Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

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

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Potential Hotel at the Masonic Center. Rendering provided by Ascendant Holdings.

The developers of a proposed 220-room, 14-story hotel to be built atop the Humphrey Scottish Rite Masonic Center are still working with city officials to secure final approval for their project. The developers are haggling with the citys Historic Preservation Commission and historic preservation staff over the fate of 20 stained-glass windows, none of which are original to the building.

Youre forgiven if youve never noticed the stained glass windows; at least one of the commissioners was in the same boat. Said Commissioner Patti Keating Kahnduring the meeting: when I drive past the building I cannot see stained glass. The building is so dark. Shes right, theyre barely visible because theyre covered by a dark plate glass. Yet, interior photos shown by historic preservation staff member Tim Askin show a number of colorful windows, most notably in a second-floor chapel space.

Ascendant Holdings, led by Eric Nordeen and Matthew Prescott, is looking to remove and relocate the windows as part of their redevelopment of the property at 790 N. Van Buren St.The hotel will be operated byPortland-based boutique operator Provenance Hotels, who has told Ascendant that the windows create an environment that is too dark to be used as food and beverage space or meeting rooms.

Ascendant will need commission approval to remove the windows and display them as art in the hotels interior, as theyve indicated they desire to. Yet the Historic Preservation Commission wouldnt have the authority to compel them to display them once theyve been removed. No one is suggesting Ascendant has any desire to pull a bait-and-switch, but the preservation staff and commission have raised concerns over setting precedent regarding future projects.

Further complicating things, two stained glass experts, including local firm Conrad Schmitt Studios, have examined the windows and, according to Nordeen, deemed them inferior. As Nordeen told the commission both independently concluded [the windows are] locally made, of inferior quality and they dont really have any secondary value. They do have value to the Masons.

Perhaps more germane to the commission than the hard-to-regulate fate of the windows is what Ascendant would replace them with. Matthew Jarosz, who chairs the commission and leads UW-Milwaukee Historic Preservation Institute, held a lengthy back and forth with project architect Ken Gowland about the merits of various window replacement options. The stained glass windows werent builtas entirely new windows, but instead installed inside the existing window frames. The rest of the windows in the building were replaced in 1996 by the masons. Nordeen suggested that replacing the stained glass windows could lead to a building with greater historic integrity.

Ultimately, the commission seemed supportive of finding a solution, but held off on making a decision. The meeting ended with Jarosz telling Nordeen, I think you need to come back and tell us exactly where you want to go with it.

Ascendant and their team, including a partnership of New Jersey-based Kraig Kalashian Architecture & Design and New Orleans-based Metro Studio, must now firm up plans of how they wish to use the windows and what theyll replace them with.

Will the masons find a home for them? Will Ascendant display them within the building, and if so how many? Will they leave any in place? Well know more soon. Should the commission reject Ascendants plans, the developer would retain the right to go to the full Common Council to override the historic commissions decision.

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Masonic Hotel Inches Forward - urbanmilwaukee

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Thermostats arent usually the first topic of conversation as summer approaches. But with heating and cooling taking up the bulk of your energy bill, its worth it to pay attention. The smartest thermostats today can learn the comings and goings of your family and tune the temperature to your households lifestyle. The savings can add up.

The idea of thermostats controlling heat dates from about 1620 when someone built a heating controller for a chicken coup. More than 250 years later, Albert Butz filed for the first thermostat patent. By the early 1900s, manufacturers sold fuel savers for homes. These clunky mechanical contraptions were complex and more of a luxury at that time.

But designs improved. Manufacturers eventually reduced the inner controls to mercury bubble switches or bimetal strips that bent at different rates to turn the furnace temperature up or down. Normally, folks adjusted their thermostats twice a year, turning them up in the winter and down in the summer. The more energy conscious adjusted the settings when they left their homes for more than a day. This saved a few of their energy dollars, but not many. Back then, energy was cheaper.

As costs rose, engineers devised programmable mechanical units. But despite being heralded as energy savers, they too seemed awfully complex for many households to manage daily. It wasnt until the mid-1980s when semiconductor technology arrived that thermostat programmability became easier and more reliable. This new breed of thermostat promised homeowners lower energy bills. They had fewer parts, battery backups and digital readouts. Digital control ensured homeowners precision and savingsif used properly.

Not long ago, we put a lot of effort into encouraging customers to install programmable thermostats, said Matthew Babbitts, energy services project manager for Clark Public Utilities. The energy savings, however, depended more on how well customers used the thermostats, not the technology alone.

