Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

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A builder's mission to turn a derelict former Victorian schoolhouse into his family home will be featured on Channel 4s Restoration Man.

For years the Old Schoolhouse on Braxted Park Road, Great Braxted - where workers of the neighbouring stately home schooled their children - had been unloved and unlived.

But now it is enjoying a new lease of life just 18 months after changing hands into the ownership of Jim and Bee Goody a renovation that attracted producers of the TV show, who sent presenter George Clarke to visit the project several times, while film crews were at the house more than 20 times during the revamp.

OnWednesday (January 14), Jim and Bee will be seenreliving the mammoth task as the episode featuring their new beloved home was aired to the nation.

Jim said: It was wrecked inside. We had to do everything, refurbish the whole lot; it was re-plumbed, had new electrics, was plastered and redecorated. Everything.

The Goodys, including Bees stepson Lewis, 22, have relocated from Chigwell after their 288,000 bid for the property, built in a Tudor revival style popular at the time, was accepted in September 2013, before work began in April 2014.

We didnt know what we were looking for until we found it, said Jim. I went to view the property and saw the views around it, so I text my wife a few photos of the fields around the place.

So we thought lets do it, we put in a bid three days later, and the rest is history.

The project was perhaps not as daunting to Jim, who specialises in home refurbishments, as it would have been to other property developers.

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WillWatkinson commented Old Schoolhouse on Braxted Park Road to feature on Channel 4's...

By GLENN GRIFFITH ggriffith@digitalfirstmedia.com @CNWeekly on Twitter

Paul Coons working inside the building that will become the Vischer Ferry General Store

George and Karan Donohue have joined Tom and Louise McManus and Paul and Joanne Coons to rehabilitate the building that formerly housed the Riders Crossing Tack Shop, 357 Riverview Road, Rexford. The mid-19th century structure was badly damaged by a suspicious fire Sept. 11, 2013.

Fearing what might happen if a new owner bought the empty building, Clifton Park native George Donohue called the Coons shortly after the fire. He asked the couple if they would be interested in a partnership to restore the building and return it to its place as a commercial gathering spot for the small riverside community.

The Coons have a history of restoring homes in town. They restored the home directly to the south of the shop and the home they presently live in off Moe Road. Both projects won them awards from the towns Historic Preservation Commission.

Now, they and their private restoration crew are hard at work in another cold building putting in new framing, windows, insulation, wiring, and plumbing for what will eventually be a store with two apartments. The Coons also want to make the building historically accurate but also as environmentally efficient as possible.

We try to buy as much local source wood and green products as we can, Joanne Coons said. Were going to maximize what we can within historic preservation standards.

A tour of the work site showed mid-nineteenth century beams holding up a second floor thats been framed out for a two bedroom apartment. Several stacks of pine planking sat nearby waiting to be measured and nailed into place. A propane heater valiantly tried to provide a bit of heat while the restoration crew went about its work.

These pillars are all different, Paul Coons said, brushing his hand against the buildings wooden front porch pillars. We got the lumber from an Amish saw mill. Well finish them here so they match.

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Clifton park - couples partner on restoration project

Former Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink sent a message to her successors on the state Cabinet on Wednesday, admonishing them for allowing the governor to unilaterally make the decision to replace the head of the state's law enforcement agency which under the Florida Constitution they, as a group, oversee.

"The thing Im most distressed about is, in order to terminate the head of a Cabinet agency, you need the governor or one other person -- or you need three votes,'' Sink told the Herald/Times, referring to the surprise ouster by Gov. Rick Scott of Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey.

"It looks like the governor on his own decided he was going to fire Jerry Bailey but you cant do it that way,'' said Sink, a Democrat who oversaw FDLE for four years as a member of the Cabinet and lost to Scott in a bid for governor in 2010. "Thethree Cabinet officers are independently elected and they need to start standing up and take responsibility for it. One of them had to agree to it."

After voting to approve the Scott-picked replacement of FDLE on Tuesday, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam on Wednesday said he was misled by the governor and his staff. Putnam, however, did not call for restoring Bailey's term or for replacing him with someone other than Rick Swearingen, the governor's former FDLE escortwhom Scott chose to succeed Bailey.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said after the Cabinet meeting that she was told that Bailey had voluntarily resigned, as did Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater.

"For me as a public citizen. I want to know which of the three of them agreed to terminate Jerry Bailey,'' she said. "One of them had agreed to terminate him."

Unlike the cabinet structure in many other states, the Florida Constitution requires that the FDLE report to the governor and the Cabinet and the hiring, and firing, of the FDLE commissioner must receive unanimous approval of the Cabinet. The Cabinet is comprised of the agriculture commissioner, the CFO,the attorney general and the governor, who gets a super-vote in the event of a tie.

