with his being either an astute player or a clever cheater.

To determine whether there has been poker justice, the games process must be examined. Process questions we might ask are: Were Hoyles rules obeyed; were the cards unmarked; were the cards dealt from the top of the deck; and did the players play voluntarily? If these questions yield affirmative answers, there was poker fairness and justice, regardless of the games result, even with Toms winning 75 percent of the time.

Similarly, income is a result of something. In a free society, for the most part, income is a result of ones capacity to serve his fellow man and the value his fellow man places on that service.

Say I mow your lawn and you pay me $50. That $50 might be seen as a certificate of performance. Why? It serves as evidence that I served my fellow man and enables me to make a claim on what he produces when I visit the grocer.

Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are multibillionaires. Just as in the case of my serving my fellow man by mowing his lawn, they served their fellow man. The difference is they served many more of their fellow men and did so far more effectively than I and hence have received many more certificates of performance, which enables them to make greater claims on what their fellow man produces, such as big houses, cars and jets.

Brin and Page and people like them created wealth by producing services that improve the lives of millions upon millions of people all around the globe. Should people who have improved our lives be held up to ridicule and scorn because they have higher income than most of us? Should Congress confiscate part of their wealth in the name of fairness and income redistribution?

Except in many instances when government rigs the game with crony capitalism, income is mostly a result of ones productivity and the value that people place on that productivity. Far more important than income inequality is productivity inequality. That suggests that if theres anything to be done about income inequality, we should focus on how to give people greater capacity to serve their fellow man, namely raise their productivity.

To accomplish that goal, lets look at a few things that we shouldnt do. Becoming a taxicab owner-operator lies within the grasp of many, but in New York City, one must be able to get a license (medallion), which costs $700,000. There are hundreds of examples of government restrictions that reduce opportunity.

What about the grossly fraudulent education received by so many minority youngsters? And then we handicap them further with laws that mandate that businesses pay them wages that exceed their productivity, which denies them on-the-job training.

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Income inequality

MONTEVALLO, Alabama -- The Montevallo City Council is considering enlisting the services of a Birmingham landscape architect firm to create a master plan that would outline development of the 167-acre property donated to the municipality last November.

The City Council during its meeting on Monday night briefly discussed using Kelly Landscape Architect to develop the Shoal Creek Park master plan. The document would cover the land donated by Elizabeth A. Mahler and Shoals Creek Farm Inc. located near the Alabama National Cemetery and American Village on both sides of Highway 119.

The donation of land that includes an antebellum home comes with a request to the city to preserve the property as a park and other municipal purposes, possibly the site of a new City Hall.

Kelly Landscape Architect's Chuck Kelly told the council he has submitted a proposal that would create a process for developing the master plan. The process would include public hearings and opportunities for comment.

"A final master plan would be subject to review and comments," Kelly said.

The donation of land appraised at $670,000 includes the white home prominently located off Highway 119 that city leaders are planning on using as a possible museum or visitors center for Montevallo. Plans call for naming the area Shoal Creek Park under Mahler's request.

The council will consider Kelly's request at an upcoming meeting.

Also on Monday night, the council approved an agreement with Lonnie Bearden and John Nix to allow them to use the Mahler property to run up to 60 cattle for grazing on the land.

In exchange for paying rent to the municipality, the two men will maintain fences on the property and keep the hayfields and open areas cut. The lease approved by the council carries a one-year term and can be terminated by either party with a 90-day written notice.

Councilman Don Hughes raised concern about the cattle on the land polluting the creek that runs across the property. The council agreed to approve the contract with a stipulation to abide by any state regulations concerning runoff into the creek caused by the cattle.

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Montevallo working on plans for 167-acre donation along Highway 119

The Landmarks Preservation Commission largely praised a preliminary design for the Town Hall Square Historic District restoration project presented Thursday by architect Mark Marsh and landscape designer Jorge Sanchez.

Well done so far. This is gorgeous, said Commissioner Elizabeth Murphy.

I love the pleached oaks. I think they are brilliant, said alternate member Anne Fairfax, an architect.

The plan calls for adding 22-foot parallel parking spaces and tabby-concrete sidewalks to the perimeter of Memorial Park; changing the existing rows of tall Royal Palms to shorter coconut palms; placing a large kapok tree on each side of the Addison Mizner-designed fountain to create a canopy; adding stairs to the south side of the Addison fountain; installing an allee of live oaks with tops clipped into squares on the south side; and changing parking spaces on the west side of the two-block area of County Road to parallel spaces. The design would increase spaces in the district from 41 to 66.

The stairs make the park much more usable because once you are in the park, you can go down the center, said Commissioner Penny Townsend.

The plan also would increase green space in the island north of the town-owned park and eliminate a curb that divides the park from green space just north of Town Hall.

Thats a big improvement, Murphy said.

Chairman Ted Cooney said hes glad the Town Council has gotten behind the project. In November, the council designated up to $5.7 million through bond financing for park and district improvements, expecting that residents and businesses also would contribute money.

Cooney argued for keeping Royal Palms on each side of the reflecting pool, but others including Murphy, William Feldkamp and William Strawbridge, agreed with Sanchez that tightly spaced rows of the shorter coconut palm would provide more shade. Marsh called Cooneys idea to add narrow landscaped areas to existing sidewalks a good one.

Fairfax suggested that a crosswalk closer to the center of the park might be more convenient than having to use crosswalks at the north and south ends of Town Hall, but Marsh said doing so could cost up to eight parking spaces. District merchants, Marsh said, are thrilled at the prospect of more parking.

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Town Hall Square restoration plan impresses commission

Before starting your landscape remodel, survey your space and consider how best to fill it based on your interests. If you love working outdoors, a large rose garden or vegetable garden is the perfect way to use your space. On the other hand, kids might enjoy a large yard, along with a playground, swing set or pool. Think about what your family would use the most, as well as what would help boost your resell value in the long run. In the end, be sure to consider your front and back yard as separate entities; after all, they usually serve two very different purposes. What should I add to my front yard? When revamping your front yard, think about curb appeal above all else. This space is your chance to make a great first impression, so it should be inspiring, well thought out and consistent with the style of your home. A flower garden is a great option, but if maintenance is an issue, you can simplify the process by opting for low-maintenance succulents, bushes or hedges instead. If you don't have a green thumb, stick with grass and use a gravel pathway, water feature, wood fence or stone wall for variation. What should I add to my backyard? The backyard is for entertaining and playtime, so incorporate seating, dining areas, play spaces and sunny relaxation spots. A vegetable garden or rose garden is a common yard staple, especially if you add an interesting element like a pergola, arbor, raised bed, border, walkway or fence. You can even add fun accessories like birdbaths and feeders to aid with birdwatching. For the ultimate party house, incorporate a pool and patio or deck with a fire pit, outdoor fireplace, barbecue and outdoor kitchen. If you're an active, sports-loving family, add a basketball court, volleyball court, bocce ball or croquet. And don't forget about outdoor furniture! A bench in a garden makes a great reading or meditation spot, while a weatherproof chaise lounge, sofa and chair are nice for taking in those sunny days.

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Landscape Design Ideas, Pictures, Remodels and Decor