A recent engine room fire aboard one of its cruise ships is expected to reduce earnings for the fourth quarter of 2014 and first quarter of 2015 earnings by about 5 cents a share in each period, Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings said this week.

The estimated financial impact on earnings excludes insurance proceeds, Norwegian said in a news release.

On Dec. 11 the Insignia cruise ship operated by Norwegian's premium cruise brand Oceania Cruises experienced a fire in its engine room while docked in St. Lucia during a 10-day cruise.

The incident resulted in the cancellation of the remainder of the cruise that had departed San Juan, Puerto Rico on Dec. 7.

The 684-passenger Insignia was taken out of service and Norwegian said it expects repairs to take about nine weeks.

Cruises cancelled because of the repairs include a 24-day voyage scheduled to depart Miami on Dec. 17 and the first three legs of the ship's Around the World in 180 Days cruise, set to leave Miami on Jan. 10.

A modified world cruise will now sail on March 22, departing from Singapore, Norwegian said.

"We understand how disappointing this news must be to our valued guests and we extend our sincere appreciation for their cooperation and understanding," said Kevin Sheehan, Norwegian president and CEO.

Despite the expected earnings hit, Norwegian said it's reiterating its prior full-year 2014 adjusted earnings per-share guidance of $2.28 to $2.32, which had excluded results of its acquisition of Oceania's former parent Prestige Cruises International, Inc. which closed in the fourth quarter. It also excluded the financial impacts from the engine fire incident.

Norwegian is the parent company of Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises and together the three brands operate 21 ships that visit more than 430 destinations worldwide.

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Norwegian estimates impact of Insignia cruise ship fire

The stunning 1920s mansion located near Chicago proved an important component of the 1990 family comedy blockbuster which catapulted child actor Macaulay Culkin briefly to mega-stardom Many scenes in the movie were filmed in the three-storey house including those featuring the kitchen, the main staircase, basement and most of the first floor landing In 2012 the property changed hands with the buyers getting something of a bargain after the sellers agreed to take $1.58 million nearly $1 million less than their original asking price Home Alone fans will remember the colonial-style building as the home of the McCallisters, and of course, the battlefield where young Kevin took on those bumbling burglars

By David Mccormack for MailOnline

Published: 23:47 EST, 23 December 2014 | Updated: 11:55 EST, 24 December 2014

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The house featured in the classic Christmas movie Home Alone will be looking radically different this holiday season after a dramatic makeover.

The stunning 1920s mansion, which is located on Chicago's North Shore, provided an important component of the 1990 family comedy blockbuster which catapulted child actor Macaulay Culkin briefly to mega-stardom.

Many scenes in the movie were filmed in the three-storey house including those featuring the kitchen, the main staircase, basement and most of the first floor landing.

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Mansion featured in Home Alone looks radically different after remodeling

Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., chairs, stools and sofas) and sleeping (e.g., beds). Furniture is also used to hold objects at a convenient height for work (as horizontal surfaces above the ground, such as tables and desks), or to store things (e.g., cupboards and shelves). Furniture can be a product of design and is considered a form of decorative art. In addition to furniture's functional role, it can serve a symbolic or religious purpose. It can be made from many materials, including metal, plastic, and wood. Furniture can be made using a variety of woodworking joints which often reflect the local culture.

Archeological research shows that Neolithic people used stone to build cupboards, dressers, beds, shelves and seats. Ancient furniture from the 8th-century BC includes tables and serving stands. The furniture of the Middle Ages was usually heavy, oak, and ornamented. Furniture design expanded during the Italian Renaissance of the fourteenth and fifteenth century. The seventeenth century, in both Southern and Northern Europe, was characterized by opulent, often gilded Baroque designs. The nineteenth century is usually defined by revival styles. The first three-quarters of the twentieth century are often seen as the march towards Modernism. One unique outgrowth of post-modern furniture design is a return to natural shapes and textures.[1]

Furniture has been a part of the human experience since the development of non-nomadic cultures. Evidence of furniture survives from the Neolithic Period and later in antiquity in the form of paintings, such as the wall Murals discovered at Pompeii; sculpture, and examples have been excavated in Egypt and found in tombs in Ghiordes, in modern-day Turkey.

A range of unique stone furniture has been excavated in Skara Brae, a Neolithic village located in Orkney. The site dates from 31002500 BC and due to a shortage of wood in Orkney, the people of Skara Brae were forced to build with stone, a readily available material that could be worked easily and turned into items for use within the household. Each house shows a high degree of sophistication and was equipped with an extensive assortment of stone furniture, ranging from cupboards, dressers and beds to shelves, stone seats, and limpet tanks. The stone dresser was regarded as the most important as it symbolically faces the entrance in each house and is therefore the first item seen when entering, perhaps displaying symbolic objects, including decorative artwork such as several Neolithic Carved Stone Balls also found at the site.

Ancient furniture has been excavated from the 8th-century BC Phrygian tumulus, the Midas Mound, in Gordion, Turkey. Pieces found here include tables and inlaid serving stands. There are also surviving works from the 9th-8th-century BC Assyrian palace of Nimrud. The earliest surviving carpet, the Pazyryk Carpet was discovered in a frozen tomb in Siberia and has been dated between the 6th and 3rd century BC. Recovered Ancient Egyptian furniture includes 3rd millennium BC beds discovered at Tarkhan as place for the deceased, a c. 2550 BC gilded bed and two chairs from the tomb of Queen Hetepheres I, and many examples (boxes, beds, chairs) from c. 1550 to 1200 BC from Thebes. Ancient Greek furniture design beginning in the 2nd millennium BC, including beds and the klismos chair, is preserved not only by extant works, but by images on Greek vases. The 1738 and 1748 excavations of Herculaneum and Pompeii revealed Roman furniture, preserved in the ashes of the 79 A.D. eruption of Vesuvius, to the eighteenth century.