Consumer behavior kept energy savings lower than manufacturers, utility companies and the government expected. Studies, including one by Energy Star, showed programmable thermostats fell short of their promise. Consumers seemed frustrated or confused. Many never programmed them. Others resorted to turning them up and down manually as with older mechanical styles.

Home automation championed the next wave of thermostats. Several facets of the home heating and cooling, security and lighting are now linked to the internet. For the first time, homeowners held home remote controls in their hands. Although these connected thermostats communicated over the internet, they gathered no data about energy use. Later, smart thermostats, that also connected to the internet with cables or Wi-Fi, did crunch and present the data of a homes energy use.

In 2011, Nest Labs introduced its first smart thermostat with learning capacity. Today, the Nest Learning Thermostat and ecobee3 can learn your household habits and adjust heating and cooling accordingly. Any Android or iOS device, as well as any Wi-Fi enabled laptop, can remotely control them. However, they approach learning your household habits differently, which is something you should check out before deciding which is better for you. (If youd like voice control, for instance, the ecobee3 pairs with Amazons Alexa.)

Recently, we started offering a $50 mail-in rebate for the Nest Gen 3 and the Ecobee3, said Babbitts. Customers can control these models remotely, gain better energy savings with little effort, and see where their energy dollars go.

To qualify for the rebate, customers must have an electric furnace or a heat pump and own the home where one is installed. Just download and fill out the Smart Thermostat Project Information Form from the utility website and return it with a receipt to the utility.

Homeowners using natural gas may also qualify for a learning thermostat through the Energy Trust, said Babbitts. Anyone with questions can call the energy counselor hotline at 360-992-3355 during business hours.

Energy Adviser is written by Clark Public Utilities. Send questions to ecod@clarkpud.com or to Energy Adviser, c/o Clark Public Utilities, P.O. Box 8900, Vancouver, WA 98668.

Read more:
Energy Adviser: Save with a smart thermostat - The Columbian

MARTINSVILLELike many property owners, the city is finding out that houses dont always sell for what theyre worth, or even what is being asked for them.

While seated as the citys Redevelopment and Housing Authority, Martinsville City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to sell a house that was damaged by a ruptured sewer line for $15,000.

Tax records show the property, at 310 Hairston St. near Starling Avenue, is valued at $48,700. The city bought the house from its unidentified owner for $33,000 to fix the line, which ran under the structure.

The eight-inch-in-diameter line running under the vacant house ruptured earlier this year, resulting in city crews having to pump sewage out of the basement through a nearby manhole every couple of days. Nobody apparently knew the line was there. City officials hired a cleaning service to clean up inside the house, installed a new underground line around the home and connected the building to the new line, according to City Manager Leon Towarnicki.

The city then put the house on the market for $20,000. Towarnicki told the council that it received one offer for $12,500. He said Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Wayne Knox negotiated with the bidders and convinced them to increase their bid to $15,000.

The house is being sold as is, where is, like is, Councilwoman Kathy Lawson said with a chuckle while making the motion to sell it.

The unidentified new owners plan to live there, renovate the house and install new heating, cooling and plumbing systems, Towarnicki said.

Although the house was sold for less than the city requested, at least it returns the house to the tax rolls so revenue can be generated from it in the future, he said.

Neither he nor Knox could be reached Wednesday for further comment.

Also Tuesday, the council recognized Patrick Henry Elementary School student Treylan Beamer for his recent accomplishments in the Elks Lodge National Hoop Shoot basketball free throw competition.

Beamer won local, district, state and regional competitions in the age group for eight- and nine-year-old boys. He then advanced to national competition in Chicago at the end of April, placing fourth.

That was a remarkable achievement, a proclamation that Mayor Gene Teague presented him reads, considering over 40,000 players participated nationwide in the competition.

The council learned that a community job fair planned June 14 will include shuttle service for area residents needing transportation to it.

Lisa Fultz, executive director of the West Piedmont Workforce Development Board, said more information about the fair will be announced soon.

Excerpt from:
City council agrees to sell Hairston Street house | News ... - Martinsville Bulletin

Memphis, Tenn.-based American Residential Services, a privately held national provider of air conditioning, heating and plumbing services, announced a partnership with Nest Labs to include the Nest Learning Thermostat as a standard component of most of its middle- and upper-tier residential HVAC system installations. ARS also will offer professional installation of Nest thermostats as an optional upgrade when performing service and preventative maintenance in previously installed systems.

The benefits that a smart and connected home offers are very compelling, said Luis Orbegoso, president and COO of ARS. We are delighted to be recognized as a Nest Pro Elite partner across our network of more than 70 service centers.

