Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

Regional News of Friday, 18 July 2014

Source: GNA

The Volta Regional Directorate of the Ghana Library Authority (GLA), has reached a gentlemans agreement with the contractor and consultant working on the Regional Library Complex to use two rooms there, while work progressed.

The agreement followed a rainstorm in June this year, which partially ripped off the roofs of the current office building, necessitating the evacuation of some books, piles of newspapers and other materials.

Mr. Alikem rpt Alikem Tamakloe, Volta Regional Director of the GLA, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) Thursday that, in the circumstances and the likelihood of successive thunderstorms, I had to strike the deal with the contractors.

He said no staff was re-located to the complex, some 400 metres away from the current office in Ho.

Staff only go there (uncompleted complex) to pick books and other materials when needed, Mr Tamakloe stated.

He said the Library Complex, initiated in 2003, was between 70 and 78 per cent complete.

Mr. Tamakloe said work left to be done, include tiling, ceiling, painting and landscaping.

He said, the complex when completed, would have two adult sections, two kids sections, rare collection department, conference and lecture rooms and an event hall.

Original post:
Volta Library and Contractors strike deal on unfinished complex

Clearly, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer has never attempted to undertake renovations of any sort.

The proof? Yesterday he held a press conference to announce that in an audit of contracts the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) handed out in the wake of Hurricane Sandy discoveredthat the agency had doled out $19.9 million in funds- and at least $30,000 had been wasted. If these numbers are accurate, the DHS deserves not to be chastised they deserve a medal.

Having undertaken numerous renovations in New York City, there may be no more dishonest industry. I have had contractors disappear mid-job for weeks on end, painting crew chiefs who claim to have 3 kids born in 5 months and the millworker who seemingly contracted the worst continual food poisoning known to man. Naturally, they leave tools all over and never miss the chance to be paid and if you dont like it, then what? And of course, one needs to pay someone to watch over the kleptomaniacs and alcoholics in the crew also.

While NYC Comptroller Stringer says that the city should have adequate safeguards in place to oversee contractors, Id venture that is an impossibility for the private or public sector. Mr. Stringers report says that DHS did not produce diaries, logs, observation notes, etc. Anyone who ever tries asking for logs or notes better prepare for week-long delays. Mr. Comptroller:It just aint possible.

If Mr. Stringers assessments are correctthat $30K was fleeced on $20 Million in construction, the people at DHS responsible better polish their resumes and apply for jobs with Related CompaniesandVornado and the other developers inthis city who surely get fleeced much more egregiouslyon a daily basis.

As one who has thrown contractors out for lying, stealing and cheating, its justa bad game of Russian Roulette as a new crook walks in the door. Theres nothing anyone can do about it. Perhaps in the midst of this hot New York summer, we have finally found the unifying issue around whichthe 1%ers and this very progressive administration can rallyaround after dealing with the all important Central Park horses regulating contractors.

If the contractors had not been paid, this city would still be dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Even in the tough city of New York, being ripped off is just part of doing renovations.

Ronn Torossianis a Public Relations executive who hates renovating.

More:
Department of Homeless Services Is Ripped Off for Just $30,000 Nice Job, Guys!

Universal Mounting Bracket Is An Optimal Solution for Outdoor Lighting Renovations
Terry Tarrer of Acuity Brands discusses how Acuity #39;s universal mounting bracket can help contractors be safer and more efficient on outdoor area and parking ...

By: Graybar

Originally posted here:
Universal Mounting Bracket Is An Optimal Solution for Outdoor Lighting Renovations - Video

Sherwood takes its Robin Hood Festivalseriously. Jessica Bertalotto is no exception. She'll be one of few who preside over Friday's knighting ceremony. She also has the responsibility of shooting the first arrow during the festival's archery contest.

The 17-year-old Sherwood High senior and member of this year's Maid Marian Court the 60th in the city's history sat down for a Q&A in the midst of Old Town as volunteers and event coordinators made the area look more like Nottingham than a modern Oregon town.

What made you want to be a part of the Maid Marian court?

I just thought it'd be a good way to get involved in the community. I really liked that my mom had done it and I wanted to be a second-generation Maid Marian.

When you apply, you answer questions about how you're involved and how you want to change the community and how you want to make it better.

And how are you involved with your community in Sherwood?

