31-03-2012 10:33 On Saturday August 27, 2011 Hurricane Irene blew an oak tree estimated at 75 years old onto the kitchen wing of our home. It could have been much worse. No one was injured and we did not have to move out of our home. A significant portion of our kitchen was destroyed, but we did not lose many personal possessions. This video contains some of the highlights from the five month saga of restoration with special focus on the most complicated room in any house, the kitchen.

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Hurricane Irene - Restoration Adventure - Video

01-04-2012 12:11 Ontario Home Renovators, finish basement renovations restoration. London, Ontario 519-668-7366

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Ontario Home Renovators - Install Drywall part1 - Video

"The Angkor Wat is a gem of human civilization and a valuable treasure of the Cambodian people," visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao Sunday told Chinese technicians working on a restoration project in the Angkor Archaeological Park in Cambodia.

Inspecting the China-assisted restoration project on the ruined Takeo temple in the famous Angkor complex in northwest Cambodia, Hu said the governments of both countries "have great faith in you when you were given the formidable job of restoring the Takeo temple."

"I hope you will overcome all the difficulties and accomplish the task with solid work," the president said.

The restoration project of the Takeo temple, which was built by King Jayavarman V and Suryavarman I from the late 10th century to the early 11th century, is the second phase of the Chinese government assistance in restoring Angkor activities.

The project kicked off in November 2010 and is expected to be completed in 2018.

At the working site, Hu talked with Chinese and Cambodian archaeologists, applauding their progress in restoring and conserving the Takeo temple, one of the most popular temples in the Angkor area, in harsh environments.

"I hope you will help revive the ancient civilization created by the Cambodian people by making persistent efforts and strengthening communication and coordination with your Cambodian colleagues," Hu said.

The Chinese president also asked the Chinese technicians about the difficulties in the restoration work.

"The biggest challenge here is the lack of professionals," one Chinese technician told Hu, explaining that the job requires skilled workers who are familia with Cambodia's history, art and architecture, in addition to the proficiency in foreign languages.

"The restoration work is just a project used to train such professionals and allow people to display their talent," Hu said.

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Chinese president inspects restoration work for Takeo in Angkor complex

U.S. Air Force photos

The Memphis Belle sits in the restoration hangar at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. Crews from the museum have been restoring the World War II B-17 Flying Fortress, aiming to have the plane back on display by 2014.

U.S. Air Force photo

The Memphis Belle first took flight in the summer of 1942. After the war, it wound up in an Oklahoma junkyard before being rescued and brought to Memphis.

For nearly seven years, the Memphis Belle has been hidden in Ohio, sitting in pieces after being disassembled and carted from her longtime home on Mud Island.

But the Belle hasn't been forgotten, left to rot away in some dank hangar on the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.

Instead, crews from the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force have been lovingly restoring the World War II B-17 Flying Fortress with an eye to having her back on display by 2014.

"We're going to do whatever is required for the airplane," said Greg Hassler, restoration supervisor for the museum, which is in Dayton.

Built at a Boeing factory in Seattle at a cost of about $314,000, the Belle first took to the skies in the summer of 1942.

She was given her name by pilot Robert Morgan, who at that time was the boyfriend of Memphian Margaret Polk.

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Memphis Belle taking shape again in restoration

All of the telltale features of a classic midcentury house were there: the clean, geometric lines; extensive use of clerestory windows and walls of glass; and tongue-and-groove wood ceilings, the planking of which extends seamlessly from interior to exterior.

Somewhat shrouded by years of neglect, those features and many more were nonetheless apparent to the pros at Bee Renovated, the firm that rehabbed the residence at 315 Vassar Ave. in Kensington. On the market for $1.185 million, the five-bedroom home just received a complete facelift from the company, which is known for its detailed renovations of vintage properties.

On the market for the first time, the home was built in 1953 for University of California Berkeley Professor Bernard Etcheverry. A civil engineer, Etcheverry was involved with the design of the Greek Theatre, and those familiar with the Berkeley campus will recognize his namesake building, Etcheverry Hall.

