Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

The Fiskars Softouch Micro-Tip Pruning Snip retails for about $13. These lightweight, 6-inch snips have been awarded the Arthritis Foundation Ease-of-Use Commendation. They're a practical gift for indoor and outdoor gardening.

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Dear Angie: Can I save money by finishing my basement piecemeal rather than hiring a general contractor? Jennifer M., Alpharetta, Ga.

Dear Jennifer: It depends. There are risks and rewards if you act as your own general contractor on a large project.

Our researchers found that general contractors who hire and supervise subcontractors such as plumbers, electricians and carpenters typically mark up labor and material costs by as much as 20 percent. A 20 percent markup on a $15,000 remodel, for example, would be $3,000. That's money you could pocket if you supervise all aspects of the project.

But weigh your options carefully before deciding what's best for your situation.

Unless you have experience in the building trades or house construction, as well as a flexible schedule with significant free time, you're probably not ready to act as your own general contractor. Orchestrating a full remodeling of your basement can be a monumental task for an inexperienced homeowner.

You could end up paying more if the job is done incorrectly by the subcontractors you hire or if scheduling conflicts arise. Highly rated general contractors tell our team that they sometimes are brought in to fix problems created by workers homeowners hired on the cheap.

A general contractor is responsible for fixing problems with the job. If things go wrong on your watch, you'll be paying.

Also, keep in mind that an experienced and qualified general contractor will handle getting all necessary permits, and making sure subcontractors are appropriately insured and licensed. A good general contractor also will ensure that work meets local building codes, comes in on budget and maintains high quality standards.

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Ask Angie: Should I hire a general contractor?

Ashes of Eden - Architects of Fear - Live at The Mix, Seattle, WA - Dec 7, 2013
http://www.facebook.com/AshesOfEdenOfficial http://www.aoeband.com Ashes of Eden performing our song Architects of Fear, live at The Mix in Seattle, Washingt...

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Ashes of Eden - Architects of Fear - Live at The Mix, Seattle, WA - Dec 7, 2013 - Video

Why Use an Architect
Presentation by Jonathan Braddick Chartered Architect and the regional chair elect of the Royal Institute of British Architects, based near Exeter in Devon a...

By: Jonathan Braddick

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Why Use an Architect - Video

Two young minds decided to start a blog on architects and construction. Read on to know what became of it

David A. and David B. were in a bit of a tizzy. They had just realised that their hugely popular website for architects, http://www.archdaily.com, had generated clones in China. Their content was being lifted, translated, uploaded. They didnt know what to do. They lived literally at the other end of the world Santiago, Chile. So they sent mails: cease and desist, you will hear from our lawyers. It didnt make a difference.

Then came an invitation to the Pritzker Prize ceremony in China the Pritzker is the Nobel of architecture. Immediately they sent the main clone, http://www.archgo.com a mail saying they were coming. Sure, he responded, Id love to meet you. When they were fact to face, he said, Look, Chinese architects really need your information. And youre not giving the information in Chinese, so Im doing that job. I dont have a business model, Im not making money. I just want to help Chinese architects. The Davids were stunned. They understood.

What is it that was considered so important for Chinese architects? Lets rewind a little, to the story David Assael, 33, shared with this writer over breakfast in Moscow recently.

Discovering urbanism

When David discovered urbanism, or city studies, as a student of architecture in Chile, he felt a sense of belonging. With the same time and effort that you need to make a home for a single family, he says, you can make a park for a lot of people, or a city plan.

Later, when he began teaching, he realised that all the amazing projects his students did remained only on paper. On an exchange programme in Barcelona, Spain, he had seen an exhibition on the next 10 years of urban projects in that city. It was the first time I saw an exposition about cities for citizens, not urbanists, he says. Then he heard what ordinary people, such as his friends grandmas, had to say about a new building a French architect was doing there. It sort of resembled a cucumber and the elderly women were offended. It looks like a big dildo, they complained, it ruined the look of their city.

When he returned to Santiago, he started thinking about the relationship between cities and citizens, about how citizens had no clue what buildings and structures would do to their cities. Or even if they did, they didnt know what to do about it. And so, along with David Basulto (David A. and David B., isnt that funny?), a computer whiz from college, he started a website to give information about cities to Chilean citizens. They called it Urban Platform (Plataforma Urbana), and with the permission of the university, uploaded ideas that came from students.