The Nest Thermostat learns the temperatures a homeowner prefers and then programs itself. Nests algorithms allow customers to monitor their energy history daily, in addition to receiving an easy-to-understand monthly report. It also will alert homeowners in the event it detects certain problems with the homes HVAC system. Independent studies have shown that the Nest Thermostat saves homeowners on average 10 to 12 percent on heating and 15 percent on cooling costs.

While Nest products are designed so that homeowners can choose to install themselves, Nest wants to make it easy for those whod prefer to take advantage of the benefits of a pro installation, said Gene LaNois, who heads Nests Professional Channel. ARS shares our passion for enabling the thoughtful home, and were excited that they will be incorporating the Nest Thermostat into their installation offerings.

The Nest Thermostat and other Nest products are available at all ARS Network branches that provide HVAC services and installations.

The rest is here:
ARS Partners with Nest Labs to Provide Learning Thermostats to Customers - Contracting Business

By Kelsey Bajada, Morning Star Builders

Photo: Courtesy Of Morning Star Builders

This second service kitchen is both well designed and functional.

This second service kitchen is both well designed and functional.

GHBA Remodelers Council: Make way for the service kitchen

Service kitchens, or second kitchens, are making a way in today's custom homes and remodel projects. There are many benefits to building a second kitchen, such as hiding kitchen messes, limiting food aromas, creating a cooking space that is separate from the entertaining area, and adding twice the amount of cooking space, appliances and storage.

The kitchen is the hub of the home and is used more than any other room in the house. So, it comes as no surprise that homeowners strive to make this space look and feel beautiful, as well as functional. Thus, the importance of a service kitchen becomes evident. With the addition of a second kitchen, the main kitchen becomes the focal point of the home, leaving the "mess" of a well-used kitchen behind the scenes.

It's crucial to point out that second kitchens are not only a viable option for new-construction homes, but also homes in the remodeling process. But, how do you convert one kitchen into two? You might be surprised how far a creative designer/builder and experienced project manager can get you. Often, a service kitchen can be created using unused hallway space, a rarely occupied formal dining room, or even your current pantry area.

The layout of a second kitchen can vary according to your unique, personal needs. It can be as simple as added counter space or storage and a second dishwasher. Or you may be looking for a full second kitchen, complete with a second dishwasher, oven, microwave, sink and more.

Designer and owner of Chairma Designs, Cindy Aplanalp, said, "Sometimes the doorway between the (two) kitchens is fun, like a brightly painted barn door or a cleaver pocket door with an interesting, obscure glass to let light pass, while still hiding the mess". The possibilities are endless.

Whether you are building a new-construction home or remodeling your current home, don't discount the second kitchen. This supplemental space can provide your home with the added convenience, function and beauty you've been looking for.

This article was provided by a member of the Remodelers Council of the Greater Houston Builders Association. The Remodelers Council is dedicated to promoting professionalism and public awareness of the remodeling profession through education, certification and service to the Houston community. For information on this article, please contact Lorraine Hart at lorraine@idealconsulting.net. To join the council or to find a professional remodeler in your area, please visit http://www.ghba.org.

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GHBA Remodelers Council: Make way for the service kitchen - Laredo Morning Times

BY RICH GRISET STAFF WRITER

People are concerned about having the ground-floor master bedroom [as an] option for aging parents. With baby boomers eyeing a future where theyll age in place and millennials renovating older homes, the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies is anticipating healthy growth for the U.S. home improvement market through 2025.

The centers recently released report Demographic Change and the Remodeling Outlook also states that boomers will continue to drive the remodeling market, and that the amount spent on improvements and repairs by homeowners and renters reached an all-time high of $340 billion in 2015, eclipsing the previous peak in 2007.

Kermit Baker, director of the Remodeling Futures Program at the center, says that the study was conducted to see how demographics will shape the future of the countrys remodeling market. For the past few decades, boomers have been the key drivers of the housing and home improvement markets. Baker says that trend will continue for the foreseeable future.

There was some thought that that [trend] was going to wane a little bit, Baker says. It looks like were not quite there yet. The baby boomer generation is still so large, and by and large wants to remain in their current home.

Baby boomers have been refitting their homes in order to care for aging parents, and in anticipation of a future when they themselves arent as mobile. Dan Bawden, 2017 chairman of the National Association of Home Builders Remodelers organization, agrees. There is an ever-increasing demand for aging-in-place work, Bawden says. He adds that boomers often make modifications to their own homes after seeing their parents age. They often take a look around their own home and go, If I broke my leg in a car wreck, could I get into my own house? Could I get into the bathroom?

Bawdens company, Legal Eagle Contractors Co., specializes in remodeling homes for the elderly in the Houston area. As aging-in-place home remodeling is more of a necessity (instead of, say, remodeling a kitchen for younger homeowners), Bawden says his company managed better than most during the economic downturn a few years ago. He adds that hes seen many more intergenerational projects such as adding in-law suites to facilitate having peoples aging parents move back in with them.

