The cause of a devastating fire that destroyed a business remained under investigation Wednesday morning in Armstrong County.

Blume's Solid Surface on Freeport Road in South Buffalo Township went up in flames around 6 p.m. Tuesday. The company specializes in kitchen countertops and has been in business for 25 years.

VIDEO: Watch Amber Nicotra's report

"I've never quite worked for a company like this," said employee Bob Waltz. "Coming here and seeing this, I liked working for this place. They were great owners, great people to work for. They went above and beyond everything."

When firefighters arrived, flames were shooting from all sides of the building. They encountered water issues when hydrants were frozen due to the extreme cold.

Several hours and more than 100 firefighters were needed to get the four-alarm blaze under control. Nobody was hurt in the fire.

The entire facility was destroyed, except for a few walls that are still standing.

South Buffalo Township Fire Chief Randy Brozenick says the fire appears to have started when an engine block heater caught fire in a truck that was parked behind the building in a loading area.

A state police fire marshal was investigating the fire, which spread rapidly in part because materials used to finish the countertops also burned.

Link:
Fire engulfs, destroys countertop business

Riding a wave of increasing demand for fire arms, high-end gun clubs are popping up across the country to cater to a new generation of shooters. They're called "guntry clubs" and they are full of luxury. (Gabe Silverman/The Washington Post)

Blake Vaught and Alex Williamson, buddies in their late 20s, were having a cognitive dissonance moment.

This place is like a country club, Vaught said, looking at a concierge desk, granite countertops and sleek black couches.

Or like a really nice steakhouse, Williamson said.

They were not at a country club. They were not at a steakhouse. They were at Elite Shooting Sports, a new gun range in Manassas, Va., that, like a wave of other new ranges around the country, is targeting a new breed of shooter younger, more affluent, style-focused, increasingly female and even environmentally conscious.

The gun industrys term for these shooting retreats: Guntry Clubs.

In Miamis arts district, a new high-end club attracts celebrities such as LeBron James who shoot fully automatic machine guns, then chill in VIP lounges. A Texas range features gun valets. A Colorado club offers custom-fitted earplugs, apps to reserve shooting lanes and chess sets. Membership fees at these new ranges are sometimes hundreds, even thousands of dollars. Cigar lounges yes. WiFi of course. There is lots of leather.

The high-end ranges come as the $15billion gun industrys sales have more than doubled since 2005. Fears of regulations with a Democrat in the Oval Office have juiced much of that growth, which is now leveling out. But experts also say an industry shift away from hunting culture has helped spawn a new generation of firearms enthusiasts buying up sleekly designed handguns and AR-15 rifles for tactical shooting practice.

The average age of new target shooters is 33, while 47percent live in urban or suburban areas, and 37percent are female, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the firearms industry. Shooters spend $10billion a year on target shooting, including the cost of firearms, ammunition and range fees.

Those demographics and economics are attracting investors without firearms industry backgrounds; they see ranges as a new place to employ their cash. Elite Shooting Sports, a nearly $14million project, has investors from the electronics industry. Real estate, finance, hotel and auto industry executives have backed other new ranges.

Go here to see the original:
Guntry clubs target a new breed of shooter: younger, more affluent and female

By Troy Jefferson | Published 12 hours ago

Students will now have another off-campus housing option to consider as they make arrangements for the next school year.

Kincaid Henry Building Group andThe Element 903 have partnered up to construct a new mixed-use student housing project at 903 E. Grand River Ave., directly across from the Bogue Street entrance to campus and McDonalds, near the MSU law and business schools.

Location is huge, property director Jon Foster said.

The living complex features two bedroom apartments, each with its own private walk in closet, European kitchen and full bath.

Foster said The Element 903 will also offer three different packages a silver, platinum and gold suite, with the silver suite costing $750 a bed.

Each room is over 1,000 square feet with granite countertops, nine foot ceiling and natural light in every room, which is pretty ... unique,Foster said.

The complex will also be pet friendly but residents will be limited to one small pet per unit and are not allowed to have large animals.

A microwave, dishwasher, stove and oven, washer and dryer, a common area, hard surface flooring and a 24-hour emergency service are other included amenities.

Optional amenities include furniture, trash removal, internet service and underground parking.

