When she was house hunting in 2003, Diana Abouzeid thought all she and her late husband, George, needed in Palm Beach was a cozy getaway.

After all, the couple already had an 8,000-square-foot family home at the Palm Beach Polo Club in Wellington when they began looking for a place on the island, where their youngest son, Andrew, was enrolled in Palm Beach Day School, today Palm Beach Day Academy.

We wanted just a small house in Palm Beach to use during the week, she explained.

But because she also wanted a newer home with storage space, an open floor plan and a yard, she ended up buying the late Judith Grubmans house at 1072 N. Ocean Blvd. On the North End, it stands on an oversize parcel at the corner of Orange Grove Road, one lot west of the beach.

The Mediterranean-style house had been built in 2000 and offered a little more than 7,500 total square feet. So while it was larger than the Abouzeids had originally set out to find, it was otherwise exactly what she wanted.

Its a good location, quieter up here, and has access to the beach, she says. My husband said wed sell the Wellington house, but we never did.

Husband preferred beach

Between them, she and her husband had seven children and 18 grandchildren, so the Abouzeids opted to keep the Wellington house as a vacation home. But George always loved Palm Beach, anyway, said Diana, who splits her time between Palm Beach and Crans-sur-Sierre, Switzerland.

After her husbands death in 2013 and with Andrew grown, she is downsizing. That four-bedroom, four-bath house is listed at $6.5 million through agent Carole Koeppel of Sothebys International Realty. The house has a two-car garage and comes with deeded beach access.

The exterior features stucco walls, a tile roof, a front patio delineated by a stone balustrade and second-floor balconies. A frontispiece surrounds the main entry, flanked by doors and windows with fanlights above.

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North End house with beach access has European feel

The Hilton on Michigan Avenue marks a new location for the annual event, which is completely sold out for the first time since 2010. That fan response speaks to the seven impact additions general manager Rick Hahn has made to the team's strong base during this current offseason, as well as the 10-year anniversary festivities for the World Series champs, which will mark the beginning of SoxFest.

Sales already were very solid because of the 2005 connection. But thanks to a month of December in which there seemed to be a White Sox press release every other day, single-day SoxFest passes sold out in minutes when they were put on sale.

Geoff Blum, Joe Crede, Jose Contreras, Jon Garland, Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez, Bobby Jenks, Scott Podsednik, Aaron Rowand and Tadahito Iguchi are scheduled to appear in representation of the 2005 champs. Iguchi still plays professionally in Japan, so he's bringing his whole family to Chicago next week in case he can't make the in-season reunion weekend from July 17-19.

Active players such as Zach Duke, Dan Jennings, David Robertson, Jeff Samardzija, Adam Eaton, Tyler Flowers, Jose Abreu, Avisail Garcia, Conor Gillaspie, Jake Petricka, Jose Quintana and Alexei Ramirez are scheduled to be in attendance, as will prospects such as Tim Anderson, Courtney Hawkins, Micah Johnson and Carlos Rodon and White Sox greats Bo Jackson, Ron Kittle, Carlos May, Bill Melton, Minnie Minoso and Billy Pierce. Manager Robin Ventura, pitching coach Don Cooper, hitting coach Todd Steverson and assistant hitting coach Harold Baines represent the staff.

John Danks originally was listed but won't be able to get to Chicago, while Chris Sale had a personal conflict causing him to miss. Paul Konerko, the captain, is taking a well-earned SoxFest off while enjoying retirement, but he will be in Chicago to have his jersey No. 14 retried via a pregame tribute on May 23. Ozzie Guillen, the manager of the 2005 team, will be out of the country but was invited.

Abreu only will be at SoxFest on Friday, leaving Saturday for the New York BBWAA Awards dinner, where he will receive his American League Rookie of the Year honor.

A different sort of video experience will be present at SoxFest, as well as a brand new interactive area that includes social media. SoxFest will have a Hall of Fame experience, with memorabilia many fans never get to see, as well as the popular garage sale.

