The residents of 1105 Sycamore Dr. spent the last five years remodeling the two story 1970s brick home that sits on a hill overlooking much of the neighborhood.

Tuesday night the homeowner and his son watched it go up in flames.

"It was really a big fire," said Rolla Fire and Rescue Department Training Coordinator Ron Smith who did not know the homeowners name as the fire report is not yet complete. "It was three stories of fire, the basement, the first floor and the second floor."

No one was injured during the blaze, which although not suspicious, is still under investigation.

Smith expects the investigation to rule the fire as an accidental fire originating in the electrical system.

According to Smith, the homeowner and his son were outside doing lawn work when they entered the house to find smoke near an electric outlet and heard crackling and popping noises.

The man made a quick check of the garage and discovered more smoke before dashing out of the home with his son and going to a neighbor's home to call 911 at 7:51 p.m.

Within 3.5 minutes of making the call, fire crews arrived with two fire engines and nine firefighters.

The number of firefighters eventually grew to 23.

Between the time the first crews arrived and the call was placed the fire went from being a cloud of smoke to flames consuming the entire back side of the house.

Link:
Home heavily damaged in fire, not a total loss

Misfortune has had a way, over the years, of creeping into the lives of those who took up residence at the Bloomfield estate in Radnor.

Consider the fate of George H. McFadden Jr., who made his money in cotton and spent it remodeling the place in the 1920s as a lavish, 16th-century-style French chteau. He met his end years later by electrocution, while enjoying a sweat in the mansion's steam room.

Before him, New York socialite Albert Eugene Gallatin struggled at the turn of the 20th century to keep his country home on what was once an expansive 37 acres - even as entitled relatives drained his family's 200-year-old financial trust dry.

Now, more than two weeks after fire engulfed the $5.2 million, Trumbauer-designed mansion on South Ithan Street, a new generation of Main Line elites - including the wife of a national talk-radio personality, the son of a deceased top Democratic donor, and a Canadian business mogul - is left fighting over value in the ruins.

Fire investigators last week ruled out arson as a cause for the blaze, which originated April 4 in electrical wiring stapled to a basement wall.

Flames reached a dumbwaiter and rocketed three floors up the shaft - past floor-length windows with wrought-iron railings, past lavish furnishings decorating its 19 bedrooms, eventually creating an oven under the structure's slate roof.

While no one was injured, only a burned-out shell of the 22,000-square-foot mansion remains.

"I just don't see any way it can be restored without jeopardizing the original integrity of the building," said Steve Pendergast, a board member of the Radnor Historical Society. "If they rebuild it now, the cost per square foot would be astronomical."

Who will shoulder that burden or make the decision to abandon the house remains unclear - clouded by a legal fight over its most recent sale and a rent-to-own agreement that split Bloomfield's equity between landlord and tenants.

And in that Main Line tradition of keeping scandal to a whisper, none of the players is talking.

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Misfortune haunts Radnor's Bloomfield estate

In the words of the Rev. David Wildermuth, Sunday at Trinity Lutheran Church in Yankton was all about the kids.

Celebrating Palm Sunday took on new meaning for the youngest members of the church when Trinity officially broke ground on its new worship space located just west of the current facility at the corner of Broadway and Fourth Avenue.

Wildermuth said that the churchs needs had outgrown the current facility and the congregation members had been debating what the right choice was for quite a while.

This has been a long process, a lot of studies and deciding what the needs were and what we wanted to accomplish with the new building and space, he said. One of the considerations was even building at a new location, but the majority of our parishioners felt that we wanted a presence at our current location. I think this new facility is going to be a great addition to the ministry of Yankton. I look forward to this first phase of the project getting done.

That first phase includes a new worship space, with a large annex for gatherings, as well as a basement and parking lot.

We will move our pipe organ to the new worship space, which is a huge undertaking in and of itself, Wildermuth said. Once we get this first part finished, our hope is to go into the next phase, which will be remodeling our current facility.

All together, the project will be about $4 million once it is finished in all its stages, Wildermuth said. My hope is that a year from now at Easter, we can worship in our new space. Following that, step by step, we will finish the rest. I know that will mean at least one more capital campaign and continuing what we are doing. There is a lot of hard work left.

Joining the congregation Sunday was South Dakota ELCA Bishop David Zellmer, who said he felt it was important to be a part of the celebration.

This is one of our outstanding churches in the South Dakota Synod and we have always had a great relationship with them, he said. I have many friends that are members down here, so it is personal for me as well. It is because of the gifts from other places as well as here that this is going to be able to take place. We are excited about what is going on.

Zellmer said he believes the new facility is needed and will be very useful both for fellowship and for worship.

