Naples, Florida (PRWEB) December 19, 2013

The holidays are here and while Florida residents may still be wearing shorts and flip-flops, Gulf Coast Educators Insurance in Naples, Port Charlotte and Ft. Myers Florida announces their winter home maintenance guidelines.

The cooler temperatures in December make it ideal for taking care of home maintenance tasks that may have been ignored all year long, says Ron DeFreitas owner/operator of Gulf Coast Educators Insurance.

DeFreitas adds, Proper home maintenance is important to keep Florida homes operating efficiently and helping homeowners lower the risk of property insurance claims. The insurance agents at Gulf Coast Educators Insurance offer the following home maintenance tips to help prepare home owners for the winter season.

Gulf Coast Educators Insurance offers the following tips for homeowners to reduce the likelihood of incurring a homeowners insurance claim:

1)Test Fire Alarms and replace batteries as needed. During winter, homeowners use the fireplace and candles more often. Carbon Monoxide Detector batteries should be checked too.

2)Get furnace inspected by a professional. A professional inspector should do a furnace maintenance check every two years.

3)For windows and doors, a simple touch up on caulking around the edges can reduce drafts and help homeowners save energy.

4)Change the HVAC filter.

5)Look under sink cabinets to check for moisture and/or leaks.

View original post here:
Gulf Coast Educators Insurance Offers Winter Home Maintenance Tips for Florida Residents

"Ask the Realtor" is a weekly column from the 3,000+ member RealSource Association of Realtors.

Q: With the holidays upon us, are there ways to keep my home safe from potential lighting and fireplace accidents?

Jim F.

Cliffside Park

A: Great question Jim. Each year, tens of thousands of families and individuals incur property loss or injure themselves during the holiday season. Unfortunately, despite increased awareness and safer products, the number of injuries and accidents are increasing. Christmas tree fires, candles left lit, and the installation of wiring for outdoor and indoor holiday lights are the main culprits. That said; here are a few tips: 1) Make certain live trees are still alive and water them frequently. A fresh tree has resin at its bottom and needles that not only do not come off when a hand runs through them but are hard to tear off their branches. Artificial trees, on the other hand, should be flame retardant and kept far away from fireplaces and wood-burning stoves. 2) Lighting should be Underwriters Laboratories (UL) approved. Plus, be reasonable how they are hung on the home or holiday decorations. Dont over-exert or over-reach boundaries. Eliminate the risk of falling and serious injury. 3) Fireplaces can be warm and a great place to gather the family. To ensure their safekeeping, do not use "fire salts" to turn the flame colors as the chemicals inside them, if ingested, can be harmful. Do not burn newspapers or gift wrapping either. These burn quickly and with intensity.

Q: What does location, location, location really mean?

Kathy B.

Fair Lawn

A: Kathy, whether it is financial, social or economical, the reasons are many but most center on the community in which the home is located. According to a new survey from the National Association of Realtors, choosing a community is one of the most important factors for consumers as they consider buying home. The 2013 Community Preference Survey also noted that Americans prefer walk-able, mixed-use neighborhoods and shorter commutes rather than neighborhoods that require more driving between home, work and recreation. The survey findings indicate that while the size of the property does matter to consumers, they are willing to compromise size for a preferred neighborhood and less commuting. For example, although 52 percent of those surveyed prefer a single-family detached house with a large yard, 78 percent responded that the neighborhood is more important to them than the size of the house. Fifty-seven percent would forego a home with a larger yard if it meant a shorter commute to work, and 55 percent of respondents were willing to forego a home with a larger yard if it meant they could live within walking distance of schools, stores and restaurants as opposed to having a larger yard and needing to drive to get to schools, stores and restaurants.

Q: Is it true that the government is considering a drop in the amount of mortgagee money it will guarantee through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

Here is the original post:
How can I avoid fire hazards associated with the holidays?

home section Interior Design Housekeeping Entertaining Home Improvement Gardening & Plants Landscaping eHow Home & Garden Building & Remodeling Walls About House Wiring

Jonita Davis

Jonita Davis is freelance writer and marketing consultant. Her work has appeared in various print and online publications, including "The LaPorte County Herald Argus" and Work.com. Davis also authored the book, "Michigan City Marinas," which covers the history of the Michigan City Port Authority. Davis holds a bachelor's degree in English from Purdue University.

Behind the walls of your home lies an intricate network of wires and piping. This network is the life of the home, the way in which electricity is carried to every part of the structure. Before tapping into it, you must have an understanding of just how vital the house wiring is to a home's electrical system. You must also consider the safety implications if the house is wired improperly.

Aside from the cost, a proper wiring job can enhance use of the home. For example, misplaced light switches and fixtures without the proper voltage affect the aesthetic of the room. Similarly, flickering lights and uneven sound can hurt the home's comfort. Then, there is the fire hazard. Special attention must be paid to house wiring to ensure that the proper wires are connected. Missed connections can spark a fire, as can overload circuits. Thus, house wiring is important to the budget, comfort and safety of a home.

