A well-preserved felt banner, reading Asbury, Hood River, lies folded on the floor of what was once a Sunday school room of the 100-year-old Methodist Church, left behind 15 months ago when the church closed its doors.

I need to get that back to them, said Claudia von Flotow, the buildings new owner, who began interior demolition in April. No tenants have yet been lined up but von Flotow hopes to rent out the sanctuary and north room spaces as early as this fall.

Changes done in the 1950s are going away, and something that was covered in the 1950s is coming back.

The warren of offices and classrooms will become office and restroom space in the north section, and the old folding room divider, while salvaged, will be replaced with glass walls.

Most importantly, the false ceiling over the office area is gone, exposing the dark wood bead board, a vaulted ceiling that Claudia von Flotow calls stunning.

It needs a little bit of work, but not a whole lot.

She said the building will need more roof insulation and some structural reinforcement.

There are a lot of structural problems but nothing thats not worth saving. There is craftsmanship in every corner of this place. As anyone would say who appreciates craftsmanship and history, you gotta preserve it.

She will install a mezzanine partway over the north room, offering a closer view of the bead board, as well as views of the Columbia River through new north-facing windows.

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Reverent Remodel: Asburys new owner respects, yet transforms, the former church

Partial Basement Remodeling In Bellerose, Queens
This Basement Was Flooded From A Burst Radiator Steam Line. We Replaced The Line With 1 Inch Copper, And Re-framed The Damaged Wall, Installed Insulation And...

By: 96 pro contractors

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Partial Basement Remodeling In Bellerose, Queens - Video

In recognition of National Historic Preservation Month, Edwardsvilles Historic Preservation Commission will showcase some of Edwardsvilles historic buildings in a series of articles during the month of May. HPC encourages owners of historic buildings to donate copies of photos and historical information to HPC and/or the Madison County Historical Museum so future generations will have access to these valuable research materials.

The Hoehn Block

216 North Main St.

Its unknown when the original building on this site was completed, but in 1890, the owner, Jacob Hoehn, decided to significantly enhance his investment property next to the Madison County Jail. It was first announced that he was planning an addition to his building, but it can be deducted, based on later articles in the Alton Evening Telegraph, that he either removed the old building except for the basement and foundation or perhaps kept a two-story addition at the back of the building and added a new two-story front. In either case, the result was a much larger business house or a block as they were then known.

An article in the Alton Telegraphs Edwardsville news column on September 18, 1890, said, Mr. Jacob Hoehn, the proprietor of the Windsor restaurant on Main street, is going to remove the frame part and put a two story building in its place. The proposed addition is to be modern in every respect, plate glass and iron pillars will constitute the front of the first story. Work is to commence at once, and will be ready for guests the day court opens next month.

The following week, the Telegraph reported, The old law office of G. B. Burnett, now of St. Louis, and which has lately served as a dining room for Jake Hoehns Windsor restaurant, was put on rollers Saturday, and followed several other Main street buildings over into the Second ward, (where) it will do duty as a dwelling house.

There is today a basement under only the front portion of the building which probably reflects the size of the original building on the property. Unlike other business blocks in Edwardsville, this building is only one storefront wide, but there was ample room for other businesses in the back and on the second floor.

Jacob Hoehn, born in 1843, was a Civil War veteran who immediately after the war went into the hospitality business. He ran numerous saloons and restaurants before moving in 1895 to St. Louis where he took over the operation of a resort. In the early 1900s, he returned to Edwardsville where he had many real estate investments, including a subdivision in Glen Carbon and rental houses on Hoehn Street in Edwardsville, as well as his Main Street property.

Before moving to St. Louis, Jacob and his wife, Katherine Schramm Hoehn, lived on North Main Street near their businesses. When they returned, they moved to 459 Vandalia Street. The couple had six children but by the time Jacob passed away in 1910, only one, Matilda Hoehn Yates, was still a resident of Edwardsville.

