DIY Network Greenlights a New Series and Renews Eight Viewer Favorites

New York [For Immediate Release - November 18, 2014] DIY Network greenlighted an order for Breakneck Builds (Tricon Films & Television), a series that showcases the next generation of home construction for families who need a home in a hurry. The network, which recently achieved its most-watched October ever in prime, also announced returning viewer favorites: Rehab Addict (Departure Films), Kitchen Crashers (Big Table Media), Building Alaska (Orion Multimedia), Family Under Construction Hawaii (Departure Films), Sledgehammer (JayTV Inc.), Bath Crashers(Big Table Media), Garage Gold (Paper Route Productions Inc.) and Salvage Dawgs (Trailblazer Studios).

"We present viewers with new and entertaining possibilities when it comes to home renovation," said Allison Page, general manager, HGTV and DIY Network. "Breakneck Builds showcases innovative building methods that people may not have considered before; while fresh episodes of popular series like Sledgehammer and Bath Crashers offer the thrill of demolition and renovation that our viewers love."

In Breakneck Buildsfamilies no longer need to wait months to build a new home. The series follows construction crews as they build pre-fabricated modular homes on the factory floor, transport the pieces via semis and assemble the homes on-site for new homeowners in just two days.

The returning series on the network's slate feature home remodeling projects from both DIY Network veterans and rookie renovation families. Rehab Addict's Nicole Curtis harnesses her experience with interior design, contracting and real estate to rebuild neighborhoods one house at a time in Detroit and Minneapolis. In Kitchen Crashers, homeowners get more than they bargained for when they run into designer Alison Victoria and her Kitchen Crashers at the neighborhood home improvement store. If the homeowners agree, Alison follows them home and transforms their old kitchen into a showstopper. Building Alaska follows daring individuals who set out to construct their amazing off-the-grid properties in the Alaskan wilderness, while Family Under Construction Hawaii tags along with families who attempt to transform fixer-uppers into tropical dream homes.

The network also has renewed several additional programs. Sledgehammer,a series that features homeowners who think they're trying out for a home improvement show, but instead get a surprise visit from contractor Jason Cameron, who promises to fix any room they can completely demolish in 30 minutes. In Bath Crashers unsuspecting homeowners get the ultimate surprise of a beautiful new bathroom when contractor Matt Muenster and his Bath Crashers crew ambush them in the home improvement aisle. During each episode of Garage Gold overstuffed spaces transform into functional places when Kraig Bantle and his family business, Garage Brothers, step in to clear the clutter free of charge. Homeowners get the tidy garage, attic or basement they've always dreamed of and Kraig gets to keep whatever he finds. The new season of Salvage Dawgs features Robert Kulp and Mike Whiteside, co-owners of an architectural salvage business Black Dog Salvage, as they bid on condemned homes and buildings to save beautiful and historic structural pieces before they are lost forever.

ABOUT DIY NETWORK

DIY Network, from the creators of HGTV and Food Network, is the go-to destination for rip-up, knock-out home improvement television. Currently in more than 58 million homes, DIY Network's programming covers a broad range of categories, including home improvement and landscaping. The network's award-winning website, DIYNetwork.com, consistently ranks among America's top home and garden Internet destinations for entertaining videos, home improvement advice, step-by-step instructions, message boards, blogs, an interactive program guide and more. Viewers can also become fans of DIY Network and interact with other home improvement enthusiasts and do-it-yourselfers through Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. Headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn., DIY Network is wholly owned by Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (SNI).

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DIY Network Greenlights a New Series and Renews Eight Viewer Favorites

Matawan, NJ (PRWEB) November 11, 2014

With the housing market still recovering, many families are getting creative to make better use of the space in their homes. As a result, an attic remodel is more common than ever before.

Many real estate agents highly recommend an attic remodel to their clients. Besides making a smaller home become more attractive to home buyers with kids, this remodeling project increases the home's value, and gives potential buyers endless options.

Stone Creek Builders (SCB) commented on the project, saying, "When a potential client comes to us with a dream of renovating their home, we do everything in our power to make that happen."