See original here:
The Element 903 apartments slated to open Fall 2015

Kitchen Design, Remodeling, Cabinet, Granite Countertops- Taneytown, Finksburg Hampstead
Kitchen Design, Remodeling, Cabinet, Granite Countertops- Taneytown, Finksburg Hampstead.

By: brian pollard

Read this article:
Kitchen Design, Remodeling, Cabinet, Granite Countertops- Taneytown, Finksburg & Hampstead - Video

CHARLOTTE, NC (Jonathan McFadden/The Charlotte Observer) -

The Carolina Panthers will renovate 158 luxury suites at Bank of America Stadium as part of the team's five-year plan to refurbish the entire building, team President Danny Morrison said Thursday.

Work will begin on the suites this month and continue for the rest of the offseason with an expected completion date of mid-June, Morrison said.

A major part of the construction will include adding a window-wall system to the suites that eliminates any barricades.

You take all your glass and the frame and everything, and it slides into the wall on the side, giving suite members a completely open suite, he said.

A planned middle aisle will make reaching seats more convenient for fans sitting on the left and right, he said. Currently, the aisles are positioned on the end of each row.

The overhaul will also see new televisions, carpet and countertops added to each suite, Morrison said. He hopes all the suites will be finished and open in time for an international soccer tournament planned for the stadium this summer.

Charlotte-based Wagner Murray Architects, which handled renovations to the stadium last year, will design the renovated suites. None of the suite renovations are coming at the expense of taxpayers, Morrison said.

This is a Panthers project, he said.

Final costs for the project had not been determined by Thursday, he said.

The rest is here:
Panthers plan renovation of 158 stadium suites

MIAMI -

A South Florida family was looking for a kitchen makeover for the holidays. After the contractor walked off the job, the family contacted Local 10 News consumer advocate Christina Vazquez.

Local 10 brought both parties back to the table to make sure the couple got the product they paid for and learned something about the contract in this case, which a legal expert said could be a red flag for customers.

For weeks, Josephine Francois hasn't been able to cook a meal in her northwest Miami-Dade home. She and her husband signed a contract with Alex Millwork Inc. in October. The contract was for $4,500.

She paid the bulk of it, and the cabinets were delivered and installed. But following a dispute with contractor Alejandro Morlans, the job was left undone, with no granite countertops and no sink.

"I wanted my parents to have the kitchen they paid for," said her son, Mark Francis. "My dad was in disagreement with him."

His father, Francis said, misreading the contract, didn't pay the second installment.

"I went there and they refused to pay me," said Morlans.

The contractor said he captured that moment on his cellphone. That's when Francis stepped in to smooth things over.

"For the sake of argument, to ease off the process, we paid him," said Francois.

Link:
Contractor finishes kitchen after allegedly walking off job

Beleza Soapstone by Great Mountain Soapstone Countertops
Visit http://www.soapstonecountertops.ca/ to learn more about using soapstone as a countertop or sink material in your home. The most notable producers of soapstone include Brazil, Finland,...

By: GMsoapstone

Continue reading here:
Beleza Soapstone by Great Mountain Soapstone Countertops - Video

My New Years Resolution: Keep Dem Kitchen Countertops DeCluttered
I wasn #39;t going to make a new year #39;s resolution, but decided I need to challenge myself to keep my kitchen countertops decluttered.

By: Lynn Daniel

Follow this link:
My New Years Resolution: Keep Dem Kitchen Countertops DeCluttered - Video

North Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) -- When it comes to home repairs, some jobs require a professional. But it's important to do some research, before handing your hard-earned money to just anyone.

"I trusted him. You know," said Jim Duckett.

He's disappointed with the progress of his latest home improvement project. He was expecting to see granite countertops and refurbished cabinets by now.

"I went on Craigslist, I found the guy, he came over, measured all my countertops," said Jim.

But two months after hiring a handyman, the kitchen makeover is clearly a work in progress. Jim said the guy he hired isn't a licensed contractor and admits, that was his first mistake. The second, was paying this handyman upfront.

"We went to the bank, I got him $1,200," said Jim.

Jim hasn't seen the guy since then. Along with his money, the handyman disappeared with all his kitchen cabinet doors, which he was supposed to refinish.

"But he's never come back, and he doesn't answer our text messages," said Jim.

So Jim reached out to Contact 13. With only a phone number for this handyman, we tried calling, but only got his voicemail. We left several messages explaining the situation, but we never heard back from anyone.