The first tenant of the new Hoehn Block was Rorig Jewelers who within a year sold out to T. E. Gontermann. The new business was another jeweler, but in addition to pocket watches, Gontermanns could fit their customers with eyeglasses. They occupied the ground floor of 216 North Main Street until 1895 when they moved to a new building on the court house square. What followed was a succession of both businesses and residents. For many years the second floor was divided into a private apartment plus several sleeping rooms which sometimes became offices.

The rest is here:
Hoehn Block home to bank and pool hall

Toronto, ON (PRWEB) May 26, 2014

A high quality service at an affordable price, VIP Classic Moulding has developed a reputation in the city for applying sophisticated and innovative home solutions combined with a functional approach that means the best bang for a buck.

VIP Classic Moulding offers installations in communities such as Vaughan, Markham, Toronto, Richmond Hill, Maple, Aurora, North York, Thornhill, Mississauga, Oakville, Milton, Woodbridge, Brampton, Ajax, Oshawa, Burlington, and Barrie among others.

Crown moulding can make all the difference when a property owner is trying to give their room that little something extra to add balance. This doesnt mention the added bonus that it has been known to increase property value by up to $10,000.

The company can be reached by phone for those that want to schedule a free Pot Lights Installation estimate and/or Crown Moulding Installation estimate. VIP Classic Moulding has earned the attention it has received for its superior service in comparison with what their competitors are offering. The thousands of customers the company has serviced in the past ten (10) years would agree as well.

Via their website, one can take a look through the companys high quality work to get a better idea of what VIP Classic Moulding can bring to your piece of property.

VIP Classic Moulding offers a varied selection of crown moulding options including solid wood, MDF, plaster, and PVC. Each one of these options come with their own elegance and charm, and the company will work with you to ensure that what you choose is the right option for your property.

Give a new look to your home with crown moulding that you wont regret. VIP Classic Moulding offers a selection of products that one cant find in stores. You know youre getting the best when you invite VIP Classic Moulding into your home.

In addition to crown moulding, VIP Classic Moulding has developed into a multi-disciplinary practice that encompasses not only ceiling design but also incorporates the design and installation of pot lights, hardwood, MDF trim work, wainscoting, painting, and full basement finishing and remodeling.

Committed to their clientele, VIP Classic Moulding have established themselves in the Toronto area as the go-to company that will ensure you are covered from design through to implementation with the best product for the best price.

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VIP Classic Crown Moulding & Pot Light Installation Offers Services In Toronto

Restaurant's footprint to triple; $1.4M renovation expected to be completed by mid-July

By Melissa Simon

msimon@times-standard.com @Melissa_Simon on Twitter

A construction crew readies the Fourth Street Eureka McDonald's location for a new building on Friday.

After a $1.4 million renovation, a larger McDonald's will rise in place of the old one on Fourth Street this summer, city officials said.

"The format of the new building was different, and my guess would be that it was easier to just tear down the old one," said Eureka Chief Building Official Brian Gerving.

Eureka Community Development Senior Planner Kristen Goetz said McDonald's approached her regarding the remodeling plans in late 2013. She managed the project through all the design reviews and permit process.

"Since they wanted to change the building by removing the basement and making the footprint of the new one bigger the old one was about 1,260 square feet and the new one would be about 4,316 square feet the permit need to be updated," Goetz said of the original permit, which dated back to 1971. "In addition to that, they need to add a coastal development permit because they're in the coastal zone which covers pretty much west of Broadway up to Myrtle."

McDonald's eventually obtained the building permit, coastal development permit and conditional use permit through the city's Community Development department with a little help from the City Council, according to Goetz.

"This permit process was a little more involved than others because the original conditional use permit approved by the Planning Commission was appealed by an adjacent property owner and it then went to the City Council," Goetz said. "The council upheld the Planning Commission's original decision and then the property went through the design review."

Link:
Fourth Street Eureka McDonald's being remodeled, should be open by July

WINDSOR, Colo. (AP) A dozen years ago, Kristie Fisher drove up to the 13-acre property in rural Windsor with her husband and smiled. All her dreams, even her foolish ones, seemed to be coming true.

