Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

Published: Monday, 1/6/2014 - Updated: 1 minute ago

BY TOM TROY BLADE POLITICS WRITER

Toledo City Council put off until its next meeting the vote on a proposed apartment building on West Bancroft Street near the University of Toledo after several newly sworn-in councilmen asked for the delay to get more information.

The delay occurred when a majority of council voted down a motion to hold the vote at its meeting last Thursday, after first apparently becoming confused veterans as well as newcomers by what it was voting on.

Council swore in five new members Thursday night.

Developers are seeking to demolish a former night club, coffee shop, and other buildings on Bancroft near campus for the $27 million construction project to put up a 143-unit building designed to appeal to college students.

The developer needs a special-use permit and zoning of mixed commercial-residential on the 6-acres at the southeast corner of Bancroft and Westwood Avenue.

The plans won approval from the city plan commission and from councils own zoning and planning committee, where it was the subject of about 90 minutes of discussion.

But council has been peppered by complaints from some neighbors in the adjacent Bancroft Hills subdivision who say the project will worsen the problems linked to student housing in the area, as well as compete with existing student rentals.

Mark Rose, a Toledo lawyer representing the builder, Guy Totino of Cleveland, said the project will be first-class, which he said appeals to a trend among college students.

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City council delays apartment vote

January 06, 2014

Rescue workers look on as an excavator is used to move rubble at the site of a collapsed building that was under construction in Canacona town in the western Indian city of Goa, today. - Reuters pic, January 6, 2014.Indian rescuers pulled two more bodies from the rubble of a collapsed apartment block, taking the death toll from the country's latest building accident to 17, an official said today.

The building, which was under construction, crumbled mid-afternoon on Saturday while more than 40 poorly paid daily-wage labourers were on site in the southern tourism state of Goa.

Rescue workers discovered the two bodies overnight yesterday as efforts continue around the clock to try to find survivors still trapped in the rubble of the building that a witness said collapsed like "a pack of cards".

Although about 16 people are still unaccounted for, the official said the chances of finding survivors were slim given the length of time since the accident.

"Only a miracle can save them," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Another 16 people were recovering in hospital, the official said.

Rescue workers were using bulldozers, shovels and bare hands to try to shift concrete slabs and other debris from the site in the seaside village of Canacona, south of the state capital Panaji.

"The rescue work is tedious. You have to ensure that the nearby buildings don't get damaged and also the debris doesn't collapse further while digging in," the official said.

Sniffer dogs have also been brought in to try to find those trapped.

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india-building-collapse-reuters-060114.JPG

Says rolling blackouts are proof of need for Muskrat Falls

With the province entering the fourth day of rolling blackouts, tens of thousands of Newfoundlanders without power, and the prospect of a strained electrical grid for weeks to come, Premier Kathy Dunderdale assured the people Sunday afternoon that there's no crisis, and things are under control.

Telegram photo

Premier Kathy Dunderdale says she has no regrets about anything she did in the past year; and she will run in the next election.

What's more, Dunderdale warned that due to aging infrastructure and higher demand for electricity, these sorts of outages could become more common between now and 2017, when the Muskrat Falls hydroelectic dam is built.

There's a critical period that we need to get through until we have a new source of power, new infrastructure, and more than anything else we have redundancy, she told reporters Sunday afternoon. After 2017 hopefully we'll never find yourself in this kind of circumstance again because of the redundancy that will be built into the system.

Dunderdale tied the current outages directly to the Muskrat Falls project, saying that the failure at Holyrood proves that the aging power plant has outlived its usefulness and needs to be replaced by Muskrat Falls.

We've talked incessantly, it seems to me, over the last number of years about the aging facility in Holyrood and the fact that that facility needed to be replaced, she said.

Despite insisting that there was no crisis, Dunderdale flanked by electrical utility brass and ministers begged the people of the province to do everything in their power to conserve electricity, or risk further blackouts.

Everybody has a role to play in this, Dunderdale said. You know, if you're not using a room in a house, turn off the heat, turn off the lights. You know, you might want to do your dishes by hand over the next few days.

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UPDATED: Premier insists province isn't in crisis

Kathy has spent many years in decorating, taking an ordinary living space and transforming it to be extraordinary and beautiful. Decorating in various and exceptional forms has been one of her passions since childhood. Long before the terms "redesign" and "staging" were popular, it has been a love and way of life for Kathy. She has combined her professional experiences, attention to detail, talents and creativity, along with her passion for decorating to offer a unique blend of services. Kathy has the ability to take a room that seems dull, uncomfortable or uninteresting and create an inviting and comfortable room. Out of necessity and experience, she has found that one does not need a lot of expensive things to make a room beautiful and desirable. Those who have benefited from Kathy's talents have often said that she can take an ordinary space and make it a retreat that you never want to leave! She can turn the unorganized into functional, the disaster into a showpiece and the lifeless into a vibrant reflection of your personality!