SCB is the first to point out that there are many options for families with kids to add extra space, enabling them to stay in their current home. Sometimes, however, it can be quite a lot of work to make that dream happen.

For this most recent project, SCB needed to pass various levels of approval during the remodeling process. First was scheduling a meeting with board members of the Holmdel Department of Buildings to cover why this work was necessary, what the process would be, and what the end result would be.

Additionally, SCB worked with neighbors of the family in order to educate them about the building process and what should be expected. Stone Creek Builders emphasized that working with the community is always vital to their building projects; they want to ensure that everyone is comfortable with the project.

Now that the work is completed, the family is thoroughly enjoying their new found space, probably none more so than their son. The parents expressed appreciation that the extra space will always be usable. Even when their son outgrows a playroom, the room can easily convert into another purpose.

Meanwhile, SCB is proud to have allowed another family stay in their beloved home by modifying current space in the building.

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Stone Creek Builders is proud to announce the completion of their latest project: a remodel to turn an attic into a ...

Published: Sat, November 8, 2014 @ 12:04 a.m.

home-decor business moves from garage to a storefront

By Megan Wilkinson

mwilkinson@vindy.com

STRUTHERS

Struthers locals have noticed that a new business made its home at 11 Poland Ave.

The storefront had been vacant for more than a year. Ashlis Attic, a Struthers couples home-decor and refinishing business, moved into the location officially Monday, and both its owners reported theyve had walk-ins every day.

Ashli Zinkhon, co-owner of the shop, said she and Adam Reuss, her boyfriend and co-owner, have been working for about two months to clean the vacant storefront for their business. She said the shop has a completely different feel from when they started cleaning.

The last people who were in here closed in 2013, but they left it in a bit of a mess, Ruess said. Weve been busy trying to give

the place a rustic look so people feel comfortable when they come in.

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Home decor business moves from garage to Struthers storefront

Photo by: Heather Coit/The News-Gazette

Renovation work continues at Burger King at 2105 W. Springfield Ave. in Champaign on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2014.

Image

The Burger King franchise in the Champaign-Urbana and Danville area is becoming a Whopper.

Maruti Seth, president of the Danville-based Group 2029 franchise, started out with three stores in Danville 11 years ago.

He gradually expanded to nine stores, adding two locations in Champaign and one each in Urbana, Savoy, Rantoul and Tuscola.

On Oct. 21, the franchise added 12 new stores, largely in the Bloomington-Normal and Peoria areas. It acquired those from the previous franchisee, Downers Grove-based Heartland Foods.

Most of the new stores are along the Interstate 74 and 55 corridors, Seth said, noting they include three in Bloomington-Normal, two in Peoria and one each in East Peoria, Canton, Pekin, Morton, Pontiac, Wenona and Dwight.

Seth said remodeling of the Burger King at 2105 W. Springfield Ave., C, should finish some time early this month.

When complete, the dining room will have new floors and tiles, LED lights, soft-seating booths and a Coke Freestyle beverage center offering more than 120 flavor combinations of soft drinks.

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It's Your Business: Burger King franchisee adds 12 stores

Meridian, Miss. Members of Multi-County Community Service Agency were out on 45th Avenue in Meridian helping weatherize a home Thursday. If you did not already know Oct. 30 is National Weatherization Day. MCCSA members along with the help of the Navy were out hammering and taping insulation getting the home ready for any type of weather.

They are going to be shooting insulation through the house, through the roof and they say it is going to be going through the walls. And they are remodeling some of the windows because this is a very old house, said Edna Walker, the homeowner.

The reason why MCCSA was out weatherizing Walker's home was to help increase its energy efficiency. The weatherization program is possible due to a grant to help the elderly, disabled, and families with children. This home was being prepped to help save the homeowner money during the year.

We are trying to wrap a blanket around this house, but what we call a blanket. We are putting insulation in the attic. We are putting insulation in the walls. We are putting insulation up under the bottom of the house, because what our job is to help this client save on its energy bills, explained Freddie McCoy Weatherization Director with the MCCSA.

McCoy says that there are ways that any homeowner can weatherize their home and help lower your electric bill.