Fisher was a city girl whose parents were divorced when she was 8. She spent a lot of time in apartments. She would think about what it would be like to have room, or even a wide-open, peaceful space where car horns were muffled by the wind. Then she would dismiss those dreams as folly. That, she told herself, would never happen.

Yet there she was with her husband, with the sky above and the mountains to the west, and she could picture it all. She pictured where their new home would eventually go after they lived in the smaller house for a few years. She pictured kids riding dirt bikes and having their own adventures in the fields. She pictured her own hair salon in the basement of that new home that would allow her to work and raise her kids herself.

The dream came true. The house is there, and so is the salon, and so are the kids. Yet the dreams changed, too. They often do.

Now when you drive up past that old house, to the new one, down the long driveway, a flurry of barks greets you as your tires crunch on the gravel. Bark, bark, bark. A lab puppy wags his tail at you from his kennel. Other dogs, which look as big as miniature ponies, seem OK with you but bark just to make sure. As you approach her house, some of the barks turn into howls that echo around all that space. Fisher says hello from her hair studio, where Lola, a mastiff, greets you and starts pawing you for a pat.

Fisher needs to finish a haircut, then she needs to check on the dogs, especially the Great Dane puppies who make messes every couple of hours. It's another busy day, even with the 10 valuable volunteers who come regularly to help. And though she loves her Big Bones Canine Rescue, she will admit that as big of a part of her life as it is now, it was something she didn't picture, or even imagine, when she drove on their new property with her husband a dozen years ago.

It's safe to say her husband, Scott, didn't picture it, either, and that's part of the problem. It takes time to run a rescue organization with more than 25 dogs, even with her impressive adoption rate. It also takes money, and that's the more immediate problem. She owes her veterinarians more than $5,000.

"The rescue organization is the only thing we fight about," Fisher said and, even then, Scott helps with pouring concrete and building kennels and remodeling.

She got into rescue the way most people do, meaning she sort of stumbled into it simply because she loved animals. When she got her own place, she got three. They were all rescues. When they moved into the new house they built down the driveway six years ago, two years after her son, Gannon, now 8, was born, she turned the old place into a boarding business.

That, and doing the hair of Floss Blackburn, the founder of the Denkai Animal Sanctuary, led to taking in a few rescues herself. She and Karen Durlin started Big Bones in January 2013, just three years after her daughter, Wynsloe, now 5, came.

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Weld big-breed rescue faces financial trouble

News The William Eckhardt Research Center and the remodeled 5757 South University Avenue will be completed by fall 2015 and January 2015, respectively.

Posted May 20, 2014 by Sara Cao

Photo: Jamie Manley

The William Eckhardt Research Center, which will house the astronomy and astrophysics department, the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, the Enrico Fermi Institute, and the new Institute for Molecular Engineering, will be open for use beginning fall 2015. The building will be located on South Ellis Avenue between East 56th Street and East 57th Street, across from the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library.

A crucial component to the design of the William Eckhardt Research Center has been to tailor the building to accommodate the diverse facilities of its future occupants, according to Amy Lee, communications strategy manager for Facilities Services.

Every time [the University] brings in a new researcher, Facilities Services gets involved because were building a new home for a new researcher that will need to be tailored to meet that persons needs, Lee said.

Because of this, construction began on all stories simultaneously, as opposed to building floor by floor as is typical, to allow researchers to visit the building and discuss their specific needs with architects.

Many of the floors will be shared between departments, and each floor features collaboration spaces in which researchers across departments can interact and work together on projects. Furthermore, the collaborative Pritzker Nanofabrication Facility, part of the Institute for Molecular Engineering, will be housed in the buildings first lower level. The facility will feature a large clean room, which will filter out the majority of airborne contaminants and provide a space in which members of various departments can collaborate on innovation in nanotechnology.

The buildings two basement levels were specially designed to mitigate vibrations that would interfere with the precise measurements at an atomic level taking place there.