After college, Kathy and her husband lived in the Midwest, where they raised 3 children. Kathy and her husband have lived in South Jersey for over 10 years. Having worked in the corporate world and non-profit sector for several years, Kathy recognizes that your surroundings reflect who you are and who you will become. She has the ability to discover the unseen potential in a space and then create a positive and fresh look for it.

Kathy is certified in interior redesign and real estate staging with The DSA (The Decorating and Staging Academy) and ODDAA (One Day Decorating Alumni Association). She is also a member of RESA, (Real Estate Staging Assocation) and The Interior Design Society and The Interior Redesign Directory.

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Interior Decorator - Kathy Cortner, Cherry Hill, NJ

Dear Jim: My utility bills are high and often I'm chilly. I know electric resistance heating is expensive to operate, but I like the idea of infloor heating. Does it only work in tile or can it be used under carpet? - Ron A.

Dear Ron: In general, electric resistance heating is expensive to use for heating a house. This is why most homes which have all-electric heating use heat pumps, which can be several times more energy efficient than resistance heating. Resistance heating is basically a big toaster with a blower.

Electric infloor heating is technically no more efficient than an electric resistance furnace, but, because it improves comfort dramatically, it can be much less expensive to operate.

A house will use several percent less electricity for each degree the thermostat is set lower. With improved comfort from infloor heating, you should be able to lower the thermostat setting and not feel chilly. With infloor heating, you can have a separate computerized thermostat for each room so you can heat a room only when you need it.

Instead of heating the room air, a warm floor radiates heat upward to your body, making you feel warmer. When one's feet are warm, the entire body feels warm. Infloor heating reduces the extent of heat stratification where the hot air from a furnace naturally collects up near the ceiling.

Infloor heating is most efficient in a concrete slab or in a tile floor with high thermal mass, but some types are specifically designed to be used under carpeting, hardwood or laminate flooring. It can actually provide better comfort under carpet or hardwood because their low thermal mass allows the floor temperature to respond faster to the wall thermostat.

In a concrete slab or under a tile floor, electric heating cable is usually laid in a serpentine pattern in the concrete or thinset. For use with carpeting, thin mats or sheets are placed on the floor before the carpeting is laid. The manufacturer can calculate the amount your rooms need. Some of the systems are designed for do-it-yourself installation.

Dear Jim: My house is only about six months old. The interior side of the band joist feels damp, but I cannot find any leaks from the exterior. Where should I check to find the source of the dampness? - Kyle J.

Dear Kyle: You probably do not have a leak in the exterior envelope of your house. If you did, the band joist would be more than just damp and you would likely see a puddle somewhere.

Since your house is new, the moisture you feel on the interior surface is just from excessive humidity inside your house. New building materials often contain a lot of moisture and it can take a year or more to air out. Since the band joist gets cold, you notice the dampness there.

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Columnist: Heat from below will warm you all over

Even after the windfall of the Getty's Pacific Standard Time Presents series of exhibitions in 2013, there's still a significant list of postwar Los Angeles architects and designers whose careers remain underexplored.

Among the most intriguing is the designer Deborah Sussman, whose work with Jon Jerde on the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics made a cameo last summer in "Overdrive," PSTP's anchor show at the Getty Museum.

Now Sussman, still working at age 82 at Sussman/Prejza, the firm she founded in 1980 with her husband, Paul Prejza, is getting a solo spotlight in "Deborah Sussman Loves Los Angeles," an exhibition running through Jan. 19 at Woodbury University's WUHO Gallery in Hollywood.

GRAPHIC: Best of 2013 | Entertainment and culture

It is a modest but charismatic show. And a timely one, since the role of female architects and designers and how they've been overshadowed by their male collaborators and clients has been much debated in recent months.

Sussman's body of work isn't as vast or significant as that of Denise Scott Brown, the architect excluded from the Pritzker Prize given her husband and partner Robert Venturi in 1991 or Julia Morgan, who last month won the American Institute of Architects' Gold Medal in hyper-posthumous fashion, more than 55 years after her death.

But it is more than rich enough to sustain an exhibition like this one, filling the narrow WUHO Gallery with photographs, wall graphics and items under glass.

And in the end, the show's most meaningful themes aren't limited to gender or the nature of creative partnerships. They also include the way Sussman helped graphic design take on a bigger, quasi-architectural scale in the 1970s and 1980s and how the cultural identity of Los Angeles was forged in those decades.