See original here:
Trinity Lutheran Looks To The Future

Question: I am a victim of my own creativity.

Several years ago I put a faux marble finish on my basement floor and covered it with a polyurethane. I would like to repaint it. I tried just floor paint. The paint never dried. I mopped it off several days later.

The paint adviser at Lowe's recommended paint remover or sanding. Do you think epoxy paint would cover it?

All other options seem like a lot of work.

Answer: On the one hand, I like to hear that a product - in this case, the polyurethane - is doing its job by protecting your faux floor.

On the other hand, epoxy paint application in every situation I've examined or heard about requires surface preparation that would involve exactly what the fellow at Lowe's recommended.

Any kind of paint requires a surface to adhere to, and one coated with polyurethane is no exception.

Face down: A few weeks back, during our discussion of detergent, I asked for recommendations on which way utensils should face in the dishwasher.

I reported one vote for up and down to prevent "nesting," but apparently the polls weren't closed in Hawaii.

I received two votes recommending down: One via snail mail from Patricia who writes "always place any pointed utensil down. Children might trip and fall into the open dishwasher. Someone might cut their hand or fingers."

Continue reading here:
Repainting faux marble finish on a basement floor

Residents were given the opportunity Sunday afternoon to see the progress that has been made on the remodeling taking place at the city of Coon Rapids Home for Generations project at 11635 Xavis St. N.W.

Kristin DeGrande (right), city of Coon Rapids neighborhood coordinator, talks with John and Anne Davis about the city's Home for Generations project at 11635 Xavis St. N.W. during the mid-construction open house Sunday.

Contractor Darrell Olson of Legacy Homes Inc., who was hired by the Coon Rapids Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) for the remodeling project, started work in February, following a pre-construction open house.

The mid-construction open house at the home Sunday was to show residents the work that has been done to date.

There have been a lot of changes, said Kristin DeGrande, city of Coon Rapids neighborhood coordinator.

Interior demolition has been completed; the new floor plans for the main level and the basement have been framed; new plumbing, heating and electrical have been roughed in; and the front door and window have been relocated, according to DeGrande.

We are extremely pleased with the progress that has been made and Legacy Homes has been a pleasure to work with, DeGrande said.

The project has been going very smoothly and no problems have been uncovered, she said.

Olson is always open to new ideas and small changes have been made to enhance the project while staying within the $40,000 remodeling budget, DeGrande said.

For example, plans were originally to construct a concrete pathway from the relocated front door, according to DeGrande.

Read more from the original source:
Mid-construction open house held for Coon Rapids’ Xavis project

May 29, 1935March 15, 2012

James M. May, the founder of Mayco Printing, died Thursday in his Hamburg home. He was 76.

Born in Buffalo, Mr. May attended Burgard Vocational High School and served in the Navy from 1952 to 1956, where he learned to print. He worked in various printing jobs before deciding to head off on his own, starting a small business in the basement of his home.

In 1973, he borrowed $2,000 and opened Mayco Printing on Abbott Road in Buffalo. The business grew, and he eventually moved to Seneca Street, where his son, James R., joined him. Mr. May partially retired in 2002, and his son took over the business.

Mr. May had a number of hobbies, including flowers and a love of animals. At one point, his print shop on Abbott Road looked more like a floral shop. But visitors would have been more surprised to find an 18- foot python named Hugger in the back room. Mr. May had a number of animals through the years, including horses, raccoons, birds and his beloved pug, Buddy, who remained by his side throughout the last years of his life.

His other hobbies included aquariums, terrariums, woodworking and magic. He freelanced as a magician for childrens parties and restaurants. He built bird houses in his basement. His final woodworking project was remodeling a doll house he built in 1990 for his first granddaughter, working countless hours until his death. He also enjoyed going to area casinos.

In addition to his son, he is survived by his wife, Carmela; three daughters, Rosemarie Merk, Annmarie Korbar and Jacqueline Medley; and another son, Ralph.

A memorial service will be from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday in Dannys Restaurant, 4300 Abbott Road, Hamburg.

Read more:
James M. May, founder of Mayco Printing, veteran

The world's top value investors love it when their best stocks ideas are selling at bargain-basement prices. For those rarified investors, companies offering fire-sale prices become no-brainer buys.

So regular investors like you and me would do well to emulate the masters and look at companies offering a "buy one-get one" sale on their stocks. We'll pair the companies selling at least 50% below their 52-week highs with the insights of the top investors in the Motley Fool CAPS community. When top earthbound investors also like a company's prospects, it may be wise for us to take notice, too.

Stock

CAPS Rating (out of 5)

% Off 12-Month High

Source: Motley Fool CAPS.