The interior remodeling of 5757 South University Avenue will prepare it to house parts of the Department of economics and the Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics. The remodeling includes the renovation and expansion of the former Chicago Theological Seminary building and the development of 58th Street into a pedestrian walkway. Faculty and staff are expected to move into the building over the summer, and classes will begin fall 2014. The project also includes the construction of a modern economic research pavilion located behind the building, which is scheduled for completion January 2015.

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Math, econ buildings on new foundations

A view of the Farrar school in Farrar taken from the city cemetery across the street

School was completed in 1922 and housed first grade through 12th grades

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By DANN HAYES dhayes1@dmreg.com

The school house in Farrar is a three-story structure (with a gym in the basement) built across from a cemetery on six acres donated to the local school district in 1919.

Farrar, located about 15 or so miles northeast of Des Moines near highway 65, was completed in 1922 school started for first through 12th grades.

According to Will Conkel, owner of C & H Home Remodeling, and the volunteer building engineer

One of the classrooms inside the school with desks, chairs and equipment that were in the school when Nancy Oliver and her husband James bought the building.

for the Farrar school, the last high school class graduated in 1958 when they consolidated when the Bondurant-Farrar Community School District was formed.

Read more from the original source:
The history of haunting at Farrar

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SPICER, Minn. (WCCO) Lake residents in parts of east central Minnesota are hoping for drier weather soon as high water remains a big problem for many near Green Lake in Isanti County.

High water is typical of many lakes in Isanti, Chisago and Anoka Counties.

Heavy spring rains and snowmelt have swollen lake levels, putting a pinch in the start of the boating season.

For his 66 years on Green Lake, longtime resident Ken Murray has seen the water rise and fall before.

Ive seen the water in the middle of the picture windows on those cabins, over there on that side of the lake, Murray said.

While its far from a record, its been a spring to remember.

Its been awhile since sandbags have gone up instead of docks.

Winter ending with quite a bit of snow then wet. Then we had quite a bit of rain, seven inches. Just poor conditions, Murray said.

Originally posted here:
High Water Levels On Green Lake Threaten Isanti Co. Residents

Many homeowners spruce up their basements by installing game rooms, wine cellars, home bars, offices, workout rooms or media centers.

But retired architect Bob Schwartz and his wife, Carol, took basement renovation to a new level, excavating the bottom floor of their Bethesda home to create an extra foot of head room and dramatic floor-to-ceiling windows to illuminate what had been a dark, damp, dreary space.

While they kept the living room on the main level, they relocated the kitchen and dining room to the basement. To connect the public areas of the house, they had a section of the first floor removed, fencing off the opening with a decorative and functional wooden border creating a small-scale, residential atrium.

When they first toured it seven years ago, Carol, 71, dubbed the 2,700-square-foot rectangle house a wreck. It had a leaky basement, along with an ill-conceived and poorly executed addition off the back. Moreover, it was 1,000 square feet smaller than the house in the District where they were living.

We wanted a house that we could fix up, says Bob, 72. Another couple was looking at the same house in Bethesda on the same day, and we overheard them saying they wanted a fixer-upper but nothing this bad.

Yet Bob said he saw potential.

The house without the addition was about the right size, and the brick exterior shell was in good shape, he says. The couple also liked the neighborhood and the location, which backs up to the Capital Crescent Trail. We can walk to things in Bethesda, not use our cars and the view out the back looks to the southeast, so we could use some passive solar techniques, says Bob.

The design goals for the renovation included a main-level master suite complete with adequate, customized storage and a moon gate, inspired by trips to Asia, a circular opening that Bob adapted into a window seat and storage solution.

Guest quarters for the couples visiting children would be configured on the upper level. When guests arent present, the second floor doubles as Bobs home office. The previous addition to the house was scavenged for usable materials, then demolished.

To bring natural light into the basement, the Schwartzes instructed the contractors to excavate around the front and rear of the lower level, add larger windows and regrade the land so the exterior doors open to a landscaped back yard. Large windows on the back of the house provide a source of light and heat in the winter. The designer took advantage of using the earth as insulation by leaving the sides of the basement partially buried.

Read more:
With renovated basement, Bethesda couple digs in to open up a homes potential