It was 2006, about the time blogs were getting popular, and very soon, their platform with information from and about architects, became the most recognised blog in Chile! But they wanted something else a site where my grandmother could go and understand what was happening in her city. Thats when they started taking the work happening in private circles, mostly to do with homes for high income people because that was good work you dont see on the street, and loading it on the site. They hoped this way to raise the level of public works, and a new site was born, in 2007, called Plataforma Architectura.

Now, with the growing visibility of the site, it was time to get more professional. So they asked architects to send information about their projects. If youve done good work, you want everyone to see it, says David A. The projects began pouring in. Next, they approached companies to send information about products that would be useful to architects, and pay for it. The companies too saw something in this proposition. They complied.

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A window into the world of architecture

Friday, December 27, 2013 11:38 PM EST

By SCOTT WHIPPLE STAFF WRITER

NEW BRITAIN Avner Krohn, commercial developer/retailer, said installation of the two retail shops in the citys police station has been a long and arduous journey, almost two years, but most issues were resolved recently when he met with Mayor Erin Stewart and her chief of staff, John Healey.

All three said any loose ends should be tied up before the end of the year.

Dunkin Donuts franchise owner Cary Gagnon has also met with city officials. Dunkin Donuts will share space in the police station building with Krohns ice cream parlor, Caf Chocolat.

Krohns goal is to start construction in January and open in the spring. Dunkin Donuts hopes to open in mid-February.

By springtime next year well have four downtown restaurants with outside dining. (Main Pub, Caf Beauregard, Dunkin Donuts and Caf Chocolat), Krohn said. Cary and I believe our stores will serve hundreds of people daily.

Krohn said his company, Jasko Development, is doing the internal construction for Caf Chocolat. Gagnon is using Kaestle Boos, the local architectural firm.

Healey said the Dunkin Donuts project is moving forward at a rapid pace.

Healey says he doesnt know whose idea it was to build retail space in the police station. I can tell you that regardless of whose idea it was, retail space is coming in the police station, and the mayor has a desire to see other retailers downtown.

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Retail space below police dept. to be filled âat a rapid paceâ

Delta Twp (WILX)-- Consumers Energy is getting ready to send crews home with a few thousand customers in mid-Michigan left without power.

The utility company is confident fewer than 1,000 people will be left in the dark after Saturday, and Board of Water and Light authorities say they won't be too far behind.

With more than 600 crews called in after last weekend's ice storm, Consumers Energy won't be needing a majority of them after Sunday.

"Hopefully we'll start sending them back Saturday. We hope to get everybody back up by Sunday, and we'll certainly be sending them home," said Dan Malone, Consumers Energy Administrator.

According to Malone, restoration should be near complete Saturday night for the company, but there's going to be a few homes still in need.

"We're talking ten to a couple hundred homes left after the weekend," said Malone.

BWL has only 30 crews, but they plan to have 99% of their customers with power by Sunday night.

"Thirty is a good number because that's the most we can handle. We have to look out for the safety of our customers and workers," said J. Peter Lark, BWL General Manager.

Lark doesn't deny that with more crews restoration would be closer to finishing in Lansing, but says there are rules.

"Every time we bring in a crews from out of state we have to put one of our workers with that crew. We are at capacity," said Lark.

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Getting Ready to Send Utility Crews Home

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - Local crews from WMECO and NSTAR are expected to head home Saturday after aiding with power restoration in Maine.

More than 110,000 of people had been in the dark since the Christmas week ice storm.

Were proud of the tremendous work of our employees in assisting CMP with their power restoration efforts, said Craig Hallstrom, President of WMECo and NSTAR Electric. Our crews know the importance of helping customers in need, especially around the holidays. Though many of our workers have put their own Christmas plans on hold, we know those who work at regional utility companies would do the same for us if needed.

Ice as much as an inch thick coated power lines, tree branches and roads, leaving many without power of Christmas Eve.

WMECo and NSTAR crews worked day-and-night to safely access areas where electrical systems had been damaged to make necessary replacements or repairs.

Central Maine Power says about 1,200 crews were brought in from other states to help restore power.

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WMECO & NSTAR crews are heading home

One thing is clear from a trip down memory lane at Beech High Schools Archive and Museum: school was different back in the day. Girls played sports in pleated skirts and hats and boys drove their younger classmates to school in horse-drawn buggies. Students wrote with pens and ink wells, coal was used for heat, and whoever got to school first was responsible for starting the fire.

For Beech High School alumni, now theres a place where that past meets the present thanks to the preservation efforts of two enterprising students.