I serve with my youth group at Sherwood United Methodist Church. I usually go on mission trips we have a lot of mission trips. There's usually about 35 hours of community service on each trip. I also help with the chamber of commerce a lot.

I just think it's important to give back to the community we have such a great community here and I want to do my part.

What do you like about that community?

It's been growing a lot but it's still got that hometown feel and everyone really cares about each other. One of our teachers was diagnosed with breast cancer this past year while she was pregnant, so we had the Egg Hunt for Hope for her and raised $40,000. I thought it was really awesome that the community did that for her."

Visit link:
Jessica Bertalotto talks Maid Marian Court, Robin Hood Festival and life in Sherwood

BAY CITY, MI A 62-year-old man police say mowed his lawn in the nude, in full-view of his neighbors, has pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor.

Bobby O. Blodgetton Thursday, July 17, appeared before Bay County District Judge Dawn A. Klida and pleaded no contest to indecent exposure, the only charge he faced. The count is punishable by up to one year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

A no contest plea is not an admission guilt but is treated as such for the purposes of sentencing. Klida reliedon police reports to enter a conviction on the record.

According to thosereports, officers on the evening ofWednesday, May 21, responded to Blodgett's home in the 300 block of McDonald Street after Bay County Central Dispatch received a call of himmowing his lawn naked. The caller, 40-year-old Jason S. Linton, told dispatchers he yelled at Blodgett to put some clothes on, and that Blodgett had done so, police reports show.

Linton told an officer that he and his teenage son were visiting his mother-in-law in the neighborhood and that they were in her back yard when they heard a lawnmower start up.

"Then the guy came walking out and started cutting his lawn in the nude," Linton said. "I yelled at him and told him that he needed to put some clothing on."

Linton said that though there is a privacy fence separating the yards, there are gaps in it that one can see through.

Linton's mother-in-law, Nancy M. Mercier, told the officer that a similar incident happened the week beforehand when Blodgett mowed his lawn wearing only lady's stockings.

"I don't need to see that," Mercier said. "I know he has a privacy fence but I can see through it."

The officer spoke with Blodgett, who maintained Linton and Mercier were mistaken regarding what they claimed to have seen.

View post:
Bay City man accused of mowing lawn in the nude pleads no contest

Where the River Shannon Flows was a best-seller in 1940. Illustration: Michael Viney

The new logo on our road signs had me puzzled for days. Wavy white lines on blue what was that about? Narrow, wiggly, bumpy roads? Fair enough. Good surfing? Not that way, into the mountains. Eventually it dawned were now part of the Wild Atlantic Way.

That must be why theyve mended all the potholes and why the grassy-spined boreen down to the strand, clearly just wide enough for one careful driver, has a big, new speed limit of 50km/h.

So now, summoned for a check-up at our distant centre of excellence, it is wisest to leave before breakfast to beat the camper vans into Doolough Pass and, come August, best to stock up with a months supply of everything and close the gate behind us, grateful for the summer mufflement of trees.

It was the Romantics, said Bertrand Russell (in his History of Western Philosophy) who shaped the wild taste in scenery a revolt of passion and individualism against a world of stultifying peace and quiet. Up to Rousseau, he argued, the admired rural landscape was a scene of fertility, with rich pastures and lowing kine. But then dramatic and untamed scenery took over the poets and novelists and almost everybody nowadays this from Russell in 1945 prefers Niagara and the Grand Canyon to lush meadows and waving corn.

Since Russell, a warming world has seen great changes. Spectacular chasms and rushing torrents are no longer the passionate metaphors of literature, but physical threats of things to come. Meanwhile, the Wild Atlantic Way offers soothing views of an infinite horizon, while driving very slowly and never checking the mirror.

But what of the islands interior, still mostly under human command? Just published, and largely ignored by the media is the Governments Draft National Landscape Strategy. It comes a decade after signing the European Landscape Convention and 20 years of native agitation and advice, most cogently from from the Heritage Council and, on the sidelines, from Terry ORegan, the crusading landscape architect from Cork.

A speaker at one of his landscape conferences in the 1990s offered a tempting but cynical thesis: Basically, landscape planning means that those of good taste, or hopefully of good taste, tell those of bad taste or none what they may or may not do. But the European convention was heavy on subsidiarity taking decisions at the most local level possible. Along with pulling together all the government and sectoral interests in the landscape, much of the Irish effort has gone into cultivating trust among stakeholders defending their local views, trees and hedges.