There will be plenty of chances for fans to get autographs and take pictures with their favorite players, as well as interact through their chosen question-and-answer sessions. Town hall meetings with Hahn and Ventura are scheduled for Friday and Saturday, and with Ventura and the coaches on Sunday.

"It's a great year in the sense of the combination of excitement around the 10th anniversary for the 2005 World Series champions and the excitement around the 2015 club," said White Sox senior vice president of communications Scott Reifert concerning SoxFest.

Scott Merkin is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Merk's Works, and follow him on Twitter @scottmerkin. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

See the article here:
White Sox gearing up for packed SoxFest

Previously, I talked about the homes where Walt lived in and around Hollywood. For this column, I am going to share the locations of the various Disney Studios where Walt worked.

Again, let me remind readers that these are privately owned places, not tourist locations, even though two of them gladly welcome customers.

Uncle Robert Disneys Garage, 4406 Kingswell Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90027

In September 1923, Walt was living with his Uncle Robert (the younger brother of Walts father, Elias) and was unable to find any type of work at the Hollywood live action motion picture studios.

Frustrated, Walt decided to try to get back into doing animation as he had in Kansas City.

Walt bought an old used camera that was not in the best of shape, for $200 from a local Los Angeles camera shop.

His older brother Roy had given Walt $10 to make up some business cards and letterhead paper proclaiming Walt Disney, Cartoonist and using Uncle Roberts address as the location for his art studio.

Walt asked Uncle Robert if he could set up his studio in the garage adjoining the house. Robert charged Walt an additional $1 a week to use the garage, in addition to the $5 a week rent.

Walt had to tear up dry-goods boxes and find spare lumber to build a very crude camera stand and animation set-up. The equipment would not accommodate anything more complicated than the simplest of animation.

Walt went to see Alexander Pantages, who owned a theater named after him, the Pantages, in downtown Los Angeles, as well as several other theaters. Walt pitched the idea of doing a series of short 30-second joke reels, like the Laugh-O-grams he had done for the Newman theaters in Kansas City. These reels would be weekly exclusives to run during the newsreel that would help publicize Pantages theaters.

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Walt Disney's Hollywood Studios

A New Farm house in Queensland by Vibe Design Group. Photo: William Long

From a design business based in Melbourne, and in the first commission to renovate one of those traditional weatherboard Queenslanders that make the period suburbs of Brisbane so attractive, building designer Michael O'Sullivan has completed a project that has made the old house look more like its old self than it has for decades.

His New Farm clients had sought Vibe Design's input and out-of-towner status with the specific brief that they wanted a different story to what Brisbane-based architects were generally doing to update Queenslanders.

"They wanted a different interpretation," he says.

An original Queenslander in New Farm. Photo: William Long

What they have got in an addition that includesa new kitchen, master bedroom, several studies, and a stunning timber internal staircase that has enabled the removal of the front-of-house stairs, is a clarified and freshened frontage, albeit with an interesting new bracketing roof structure rising on the eastern side.

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O'Sullivan says this open-ended, squared-roof profile has several effects.

One is a "cradling" of the existing house, and the other is to allow the elegant lines of the original roof "to continue".

A stylish take on a Queenslander design. Photo: William Long

Read the rest here:
A new take on an old Queenslander

If youre considering improvements to your home this winter, first consider which will pay the most back when you sell the home down the road. (See: Selling Your House? Avoid These Mistakes.) Remodeling Magazine recently released its 2015 Cost vs. Value Report, which outlines the 35 most popular home additions, remodels and replacements in 101 U.S. cities. Its recommendations will help you determine which projects will yield the greatest return on your home improvement investment: (For related reading, see: Five Ways To Make Your Home Remodel Pay Off.)