The shared-control of the agency was designed to make it more difficult for a single officer to control and politicize the law enforcment arm charged with investigating corruption and state-level crime.

FDLE is currently charged with investigating nearly 100 inmate deaths that occurred in Florida prisons, which are under Scott's control. It has also been asked to investigate allegations that the governor's office has destroyed public records, or intentionally failed to turn them over in violation of the state public records act.

"The Florida way is, we have never politicize law enforcement,'' Sink said. "Maybe they do that in Louisiana where all those staff people come from. Jerry Bailey had incredible respect. He didnt have a political bone in his body."

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Alex Sink: Cabinet officials are not telling whole story on FDLE's Bailey

If the departure of Gerald Bailey as the Commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement suggests anything, its that the states government is not working as it should.

The states three cabinet members are not gubernatorial appointees but independently elected to constitutional offices. They therefore directly serve the voters -- not Gov. Rick Scott.

Yet one wouldnt know of this autonomy from how the Cabinet -- Attorney General Pam Bondi, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater and Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam -- responded to questions about why Bailey was leaving. Even though they each share authority over the hiring of the FDLE chief, all three expressed little to no interest into his sudden departure, ceding complete control to Scott.

According to Bailey, he was forced out by Scott and was told by General Counsel Pete Antonacci that he had the concurrence of all three Cabinet members.

When confronted Tuesday about Baileys allegation, Scott told reporters that Bailey had resigned. Only later in the day, after social media and blogs relayed Baileys counter narrative, did Scotts office correct the record with a vague statement that Scott actually did make the move: Gov. Scott thinks its important to frequently get new people into government positions of leadership.

Despite this confusion over the shakeup of an agency they oversee, Cabinet members repeated Scotts narrative after unanimously approving Baileys replacement during Tuesdays meeting.

When asked after the Cabinet meeting, all three Cabinet members responded in ways that even suggest they were cribbing off the same memo that Scott was using.

Echoing Scotts sentiment that Bailey did a great job, Putnam said he served Florida in an outstanding way, Atwater said he had served admirably and Bondi said he was an amazing man. He was so good, in fact, that Bondi said she and her staff were planning to honor him in some way. To further emphasize that she thought highly of Bailey, Bondi actually said I think the world of Commissioner Bailey five separate times in response to various questions during a 60-second stretch of a two-minute interview.

So if Bailey was THAT good, nobody had any questions about why he was leaving? Did anyone ask? Atwater said he didnt. Bondi didnt answer the question, responding instead, apropos of nothing, that I can tell you that Ive known Commissioner Bailey for many years.

Although Scott later acknowledged, sorta, that Bailey hadnt willingly resigned, Bondi and Atwater said that Bailey had in fact resigned.

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Is Cabinet doing its job as a check on Gov. Rick Scott?

Answering questions on the cabinet meeting in the Bundestag on Wednesday, Germany's Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that while the plan wouldn't put a complete stop to travels by German islamists, it would certainly lower the number of departures by making it more difficult to leave the country.

"In the situation we're in right now, effective measures that reduce the problem and not completely solve it are still sorely needed," de Maiziere emphasized.

Without a regular ID, extremists cannot leave the country to fight alongside Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria or Iraq. When they return, trained in war and terrorism, these fighters pose a great potential threat to Germany.

The measure comes exactly one week after the attack on French satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo" by Islamist extremists, who killed 12 people last Wednesday (07.01.2015) and whose accomplice shot one police woman and four hostages in a Jewish supermarket in Paris.

Stopping radical Islamists from leaving Germany, however, is not a new discussion. Merkel's government has to adopt stricter measures in order to comply with the UN "Foreign Fighters" resolution that the Security Council passed in September 2014. All UN member states must make sure that their legal systems provide for the prosecution of travel for terrorism or related training. Since this resolution was passed, the German government has been looking into how existing laws could be modified or expanded.

German ID's special role

The first idea was to mark the IDs of potentially dangerous individuals. This was cast aside in favor of replacing the ID with a substitute document.

German intelligence agencies closely monitor radical Islamists

"We don't want terrorism to be exported. We don't want men and women to be radicalized here and to travel to Syria and Iraq to come back here ready to fight and to plan attacks," Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said when first introducing the concept of the replacement ID in October 2014.

The issue is especially tricky in Germany, because every German citizen gets an ID, or "Personalausweis," when they turn 16 and must present it when signing a cell phone contract, renting an apartment, or opening a bank account. So far, authorities are not allowed to confiscate these IDs.

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Germany closer to confiscating Islamist IDs

Although she touts herself as a transparent Attorney General, Pam Bondi continued to prove otherwise after Tuesday's Cabinet meeting.