Sussman's work, in that sense, provided a bridge between two definitions of graphic design one about text and the other about the city as well as between two eras in L.A. design history.

PHOTOS: Hawthorne's best architecture moments of 2013

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Review: A timely look at L.A. designer Deborah Sussman

(PRWEB) January 06, 2014

Alfano Renovations, a family-owned construction, high-end remodeling, and real estate investment company in New Jersey has announced the release of their 2014 Guide to a Great Home Remodeling Experience.

Alfano Renovations is one of the leading construction, high-end remodeling, and real estate investment companies in New Jersey. This family-owned and operated company has just announced the release of their highly anticipated annual guide to a great home remodeling experience. The guide is helpful for both new and experienced homeowners looking to embark on a new remodeling project in the new year.

When asked about the guide, Michael Alfano, owner of Alfano Renovations, expressed his general concern for helping homeowners avoid complications when working with a contractor. He continued to explain, A home renovation project is a daunting task for new or experienced homeowners alike. Even as professionals, we run into issues and are constantly working to provide the best possible end result for our customers. We wanted to bottle over 20 years of experience and provide a simple guide that would serve as best practices from the experts. We find that customers who have the best experience are those who are educated and the 2014 Guide to a Great Home Remodelling Experience does just that.

We asked what we can expect from the Alfano Renovations 2014 Guide to a Great Home Remodeling Experience and Michael replied, In our guide, we reviewed first time remodelling mistakes that we find are most common among homeowners, such as underestimating the cost of renovations, or allocating a budget for unexpected expenses. We review the best way to select a contractor and the importance of communication and getting referrals. We emphasize selecting a layout and products that work best for your family lifestyle and not solely for dcor purposes. And finally, how to address any problems that arise to ensure you are completely comfortable every step of the way.

Customers looking for service providers for home remodeling in NJ can approach Alfano Renovations with all their needs. Whether its NJ Bathroom Remodeling, Kitchen Remodeling, or any other home improvement project, their team can handle the process with expert design, professionalism, and great proficiency.

This is what the project lead had to say about their process management We offer a strategic approach to every process. In addition to offering standard contractor services, we offer pre-construction services and were licensed realtors too. Alfano Renovations even owns and operates a beautiful, welcoming showroom that allows you to experience products before selecting them for your project.

Potential clients looking to embark on NJ Kitchen Remodeling can meet with our expert design team for a free consultation to discuss the best options to meet the needs of your family and existing space.

Anyone who wishes to review the full Alfano Renovations 2014 Guide to a Great Home Remodeling Experience can log on to the official website of the company. It is available as a downloadable PDF and as a printed copy in their NJ Kitchen & Bath Showroom.

About Alfano Renovations Alfano Renovations is a leading construction, high-end remodeling, and real estate investment company offering NJ Kitchen Renovations. Additionally, they specialize in Home Additions and Bathroom Renovations.

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Alfano Renovations Publishes the 2014 Guide to a Great Home Remodeling Experience

BUILDING PERMITS

Building construction permits over $10,000 in value that were approved in Boulder between Oct. 21 and Oct. 27, 2013. Listed below are: the case number; address; total project valuation; owner name; contractor (if applicable); and description.

PMT2013-04987 1920 Bluebell Ave.; $337,233.11; Jeremiah Kaplan and Kristin Kaplan; Kbc Remodel Service LLC; Two story addition to existing single family dwelling. Extensive renovation of existing living space. Garage is attached. Covered front porch inside existing building footprint. Addition of three bathrooms for a total of five.

PMT2013-05503 2929 13Th St.; $356,000.00; School Washington; Horizon Custom Homes, Inc.; New single-family residence, Building #5 Washington Village Single-Family, two-story, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, no basement, with two-car attached garage.

PMT2013-05515 2329 Pine St.; $95,035.49; Gregory Ekrem; Remodel (443 SF) and addition (665 SF) of existing single family dwelling. Scope of work also includes demo and rebuild of front porch (new porch larger than existing). Remodel includes main level renovation with relocation of master bath and bedroom to new upper level addition, and kitchen and dining room renovation. Addition includes new second story.

PMT2013-06340 1700 29th St.; $912,502.00; Twenty Macerich; Conversion of restaurant, skate shack and storage space into office/conference space for Juwi Solar. the scope of this includes work for the interior remodel and finish including all associated MEP's.. All exterior work is included under the scope of PMT2013-06129.

PMT2013-06559 2560 Briarwood Drive; $195,000.00; Jan Lindt; Henson Construction Inc; Interior remodel of 1189 square feet of residence to add vaulted ceiling on main level, remodel kitchen, and new powder room. Lower level to have new laundry, remodeled bedroom, and remodeled bath. Upper level to have new closets in remodeled bedrooms, remodeled baths, and revised exterior deck. Includes MEP.