Image 1: Photo courtesy of Meyer Windows, Doors and More

1) Front door replacement

One of the most surprising replacements topping the list was steel entry doors. Homeowners who replaced their existing wood entry doors with steel saw a 101.8% return on investment during resale. Steel doors can be made hollow or solid, as well as soundproof and fireproof. They also come in a range of colors in addition to the default silver, which can be matched to any color scheme in a variety of paint grades.

2) Installing manufactured stone veneer

A new addition to the Cost vs. Value list this year is manufactured stone veneer, which yielded a 92.2% return on investment. Stone veneer mimics the look of natural stone or brick for a fraction of the cost. It is useful in many areas of the home and can be used to treat siding, fireplace mantels and bathtub enclosures, among other things. It is most often used in the fabrication of siding or fireplace overlays to create an old-fashioned masonry appearance.

Image 2: Photo courtesy of All Star Garage Door, Inc

3) Replacing the garage door

Originally posted here:
Best Types of Remodels For A Smart Sale Strategy

VOL. 8 | NO. 3 | Saturday, January 10, 2015

In Nashville real estate circles, it is difficult to say goodbye to 2014. We loved that 2014 and she was wonderful.

Missing her already, we hope she returns in 2015. But for the current trend to continue, Nashville is going to need some inventory.

In order to sustain such growth, about 40,000 homeowners will need to make the decision to sell their homes. In so doing, many will interview Realtors to help them.

All Realtors were created equal, but they didnt remain that way. Some are better.

During interviews, sellers will hear things that sound great and make them feel good, but actually can have a negative impact on the transaction.

Over the next few weeks, we will delve into several factors with todays lesson focusing on the showing.

All the marketing, advertising, connections and social media in the world cannot sell a house if the buyers and their agents cannot gain admission to the house. More important, there are no showings if they cannot gain admission when potential buyers want to see it.

During many listing appointments, sellers will tell the agents of improvements they have made, and most of these are relevant for several reasons.

The first reason is that when the buyers are performing their due diligence, they will often research to see what the seller paid for the property. If the current price is much greater than the owners acquisition expense, the buyer will suggest that the seller has some splaining to do as to how they could ask so much more than what they paid for the home when they bought it.

See the original post here:
OK, Its a Great House! Can We Please See It?

There were fewer building permits issued in 2014 compared to 2013, but they have a higher value.

Construction

From Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 31, 2014, the City of Moose Jaw issued 246 permits valued at $127.11 million. In that same time frame in 2013, there were 328 permits valued at $94.63 million.

As far as specifically new dwellings are concerned, the 2014 numbers were pretty much on par with the 2013 numbers. From Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 31, 2014, there were 76 new dwellings with a total value of $21.95 million. In that same period in 2013, there were 77 new dwellings valued at $22.10 million.

In December 2014, the city issued one permit valued at $336,000 for a new house. In December 2013, there was only one permit for a new dwelling and that was valued at $200,000.

There were six other residential permits issued in December. There was one for a new deck, valued at $5,000, and one for a new storage garage, including open air parking garages, valued at $12,000.

The city issued two permits for alterations, repairs and additions to nursing homes. The two permits have a value of $433,000 combined.

The total value of residential permits issued in December is $793,000.

However, the largest permit issued last month valued at $4 million was for alterations, repairs and additions to courtrooms.

The courtrooms permit was the only government and institutional permit issued last month. There was one commercial and industrial permit for new low-hazard storage rooms valued at $80,000.

See more here:
Building permits 2014: Less is more

Six building permits were issued by the City of Powell River during the month of November 2014. This figure equals that of November 2013, however, the combined value of the permits varies widely.

The six permits issued November 2014 had a combined value of $123,141, whereas the six permits issued in November 2013 had a combined value of $1,509,120. This high value was due to a commercial alteration or addition permitted for a value of over $1 million November 2013.

Year to date, 2014 continued to be slow for permits, with only 76 being issued compared to 106 during the same period 2013. Values also continued to lag behind, with 2014 being 71 per cent behind 2013 with $7,316,291 and $25,488,259 respectively to the end of November.