Kathy Corbet, owner of Willow Lawnbased Kathy Corbet Interiors, says shes seen this trend take place locally.

People are concerned about having the ground-floor master bedroom [as an] option for aging parents, says Corbet, a member of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry Central Virginia.

Now that the economy has come back, Corbet says boomers are finally getting around to projects they had been putting off, such as remodeling kitchens and master bathrooms. She says many boomers and millennials are trying to incorporate amenities that theyve seen at restaurants and hotels into their homes, like adding an independent coffee bar in the kitchen.

An increase in the countrys older housing inventory, as much as a million homes a year, is also expected as aging baby boomers move into retirement homes. Meanwhile, as homes appreciate and regain value lost due to the 2007-08 recession, homeowners can borrow against their equity to undertake larger projects.

Bawden says boomers are still trying to keep up with the Joneses, adding features to their homes like outdoor kitchens and living areas, and redoing indoor kitchens. Baker says energy-efficient features are continuing to gain popularity, and that home automation electronic systems that control everything from home temperature to appliances has become popular in the past couple years.

People are just much more used to their smartphone as a way to manage their life, Baker explains.

The Harvard report also states that millennials are poised to enter the remodeling market, but arent quite there yet. Given the cost of land and other factors, new starter homes are expensive to build and are often located in the outer suburbs and exurbs places millennials dont tend to gravitate toward. For both of these reasons, its expected that millennials will buy more affordable, older homes and remodel them.

Still, Baker says millennials have not entered the remodeling market as much as had been anticipated.

They have been so late in forming households, having children, buying homes, Baker says. Were not going to see a ton of growth from younger households quite yet.

Whenever they do start buying homes, Bawden says theres plenty of inventory in need of his services.

Theres a lot of housing stock that needs to be remodeled, and a lot of cities have older neighborhoods that are becoming gentrified, Bawden says.

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Boomers fueling uptick in remodeling | http://www.chesterfieldobserver ... - Chesterfield Observer

Albany's Landmarks Advisory Commission will offer two free events on Saturday, May 20, for residents and visitors who want ideas and tips for remodeling or restoring their historic kitchen and for those who want to learn more about Albanys historic homes.

The first event is a Historic Kitchen Talk & Tour from 12:45 to 3 p.m. Participants will gather at the Albany Regional Museum, 136 Lyon St., for a brief presentation about historic kitchen design.

After the presentation, participants will drive or bike to four historic homes with kitchens dating from the 1900s to the 1950s.

The second event is a Historic Kitchen Contractor Fair from 2 to 5 p.m. at Calapooia Brewery, 140 Hill St. NE. Contractors and vendors with historic building and kitchen expertise will be available to share their knowledge and answer questions about restoring and renovating historic houses and kitchens.

Preregistration is required for the Historic Kitchen Talk & Tour. To register, call 541-791-0176 or email shawna.adams@cityofalbany.net by 5 p.m., Friday, May 19. Preregistration is not required for the Contractor Fair at Calapooia Brewery. Participants can take part in one or both events.

The events are partially supported with funds from the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office and National Park Service.

Read more here:
Historic Kitchen Talk and Tour planned - Albany Democrat Herald

American Bureau of Shipping has pre-leased offices in CityPlace2 in Springwoods Village.

American Bureau of Shipping has pre-leased offices in CityPlace2 in Springwoods Village.

HFF arranges construction loan for Springwoods Village office building

HFF has lined up a construction loan for CityPlace 2, a 327,000-square-foot office building in CityPlace district of Springwoods Village.

A venture of Patrinely Group, USAA Real Estate Co. and CDC Houston is developing the 10-story building, which will be occupied by American Bureau of Shipping upon its completion in 2018. The building will have24,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor.

HFF's Wally Reid, Cortney Cole and Trent Agnew arranged thefive-year, fixed-rate construction permanent loan through Galveston-based American National Insurance Co.

RELATED: Marriott CityPlace hotel coming to Springwoods Village

CityPlace 2 will be the first office building to be completed in the 60-acre CityPlace mixed-use development. Plans call for 4 million square feet of office space, 600 mid-rise apartment units, a 337-room Marriott CityPlace hotel, and more than 400,000 square feet of retail space.

Springwoods Village, near Interstate 45, the Grand Parkway and the Hardy Toll Road, is home to Exxon Mobil Corp., Southwestern Energy Co. and the future two-building campus of HP.

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HFF arranges construction loan for Springwoods Village office building - Chron.com