Enlarge Image

Phil Hossack / Winnipeg Free Press The Elma Hotel and Beverage Room has been closed and for sale for years. It remains padlocked along Highway 15.

NOTRE DAME DE LOURDES -- Angelo Mondragon remembers growing up hanging around picket lines in California with his mom and dad, who were union organizers.

His dad worked along side Cesar Chavez, the migrant farm worker who founded the Farm Workers Union in the United States, and who became that country's most famous Latino American civil rights leader.

Mondragon, as a child, would accompany his dad to Chavez's house, and was taken along on union rallies. "I didn't understand what these marches were about. I basically grew up in the (union) headquarters in southern California."

How Mondragon wound up in the heart of southern Manitoba owning a hotel beverage room -- and spearheading a drive to save small rural beverage rooms like his from vanishing off the landscape -- is another story. The small hotel bars scattered across the countryside have outlasted many a school, church and grain elevator, and are just as steeped in history, albeit a different kind. But the days for many of the small beverage rooms appears to be coming to an end.

"A friend of mine met a friend of hers," explained Mondragon, who is of Mexican descent, over a beer one afternoon in the Notre Dame Hotel.

His friend met a woman from Notre Dame de Lourdes, about 110 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg, who was visiting California, and they ended up marrying. Mondragon flew in from California for the wedding -- that was 10 years ago -- and met the bride's friend. A long-distance relationship ensued. He and Tina Bourdeaud'hui married seven years ago. They tried living in California but Tina, who is a physiotherapist, missed home. They returned five years ago. "How do you decide where to live? She's the boss," replied Mondragon, who is 37.

In Santa Cruz, his early attempts at a career ranged from police officer trainee to stock broker. In Notre Dame, he embraced that rural ethic of wearing several hats. He worked in a pig barn, drove a combine for a couple summers, sold wind turbines, and, most recently, worked for Manitoba Hydro.

The couple have two children with a third on the way, and live on an acreage outside town. "What we have here we could never have in California," Mondragon said.

Read this article:
Closing time: The hotel beverage room is slowly disappearing from the rural landscape

Written by Gary Simeone, oysterbay@antonnews.com Thursday, 20 November 2014 00:00

What better way to celebrate a 100th birthday than by having a new room inauguration filled with local residents, live music and cocktails and scrumptious hors doeuvres. That is what happened at the Locust Valley Library Sunday evening, Nov. 9, as the community room was officially renamed the Matinecock Neighborhood Association Community Room. Proceeds from the event went to the restoration of the new room.

Speakers at the centennial celebration included Library Board of Trustees President Charles Brisbane, Library Administrative Director Kathy Smith, Locust Valley Historical Society President Herb Schierhorst and Matinecock Nation Chief Little Running Fox.

Its been 100 years since the Matinecock Neighborhood House was built through gifts of money from local residents, said Brisbane, who is also president of the Matinecock Neighborhood Association. The building featured a theater, an infirmary and there was a kitchen and a bowling alley in the basement. The basement also housed the Locust Valley Fire Department at that time.

In 1923, local resident Frank Doubleday added a library wing to the building and in 1936 the Matinecock Neighborhood Association turned over the building and grounds to the Locust Valley Library.

Brisbane said that people are making the library their neighborhood house once again.

The library offers multiple programs for people of all ages, was a place of refuge and a gathering place after Superstorm Sandy and the newly renamed community room attracts a couple of thousand people a year for events, said Brisbane.

Smith said that the people of the Matinecock Nation have been very generous with the library over the years.

They have done a lot of nice things as far as helping with the upkeep of the library and recently donated $25,000 for the renovation of this room, said Smith.

There are big plans in the librarys second century for renovations that will help to continually improve the look of the buildings interior and exterior.

Go here to see the original:
Library Celebrates 100th Birthday

One of the main reasons that building an addition can cost twice as much per square foot as remodeling an existing space is the foundation. Unless you're building up or bumping out, every addition requires some sort of masonry foundation dug down below the frost line so it won't get pushed around by freezing temperatures. The earthmoving and concrete-pouring required to support the new construction can be 10 to 15 percent of the total project investment, says Eden Prairie, Minn., design-build contractor Mark Mackmiller. But there are some ways to slash those costs.

Full Basement. This is the costliest option because it requires the most digging and the most concrete, plus the crew will likely have to break through the old foundation to connect the new and old basements together. What you get, however, is basement space that can easily be converted to living space, either now or in the future, for a nominal added cost, Mackmiller says. Plus, you can insulate under the floor and can use solid wood flooring, which isn't an option with all foundation types.