The passing years have brought good successes in local management of landscape, land use and heritage, as in the Wicklow uplands, the Burren, Bere Island, the Great Western Greenway and many locally-negotiated walking trails. But rows over wind farms and pylons continue to warrant a fully developed landscape policy.

We seem little nearer to deciding how landscape should be described at least in terms that bureaucracy feels it can use. It is 14 years since local authorities were charged with preparing landscape character assessments factual appraisals, to eschew any notions of beauty or other aesthetic ranking. Many counties, indeed, did their best (Co Meaths is one worth reading online) but developing a national landscape character assessment is still a heartfelt wish listed in the strategy document.

Read this article:
Another Life: Notions of landscape liable to produce divergent opinions

July 17, 2014 -

The Manzanita Speaker Series will present renowned landscape architect Mia Lehrer who will share her commitment and vision to achieving a healthier, more holistic future through the design of symbiotic cities.

(ML+A), Lehrer's international landscape architecture and urban design firm, is located in Los Angeles, CA. It is known for its design and development of a wide spectrum of ambitious public and private projects including; the LosAngeles River Revitalization Master Plan and creating an ecological laboratory in the heart of Los Angeles with the Natural History Museums Nature Gardens.

Manzanita Institute, an initiative of Manzanita School (www.ManzanitaSchool.org), begins as a parent involvement, education and participation portal. The institute convenes thought leaders to advance dialogues around learning, youth engagement, nature connection, and healthy human development. It is a space where global thinkers, educators, parents and students gather to inspire and teach one another.

For all inquiries please contact Kim@ManzanitaSchool.org.

Read the original here:
Manzanita Speaker Series: Designing with Nature, July 25

To the editor:

I own a local contracting landscape company, requiring me and my staff to frequent the Glenmore dump often.

On a recent trip to the dump with the clippings from a job-site, I was shocked to see the RCMP had a man with a pickup truck and trailer pulled over to the side of the road near the entrance.

I entered the line up to go in, and was waiting along with everyone else, when another man with a pickup truck and trailer was pulled over on his way out of the dump.

So, I watched as the police questioned the man driving. It was apparent that an argument was occurring with waving of arms.

The mans passenger was ordered out of the vehicle and the police called for assistance. Within seconds a second police cruiser pulled up with sirens blazing. Another minute passed and a third cruiser came, again sirens blazing.

As you can imagine, quite the show for the people waiting in line to go into the dump.

As I was unloading my trailer, the man that had been pulled over at the entrance came beside me. He told me that the police had pulled him over because his brake light didnt come on. Upon investigation, he wiggled the wire at the back, and behold, there was light. Lucky him.

My thoughts went back to the man leaving the dump. Were his lights not working?

This man, as it turned out, got angry and defiant. Not a great idea to do when confronted by our valued RCMP, but understandable.

Continue reading here:
Letter: Police nab yard workers at landfill bottleneck

Interior Designer Denise Simons with Kitchen Makeover Ideas
Interior Designer Denise Simons showed us several ways to update your kitchen.

By: NewsChannel 5

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Interior Designer Denise Simons with Kitchen Makeover Ideas - Video

HGTV

Interior designer Melissa Roche of Las Vegas competes in Season 2 of Brother vs. Brother on HGTV. Drew Scott, left, talks with his team, from left, Eric Eremita, Rick Schwarz and Roche about their renovation options in the family room of the Heravi home in Sherman Oaks, Calif. Roche was crowned the champion on the finale Sunday, July 13,2014.

By Don Chareunsy (contact)

Friday, July 18, 2014 | 2 a.m.

HGTV

Interior designer Melissa Roche of Las Vegas competed in Season 2 of Brother vs. Brother on HGTV.

HGTV

Las Vegas interior designer Melissa Roche, second from right with the scarf, competes in Season 2 of "Brother vs. Brother" on HGTV.

Interior designer and Minnesota native Melissa Roche, now based in Las Vegas with her company Parlor 430 on East Sahara, was crowned Season 2 champion of HGTVs Brother vs. Brother on Sunday night.

I caught up with Roche the Tuesday after her victory, and she talked about twin-brother hotties Drew and Jonathan Scott, excitement about SLS Las Vegas opening next month and what shell do with the $50,000 first-place prize.

Read the rest here:
Brother vs. Brother winner Melissa Roche of Las Vegas talks Scott twins, SLS, $50K