Half a century ago, the shuttered Tucson Citizen newspaper featured a photo of Spencer and Steven Smith, two of the newest kids on the block, fresh from Nebraska.

The boys were pulling weeds, cleaning yards and delivering newspapers as they found ways to earn a few bucks in their new desert home.

Over the next several decades, the brothers moved on to even bigger projects building and remodeling homes. They built homes for themselves and a home for their parents, and teamed up for other construction projects in Tucson.

The Smith brothers are at it again, putting finishing touches on a new home they are building for Spencer and his wife, Katheryn Smith. It is likely the last home the brothers, now in their 60s, will build together.

Its probably the time we see each other the most, Steve said of building homes together.

Its just fun, Spencer said. It gives you a lot of satisfaction. Every stage of it is just fun.

There are plenty of grins recalling a recent day that Steve, 65, operated a backhoe and Spencer, 67, was on shovel-and-hose duty, keeping the dust down.

Its almost like being a kid again an adult sand box, Spencer said.

After having worked on other projects together, the brothers in 1991 built Spencer and Kathys first home, before children entered the picture.

The kids Graham, 21, and Hannah, 20 are now in college, and it was time to downsize. Working with Long Realtys Sue Hill, who sold them the lot for the home they built in 1991, the Smiths in the fall of 2013 located a pristine 1.3 acre lot in the Catalina Foothills.

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Half century of brotherly tradition culminates in dream home

72 Challenger Home restoration
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A swirl of flooring hues at Orlando Regional Medical center cues patients and visitors about directions a trick that can be used in your house. (0Provided by Orlando Health)

As homes go, the place was large: 245 bedrooms and 345,000 square feet. And though it looked and felt like a home in many ways, the new 10-story building I toured last week was really a hospital in disguise a feat of decorating to be sure.

The architects' objective was "to create a home for 245 patients," said the press materials handed to those of us previewing America's newest hospital tower, a $300 million structure at Orlando Regional Medical Center, which will admit its first "overnight guest" Jan. 26.

If imitation is the best form of flattery, then we who care about making homes beautiful, comfortable and nurturing just got a huge compliment.

Everything the designers did to make the large institutional space feel homey, they learned from home designers. They get this universal truth: There's no place like home, especially when you're sick.

"Our biggest design challenge was to make the hospital feel hospitable," said Karen Guindi, the interior designer at the helm of the project, who designed high-end hotels before she began designing hospitals.

So it was with gallows curiosity that I went to see what sleight-of-hand design was used to take the edge off the facts that your bed is a gurney with side rails, that people talk in the hall at all hours and leave the lights on, that everyone who visits you needs to wash their hands, that just when you fall asleep somebody dressed in monochromatic pastels sticks you with needles and messes with your hardware, that you're likely there because you're deathly ill and that down the hall people are routinely being cut open.

It would take more than pretty art, high-definition televisions and a comfy sofa to gloss over that, I thought.

"Our mantra was this is not an institution," said Guindi, who chatted with me in the art-filled lobby after my tour. "It's a healing environment, designed with home, hospitality and nature in mind."

But Guindi also had to bear in mind that the place needed to stand up to heavy traffic and human abuse. You know, all the assaults our homes endure spilled coffee, dirty shoes on nice furniture, face-down pizza only more so.

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Six home design tricks to steal from an unlikely place: Hospitals

Stansbury Park, Utah (PRWEB) January 24, 2015

Conveniently nestled within the heart of the ever-growing community of Stansbury Park, Utah, and just west of the Benson Grist Mill, stands a quaint 1850s pioneer home and granary that havent received much attention until recently. The Coulter Family along with a local contractor performed the hefty, yet rewarding undertaking of remodeling this two-story rock home. The finished project, after eight months of intense labor, is a historic event venue with a remarkably original vintage feel. It has been affectionately re-named the Coulter House. It not only represents the heritage of the Coulter Family itself, but ties generations and families together while celebrating the genealogy of the early settlers of the Tooele Valley. Through the Coulter Familys efforts, this newly restored event venue will continue to stand as a landmark for not only the Tooele Valley, but also for the Stansbury Park community.

The Coulter House is now open and available for all types of events including wedding receptions, family gatherings, community and religious events, consignment for antiques, holiday boutiques, small business incubator, art gallery, business meetings, funerals, art shows, birthday parties, quinceaeras, and various other types of events. A public open house will be held on Friday January 30th from 5 to 8 P.M with refreshments being served. On Saturday, January 31st from 10 A.M. until 2 P.M., a fundraiser will be held for the Stansbury High School FFA Chapter. They will be serving lunch and a $1.00 donation is requested to help support the local FFA Chapter. Additional information can be found by visiting The Coulter House Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/thecoulterhousellc, by visiting the Coulter House website at http://www.coulterhousellc.com, or by calling (435) 840-5587.

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Local Historic 1850s Pioneer Home Converted into Vintage Event Venue

By Nadine MortonJan. 23, 2015, 6 p.m.

COMING up to its 100th birthday, this home is a treat for the sights and senses, and dare to step through the front door and you will find it has been lovingly restored.

COMING up to its 100th birthday, this home is a treat for the sights and senses, and dare to step through the front door and you will find it has been lovingly restored.

Located in the Bathurst CBD at 202 Keppel Street, this home was built in the 1920s and over the years has played host to a number of families.

Current owners Arthur and Kathy ONeil have lived in the property since 2005, and say it didnt always look this picture perfect.

Time had worn away some of this splendour of the house, and when the ONeils moved in, they set about undertaking an extensive renovation.

We had scaffolding in the lounge room for well over two years, Mr ONeil said.

We tried to renovate it to look a little bit more modern.

Walk past the striking, low-maintenance garden, step through the front door and you will enter the propertys first living area.

Flooded with natural light, and shielded from traffic noise thanks to double-glazed windows, the room is Mrs ONeil favourite light and airy with a modern twist.

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Feels like home ... 202 Keppel Street

Workers busily moved to and fro last week, climbing up and down scaffolding, hauling brick to be laid along the south face of a quaint, red-brick shed behind Marysvilles Koester House Museum.

Formerly used to store firewood and later coal by the Koester family in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the shed is undergoing a facelift by McKinley Masonry, Seneca.

Restoration at the museum started last year. It is paid through a Heritage Trust Fund grant from the Kansas Historical Society and matching private and city funds.

Brickmason Ben McKinley and his workers have removed the south face of the shed and salvaged as many of the 136-year-old bricks as possible. McKinley said they clean and line them up on pallets, ready for another century of wall support.

They came last week. On a cool, sunny morning, a large heater blasted warm air under a plastic sheath on the buildings south side. It warmed the space to 40 degrees, allowing the masonry to restart and the bustling began.

Working with McKinley are his brother, Mike McKinley, Seneca and Jeff James, Humboldt, Neb.

While removing the south face, they also dug up existing footing limestones under the shed and repoured a new foundation.

They then reused the limestone to complete the base and began to lay brick.

Were trying now to take advantage of the weather, McKinley said.

This week they are working on the buildings arched entryway and arched second-story opening, grinding out and replacing old mortar with new. They tuckpoint the brick, putting a bit of mortar on a long skinny trowel and filling in the space between bricks where mortar was removed with a grinder.

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Work progresses on Koester House brick shed

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