Corey White and Paige Likes, both seniors, spent much of their spare time this fall semester after school and on weekends reorganizing, remodeling and archiving documents and memorabilia at the schools in-house museum and archive. Although the archive room was established when the current Beech High School opened in 1980, it had not been maintained for several years, said Coach Darrin Joines, who teaches marketing at the school. White and Likes voluntarily took on the project as part of a DECA Club campaign for Joines class.

Everything was all scattered, White said. There was junk, chairs, some podiums and other furniture just everywhere.

Now open to the public by appointment, the exhibit celebrates the schools storied, more than 100-year history in the Shackle Island community.

Named for the numerous Beech trees nearby, the original Beech School was built in 1910 on land donated by Montgomery Hutchison, according to records on file at the Sumner County Board of Education Archives. Because little county funding was available, Shackle Island community members pooled resources and donated time to build the school, records show.

The school originally served students in grades 1-8, but was expanded in 1914 to include the first Beech High School.

Until White and Likes took on the project, both admit they knew little about their schools history, they said. They enlisted the help of their classmates and received advice from Kay Hurt, archivist for the Sumner County Board of Education.

We didnt know what anything was or what to do with it; we were really overwhelmed at first, Likes said. Both were surprised by how much detail goes into archiving and preserving important records, they said.

We learned so much from (Hurt), White said. She explained the significance of everything in (the archive) and gave us a lot of ideas about how we should organize it.

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Beech High students give new life to archive room of history long forgotten

Houston, TX (PRWEB) December 27, 2013

People who are starting the home remodeling process are looking for one company that can do it all. They don't want to oversee 20 different contractors doing 20 different things. Homerun Improvement, a family-operated business with 15 years of trade experience that specializes in professional painting services, has expanded their services to now include exterior painting and home improvement.

Exterior services that homeowners can now obtain include roofing, gutters, siding, custom patios, deck construction, swimming pool remodeling and repair services, window replacement, fence installation and A/C repair. By extending their list of services, Homerun Improvement hopes to give better service to people living throughout the Houston area.

Focusing on the entire aspects of home remodeling, they can give more specific quotes for services for bigger projects, allowing homeowners to save more money by going through one company than paying separate quotes to several businesses as the expenses can add up and go over a person's home remodeling project.

Relying on a trusted group of professionals on their team, Homerun improvement will continue to add new services to their growing list of home remodeling project work. This business growth will allow more people to find the services they need while getting excellent craftsmanship and superior customer service from one company.

About Homerun Improvement

Homerun Improvement is a fully insured and bonded construction company providing home remodeling services and painting contractors to people living in the Houston area and surrounding Texas neighborhoods. The company has its own team of professionals without relying on subcontractors or outsourcing work so customers know they are only dealing with experts working directly with the home remodeling company. For more information about Homerun Improvement, please contact the company at 713-992-6266 or visit the website at hrimprovement.com.

For Houston seo marketing visit Get Local Maps.

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Homerun Improvement Expands Services in all Areas of Home Remodeling

Love goes 3D One of the trends that dominated the small-screen was the third angle in a love story. Either two guys were smitten by the same girl or two girls were in love with the same guy. Every other serial from the traditional looking Balika Vadhu, the filmi Madhubala, Punarvivaah Ek Nayi Ummeed to the Muslim social Qubool Hai depicted a love triangle. One show Anamika even gave a paranormal touch to what could otherwise have been a staid love story. The makers got so caught up with the concept that in some serials a third person was introduced much later to add spice to the shows like Bade Acche Laggte Hai and Na Bole Tum Na Maine Kucch Kaha.

Men in drag Since female-centric shows rule the roost, the guys this year decided if you cant beat them, join them and brought out the feminine side in them. Several male actors turned up in drag in different shows. Ali Asgar, Sunil Grover and Kiku Sharada led the pack with their perfect impersonations as Dadi, Gutthi and Palak in Comedy Nights With Kapil. The three got their female avatars bang-on and you would be forgiven if you thought they were women. Then there was an entire show Mrs Pammi Pyarelal revolving around a man dressed as woman Gaurav Chopra. Though Gaurav turned out to be a pretty woman, the show didnt click. Now Karan Goddwani is set to turn a woman in Jeannie Aur Juju, while Mohit Sehgal appeared in drag in Qubool Hai. There have been one-off appearances of men in drag in reality shows too like Karanvir Bohras female avatar in Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa and Omar Farooques in Nach Baliye!

