Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

A Beatrice woman is staying with family after a Thursday evening fire rendered her home unlivable.

Beatrice Fire and Rescue workers responded to the fire at 11:12 p.m. at 1503 E. Court St.

Fire and Rescue Chief Brian Daake said the resident of the home, Marge Gouldie, had experienced electrical problems earlier in the day, prompting her to spend the night of the fire elsewhere.

The occupant was having electrical problems through the day and wasnt comfortable staying there so she went to her sons house, Daake said. When we arrived on scene, there was light-colored smoke coming out of the attic.

The fire appeared to be electrical and Daake described it as slow, hot smolder.

Firefighters cut a ventilation hole in the roof and damage to the older home was estimated at $13,000.

A total of 11 firefighters were on the scene for roughly two hours and Beatrice Police officers assisted in shutting down Court Street.

Daake added the home was at some point remodeled, which can add challenges for firefighters.

It just was an older home and had remodeling done at some time, he said. Any time you change a room from its initial design of the building it appeared the ceilings were lowered at one time just gaining access to where the fire actually is adds some challenges.

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Attic fire damages home

QUINCY, Ill. (WGEM) - Warmer weather melts snow and ice off roofs, but it can cause problems for some homes.

Ice dams build up when melted water runs down the roof but freezes at the base of the roof just before running off. Co-Owner of Full Service Roofing and Remodeling Jonathan Schemerhorn says the problem can cause water to sit on the roof, leading to leaks or parts of the roof caving in. He says the problem can start in the attic.

"To help prevent it, you definitely don't want to get on the roof when it is icy," Schemerhorn said. "[The ice] is at the base of the roof. It's where you set your ladder. It's where you first get off. The thing is you will just have to wait it out. You can wait for it to melt or you can get in your attic and make sure the insulation is spread completely around."

Schemerhorn says spreading the insulation around the attic makes the snow melt evenly as opposed to melting at the top and refreezing toward the bottom of the roof. Co-Owner Kevin Phillips said ice damming is common in our area.

"This is just something really common every year," Phillips said. "We always have ice damming. We are kind of in that section of the country where we are just north enough to where we see it. If you go a couple hundred miles south it kind of is not so much of an issue."

Schemerhorn and Phillips say this is a problem some individuals can fix on their own as long as they are comfortable on the roof and with tools. Phillips says there is no set manufacturer guidelines on what temperature is good for working on a roof.

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Roofs could be next problem for homeowners

For travellers, these are indeed Tales of the Unexpected, and over the coming weeks we will be turning the spotlight on further examples of this much-cherished genre including the extraordinary Prada store found in the village of Marfa in the middle of a Texan desert, the almost completely unexplored ruins in the old Roman settlement of Timgad in Algeria and the artistic haven that is Fogo Island off the coast of Newfoundland.

We will be looking for more such treasures, and hope that you, too, will share with us a few discoveries of your own.

A Qatar castle filled with a sheikhs curios

Surrounded by shiny skyscrapers, five-star hotels and artificial islands, it feels like there is little here in Qatar of any great age; after all, this is a country which has seen most of its development happen in the last 20 years. Yet one man here is trying to document and preserve an idea of history. Sheikh Faisal, a close relative of the ruling emir, is a successful businessman here although his hobby, as he calls it or his obsession, as others might is less well known.

Half way across the peninsula that is Qatar, resembling a thumbs-up in the Persian Gulf, is the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum. When its namesake built this modern-day fort 15 years ago, it was the only interruption in an otherwise blank canvas of a landscape. Today it stands next to a recently completed superhighway on the outskirts of the hazy sprawling capital, Doha.

Turning off the main road, I approach the museum down a long avenue of dusty trees. At the end of the road is an imposing crenellated fortress.

It feels even bigger on the inside with a floor space of five football pitches and that is just as well because there are 15,000 objects on display from a half-century of amassing, labelling and hoarding.

Sheikh Faisal describes how he travels all over the world to add to his collection: visiting the auction houses of London and Paris; dealers offices in Istanbul and Miami, the markets of Sanaa and Tunis. Certainly there are treasures among the cluttered galleries, from Lydian coins to Umayyad pottery to an entire Syrian house brought brick-by-brick from Damascus old town and reconstructed here. The section on Qatari heritage which may be the greatest draw for tourists has a whole flotilla of traditional fishing boats displayed in giant indoor pits; there is a traditional Bedouin tent, and antique weighing scales used in the local pearling industry. There are also oddities such as the Sudanese dagger sheath made from a desiccated crocodile; a gold AK-47, a gift from Saddam Hussein; and the suit he wore for his ill-fated trial.