Naturally, you'll want to do more due diligence before buying. Low-priced appliances in thedent-and-ding sectionof your home-remodeling superstore might be there for more reasons than just a few scratches on the surface: Real trouble might be lurking below. Same thing here, so make sure there's nothing seriously wrong with the company before you plug it into your portfolio.

Making a connection It might not be the two-bagger-plus some investors are hoping for, but even analysts at BMO Capital see the momentum turning in favor of communications equipment provider Alcatel-Lucent. Continuing its trend of taking share from Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) and Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR) , particularly in the router market, and with LTE becoming such an important component of future telecom expansion, the equipment maker should be able to capitalize on its leading position by deploying more of its wireless and optical technology. BMO sees shares hitting $4 a stub, which would represent a 65% gain from current levels.

Previously I noted Alcatel was driving a huge wedge into the market with its small-cell wireless technology that will help telecoms meet the burgeoning demands being placed on their networks. Although other analysts remain concerned about its sale of the Genesys, its call center and videoconferencing software unit, the separation allows Alcatel to focus its energies on its core networking infrastructure and beating Cisco and Juniper in their own backyards. Let the short-sellers target it; they'll be squeezed when the expected collapse doesn't materialize.

CAPS member kferg2 believes the liquidity concerns are overblown and is confident it will be able to successfully generate the cash flows necessary to sustain itself.

Continued here:
There's a BOGO Sale on These Top Stocks

I received a letter from readers in Hatfield about the failure of a paint they had used on the concrete floor of their basement.

Enclosed was a sample of what was peeling from the floor.

Rather than quote from the letter word for word, I'll give you the gist of what happened:

The couple had bought a washer and dryer that had to go into the basement. A year ago, they went to Lowe's looking for concrete floor paint to pretty the place up.

They told the salesperson what they were doing, and he "highly recommended" Valspar Porch and Floor Paint. They painted the floor and it "looked nice."

The tub into which the washer drains became blocked, and it overflowed all over the floor. They quickly mopped up the water, which was on the floor no more than a few hours.

"The paint had bubbles all over the floor, which started peeling off" everywhere, the couple wrote.

They said they followed the directions. It was not inexpensive paint, was called "high performance" on the label, and now these senior citizens have to clean up all the loose paint before they can paint again.

They won't, however, until I can reassure them that it won't happen again.

Let me talk about my experience. My first rule is no matter what product I use, I assume there's always a chance it will not fully live up to the promise on the container.

Go here to see the original:
Your Place: Paint on basement floor needs repeat treatment

LAKE OSWEGO, OR (KPTV) -

Lake Oswego firefighters were called to a restaurant that hasn't even opened yet after a small fire broke out in the basement.

It happened Wednesday at the Stickmen Brewery and Skewery on N. State Street, which is in the same building as the Lake Twin Theater.

A worker at the theater said he noticed a smoky haze at around 7:40 p.m. and eventually started searching for the source.

That's when the man told investigators that he looked through the brew pub's window and saw smoke.

About a dozen movie-goers were evacuated from the theater as a precaution when firefighters arrived at the scene.

Crews said they had a tough time getting close to the fire at first because of all the remodeling going on in the building.

Investigators believe sparks and metal slag ended up on the wooden floor earlier in the day when construction workers were still onsite, leading to the fire.

The damage is estimated at just $500 since the area is in the midst of being demolished.

Copyright 2012 KPTV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.

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Crews put out fire at Lake Oswego brew pub

DAVID CITY When a basement needed remodeling, some wallboard hung or a new video game conquered, Anthony Palensky was there to help.

If anybody needed anything didnt matter who it was he helped out, William Palensky of Lincoln said of his youngest brother.

Anthony died Thursday while trying to rescue their grandfather, Leonard T. Palensky Sr., from a burning house, William said.

The David City house Anthony shared with his 87-year-old grandfather caught fire just after 2 a.m. Thursday, and the 25-year-old couldnt abandon the older man, family members said.

Anthony was being Anthony, being a hero, said Rachel Johnson of David City, another of Anthonys eight siblings. He wasnt going to leave his grandpa in there.

Firefighters pulled the men from the burning house and took them to the Butler County Health Care Center, where they were pronounced dead of asphyxiation from smoke inhalation, Butler County Attorney Julie L. Reiter said.

Neighbors said someone passing by on the way to Lenten services at St. Marys Catholic Church reported the fire.

Investigators with the state Fire Marshals Office determined the fire started near a brick chimney. The cause remains under investigation.

The family is no stranger to tragedy.

Thursdays deaths came almost five years after a single-vehicle crash near Dwight killed Anthonys 18-year-old sister, Renee Palensky of Linwood.

See the original post:
Man, 25, dies trying to save grandfather