She is the top law enforcement official in Florida and works closely with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, yet Bondi hasn't said a peep publicly about the abrupt departure of Commissioner Gerald Bailey.

Bondi is no bystander. As a member of the Cabinet, she is one of four votes of the FDLE Commissioner position. Without providing a public explanation, she voted Tuesday to appoint Bailey's replacement, Rick Swearingen.

With Bailey now telling Times/Herald Capitol Bureau Chief Steve Bousquet that he was forced out, what does Bondi have to say about her role? Has she communicated at all with Gov. Rick Scott's administration on Bailey's departure? Or does she not know,ceding her duties to Scott? Did she ask Scott any questions about why Bailey, after three decades with the FDLE, was suddenly leaving?

Bailey told Bousquet that Scott's general counsel told him that Scott had the support of Bondi and the other two cabinet members (CFO Jeff Atwater and Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam) in ousting him.

So how did Bondi explain her role to reporters after Tuesday's Cabinet meeting? She didn't.

Question: Youre in law enforcement, you havent said anything about (Baileys) exit. Can you shed a little light on your feelings of Bailey leaving the FDLE?

Bondi: Oh, I think hes an amazing man. Its interesting because I almost talked about him today.

Question: Why didnt you?

Bondi: It escaped me. They kept going. But hes a very private man. But Ive been talking to my staff about doing something in his honor.

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Bondi stonewalls on questions about exit of FDLE's Bailey

GARNER | The Garner-Hayfield-Ventura Board of Education is considering expansion and remodeling options for the districts elementary and high school buildings in Garner.

At the elementary school, the most major proposed changes include:

Adding a secure entrance and office by repurposing an existing band room on the south side of the building.

Creating separate parent and bus drop-off sites to alleviate congestion.

Changing the current office into collaborative and small group space.

Relocating the superintendents office to part of the existing media center to free up much-needed space at the high school.

While there are several options for renovations, the preliminary cost is about $857,000, according to StruXture Architects of Waterloo.

Managing principal Nick Hildebrand told board members Monday night the elementary project could be completed over the summer.

At the high school, the most major proposed changes include:

Remodeling the current district office into a secure entrance and principals office.

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GHV reviews building expansion ideas

Vinyl Siding Installation Over Wood Siding , Existing Siding, Foam Insulation
http://goo.gl/ShOHYo Vinyl siding installation over wood siding, Vinyl siding installation over Existing Siding, Vinyl siding installation over Foam Insulati...

By: Charmie Joseph

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Vinyl Siding Installation Over Wood Siding , Existing Siding, Foam Insulation - Video

AT A GLANCE Features of the new training center include: - Portable models that simulate rooms of a house demonstrate proper and improper construction techniques. - One model demonstrates actual fire damage. - The model home features dozens of cutaway sections, showing wiring, materials and plumbing behind the walls. - One room of the house is built to be flooded.

It began three years ago with a modest suggestion.

Erie Insurance had been buying up old homes in its eastside neighborhood, and Greg Paige and Chris Zimmer, both vice presidents with Erie County's second largest employer, wondered if the company could re-purpose an old house on East Sixth Street into a learning laboratory for claims adjusters.

The specifics of that idea would ultimately be discarded.

But the vision that grew from that spark is due to be unveiled today -- and it's a long way from the original plan.

The company has invested millions in the new Erie Insurance Technical Learning Center, a 52,000-square-foot facility on East Seventh Street between French and Holland streets that Erie Insurance believes is unique in both size and scope in the U.S. insurance industry.

"This is state of the art," said Chip Dufala, executive vice president of services for Erie Insurance. "We are not aware of anyone having a facility of this caliber."

Behind the brick and steel facade is a 14-bay auto shop with alignment equipment, classrooms, paint booth and prep areas, where adjusters can brush up on auto body repair skills or learn the latest about aluminum body panels.

At the west end of the building is something more unexpected. Inside the training center, which adjoins the company's new parking garage, is a two-story 3,000-square foot house built to train adjusters about property damage.

This gleaming, cavernous building, announced in July 2013, has a simple purpose: It's a training ground for claims adjusters and would-be claims adjusters from across the Erie Insurance footprint, which includes 13 states and the District of Columbia.

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Training ground: Erie Insurance unveils massive new facility

1/13 Wildcats Weekly presented by Armored Roofing
It #39;s the moment you #39;ve been waiting a month for! Wildcats Weekly presented by Armored Roofing returns with an extended conversation with Head Coach John LaFontaine. We also give you a peek...

By: Wichita Falls Wildcats

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1/13 Wildcats Weekly presented by Armored Roofing - Video