In house wiring, all of the outlets, fixtures and circuits are placed in the home. All are connected behind the walls, ceiling and floors to a primary system of wires that snake their way through the home to the primary circuit. This is the circuit breaker. Here, you can control the electricity throughout the entire house, turning it on and off as needed.

Homes are wired after the plumbing goes in, but before the walls and ceilings. Certain projects require wiring after the home is finished. Intercom systems, ceiling fans and lighting systems must be connected to the home's main electrical system. In these cases, the house needs rewiring. It could be modified to incorporate the new items. Homes are also rewired when they previous system is outdated or malfunctioning. Essentially, house wiring involves anything that must be connected to that main circuit breaker.

There are several key components to wiring a house. Switch boxes are used to mount light sockets and switches into a wall. Each switch and fixture is connected to the main electric system through three wires. The hot wire is often black. It carries the current through the house to the appliance or switch being used. The ground wire is often a bare copper wire used to carry the current into the ground if the hot wire fails to carry that same current to its designated outlet. A neutral wire, brown, carries the current back to where it came from where it originated. All of these wires are enclosed in a metal pipe, on which the fixtures are often mounted. Wires are capped on the ends by either terminals or wire nuts that splice two separate wires together. A series of clamps are used to secure the piping or any wires outside of the piping to studs.

Don't attempt house wiring when the power is on. Before working with any type of electricity, you must be sure that the main circuit breaker is shut off. Read the house blueprints carefully to avoid any hazardous situations and to properly wire the house.

House wiring is a complex beast for the uninitiated, and a sense of mystery for those who have never even seen a...

The rest is here:
About House Wiring | eHow - eHow | How to Videos, Articles ...

JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) -

There's some light at the end of the tunnel for a Jackson man who's dealt with no electricity to his home for the last month.

Otha Amos says some maintenance workers showed up at his houseMonday morning to fix the damaged wiring. Entergy had cut power to the homein Novemberbecause frayed wiring was a fire risk.

"Our meter reader, who went out to do the monthly reading to determine the amount of electricity used, noticed that the meter had damaged wires," said Entergy spokesperson Mara Hartmann. "If you've got damaged wires and electricity coming through, something could catch fire."

Sunday Amos said his landlord, Napolean Moore, refused to pay for the repairs.

"He don't answer my calls," said Amos. "I fooled him one time and called on my nephew's home, and then he answered. And I asked him, how come you didn't call me back. He said 'I don't have to call you back.'"

We tried contacting Moore, but he didn't return our calls.

Today, it was a different story.Amos says the landlord apparently paid forthe workersto fix the problem.

Amos said the workers will have to turn a permit in to the city of Jackson, certifying the repairs. From there, his power should be restored within the next 24 hours.

That's good news forAmos who has been living in the house without heat.

Read more:
Man in dark should have electricity by Tuesday

St. Petersburg Tribune

ST. PETERSBURG Two years ago, Shanoah Washingtons home on Preston Street in the Melrose Mercy neighborhood was a gutted shell.

Thieves had ripped out the air handler and plumbing. Gone, too, were windows, electrical wiring and most of the kitchen.

The home attracted the attention of St. Petersburg City Council Chairman Karl Nurse, who bought it and spent $34,000 doing it up as a way to reduce blight in his district.

If all goes according to plan, Washington will go from renter to owner through a lease-to-buy program that would allow her to own a home for the first time in her life.

The home was among an estimated 5,000 in the city that banks foreclosed on during the recession. Many of them were in the poorest neighborhoods, including Midtown, where hundreds of vacant homes fell into disrepair and attracted criminals, including drug dealers.

***

With so many homes affected, the problems facing communities like Melrose Mercy border on overwhelming. But slowly, the city and nonprofit groups are transforming derelict properties into new homes, hoping that piece by piece they can turn around some of the most poverty-stricken neighborhoods and encourage residents to stay and to maintain their properties.

Using $8.3 million of federal stimulus money, the city has bought 86 derelict properties, with 23 rehabbed and sold and an additional 16 undergoing renovation.

The Banyan group, a St. Petersburg nonprofit organization, plans to raise $6.5 million in bonds to buy and renovate Citrus Grove apartment complex on 15th Street South.

Read the rest here:
Push still on to rehabilitate blighted St. Pete neighborhoods

The home of famed KISS guitarist Ace Frehley was damaged by fire on Saturday. Frehley left the following message on his personal website regarding the fire that was reported at his 1347 Spring Valley Road home in Yorktown Heights, New York.

The official statement from the fire inspector was as follows: An electrical fire was caused by a tree falling on the wires in the backyard and shorting out the fuse box which in turn heated up the internal wiring in the walls and started the fire.

Im very thankful that no one was hurt!

The fire department and police did a great job, and Im very grateful to them for all of their help and courage in this matterjob well done! Ace

Reports claim that multiple fire companies were contacted around 11 a.m. though fortunately nobody was in the house at the time. According to Yorktown Heights Fire Chief Chet Swirski, We got to the scene and found heavy smoke showing from the roof line of the building.