But the museum also houses the ordinary: there are cabinets of the sheikhs exercise books from his school days, as well as boarding cards from trips in his youth; in the gallery displaying currencies from around the world, there is a selection of modern British banknotes, which I could have pulled out of my wallet.

Ive been a collector since I was a little boy, Sheikh Faisal tells me. I want to keep everything. I still remember a toy car I had when I was small that a friend of my mothers picked up and gave to her son. I still think about not having that car in my collection.

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Tales of the Unexpected: Qatar and Japan

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Burton MI Basement Finishing - Basement Remodeling Burton MI - Video

Hall County has found a place to relocate judges and courthouse staff while a costly courthouse renovation is underway.

On Tuesday, county supervisors will vote on whether to buy the former Workforce Development building at 1306 W. Third St. The county used to co-own that building but now wants to buy it back from the city of Grand Island for $600,000.

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Hall County to buy building from city for temporary courthouse

Work continues on the Texas Roadhouse restaurant on Friday, December 6, 2013, at Tikahtnu Commons. The restaurant is slated to open in February of 2014.

ERIK HILL Anchorage Daily News Buy Photo

Anchorage logged $631 mil- lion in new building permits in 2013, a 40 percent increase over 2012 construction, according to data presented by architect Brian Meissner at the Building Owners and Managers Association's annual commercial real estate forecast luncheon Friday.

"2013 was as big as the years before the bust," Meissner said.

Major construction projects under way around the city include hotels, office buildings and retail space.

Commercial vacancy rates throughout the city generally went down in 2013, said Brandon Walker, an associate at Pacific Tower Properties in Anchorage. Retail vacancy rates are just more than 4 percent, lower than the national average of 7.7 percent, he said.

National retailers that set up outlets in Anchorage in 2013 included cosmetics giant Sephora and designer Michael Kors. Walker said a number of other national brands have plans to open in here in 2014: Cabela's, Bass Pro Shops, Hard Rock Cafe, Texas Roadhouse and Tilted Kilt Pub and Eatery.

Industrial vacancy rates fell below 2 percent in 2013, Walker said.

Speaking of the city's available commercial properties, Walker said, "Much of the inventory right now is plagued by obsolescence. This is limiting the already limited supply of properties."

Fortunately for the city's commercial tenants, Walker said, they haven't seen an upswing in rents as a result of the decrease in vacancies.

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Commercial property prices hold up despite new construction

A sprawling parking lot across the street from Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles has been sold to local investors who plan to build a large-scale residential and retail complex perhaps including a hotel.

It was the second sale of a parking lot in the area around Staples and the L.A. Live entertainment complex in recent weeks as real estate development in the neighborhood south of downtown's financial district picks up speed.

The latest sale was a 2.7-acre parcel at 12th and Figueroa streets that has city approval for construction of apartment or condominium towers above stores and restaurants, real estate broker Adam Tischer of Colliers International said.

Tischer is an advisor to the seller, L&R Group, which is the parent company of Joe's Auto Park. The broker declined to name the three buyers, but other downtown property experts not authorized to talk about the deal identified one of the new owners as David Y. Lee.

Lee's Los Angeles company, Jamison Services Inc., is one of the largest office landlords in Southern California.

L&R paid $31 million for the property in 2010 and hadn't planned to sell it, but a trio of local buyers offered to pay substantially more than twice that amount, Tischer said. He declined to reveal the exact price.

The parcel, which was once owned by condominium developer South Group, has preliminary approvals for two high-rise towers of about 35 and 27 stories housing 648 residential units. About 40,000 square feet of space for stores and restaurants would be available for rent at street level.

The new owners may seek a variance from the city that would allow them to use some of the approved 863,000 square feet of development space as a hotel and perhaps accommodate more retail space, Tischer said.

"They are eager to get started and hope to be under construction this year," he said.

The other Staples area parking lot to be sold recently was a 4.6-acre site just to the north at 11th and Figueroa streets. Chinese property developer Oceanwide Real Estate Group acquired the land now used as a parking lot from New York landlord Moinian Group.