Double trouble The tried and tested Bollywood formula of double roles was played out prominently in serials this year. Even Mahadev of Devon Ke Dev Mahadev played a baddie in his twin avatar as Jalandhar. The highpoint was a face-off between the two! Others who played double roles included Rati Pandey in Hitler Dadi, as the good Indu and the vampish Zara, Abbas Khan as Eeji and Beeji Pandey a la Chulbul Pandey (Dabangg) in Lapatagunj Ek Baar Phir and Adaa Khan as the sophisticated Amrit and rustic Rajjo in Amrit Manthan. While Aditya Redij played a don Ishwar and the positive Prithvi in Junoon Aisi Nafrat Toh Kaise Ishq, Avika Gor got her first double role as a subdued Roli and a bindaas banjaaran Jhumki in Sasural Simar Ka. The trend was so popular that Ankita Lokhande who had threatened to quit Pavitra Rishta post the 18-year leap stayed back when she was promised a double role! She currently essays both the aged Archana and her young granddaughter Ankita.

Crime time The success of Crime Patrol spawned several me-toos Shaitan, Delving Into A Criminal Mind, Savdhan India and Police Dial 100. While some started last year, others went on air early this year. Except for Police Dial 100 which followed the cops even as they are solving a case, the others recreate the crime scenes, while the host narrates the story. Everything from the brutal Delhi gang-rape to chilling cases of honour killing, the shows have reconstructed gruesome crimes but have maintained that their aim is to create awareness and make people alert!

Grandeur on the small-screen A lot of colour and grandeur was added to the small-screen this year with several historicals and mythologicals taking centre stage. Starting with Jodha Akbar, that tells the passionate love story between a Mughal emperor and a Hindu princess, the year ended with the launch of a fantasy drama Hatim. Also, after BR Chopra and Ekta Kapoors televised version of Mahabharat, yet another serial based on the epic went on air. Buddha was brought to life with a serial by the same name. Then theres Bharat Ka Veer Putra Maharana Pratap on the life of the Rajput warrior, . A short mythological serial Katha Mahadevputra Bal Ganesh Ki was aired close to Ganesh Utsav. And last but not the least, Devon Ke Dev Mahadev that brought back the trend of mythologicals, released DVDs of the serial.

Now showing Season 2 Anil Kapoor is talking about a season two of his desi remake of the thriller 24, but the idea was already set in motion by serials like Na Bole Tum Na Maine Kuch Kaha, which began the year with a sequel. Megha and Mohans love story was back after a 16-year leap and was taken over by their offsprings. Lapatagunj came back with a six-year leap and moved from a village to a town though the essence of the satirical show remained intact. Sanskaar Dharohar Apnon Ki that was forced out because of Bigg Boss 7 returned for a second run within a month with a new storyline and additions and exclusion of some characters. Punarvivaah had a unique second season. Within a month of the original going off air, the makers brought a fresh cast and storyline under the same brand! Even the producer of Pratigya had announced another season, but it never took off.

Back after a break From Sangeeta Ghosh, Gautami Kapoor to Kanchi Kaul, the year saw several TV actors, especially women, who had taken a break after marriage or pregnancy, making a comeback. Sangeeta and Gautami returned with Jee Le Zara and Khelti Hai Zindagi Aankh Micholi, respectively. Its a different thing that Gautamis serial is already on its way out. Kanchi came back after two years with Meri Bhabhi while Rajshri Thakur Saloni of Saat Phere who was missing in action for over a couple of years returned with Bharat Ka Veer Putra Maharana Pratap. Jennifer Winget of Dil Mill Gaye fame was back after a two-year hiatus with Saraswatichandra, while Reena Kapoor (Rani of Woh Rehnewali Mehlon Ki) will be seen in Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya after five years. Even, Poonam Dhillon last seen in Bigg Boss 3 is back with a show loosely based on English Vinglish called Ek Nayi Pehchaan. Other prominent personalities who made a comeback include Ashish Chowdhury (Ek Mutthi Aasmaan), Sudesh Berry (Devon Ke Dev Mahadev), Eijaz Khan (Punarvivaah2), Iqbal Khan (Tumhari Paakhi), Ratan Rajput (Mahabharat and Bigg Boss 7). BB 7 saw couple of TV actors like Apurva and Shilpa Agnihotri, who had vanished from the scene also making a comeback.

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Television themes and concepts that were trending in 2013