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£9m Burnley home renovation plan unveiled
Article from This Is Lancashire:

£9m Burnley home renovation plan unveiled

8:00am Friday 6th April 2012 in News

A NEW £9million plan has been drawn up to potentially renovate hundreds of empty homes in Burnley.

Town hall chiefs have confirmed they have lodged a £4.5million ‘expression of interest’ with the government’s new Clusters of Empty Homes project.

An initial decision is due soon on bids for the programme, which is being brought forward by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA).

Burnley has already had some success this year in tackling the problem of vacant homes and shops.

Sixty-eight properties will be overhauled in the borough alone as part of a £4.8million East Lancashire wide scheme, under another HCA empty homes initiative.

Working in partnership with housing landlords Calico, the 68 homes should be reoccupied over the next three years.

Coun Peter McCann, housing and development control cabinet member, said: “Both these initiatives are clear evidence of the council taking the lead in tackling a major challenge for t…………………continues on This Is Lancashire
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Easter Holiday Kicks Off Spring Renovation
Article from Albany Times Union:

The Easter festival is a great time for home owners to examine their homes and link their next renovation projects with Daze Enterprises; the leader in basement renovations in Ottawa.

(PRWEB) April 06, 2012

Spring should initiate change as well as reorganization and cleanliness, it should breathe life into people’s homes and create the image of new or refreshed living spaces. This spring is the right time for renovation, remodeling and new ideas. All creativity and expectations should be brought to Daze Enterprises for a fully licensed and insured service.

Daze Enterprises specializes in basement renovations in Ottawa and provides a personalized service that brings to life any vision of the perfect home. Daze Enterprises works within timelines and budgets and as a result receives over 50 per cent of new contracts through referrals. Daze Enterprises have built a strong brand for General Contracting in Ottawa and they stand by the quality of their work. Their courteous and professional service is or…………………continues on Albany Times Union
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Home Checklist: Remodeling on the upswing
Article from Sacramento Bee:

We’re remodeling again. Contractors report that our pent-up demand for renovation has homeowners back in the market for updated kitchens and baths.

Instead of moving into newer or larger homes, we’re still staying put, but we’ve decided to reinvest in our current houses.

The national average cost of a mid-range major kitchen remodel is more than $ 57,000 and a mid-range bathroom remodel is more than $ 16,000, according to Remodeling Magazine’s “Cost vs. Value Report” for 2011-12.

To assist homeowners who are interested in remodeling, MasterBrand Cabinets – makers of Diamond, Omega, Thomasville and other popular lines – launched a new website full of easy-to-use tools designed to help and inspire home makeovers.

Among the highlights:

• Renovation budget calculator – Helps customers set a realistic budget and understand all expected renovation costs including cabinetry, appliances, flooring and lighting.

• Side-by-side cabinet comparisons – Find the right built-in “furniture” for your kitchen or bath. Input your ZIP code and get a list of nearby retailers that carry the brands.

• Remodel survival tips – Simple s…………………continues on Sacramento Bee
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Cincinnati Zoo renovates 137-year-old building that’s home for giant cobra …
Article from The Republic:

CINCINNATI — Erik Keyster works in an old, round building that attracts a lot of visitors.

“People like to see things that are deadly, and people like to see things that are big, and people like to see things that are colorful,” said Keyster, team leader of reptiles and amphibians at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. So people trek into Keyster’s workplace, the Reptile House, where they can see about 75 specimens, including Chinese alligators (deadly), green tree pythons (colorful), and a king cobra (big and deadly).

Here’s what many visitors might not realize: The building itself is worth seeing, too.

It hasn’t always been called the Reptile House — more about that later — but it has occupied a spot on the zoo grounds ever since founder Andrew Erkenbrecher welcomed the first visitors in 1875. Today it stands as the nation’s oldest zoo building that has continuously housed animals, the zoo says. Which isn’t so surprising, perhaps, given that Cincinnati has the country’s second-oldest zoo, after Philadelphia.

A renovation of the structure began this year thanks to a $ 408,886 matching grant from the National Park Se…………………continues on The Republic
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Mitt Romney’s Calif. home renovation plans include car elevator
Article from Boston.com:

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Mitt Romney’s California home renovation is back in the news.

Politico has a story today saying plans for renovating the seaside house in La Jolla include an elevator for his cars.

“There’s also a planned outdoor shower and a 3,600-square foot basement — a room with more floor space than the existing home’s entire living quarters,” reports Reid Epstein.

The “car lift” will transport vehicles between floors, making maximum use of space in the Romneys’ tight neighborhood.

Epstein, apparently taking advantage of downtime while the traveling press corps waits as the candidate holds a series of fund-raisers in California early this week, reviewed 2008 schematic plans for the renovation on file with the city of San Diego.

Politico did not publish the plans after a coordinated appeal by the Romney campaign and the US Secret Service, which is now protecting the possible future president.

“To help facilitate the construction plans, Romney has paid San Diego attorney Matthew A. Peterson $ 21,500 since 2008…………………continues on Boston.com
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Mitt Romney’s Calif. home renovation plans include car elevator
Article from Boston Globe:

Politico did not publish the plans after a coordinated appeal by the Romney campaign and the US Secret Service, which is now protecting the possible future president.