Originally posted here:
Investors buy parking lot across from Staples Center

The Somerville Arts Council and the city planning and community development office are looking to play a new role in the city: Real estate broker.

Since December, according to Arts Council Executive Director Gregory Jenkins, the council has been inviting artists and other creative industry workers in the city to detail the kind of studio or live-work space they need, in order to potentially connect them with commercial spaces that fit the bill.

Some 50 people have already responded to the questionnaire at http://www.somervilleartscouncil.org/spaceinitiative, Jenkins said, and the city is now going through commercial real estate listings in search of available space. Any commercial landlords with space to offer should contact the Arts Council at 617-625-6600 x2985, or the planning and community development office at x2500.

The city is stepping in because development pressure is making it difficult for everyone who wants studio space in Somerville to find it, Jenkins said.

Theres still a lot of studio workspaces out there, but more and more, the price is going up and theyre getting converted to residential, Jenkins said. The question is, how can we provide a more proactive role and support the cultural community?

On the landlords side, many commercial property owners have vacant space they would like to lease, but their parcels are either extremely developed or in need of extensive redevelopment, driving rents up so high that only larger tenants can afford them, Jenkins said.

A lot of commercial landlords are looking for tenants that have a very strong business model, and depending on where theyre located, sadly, theyre probably looking for chains, Jenkins said. I think landlords can be slightly hesitant when its not a traditional lessee, so the question is how can we help?

The city may be able to connect artists so they can pool their resources, possibly form an LLC, and lease larger spaces, Jenkins said. Options to ease extensive redevelopment costs could include setting up a fundraising campaign, seeking outside foundation support, securing pro bono architectural services, or checking with the city planning and inspectional services divisions to see what help may be available.

The city may even be able to find a commercial developer open to working with members of the creative community seeking live-work spaces, Jenkins said.

Somerville is in a unique situation right now with its amazing socioeconomic, ethnic and creative diversity, and I think we as a city should cherish and acknowledge it and do what we can to make sure we dont lose some of it, Jenkins said. The creative cluster provides so much benefit to the city form a social, civic, economic and cultural standpoint.

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Somerville looks to connect artists with landlords

January 10, 2014 Updated Jan 10, 2014 at 9:51 PM CST

PEORIA, Ill. -- This warm up is raising concerns for flooding on roadways and inside of your home.

Workers at Menold Construction & Restoration have responded to more than 100 flooded homes. Floods can cause up to hundreds of thousands worth of damage. Basic services start around $2,000.

There are ways you can protect your home from flooding. It starts with moving the snow away from your home and getting a sump pump.

"Get the moisture away," said Steven Driscoll, Vice President of Menold Construction & Restoration. "If it's in snow form or a liquid form, get it away. Make sure your discharge lines are clean and not frozen. I know a lot people who say, 'I don't need to worry because I got a new sump pump,' but that does not mean that the discharge lines are not frozen. Clean them out and make sure they're working."

If your home is already flooded, call a restoration service. Make sure to use fans and dehumidifiers to suck out the moisture to prevent mold.

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Weather conditions bring about another threat to your home--flooding

Kara Chisholm

Fragments of gravestones found in the basement of the Quincy Historical Society will be restored as part of a restoration plan of over 200 gravestones in Hancock Cemetery.

By Jessica Bartlett, Boston.com Staff

The 10 grave markers in the basement of the Adams Academy have sat untouched for over 30 years, the large pieces of slate collecting dust in the Quincy Historical Societys home.

Yet with a plan to restore over 200 gravestones in the Hancock Cemetery, the basement artifacts will finally see the light of day.

We came in a little under budget with the contract were going to go with [for the cemetery restoration], said Kara Chisholm, assistant planner for the city. The remaining money will allow the city to add the basement artifacts to the project, though they werent part of the initial scope.

City planners have been working for months to solidify contractors for the grave site restoration, an endeavor prompted by a Massachusetts Historical Commission grant for $33,000.

A Community Preservation Committee grant for $80,000 will supplement the funding, bringing much needed restoration work to a cemetery believed to have been settled by the Europeans in the 1620s.

The contract award is still awaiting approval from the Massachusetts Historical Commission, but city planners have begun to prepare the additional basement gravestones to be added to the project.

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Old gravestones to be restored to Quincy cemetery