PMT2013-06770 895 Aurora Ave.; $5,635.95; Larry Rothenberg; Conversion of carport to garage by completion of east wall and new garage door on the south wall. No change to foundation, roof, or existing walls. 283 square feet. No MEP. SEE BOZ2013-00010

PMT2013-07128 919 12Th St.; $12,000.00; Fran Windsor and Tucker Brumley; Reenergizeco Inc; Flood recovery-Owner/Contractor-No kitchen facility approved by this permit. Scope of work to also include drywall and insulation (per code),reframing closet wall in bedroom and wall separating storage room and living room and associated electrical that was damage by flooding. No structural work approved.

PMT2013-07136 5709 Orchard Creek Circle; $61,500.00; Jeffrey Franke and Amy Franke; Melton Construction, Inc; Basement finish including bedroom, 3/4 bath, wet bar playroom/rec room, unfinished storage area. Scope of work includes associated electrical, mechanical and plumbing.

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Boulder building permits: Jan. 5, 2014

Now that it has filled office leases on a former bakery site where the city's Larimer, Shadyside and East Liberty neighborhoods converge, Walnut Capital is ready to add far more space on the former Reizenstein Middle School property across the street.

The East End real estate and development firm goes before the city planning commission Tuesday to describe the six-story, 218,000-square-foot office building that will anchor the commercial aspect of the Bakery Square 2.0 project.

Walnut Capital expects to spend more than $120 million overall developing the side of Penn Avenue that abuts Mellon Park, across from the retail shops, eateries and offices of Bakery Square.

It has already begun construction of new housing, which ultimately will include 350 rental apartments and 57 townhouses. The office space at Bakery Square 2.0 is to total 400,000 square feet, with another one or two buildings to be constructed after the first one, said Walnut Capital managing partner Gregg Perelman.

"We're basically doubling down on the office space, which is currently very strong in our niche market," he said. "Part of the reason it's so strong is we're so close to the universities, with strong working relationships with Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh."

Bakery Square filled up more than 200,000 square feet in four years with technology-oriented, university-related tenants such as Google, the UPMC Technology Development Center, Pitt's Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology, CMU's Software Engineering Institute and the VA Human Engineering Research Laboratories.

Mr. Perelman expressed confidence that Walnut Capital was not over-building in the East End.

"We have good opportunities we believe will come to fruition soon," he said. "In this market, you have to be sure about things."

The developer is hoping to begin the new office construction by March, with the building ready for use by tenants by late 2015.

One new physical feature the planning commission is likely to take a close look at is a skywalk over Penn Avenue designed for use by office employees at Bakery Square 2.0, giving them weather-protected access to the existing parking garage across the street. Residents of the apartments and townhouses to be built would use underground parking on their side of Penn.

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Bakery Square developer to present expansion plan

THREE Alangilan councilmen filed a complaint before the City Prosecutors Office against the owner and four other staff of Metro Safari resort on Friday.

Alangilan councilmen Donard Alimpolo, Alex Sausi and Roy Retiza filed a complaint before the City Prosecutors Office against Metro Safari resort owner Francis Rey Cabuga and his associate Eddie Hechanova, spouses Teddy and Ma. Lucia Lizares, and Bonifacio Cahilig Jr.

The councilmen said the Cabuga and the four others committed violation of Presidential Decree 1096 for constructing facilities without the required building permit, and violation of Republic Act 8435 for premature or illegal conversion of land without an approved order of conversion from the Department of Agrarian Reform.

They said that despite the notice of violation and work stoppage order issued by the Office the Building Official and orders by Mayor Monico Puentevella and the City Council, Metro Safari never ceased from doing construction works.

The three said Cabuga did not apply for any permit. They said concrete posts that serve as a foundation of a huge structure are already erecting at the site, excavation works are being done, and deliveries of construction materials are continuing each day.

The owner has shown his stubbornness in following the law where various concerned agencies of the government have already informed him that he needs to secure first permits and clearances, they added.

They said the permits should be secured from the city's Office of the Building Official, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Agrarian Reform, among others, before he proceeds with the construction of his resort at Barangay Alangilan.

In June 11, 2013, Cabuga has written former Alangilan village chief Degie Tanista, informing that he plans to put up a resort with a zoo, clubhouse, swimming pools, camping site, playground, rentable cottages and picnic huts.

Cabuga said he wants to contribute to the tourism industry of Bacolod and be an instrument to the education of children as well as adults in the appreciation of zoo animals.

He also wanted to help foster the creation of more jobs and meaningful employment for the local community of Alangilan.

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Alangilan councilmen file complaint vs resort owner