The Kensington property has remained in the hands of one Etcheverry family member or another since its completion. And why not? The large, comfortable residence is located on an expansive double lot, situated to allow Golden Gate and bay views through its banks of windows. Those windows, combined with multiple sliding glass doors, help create the indoor-outdoor aesthetic so key to midcentury home design.

In fact, along with the home's history, it was such details that initially attracted Bee Renovated to the project, the company's most recent. Bee Renovated is the innovation of interior designer Sean Gaston Steer and contractor Jim Jewell, who are partners in both business and life.

"The thing that really attracted us was the fact that the house had been built for Bernard Etcheverry, him being an engineer and his connection to Cal Berkeley," Gaston Steer said. "We knew it had to be an architecturally great home.

"Over the years it had gone into disrepair and was neglected. All of the original features were there, though, which is what we love to find. We were able to honor the original architecture and update it for modern lifestyles of today."

For example, Gaston Steer explained, kitchens back then were really functional as opposed to being part of the entertainment aspect of the house. In this case, the kitchen was closed off and located at the back of the home, completely isolated.

"That poor kitchen was hidden back there all by itself, and now it's just open and grand and bright," Gaston Steer said. "It's now part of the party."

Starting with great architecture makes their job easier, according to Gaston Steer. From there, a project's focus is preservation, restoration and updating while maintaining the historical integrity of the original design. To that end, Gaston Steer spent a lot of time finding vintage fixtures and trim pieces to stay true to the period.

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Classic midcentury modern home receives an extensive makeover

ST. LOUIS It was the oldest dwelling in the city. Local tradition claimed the hot dog was invented within its limestone walls.

None of that was enough to save the Jean Baptiste Roy home, a crumbling and vacant two-story structure at 615-17 South Second Street that dated to 1829. Despite earnest efforts to preserve it, demolition began March 31, 1947. There was talk of reassembling it for a museum, but its building stones were scattered.

The building, two blocks south of the Gateway Arch grounds, probably would not have survived a lot longer anyway. The Poplar Street Bridge, running directly over the site, opened in 1967.

Roy, a fur trapper and explorer, had the home built on land he bought from Pierre Chouteau Jr. Whether he and his family lived there isn't clear. Nor is when he died, probably in 1847.

In 1874, a butcher named John Boepple bought the house from Roy's descendants and turned it into his meat shop. Boepple and his business partner, William Tamme, made sausage.

That's how St. Louis' claim to the hot dog evolved. The story has it that Anton L. Feuchtwanger, who peddled Boepple-Tamme sausages on city streets, suggested putting them between buttered buns.

Who knows? Other claimants hailed from Coney Island, N.Y., and Frankfurt, Germany. But the St. Louis version was catchy enough to spice up the effort to save the Roy house.

By 1946, the building was crumbling and empty. A homeless man who had spent a few nights there told a reporter, "Even the rats don't come 'round much."

Charles van Ravenswaay, director of the Missouri Historical Society, campaigned to save the building. The St. Louis Star-Times newspaper managed to delay demolition. A Harvard University professor, Kenneth J. Conant, who also was president of the American Society of Archaeological Historians, toured the home in January 1947 and declared it worthy.

"It is part of the birthright of the city," Conant said. "You will be surprised how elegant a restoration would be made of this building."

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A Look Back • 1829 building, said to be home of the hot dog, demolished in 1947

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The Fall house at 801 Rio Grande St. came close to becoming a parking lot, according to its owner.

A.B. Fall's other El Paso home is getting new life because of the restoration efforts of a local attorney.

Work at the 120-year-old home at 801 Rio Grande St. is under way after the home came perilously close in the past decade to being bulldozed for a parking lot, said its owner, Terry W. Hammond.

"This is one of the only houses of its kind in El Paso," Hammond said Friday as he led a tour of the 2,200-square-foot house, which was built in the Victorian style downstairs and in Dutch Colonial upstairs.

As Hammond pointed out, many other historic buildings along that stretch just south of El Paso High School have disappeared and boxy, ugly structures have taken their place.

Making way for parking appears to have been the plan

It would have been a shame, Hammond said.

"This was the silk-stocking district of El Paso," Hammond said. "This was the heart of the city, and we want to keep it that way."

He would not say how much the restoration will cost.