Crawlspace. By building your basement only a few feet deep, you might save $3,000 or more for a 12x14 foot addition, while still retaining the ability to use solid wood flooring and to fully insulate under the addition. And all you really give up is the headspace that would allow you to convert the basement to living space in the future. That's why this is the standard approach to additions in most parts of the country.

Slab. Built much like a concrete patio (though with deep footings around the perimeter to support the weight of the structure), this combines the foundation and the floor in one layer of concrete. It only works when the addition is right at grade level, in which case it's the cheapest option available, saving perhaps $5,000 compared to a crawlspace basement, according to Mackmiller. The crew can put insulation under the slab (as well as electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling lines), but because of the concrete, the floor will typically be fairly cold, says Schultz, and solid wood flooring isn't advised due to moisture in the concrete.

Pole Footings. When the addition is above gradeeither because your first floor is high above the ground or because you're building a second floor addition with, say, a screened porch below itthe lowest cost option is to forgo a foundation or slab and use pole footings instead. This is what's typically used for decks: Holes are dug down below the frost line, cardboard tubes are inserted in them, and then concrete gets poured into the tubes. Once it has cured, the tubes are cut away and the concrete serves as footings for posts that hold up the addition. This allows for a wood floor and for insulation, though it's typically not as warm in the space as when there's a foundation underneath. Again, you can save as much as $5,000 compared to a crawlspace.

Link:
Choosing an Addition's Foundation | Mechanical Systems | HGTV

Room addition Bobcat tear down
via YouTube Capture.

By: joshuawwd

Read the rest here:
Room addition Bobcat tear down - Video

Chris has been at it again, haunting the floor of any games show careless enough to leave an air vent accessible from the outside. Recently he was at EGX, putting his hands on any- and everything he could. Here, he reports back.

The Room Three by Fireproof Studios

The first two The Room games set the mobile platforms alight as they were games that not only did not feature a match-three mechanic but were also not free-to-play. Many of Fireproof Studio's contemporaries scoffed at the notion of making a game that doesn't leech money from the player on a regular basis as they attempted to play through it. Despite this The Room and The Room Two were so successful that Fireproof Studios has now embarked on the third outing of the series, cryptically titled The Room Three.

Making its debut at EGX 2014, The Room Three has a number of key features that set it apart from the previous two games. The first being that there is someone else in the rooms that the player traverses through. This was quite unsettling when I saw it during the 10 minute demo I played as I always regarded The Room games as a solitary experience, so to find someone else into the environment was quite unexpected. There is no indication of what or who this person is, or if the player interacts with them in any way, but their presence is very much felt.

Toryans by Holyfingers

But let's focus on what Toryans is about before we go plunging into too much detail. Set in a contemporary environment, the main protagonist is a woman who is the midst of questioning the very foundations of her life and her beliefs. One day she follows a stranger after a train journey she takes home from work every day and things start to unravel from there.

The demo does an excellent job of explaining how the interface in Toryans works. Using a reactive icon system, as the player moves the mouse pointer across the screen an icon appears indicating how they can interact with it. Sometimes an item (a key, for example) is needed in order for the action to be successful. In the demo there are number of areas the player can explore and items they can pick up and use in combination with one another in order to complete a task and eventually solve a puzzle. Items in the player's inventory can also be combined to make new items, which of course is nothing new, but an important mechanic that Toryans uses frequently.

In order for the pass to be retrieved the woman must somehow get it from the locked room to her so that she can use it on the lift. Travelling around the office is an automated vacuum cleaner, which is diligently clearing anything up that drops to the floor. By using the shredded paper that the woman collected from the office shredder, she is able to get the robotic cleaner to have the pass lodged onto its lid. The next task is to get the pass from the top of the cleaner; but I won't go into that for fear of spoiling things.

Toryans is set to appear on Windows PC, Mac and Linux sometime in the future; probably when it's done.

Read more:
EGX First Looks: The Room Three and Toryans - First Look

BEAVERTON, OR (KPTV) -

Police said a man was making counterfeit credit cards in a Beaverton motel room and then using those cards to buy prepaid gift cards.

The Beaverton Police Department's investigation began when officers checking out a suspicious car with California license plates at the motel determined the man who was driving it was using a fake driver's license to rent the room.

Detectives determined the man stole the identity of someone in California and using that identity obtained a $40,000 loan to buy the car, a 2007 Mercedes CL 550.

When officers arrested 40-year-old Thomas Geter of California on Sunday, they found he was running a counterfeit credit card operation out of the hotel room.