“To help facilitate the construction plans, Romney has paid San Diego attorney Matthew A. Peterson $ 21,500 since 2008 to lobby city officials for the renovation after dropping out of the 2008 GOP presidential primary,” the newspaper reported.

The project first made news when the San Diego Reader reported in 2010 that Romney had hired a San Diego architectural firm to lobby for the renovation.

 Then last, August, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Romney wanted to nearly quadruple the size of the $ 12 million house. Romney subsequently disputed that size estimate.

Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal also included the renovation in a story about rich homeowners adding space below grade to avoid overt displays of their wealth.

…………………continues on Boston Globe
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New owners restoring historic home
Article from Bastrop Daily Enterprise:

Jason and Sherri Dennis are breathing new life into what may be the oldest home in Morehouse Parish.

A few years ago, the couple was traveling around the area near their fishing camp on Bayou Bonne Idee, when they noticed an old farmhouse all but concealed from the road by trees and overgrown brush. Intrigued, they stopped to take a closer look.

“We bought it about a year later [in 2010],” said Jason.

The Cedars Plantation, also known as the Williams Home Place, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 thanks to research by the late Jane Williams Cabuk, whose great grandfather built the home two decades before the Civil War. The Cedars farmhouse is believed to be the oldest surviving residence in Morehouse Parish.

Jason Dennis said he and his family lived in a camper on the property for the first six months of the renovation, which has been ongoing for nearly a year and a half.

“We’re knee-deep in it right now,” said Dennis. “I would say we’re about 50 percent done. We’re trying to get every room functional, and then we…………………continues on Bastrop Daily Enterprise
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Portrait Homes honoured for project in Maple Ridge
Article from Vancouver Sun:

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Gardening trends will show up on many home and garden tours in and around …
Article from San Jose Mercury News:

If you love gardening, you’re not alone. Gardening has consistently been in the top five favorite hobbies of Americans ever since the Harris Poll began keeping track of U.S. pastimes, but it seems that lately there’s been an increasing passion for all things green.

As the world grows ever more complex and maddening, some people are turning to their gardens for a peaceful refuge from life’s travails; others view their back yard as an ideal place to grow their own fruits and vegetables. Still other gardeners are experimenting with exotic and tropical plants, or with wa…………………continues on San Jose Mercury News
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Gardening scares me
Article from Rochester Democrat and Chronicle:

I don’t know about you, but even though spring has apparently sprung, I’m still cold, partly because it seems everywhere I go is 39 degrees and rainy. New York, Chicago, Buffalo, even Florida.

In February, we traveled to visit my father-in-law in Florida only to arrive to temperatures in the 30s. They laughed at us as we donned our shorts in spite of the cold and walked outside. I consoled myself that at least it wasn’t icy.

A few weeks later we took a risk and booked a ski trip to Holiday Valley near Buffalo. We were lucky: two fairly good days of cold. The trip ended in a torrential rain with the temperature hovering at … 39 degrees.

Then a few weeks ago, I was traveling to Boston. It was an improvement at 41 degrees. My husband sent me a picture of the family eating in the backyard with temperatures hovering at 70. I returned home as the weather was warming up in Boston and high winds and freezing rain had moved into Rochester. Temperature: 38.

I feel like Pig-Pen, the character in Peanuts who had a cloud of dust following him. But for me, it’s a cloud of cold, raw, rain.

I actually missed the massive snow storms…………………continues on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
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Fiskars 7067 3-Piece Softouch Garden Tool Set
3 Piece, Garden Hand Tool Set, Includes: Trowel, Transplanter & Weeder, Comfortable, Soft Touch Handle Reduces Hand Stress, Cast A…

Dream home: Family enjoys rewards of renovated Patterson Park rowhouse
Article from Baltimore Sun:

Often when an old home is in the final stages of an interior renovation, the grandeur of new molding, flooring and light fixtures stands out like a masterfully worked canvas awaiting the addition of the primary subject. Such is the story unfolding behind the new windows of the Alice and Mike Gosse’s circa 1920 East Baltimore rowhouse, where the scarcity of furniture draws full attention to the quality of the detailed work completed.

Just inside the front door, off a narrow hall, the entire first floor is open, extending little more than 15 feet wide and 65 feet long to the back wall of the home. The layout transverses living room (or front parlor), dining room, kitchen and a raised family room.

But rather than rooms that merely spill one after the other in art gallery fashion, clever and creative touches have been implemented to add interest. Three different ceiling treatments on this first level are standouts, not only for their beauty but also in defining each space with a variety of textures and designs.

Here on the first floor, 10-foot ceilings progress from a flat one in the living room, to a tray ceiling in the dining room an…………………continues on Baltimore Sun
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Memoir Short Takes: the Perils of Cancer, Home Renovation, and Historical …
Article from Library Journal:

Benjamin Busch chose words from his father, fiction writer Frederick Busch, as the epigraph to his own beautifully told book, Dust to Dust.