The sad part is, Jim could have avoided this entire headache. All he had to do was call the Nevada State Contractors Board. It's a free service that provides all the information you need, in order to hire a legitimate professional. If there's a conflict, they'll look into it.

More:
Handyman creates home remodel nightmare

Even as Europe stands knee-deep in economic uncertainty, EuroCucina 2012, which was held April 17-22 in conjunction with Salone Internazionale del Mobile at the Milan Fairgrounds in Rho-Milan, Italy, seemed fairly abuzz with activity. Aisles were sufficiently populated to require vigilance for circulation, and booths were well packed to make photography challenging.

Nevertheless, The Europeans have taken quite an economic hit in the last four years, said Giulio Petrilli, VP of project sales for Snaidero USA, and EuroCucina regulars, such as Petrilli, noticed a smaller footprint. According to show organizer Cosmit, while this years outing boasted 166 exhibitors (up from 151), total exhibition space was down from 32,652 to 26,894 sq. m, and attendance experienced a slight dip from 297,460 to 292,370 for the combined event, which also included a furniture accessories component and the International Bathroom Show.

KITCHEN ART

Regardless, the biennial kitchen extravaganza still had much to awe visitors, if not in the number of new innovations, then in sheer artistry. Whereas American shows tend to be more product-focused in their displays, here, booths were often fully accessorized and dramatically illuminated to stoke ones imagination, emotions and viscera. Some displays took a real-life approach, such as SieMatics three BeauxArts vignettes, which were created by Mick De Giuliowho also designed the cabinet lineto be easily transferable to an actual home, and Marchi, an Italian maker of traditional and transitional kitchens, segmented its booth into four elaborately furnished environments, each inspired by a bit of Americana and each in near move-in condition. Others incorporated everything from paper sculptures and plastic flamingoes to crockery, oversized light fixtures and groupings of common household and food items to convey an attitude, a mood or frequently an atmosphere of warmth and domesticity.

Marchis booth was beautifully outfitted with several fully furnished vignettes depicting Americana

As in previous years, many of the kitchens on display were prototypes, noted Petrilli and Amir Ilin, president of Kche+Cucina and North and Central American sales manager for Pedini USA. This makes sense, as several featured mammoth peninsulas or multiple islands bridged by countertops outfitted with stools. Some islands curved, sloped and/or terminated in a casual dining table, seating or a shelving unit angled to break up the long horizontal lines. All required lots of space, which runs contrary to the reality of European kitchens. In Europe, most people live in apartments, so the kitchens are much smaller than what you would find in a catalog or at a show, Ilin said. EuroCucina is like a fashion show, so youll see things that may never go into production, such as large islands that could easily dwarf the roomiest of kitchens stateside. However, Ilin added, prototype or not, the products set a trend or provide a direction.

WOODEN APPEAL

One highly visible trend was a raw, sawn-wood look that some may recall from last years inaugural LivingKitchen show in Cologne, Germany. In fact, Petrilli thinks it may have originated in Northern Europe, where pronounced graining and rustic wood effects have long been favored. Shown in medium- and dark-wood tones, as well as gray, and often paired with countertops formed of large wooden planks that appeared as if sliced from a tree, the back-to-nature look was pervasive in Milan, but Petrilli and Ilin are doubtful about its success. Both Snaidero and Pedini introduced it a few years ago and it never took off, Ilin said. Customers liked it, but they didnt buy it. Sometimes you need products that make people ooh and aah, but then they move on. Moreover, Petrilli said, The Italian market has gone strictly into the lacquers, which account for 90 percent of Snaideros business and tend to be less expensive than wood. Italians, in terms of a general market, are downscaling their kitchens because of the economy, and theyre basically choosing lacquer.

Minacciolo went back to nature with its Natural Skin kitchen in cooked pine.

Other popular finishes at the show included glass (especially in the frosted variety), metal and laminates, which hold appeal no doubt because of their affordability. Some companies experimented with textured concrete, ceramics or stone on cabinet doors, drawers and sides, and countertops, which were either very thin or very thick, were served up in a variety of materials. Yet despite the selection of finishes, colors in general veered toward neutral with white, gray and wood tones dominating the exhibits. Ilin noted, From a psychological standpoint, when the economy starts to slow down, things become softer, and colors are less bright and gutsy.

Go here to read the rest:
The Art of Economics