Detectives said they confiscated fake credit cards, devices to make those cards, more than $13,000 in prepaid gift cards, about $1,800 in cash and other evidence.

Detectives said it appeared Geter bought the gift cards from numerous stores, including Home Depot, Safeway, Albertsons, Walgreens and Rite-Aid.

Police said Geter was the only one involved in the counterfeit operation at the hotel room but he might have been working with someone in California.

He was arraigned Monday on charges of identity theft and unlawful use of a vehicle.

He is due back in court Nov. 24.

Read more:
Police: Man ran fake credit card operation out of Beaverton motel room

In addition to processing passport requests, the Hunterdon County Clerks office will open the Search Room for public use on Saturday, Nov. 22, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The Search Room is in in the Hall of Records, 71 Main St., Flemington.

County Clerk Mary Melfi noted that both the Spring and Fall Searching the Search Room workshops that were a part of the this years Tricentennial celebration were sold out.

Recognizing the searching the history of your property can be a time-consuming task, we are pleased to offer the Saturday hours to the public to finish their project or to start a new project, she said.

Staff members will be on hand to assist with the locating of documents. Call the Clerks Office at 908-788-1214 for further information.

More Hunterdon County news: NJ.com/hunterdon HCD Facebook

Read the original:
Hunterdon County Clerk's Search Room will be open Saturday, Nov. 22

Gary Tabor of Bowling Green was grateful to have a place to sleep Monday night at Crossland Community Church.

With what Ive been through, I have trouble finding the right words for it, he said. Its an incredible feeling to have people that actually welcome you.

Crossland hosted Tabor and three other guests during the first night of Bowling Greens Room in the Inn, a programin which churches offer shelter to homeless people during winter months.

Im excited that we got that opportunity to host the first night, said Leeza Glisson, executive pastor of Crossland. Were honored to do the first night.

She and her husband stayed with the guests overnight, while other volunteers helped prepare dinner for the group, including Donna Baker.

Baker and her husband volunteered for the Room in the Inn program in Charlotte, N.C., so when they moved to Bowling Green and joined Crossland, they were excited to see the program begin here.

I just saw how important it was for them to have a warm meal and a warm place to sleep, Baker said.... To be able to sit down and talk with them while eating dinner, it just reinforces how blessed we all are and how we take so much for granted. Some of their stories, it could happen to any of us.

Eleven churches in Warren County will take turns hosting up to 12 homeless guests each night through March 15, providing people with a home-cooked dinner, a mattress or cot to sleep on and breakfast in the morning.

Brita Austin,coordinator of Room in the Inn in Bowling Green, said she expected the number of guests to be small the first night.

Im very happy that we had that amount, she said. Its a brand new program, and while we did pass out fliers, we didnt know if we would have any guests the first night. They are really taking a leap of faith. It was really phenomenal that we had four. Thats beyond what we expected.

See the article here:
Room in the Inn

Simple Family room addition ideas
Simple Family room addition ideas.

By: Simple Home Art Decor Ideas

View original post here:
Simple Family room addition ideas - Video

MEMPHIS, Tenn. Its not set to open until May, but you can already reserve your room at the Big Cypress Lodge, the hotel inside the Pyramid.

In addition to shopping for outdoor gear, the new Bass Pro will feature the 100-room hotel. We got a look at the only finished room during a recent tour of the Pyramid.

Rooms feature fireplaces, handcrafted furniture, and a very uniquely designed, screened-in porch, a woman with Big Cypress Lodge said.

Call 1-800-BC-LODGE (225-6343) to make your reservation. Rooms start at $259 a night.

Earlier this month, Bass Pro told WREG that for the past ten months, construction, creative, and design teams have been transforming the Pyramid into a cypress swamp with fish and alligators, as well as 24 faux cypress trees that stretch to the upper reaches of the building.

The opening date has been delayed several times, with the most recent date being this Christmas, but Bass Pro executives promise it will be well worth the wait.

More than 200 construction workers are reportedly in the Pyramid daily. After keeping anyone from seeing inside for eight months, Bass Pro finally let WREG inside at the beginning of November to show you how its transforming the old home of the Grizzlies and Tigers.

In addition to the hotel, there will be an ocean-themed bowling alley called the Fishbowl, two restaurants, and Ducks Unlimited Waterfowling center.

We are going to have a mock-up duck lodge, a Ducks Unlimited official said. There you can relax by the fireplace, watch videos, view art work and taxidermy.

Observation decks will also line the outside of the Pyramid.

Read more:
New hotel inside Pyramid accepting reservations