Stories are…the heartfelt prayer, the valiant promise, that what we have loved might live forever.

What better reason to write a story or a memoir? This month’s writers (well, most of them) took something dear to them and tried to give it a bigger, longer life by writing about it. A house, a marriage, a life, a country—nothing’s really gone if we’re still thinking about it, right?

 Busch, Benjamin. Dust to Dust: A Memoir. Ecco: HarperCollins. Mar. 2012. 320p. illus. ISBN 9780062014849. $ 25.99. MEMOIR
Actor (The Wire), director (Tribeca Film Festival–pick Bright), writer (Pushcart Prize nominee), soldier (Purple Heart–awarded Marine), and son of fiction writer Frederick Busch, Benjamin Busch lives life to the fullest. In chapters organized by basic elements of the natural world—water, stone, dust, blood—he delivers a meditation on the passing of time and his life as a child, student, and soldier. He makes as g…………………continues on Library Journal
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Funds available for home renovation
Article from Imperial Republican:

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Review: ‘Silent House’
Article from San Jose Mercury News:

Let’s just get something out of the way off the top: “Silent House” creates the illusion that it’s a haunted-house thriller crafted in one long, continuous shot. The camera follows Elizabeth Olsen around a creepy, creaky lake house that’s under renovation and we’re right there with her for every bump, jump and thump of her heart.

This isn’t exactly the case, and husband-and-wife directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau acknowledge as much — they actually pieced together several long takes to create one seemingly seamless feature-length…………………continues on San Jose Mercury News
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South Boston student helps with historic home renovation
Article from Gazette Virginian:

images/stories/2012/03March/0305rosettes2.jpg

Product Design & Development student Joshua Brooks recently completed a reproduction of rosettes (ornamental doorframe moulding) for a 130-year old farmhouse renovation in the Callands community.

As Pittsylvania County resident Betty Knick began renovating the home’s detached kitchen she had difficulty matching rosettes from the back of the house with those originally in the front of the house. After some searching, it was suggested that the Product Design & Development program at the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center might be able to help. She reached out to the program and found the help she needed.

Using the TopSolid computer-aided design software, second year Product Design & Development student Jo…………………continues on Gazette Virginian
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Home decoration fair to open in HCM City
Article from SGGP:

A home decoration fair called LifeStyle Vietnam 2012 will be held at the Tan Binh Exhibition and Convention Center in Ho Chi Minh City on April 18-21.

Local and international companies operating in the field of handicraft product, home decorations, indoor and outdoor furniture, houseware and storage, home textiles and embroidery, gifts and ethnic products, garden accessories, footwear,  fashion and accessories, toys and supporting services will be represented in 1,200 display booths.

The fair is a chance for buyers and suppliers to introduce their products, seek business opportunities and expand export market.

…………………continues on SGGP
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Home: A Novel
Hundreds of thousands were enthralled by the luminous voice of John Ames in Gilead, Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize–winnin…

Woman finds 88 tobacco cans in wall during home renovation
Article from Appleton Post Crescent:

STEVENS POINT — It’s a classic prank phone call that references a tobacco product: “Do you have Prince Albert in a can? You do? Well, you’d better let him out.”

As it turns out, one Wisconsin woman had Prince Albert in a wall.

Jenn Lang of Stevens Point was recently renovating her 130-year-old home. A WSAW-TV report (http://bit.ly/z0CjeA) says she found 88 cans of Prince Albert tobacco stashed in her dining-room wall.

The cans date back to the World War I era. Most are in excellent condition, and many still have the original seal and contents.

She says antique appraisers tell her each is worth $ 10 to $ 15. She plans to keep a few and sell the rest.

Lang says she’s intrigued about what else might be hidden in other walls.

…………………continues on Appleton Post Crescent
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Company earns nine finalist nods
Article from Calgary Herald:

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Home, School, and Community Collaboration: Culturally Responsive Family Involvement
Using the culturally responsive family support model, this text prepares teachers to work effectively with the diverse families of…

Like Home Depot, Lowe’s gains from warm winter
Article from Chicago Tribune:

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Renovation of Libertyville home focuses on details
Article from Chicago Daily Herald:

The atmosphere inside the old house at 955 Winchester Road in Libertyville is of easygoing comfort — tea with a neighbor, knitting on the porch, a bay window view of towering pines planted long ago.

Entering through the front door, visitors can’t miss the richly colored mahogany handrail on the staircase leading upstairs, or the warm red oak floors — sturdy features that have remained as they were since being installed more than 80 years ago.

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There also is a big-screen television above the original slate and fieldstone fireplace in the living room. But that, too, seems to fit just fine as a nod to modern living in an extensive renovation completed just before Christmas.

The thrust was not to start over but work from within to retain the heart and character of its longtime occupant, Lillian (Smith) Pruss. She moved into the home when it was completed in 1931 and enjoyed a long lifetime of memories there.

“She talked about all these things, and that’s what we did and a little bit more,” Pruss’ granddaughter, Diana Barthel, says of the renovation. “Her friends, her family and everybo…………………continues on Chicago Daily Herald
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