Frehley does not currently reside in the property; however, a man who has been staying at the house returned as the firefighters were in the process of setting out the fire. Earlier this year, Lenders started the foreclosure process for the home according to Westchester County Court documents.

Recent suspicions have been voiced concerning the timing of the fire. In February of this year, the New York Post reported that the famous guitarist stopping making mortgage payments on the house. The US National Bank Association, which started foreclosure proceedings on Feb. 15, said the makeup-faced 70s star stopped paying his mortgage in 2011.

The website lohud.com reported the following in February: U.S. Bank National Association claims that the rock star, whose real name is Paul Frehley, stopped paying his $735,000 mortgage on March 1, 2011.

The present value of the home is marked at $541,516 though Frehley initially signed a $735,000 mortgage.

Go here to see the original:
Ace Frehley’s Home Engulfed in Flames

LITTLE ROCK, AR- At least three of the family members who were left without a home after a fire took everything they have, suffer from a disability.

"I got a phone call that a church members house was on fire," said Pastor Larry Walters.

It was at the home of his parishioners, a large family that lives just down Colonel Glenn Road.

Their home is nothing more than rubble this Sunday.

"The concern was for the handicap boys inside," said Pastor Walters.

A family with as many as four disabled members, the fire almost claimed their lives.

"The hero of the story is an unknown man named Terry," said Walters.

"He was here for a purpose," said Walters, "And that was to help them, and that's what we believe."

Exposed wiring outside the home may be a clue to the possible cause as early indications are it was electrical.

"Sad to see any time of the year, but this time of the year being Christmas," said Walters.

Go here to see the original:
Mystery Man Saves Family From Flames

Stockton home of 12-year-old in coma gets major retrofitting

Roy Vazquez Jr. is shown in a family photo in August, a day before a ruptured brain artery rendered him comatose.Hector Vazquez

December 14, 2013 12:00 AM

STOCKTON - Sylvia Vazquez wants to bring her son home for Christmas.

John Shores, George Koertzen and a dozen or so building trades volunteers are doing everything in their power to make that happen.

And 12-year-old Roy Vazquez Jr. is demonstrating those signs of hope - independent breathing, opening his eyes - that could make that dream a reality.

Roy Vazquez Jr. is a seventh-grader at Hazelton Elementary. The school is selling T-shirts with his bucket list printed on them as a fundraiser. The family still faces daunting financial challenges. "Our son will require many things insurance doesn't provide," said Sylvia Vazquez, Roy's mother. "Diapers, personal care items, bedding, disposable bed pads." To help, you can:

Call: (209) 933-7210

Visit or write: Hazelton Elementary, 535 W. Jefferson St., Stockton CA 95206

Online: Get a T-shirt at Etsy.com ("Calianimal" in search box).

Original post:
'God's blessings' for stricken boy's family

Home | Back

December 13th, 2013 2:03 pm by Associated Press

CATAWBA, N.C. The scheduled burning of the million-dollar home once owned by former NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield as part of a fire training exercise has been canceled.

Chief Donald Robinson of the Catawba Volunteer Fire Department said Saturday's scheduled burning was called off because of the threat of rain. Firefighters had said previously that rain would not prevent the burning from taking place.

Robinson said the house was in such bad shape firefighters couldn't conduct any of the practice drills inside. He also said the new owner doesn't want to keep the house, adding that the house will either be burned down or torn down.

State officials kicked Mayfield off the land in November 2012. Catawba County sheriff's deputies changed the locks on the doors. Carolina Farm Credit received an order that month transferring the land and buildings to the company. Court records show the bank bought the land for $1,725,000.

The windows and the wiring have been stripped from the home. Drywall and other building materials are now exposed.

Mayfield was suspended from driving in 2009 after testing positive for methamphetamine. He is facing a variety of charges.

CATAWBA, N.C. The million-dollar home once owned by former NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield is scheduled to be burned to the ground as part of a fire training exercise.

The Catawba County Fire Marshal's Office said the 12,000-square-foot unfinished house will be burned down on Saturday.

Read the rest here:
Update: Threat of rain cancels burning of Mayfield's former home

The million-dollar home once owned by former NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield is scheduled to be burned to the ground as part of a fire training exercise.

The Catawba County Fire Marshal's Office says the 12,000-square-foot unfinished house will be burned down on Saturday.

Catawba Fire Chief Donald Robinson said the new owners no longer want the home that is worth just over $300,000.

Robinson told WSOC in Charlotte that burning the home will take it off the tax books while providing training for firefighters in the county.

"Everything we can do to better our training and skills, that's what we are going to be doing with this house," Robinson said.

State officials kicked Mayfield off the land in November 2012. Catawba County sheriff's deputies changed the locks on the doors. Carolina Farm Credit received an order that month transferring the land and buildings to the company. Court records show the bank bought the land for $1,725,000.

The windows and the wiring have been stripped from the home. Drywall and other building materials are now exposed.

Mayfield was suspended from driving in 2009 after testing positive for methamphetamine. He is facing a variety of charges.

See the rest here:
Ex-racer Mayfield's home to be burned for training