It took Sicily Kolbeck, of Georgia, a year and a half of labor and $10,000 to build the 128-square-foot bungalow with a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom Sicily lost her father, Dane Kolbeck, in a car accident a month after construction began She plans to take her tiny dwelling to Baltimore when the family move there in the summer

By Snejana Farberov

Published: 13:42 EST, 27 May 2014 | Updated: 05:36 EST, 28 May 2014

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Building a house from scratch, even a tiny one, is not for the faint of heart, but 14-year-old Sicily Kolbeck has proven she has what it takes to see her passion project through against overwhelming odds.

Kolbeck, from Marietta, Georgia, started work on her diminutive dwelling, lovingly dubbed La Petite Maison, when she was 12.

At the time, the girl was searching for an outside-the-box idea for a school project when she stumbled upon a sizable online community of DIY builders specializing in downsized homes.

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Home sweet home! Girl, 14, builds herself a tiny $10,000 house as tribute to her late father

By James Coney

Published: 19:02 EST, 27 May 2014 | Updated: 03:18 EST, 28 May 2014

No one who bought a Victorian home would expect it to be totally perfect.

The property has, after all, been lived in. The wiring may be shot, the paintwork peeling, brickwork crumbling and windows draughty.

But if you buy a newly built home you would reasonably expect it to be in pristine condition particularly if youve just splashed out a quarter of a million quid on it.

Problems: If you buy a newly built home at Oxley Woods (pictured) you would reasonably expect it to be in pristine condition

So to find that nails are sticking through the floor, timbers are damp, the garden is a bog and windows leak is understandably devastating.

Even doors that jam and plug sockets that dont work can be a genuine annoyance.

There is a house-building boom in Britain just now, boosted by government schemes such as Help to Buy. Its much needed because we have a chronic shortage of properties.

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JAMES CONEY: Newly built homes should be in pristine condition

SOUTH GLENS FALLS, N.Y. -- One of the two boys injured in a freak bounce house accident has left the hospital and is home continuing to recuperate from multiple broken bones.

The boys, ages 5 and 6, were hurt when they fell about 20 feet from the lightweight inflatable structure that was lifted into the air by a strong gust of wind.

The 5-year-old who landed on a parked car suffered serious head injuries, while the 6-year-old fell on pavement and two broken arms and a broken jaw. Both boys were airlifted to Albany Medical Center Hospital.

"Having kids of your own, its tough to see things like that," said Ross Loffler, a South Glens Falls firefighter who responded to the scene on the afternoon of May 12.

At their families request, the boys names havent been released.

However, the 6-year-old came home late last week and the 5-year-old is no longer in a coma, Harrison Avenue Elementary School Principal Joseph Palmer said Tuesday. The boys are in kindergarten at the school.

Both of the 6-year-olds arms are in a cast and his mouth has been wired because of the broken jaw. The wiring is expected to come off soon, Palmer said.

"Hes able to eat and talk," the principal said. "Hes a terrific little boy."

Palmer said it would be up to the boys family to decide if the 6-year-old returns to school before summer vacation begins next month.

A benefit car wash for both boys will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at South Glens Falls Fire Department Station 2 on Route 197. Another fundraiser is planned for Mr. Bills Restaurant on Route 9 on June 22. This event will include raffles and live music and a portion of restaurant proceeds will go to the families.

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Boy hurt in bounce house mishap now home

EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. (PRWEB) May 27, 2014

Gold Medal Service, an award-winning heating, cooling, plumbing, electrical, drain cleaning, and waterproofing service company servicing all of New Jersey, is encouraging area homeowners to check the wiring in their homes during Electrical Safety Month in May.

Each year, the Electrical Safety Foundation International (ESFI) sponsors Electrical Safety Month as part of its yearlong efforts to educate homeowners about electrical hazards around the house. The organization has a special Electrical Safety Illustrated magazine available for homeowners to learn how to best protect their families and homes from electrical hazards.

Electrical hazards can be, at best, inconvenient, and at worst, deadly, but theyre also largely preventable. Its vital to be aware of any potential problems around your home and to correct them if you identify any, said Mike Agugliaro, co-founder of Gold Medal Service. Our expert electricians can inspect wiring, outlets, appliances, and other electrical devices around your home and make sure youre protected from power surges, electrical fires, and lightning damage.

According to the National Fire Protection Association, as many as 47,700 home fires each year are connected to electrical failures or malfunctions, causing $1.4 billion in property damage, 418 deaths, and 1,570 injuries.

The ESFIs Electrical Safety Illustrated resource outlines how homeowners can implement the National Electrical Code, a nationwide benchmark for safe electrical design, installation, and inspection. Gold Medal Service experts can help homeowners install everything they need to meet the benchmark, including:

For more information on Electrical Safety Month, visit http://www.esfi.org. For more information about Gold Medal Service, call 800-576-GOLD or visit http://www.goldmedalservice.com.