The city provided the following building permits during November 2014:

Demolition: one for a value of $6,200.

Residential - accessory: two permits including one detached garage and one detached carport, for a combined value of $64,000.

Sign permit: two, one facia and one free-standing, for a combined value of $12,941.

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Permit numbers remain low

If you were around last winter, you made it through bitter temperatures and biting wind chills just as bad as what weve got now. But just because youve survived previous winters doesnt mean you should just coast through this winter.

Take for example your car. Most of us feel comfortable in our vehicles. Let them warm up a few minutes and youre okay, even with the below-zero temperatures outside. A far cry from days gone by where non-fuel-injected engines were harder to start. While youll probably make it to your destination with no problems, would you be safe if you had engine trouble?

Even if you have a cell phone to call a tow truck or mechanic, you may run out of warmth before they arrive. What then? With wind chills approaching -35 today and tonight, weve got to take a realistic look at the danger if youre traveling and break down.

Best idea is to have a safety kit in your car. Honestly, I have a blanket back there (mainly for the dogs) but in a pinch I could use that to stay warmer. But having a kit is a necessity in my opinion, moreso if you travel long distances or country roads for your commute.

So heres a checklist for what youll need to stay safe.

1. Extra hats, scarves, mittens. If you need to shovel yourself out, you may get these things wet. Theyll do little to keep you warm if theyre wet. Have extras on hand.

2. A small first-aid kit. If youre clumsy like me, you may need this even after the weather warms up.

3. Hand-warmers. For just a couple bucks, these could be a lifesaver if youre stranded in your vehicle without heat.

4. Tea-light candles. Yes, these candles can give off enough heat to warm you up. Since they (and a small lighter) are so lightweight and small, they are a good thing to pack along.

5. Garden trowel. You probably have one of these hanging on a nail in the garage. Smaller is sometimes better out thereespecially when you need to get the snow out from under your tires.

Read more from the original source:
The Eric Factor: 9 things you need in your car

Weathersfield The assistance of 18 area fire departments, from both sides of the Connecticut River, at a fire Friday night on South Mountain Road and Route 131 helped firefighters contain the flames to the farmhouse where it started, Ascutneys fire chief said Saturday.

The home, estimated to be at least 200 years old, was a total loss, but additions to the house were saved. There were no injuries.

I needed a large amount of water because I didnt want to lose the garage, barn and the ell (that were) connected to the house, Ascutney Volunteer Fire Department Chief Darrin Spaulding said of the number of departments called to assist. One of those buildings was filled with hay. We used every tanker and pumped a pond dry.

The line of tanker trucks, red lights flashing, stretched westward along Route 131 on Friday night for as far as one could see. Spaulding said their water capacity ranged from 1,200 to 1,800 gallons on the smaller trucks to 3,000 to 4,000 gallons on the larger ones.

Some of the crews told me they dumped as many as six times, said Spaulding.

To fight the fire, Spaulding said, they used a ladder truck pumping 800 gallons a minute and two smaller hoses on the ground throwing 500 to 600 gallons a minute.

While an exact cause has not been determined, Spaulding said he was leaning toward the woodstove and chimney area. He said the fire burned through the left side of the house where the stove was located.

The fire was called under control at 11:50 p.m. At about 1 a.m., a portion of the second floor on the right side of the two-story home gave way and collapsed onto the floor below.

No one was home when the fire started. Spaulding estimated that it was going for a good hour before the first call came in at 9:30. It eventually went to five alarms and the last crews did not leave the scene until 11:30 Saturday morning, Spaulding said.

Departments responded from as far away as Westminster to the south, Ludlow to the west, Hartford to the north and Newport to the east, Spaulding said.

Read more here:
Weathersfield Home a Loss Following Five-Alarm Fire, but Attached Structures Preserved