When you blow a balloon up and when you poke a hole in a balloon, it leaks. A house is just like a balloon. We pressurize a house just to see how much pressure a house can hold. And if a house can hold no pressure it is because it has a lot of air leaks. And that is what you want to do you want to stop up the cracks, explained McCoy.

Well, I feel pretty good for them to come and help me. It is a blessing for somebody to come and help others said Walker.

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National Weatherization Day

We bought our little house a few years ago when we had one baby.

We loved it and it was the perfect fit for us.When I ws pregnant with our third, we decided to renovate our attic.

Our house was built in the 1920s. The attic was basically untouched that entire time. It was

nearly impossible to get into as well. I had never been up there until renovations had started. It was

your typically old and creepy attic. We had a friend who was a builder do the renovations in record timing.

He was amazing and a big thanks goes out to him. He started the work when I was 33 weeks pregnant and

finished it when I was 39 weeks.

We didnt live in our home during the majority of this

process. It would have been impossible to keep kids out of the mess and it wasnt safe

with the dust and chemical exposure. Im thankful that we had willing parents to let us

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Our Attic Renovation: Before and After | The Itsy Bitsy House

Photo: Borges Brooks Builders

Want more livable space in your home? Dont want to spend a kings ransom? Attic conversion has fit the bill for countless homeowners over the years.

Unlike many basements, attics are dry, and being free of major appliances (e.g., the furnace), they are also quiet. You can devote the finished space to any number of purposes: Attics are suitable as home offices, TV rooms, art studios and even bedroomsthe list of possible uses goes on at length.

Related: Planning Guide: Basement Remodeling

Before starting on an attic conversion project, youll need to negotiate a gauntlet of building codes. Of course, these vary from one municipality to the next, but most codes correspond to one or another edition of the International Residential Code for One- and Two-Story Dwellings (IRC).

To view the latest IRC codes (as well as previous editions), go here. If youre confused about which edition bears relevance to your individual home, ask an official in the building department of your city, town, village or hamlet.

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Attic Renovation - Planning Guide - Bob Vila

It is that time of year again: time to start heating the house. Many of us hold out as long as possible, but the old put on a sweater or grab a blanket routine will only last a few more weeks at most! Our lovely fall weather cant last forever.

Many people, especially homeowners living in older homes with outdated heating systems or poor insulation, find there is something to be desired when the heat kicks on.

Inefficient heating systems struggle on two levels. First, they dont do a very good job keeping the house steadily warm and second, they cost more to run. A forced-air furnace or a boiler can be replaced without remodeling your home. However, during a major remodeling project, the mechanical equipment can be relocated as well as replaced, and the ductwork can also be reconfigured to add more ceiling height to some areas.

If you are adding square footage during a remodel, this will change the requirements of the heating system. Heating systems are designed based on the size of the house. A loose rule of thumb is that one forced-air furnace generally handles about 2,000 square feet. If you are expanding beyond that, a second unit may be required.

One of the most important parts of the heating system in a house actually has nothing to do with the mechanical heating unit. It's the insulation found in the home.

In a new home, insulation is added in the walls, attic/roof, under concrete slabs and in crawl spaces. Older homes were built with far less (or no) thought as to how to insulate these areas, so part of every remodeling project should be to update the overall energy efficiency of your home as much as possible.

Insulation is rated in R-values. R-value is the measurement that tells you how well your insulation will resist heat flow or heat transfer. The higher the R-value, the better the efficiency. The governments energy conservation recommendations for R-values depends on climate and varies by ZIP code.

For most of Utah, the ceiling is recommended to have an R-value of 38, the mass wall R-value should be 19 and the floor R-value should be 30. Washington County, with its warmer climate, requires less insulation, with a required ceiling R-value of 30, mass wall R-value of 8 and floor R-value of 19. Up north in the Cache County, the numbers are slightly higher to combat the colder winters, with the recommended ceiling R-value of 49, mass wall R-value of 19 and floor R-value of 30.