About Gold Medal Service Gold Medal Service, rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau, was founded in New Jersey in 1994 with just two employees. Their vision was to provide homeowners with a reliable and trustworthy home service company customers could count on to fix just about anything that could go wrong in a home. Since then Gold Medal has grown to include more than 120 employees and technicians solving plumbing, heating, cooling, electric, drain, waterproofing, and sewer issues for homeowners across the state of New Jersey. Gold Medal Service is an Angies List Super Service Award recipient. For more information, call 800-576-GOLD or visit http://www.goldmedalservice.com.

For additional information, contact: Heather Ripley, Ripley PR hripley(at)ripleypr(dot)com 865-977-1973

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Check for Home Hazards during Electrical Safety Month

In 1902, Davenport lumber magnate Lorenzo Schricker built a large yellow brick home on a bluff overlooking Davenport for his daughter Selma.

The Georgian-Federal-Revival-style home wasdesigned by the noted architectural firm of Clausen and Burrows, and it featured a large, semicircular portico and over-sized dormers.

Selma lived in the home at 1430 Clay St. until she died there in September 1931 at the age of 50. She never married and is buried with her sister and half-brother in the first mausoleum built in Davenport's Oakdale Cemetery.

After she died, the home was acquired by the Diocese of Davenport, and four bishops lived in the home over the years. The last resident was Bishop Emeritus William Franklin, who moved out in the mid-1990s.

The home wassoldin 1996 and then again in November 2000 toMark and Judy Westrom.

Over the course of several years, the Westroms did a lot of work, including the replacement of all 39 windows and battling back from a roof fire in November 2010.

For their efforts, they arereceiving a preservation award from the Scott County Historical Society.

The Westroms say the house appears to have undergone various renovations through the years, and in some areasthe original configuration or use is unclear.

The original drawingsare no longer in the archive of SGGM Architects & Interior Designers, the successor to Clausen and Burrows.

Happily, though, original woodwork, stained glass and other architectural elements were preserved, "and we believe the overall flavor of the house remains intact," Judy Westrom said.

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Saluting Selma's house

3 hours ago May. 23, 2014 - 12:59 PM PDT

While there is a ton of excitement around the connected home, its still very much a distant proposition for the mainstream consumer. I believe that by next year a majority of consumers will have one or more connected device in their homes, although I suspect it will be a single-use device like a connected thermostat or lights.

So this week, when I stopped by the OReilly Solid conference to check out the connected devices I kept my eyes peeled for the latest innovations aimed at the home. A few I had already covered, such as the Birdi air quality monitoring system that is expected in October or the Zuli bluetooth plugs that offer presence detection, which should also ship in the fall time frame (there are a lot of fall ship dates, yall.)

The founders of Birdi and their connected air quality monitor.

But I also ran into three new startups that were worth a second look. The first, Xandem, is currently making a presence sensor that uses wireless signals to understand where in the house a person is. Its currently sold commercially as a more accurate motion detector (it works in the dark, when an infrared motion detector can be fooled). But Dustin Maas, the CTO and I discussed how it might be used for detecting presence in the home for people who arent currently carrying or wearing a bluetooth device. One challenge will be interference from other networks, Maas, says it works with Wi-Fi, but running four or five different networks might make it a bit less effective. I like it because it helps solve the problem of detecting kids or other people in the house that arent carrying smart phones or Bluetooth devices.

Xandems CTO Dustin Maas (left) and CEO Joey Wilson (right) showing of their sensing technology.

For others who want to ditch their smart phones, but dont mind wearing a Bluetooth enabled bracelet, Playtabase has built a system of a bracelet and receivers that you can plug into your lamps, TVs or other appliances and then use the bracelet as a gesture-based controller. So wave your arm and twist your wrist to turn things on, adjust volume or even start and stop video playback. The system is called Reemo, and the wearable is designed to work as both a home controlling device and a mouse worn on the wrist. This is to entice you to wear it all the time. The device should be available in the fall and should cost about $200 for a wristband and three receivers.

Also in the home space, were a set of six sensors and a hub that cost $299 but are pretty good deal when compared to the cost of buying those sensors individually. The Wally systems point of differentiation is that the sensors will last for 10 years on one coin cell battery and that instead of using a radio for communications, they actually gain their power efficiencies by instead sending their information via the electrical wiring system in your home. The sensors use a radio to reach the homes wiring, and then transmit the information to the hub, which is plugged into the wall. The software then lets you set thresholds for moisture and temperature so you can get alerts when something is amiss.

A Wally sensor that will last 10 years on one battery.

Continued here:
3 startups with a new twist on the smart home

Home Wiring Lab HD
The challenge is to correctly wire a single pole switch, bulb base, and circuit breaker. The 2nd assignment is to correctly wire an circuit breaker, outlet, ...

By: Physics Walker

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Home Wiring Lab HD - Video

SAN JOSE -- Firefighters raced to put out an apparent electrical fire that torched the first-floor of an East San Jose home Thursday and discovered a large pot grow upstairs that was untouched by the flames, authorities said.