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A.B. Fall's other El Paso home gets new life

It is not clear why Mrs De Giovanni wants to see copies of the details of the property, but officials insist she has no legal right to do so.

Piero Nuccio, the lawyer acting for the couple, branded the case a shame and suggested it could sour the actress friendly relationship with her neighbour, whom she used to take fresh flowers.

The dispute centres on a 500-year-old building, once the home of a prince, which is surrounded by a fairytale stone wall and turrets.

Nestled in Puglia, Italy, less than a mile away from the Mediterranean, it is said to have native olive trees and quaint rose bushes in the sunkissed garden and a mature vineyard in the grounds.

The property came to the publics attention three years ago, when photographs of Dame Helen in a striking red bikini on the nearby beach emerged.

Originally described as tumbledown and uninhabitable, the home has undergone a transformation in the hands of the couple, who invested more than a quarter of a million pounds restoring it to its former glory.

Now sporting solar panels for heating and hot water, the property is said to have eco-friendly credentials as well as maintaining its traditional features, including enormous fire places and a dungeon.

One such improvement has been the complete restoration of a wall adjacent to Mrs De Giovannis property, funded by Dame Helen and her husband at a cost of 30,000.

Though Mrs De Giovanni has already seen plans for the shared wall, she has now accused the local council of failing to hand over official documents of the rest of the home.

A spokesman for the local council said: We are aware of the complaint but we are adamant that we have done nothing wrong and it is now up to the prosecutor to decide what happens next.

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Helen Mirren's holiday home in Italian council planning row

Three opulent main floor rooms at the historic Reddick Mansion in Ottawa look better today than in many decades. And Saturday evening members of the public are welcome to see for themselves.

The Italianate mansion commissioned in 1855 by Ottawa businessman and politician William Reddick has been open on reduced hours since January while careful, painstaking restoration of the rooms was carried out.

A highlight to the project is the addition of "new" period furniture with an Ottawa connection.

The three linked rooms on the east side of the building overlooking Columbus Street now glow after the application of new paint and a thorough cleaning of all the window treatments, furniture and other appointments.

"So, it's kind of the new 'old look,' " said Diane Sanders, president of the Reddick Mansion Association Board of Directors.

There also are parlors across the central hallway on the west side of the building that have been redecorated and are available for special event rentals.

"The other side is equally as historic," said Sanders. "But these three rooms on the east side are representative of 1855 in every respect."

A considerable amount of plaster work was done on the east side front parlor.

"That was just a mess," she said, gesturing to a now-smooth wall. "The whole wall had to be scraped and replastered. When they got all the plaster off they showed be where the original chalk lines had been snapped."

The accumulated paint in the room was very thick.

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Reddick Mansion Restoration: Renovations, refreshments Saturday evening

The Dover Board of Selectmen presented an update on the estimated $94,000 project to restore the Rev. Benjamin Caryl House. The house, built in 1777, was home to Caryl and his family.

The restoration work would include repairs to the exterior woodwork, plaster finish and wood sash and frames, as well as interior and exterior paint jobs.

According to Chairwoman Carol Lisbon, the process to fix the property, which Dover Town Historian Dick Vara called one of the finest examples of early rural Georgian architecture in the area, began with a Town Meeting vote in 2009 to use $10,000 to pursue a study on the Caryl House.

At last years Town Meeting, $150,000 was approved to start construction on the project and to preserve this wonderful asset to Dover, said Lisbon.

There are currently six competing bids to do the project, and once a contractor is selected, work will begin.

She added, The next step will be for Richard Smith, who is our architect, to review all these bidders.

Board member James P. Dawley Jr. made a motion to accept the lowest responsive and responsible bidder for the contract, which was seconded by Joseph Melican.

Lisbon noted that less work needed to be done than previously thought and the cost came in lower than expected. She thanked Assistant Town Administrator Greer Pugatch for her incredible efforts in working on the project.

The board also reviewed the ballot questions for the Dover Town Warrant. The first nine, Lisbon said, are standard, while articles 10 through 23 are new items.

Article 4 concerns the operating budget items. These items include the appropriation of $10,436 from debt services for septic repairs.

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Caryl House restoration project draws 6 bids