Adding insulation to an existing house can be a do-it-yourself project for the ambitious homeowner or you can hire a professional insulation contractor. Either way, the first step is determining the extent of the existing insulation not an easy proposition. If you have a brick home built before about 1950, there is essentially no insulation in your walls. Houses from the 1950s and '60s have minimal insulation. In the 1970s, efficiency became more important, though the technology of insulation has obviously improved over the last 40-some years.

Adding insulation to the older masonry home has to be done by adding rigid insulation to the exterior and resurfacing the house with another exterior material, such as stucco or cement fiber board; on the interior, you essentially need to build an new stud wall, add insulation and add new gypsum board (sheet rock).

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Renovation Solutions: Tips for energy efficient homes in winter

Coming across a little pocket of literary joy in the Broadmoor-Broadway Village Neighborhood is a bit like discovering a special hiding place or a secret clubhouse.

But the Little Free Library in the timeless Tucson neighborhood is no secret. Its one of more than 15,000 tiny libraries and one of about a dozen in Tucson that are part of the worldwide Little Free Library movement, created by lovers of books and builders of community.

In Tucson, neighborhoods are creating their own little public libraries places where neighbors can gather, drop off a book and take one home. The motto is take a book, return a book.

The movement started in 2009, when Todd Bol of Hudson, Wisconsin, built a model of a one-room schoolhouse as a tribute to his mother, a former teacher who loved reading. He filled it with books and put it on a post in his front yard, with a sign that read Free Books. Neighbors and friends loved it, and he built several more and gave them away.

Today, the number of registered Little Free Libraries across the world grows daily, overloading the map at the nonprofits website, littlefreelibrary.org

Among the newest additions is the Broadmoor-Broadway Village Little Free Library, which was planted in a neighborhood pocket park Sept. 21, said Joan Thomas, who spearheaded the project with neighbors and her daughter, Debbie Weingarten, who maintains the library as steward. The neighborhood is southwest of Broadway and Country Club Road

This all started a year ago, Thomas said. I was walking with a neighbor and we got on the subject of this box with books and what a fantastic idea it was for a neighborhood.

After months of research and conversations, she got in touch with Meg Johnson, who helped start a Little Free Library in Tucsons Garden District Neighborhood a couple of years ago.

With tons of information and motivation, Broadmoor neighbors first looked in thrift shops for a cabinet they could repurpose. The perfect cabinet appeared as neighbors launched a remodeling project and donated a kitchen cabinet to the effort.

Tapping into the talents of neighbors, the project took on a life of its own. Neighbor Ryan Brown, a woodworker, took a plain kitchen cabinet and created a weatherproof Little Free Library, adding an attic space, Thomas said.

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Fun little libraries popping up in Tucson neighborhoods

By Erin Wygant | Published 8 hours ago

While students jog through the many side streets in the quiet neighborhoods of Chapel Hill, the beat in their headphones pushes them past generations of history, though they might not realize it.

In 1793, when University plans were drawn, builders laid out the town meaning the two were and still are very much connected. Chapel Hill is a community where homeowners blend with college students and where residential and commercial life meet along Franklin Street.

The Widow Puckett House on East Franklin Street is one such example. Formerly a widows boarding house and an occasional classroom, the first chancellors residences central location has made it an important player in the Universitys history. Current owners Ann Stewart and Randall Roden take great pride in the story behind their home and said theyre eager to share it with anyone interested.

I feel a real responsibility to learn as much history of the house, to add to it and pass it on, Stewart said. This house has so much history that interesting things happen all the time.

The couple has compiled a list of past owners, including Jane Puckett, the widow for whom the house is named. She housed notable tenants whose names are still visible on the walls.

The students lived upstairs in the attic, and most of them signed their names in candle smudge to the ceiling and now have buildings named after them like Venable, Phillips and Spencer, Stewart said.

The houses history is also constantly evolving with donations from visitors.

People give things to this house all the time, said Stewart, pointing to a picture of the entire University faculty seated in the side yard of the house during the 1870s.

When people leave, one of the things they remember is the town. It is one of the things they come back to see, Roden said. They like to see the same places, and while they come to visit the campus, they also come to see the town and historic district that looks like what they remember.

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Historic Chapel Hill homes rich in University history