Now the San Jose Police Department is working to get to the stem of the operation, which yielded at least 100 marijuana plants that were seized by investigators.

The San Jose Fire Department was called at 10:14 a.m. after a passer-by saw what looked like a garage fire in the 2500 block of Brahms Avenue, near Eastridge Mall and the intersection of Quimby and Tully roads. Flames raced through the first floor, damaging cars in the garage and spreading to other rooms, fire Capt. Mike Van Elgort said.

But the first-alarm response kept the fire from spreading beyond the first floor and contained it to the affected home. It was when firefighters were making their way to the second floor that they spotted marijuana plants.

"The second floor was undamaged and appears to be used as a growhouse," Van Elgort said. "Up in those rooms, no people, just grow products. A high volume of grow products."

It might explain what caused the fire, as illegal growers are known to tamper with a home's wiring and bypass electrical meters to power their enterprises. Van Elgort would not comment on the exact cause of the blaze, citing the concurrent police investigation, but did not dissuade the theory.

"The cause appears to be electrical. I feel fairly confident we can state that," he said. "The guys did a really good job preventing it from extending into he second floor."

No injuries were reported. One of the home's three adult residents was home when the fire broke out but escaped along with four Chihuahuas rescued by firefighters. The resident was not arrested, and it is not clear what, if any, connection that person has to the pot growing operation. The rental home is now being treated as a crime scene.

The fire highlighted a rising trend of illegal indoor pot grows operating in the suburbs of San Jose. Van Elgort noted that at a glance, there would be no hint that such activity was happening at the Brahms Avenue home. Like other grow houses, it looked like just another home, hiding in plain sight until catching fire, which happened twice within four days in San Jose in March.

Besides the fire risks from tampering with electrical systems, the clandestine growing operations can be an indicator of organized crime entering a neighborhood: In the South Bay, grow houses are often run by gangs affiliated with Vietnamese coffee houses, according to the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office, which staffs the region's only full-time marijuana eradication detail.

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San Jose: After electrical fire damages home, untouched pot grow found upstairs

Three men have been arrested after police found 150 marijuana plants inside an Arcadia home.

The men were identified as Viet Van Tran, 24, of Arcadia; Jessie Soi Chu, 32, of Temple City and Rodrigo Salas Rodriguez, 48, of El Monte.

They were being held at the Arcadia jail for investigation of marijuana cultivation.

Police, acting on a tip, served a search warrant Tuesday about 3 a.m. at the home in the 1000 block of North 1st Avenue. Inside, detectives found multiple rooms with marijuana plants in various stages of growth.

The pot farm was equipped with irrigation, lighting, ventilation and electrical wiring, police said in a news release.

Detectives described the find as a "a sophisticated marijuana grow operation..." and noted that a separate cultivation was in the process of being dismantled, a news release said.

Authorities suspect possible utility theft from the operation because "the electricity used to power the grow had bypassed the electrical meter."

Detectives are still investigating the incident. Anyone with information is asked to call the police at 626-574-5150. Tips can be submitted via text, phone or the Internet to Los Angeles Regional Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).

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150 marijuana plants found in Arcadia home; three arrested

Cambridge News Follow us on

Wednesday 21 May 2014 12:03 PM

Written byALICE RYAN

8 Images

Imagine an interior designers pad and somewhere modern, minimalist and almost painfully perfect comes to mind. The kind of place where you dont want to take off your coat, because putting it down would create unsightly clutter. And youre reluctant to sit on the sofa, for fear of denting the cushions.

Cate Burrens Cambridge home couldnt be further from the stereotype. Yes, shes an interior designer and her flat is beautiful truly beautiful. But modern and minimalist it aint, and within minutes of crossing the threshold Ive kicked off my shoes, parked my bag on the floor and strewn my scarf and jacket across a chair. Its just that kind of place: warm, welcoming, a pleasure to be in.

However lovely a room is to look at, if it doesnt work if it doesnt fulfil its function its no good, says Cate, taking a stool at the tall kitchen table. When I was designing this place, it was vital that it should have a warm and welcoming atmosphere; that it be a sociable space.

And your home should also reflect your personality; thats what really makes it your home. You have to work out what your style is and be true to it. I think mine is becoming more and more traditional the older I get: Im fully aware that Im heading towards old granny-dom . . . but thats me: thats what I like.

The property, which sits right beside the leafy Christs Pieces in central Cambridge, is split into two. The ground floor houses the offices of Angel + Blume, Cates acclaimed interior design company, while the top floor is home to her and her two rescue terriers, Mabel and Hector.

Set on the corner of Emmanuel Road and Elm Street, the building dates from the mid-1800s and was originally a pub, The Golden Rose; curvy saloon doors and the grand pub sign a gilded metal rose, which blooms high up on the brickwork are delightful vestiges.

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Cambridge interior designer shares her secrets to a stylish home