The furniture of the Middle Ages was usually heavy, oak, and ornamented with carved designs. Along with the other arts, the Italian Renaissance of the fourteenth and fifteenth century marked a rebirth in design, often inspired by the Greco-Roman tradition. A similar explosion of design, and renaissance of culture in general, occurred in Northern Europe, starting in the fifteenth century. The seventeenth century, in both Southern and Northern Europe, was characterized by opulent, often gilded Baroque designs that frequently incorporated a profusion of vegetal and scrolling ornament. Starting in the eighteenth century, furniture designs began to develop more rapidly. Although there were some styles that belonged primarily to one nation, such as Palladianism in Great Britain or Louis Quinze in French furniture, others, such as the Rococo and Neoclassicism were perpetuated throughout Western Europe.

The nineteenth century is usually defined by concurrent revival styles, including Gothic, Neoclassicism, Rococo, and the EastHaven Movement. The design reforms of the late century introduced the Aesthetic movement and the Arts and Crafts movement. Art Nouveau was influenced by both of these movements.

This design was in many ways rooted in necessity and emphasizes both form and materials. Early American chairs and tables are often constructed with turned spindles and chair backs often constructed with steaming to bend the wood. Wood choices tend to be deciduous hardwoods with a particular emphasis on the wood of edible or fruit bearing trees such as Cherry or Walnut.

The first three-quarters of the twentieth century are often seen as the march towards Modernism. Art Deco, De Stijl, Bauhaus, Wiener Werksttte, and Vienna Secession designers all worked to some degree within the Modernist idiom. Born from the Bauhaus and Art Deco/Streamline styles came the post WWII "Mid-Century Modern" style using materials developed during the war including laminated plywood, plastics and fiberglass. Prime examples include furniture designed by George Nelson Associates, Charles and Ray Eames, Paul McCobb, Florence Knoll, Harry Bertoia, Eero Saarinen, Harvey Probber, Vladamir Kagan and Danish modern designers including Finn Juhl and Arne Jacobsen. Postmodern design, intersecting the Pop art movement, gained steam in the 1960s and 70s, promoted in the 80s by groups such as the Italy-based Memphis movement. Transitional furniture is intended to fill a place between Traditional and Modern tastes.

Great efforts from individuals, governments, and companies has led to the manufacturing of products with higher sustainability known as Ecodesign. This new line of furniture is based on environmentally friendly design. Its use and popularity are increasing each year.[2]

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Furniture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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There are so many good reasons to remodel your basement -- more usable room, additional privacy, increased resale value, and energy efficiency, to name just a few. The best part is that basement remodeling costs only about 10-15 percent as much as building out. So get busy choosing pretty and practical light fixtures and floor coverings to enhance your newfound space, but don't forget one important item ... the egress window.

What Is an Egress Window?

Every room used for the purpose of sleeping requires a direct opening to the outdoors, to allow for emergency escape and rescue. Therefore, unless you have a walkout basement, you will need to include some form of egress from each bedroom. Most commonly, this is a window, although legally it may also be a low skylight or a door. (If you can work it into your basement remodel design, a door is an excellent choice. It provides more privacy and independence when you are creating a studio apartment to be used as an in-law flat or a rental unit -- subject to local zoning laws, of course. However, the layout of many basements does not allow for door installation.)

While this type of opening is not a requirement for other basement remodels, such as a home office, gym, games room, or family room, it's still a good idea to include an egress window in the construction. You'll be glad of the flexibility it allows in case you want to change the room's purpose some day -- or use it as an occasional guest room right now.

Egress Window Specs

International Building Code specifications for egress windows are very demanding -- with good reason, as they are designed to save lives. The bottom of any egress window is required to be no more than 44 inches above floor level. The net clear opening must be at least 5 square feet for a basement bedroom, the amount of space required to admit a firefighter wearing protective gear and carrying an air tank on his/her back. Note that this refers to the open space available to crawl through, and not merely the total area of the window. The egress opening, as well as window bars, if any, must be operable from the inside, without any keys or other devices, to permit fast exit. For basements, the most practical style of egress window is usually a casement.

Window Well

The nature of a basement is that generally most or all of it is located underground. For this reason, an egress window will need a window well to make it functional. This is an outdoor excavated area adjacent to the egress window. Code specifies that the well's horizontal dimensions must be a minimum of 9 feet, with a horizontal projection of at least 36 inches. The top of the window well is required to be 6 or more inches above the soil line, with steps or a ladder provided. Construction of the well will be much easier if you excavate it first, before installing the egress window. Ensure proper drainage. A cover or grate may be installed on top of the window well to keep out small animals such as skunks, but it is subject to the same operating principles as the egress opening itself.

Egress Window as a Design Element

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Basement remodel? don't forget the egress window!

While the recent razing of the ASB Building on Broadway was obvious to any passerby, the extreme makeover next door wont be apparent for a few months yet.

The Medical Office Building (MOB) is being remodeled to house what will be called St. Rose Health Center; the name change from St. Rose Ambulatory & Surgery Center would occur as a result of a successful joint venture between Hays Medical Center and Centura Health, which continues to be negotiated.

The MOB, which opened in 2009, will be home to existing and new services.

St. Rose Senior Vice President Leanne Irsik outlined the basics of how the facility will be re-configured.

A new entrance will be added to the southeast side.The first floor will accommodate registration just inside the main entrance, where the atrium is now.Other first-floor occupants will include St. Rose Family Medicine & Urgent Care, infusion and specialty nursing, laboratory collection, occupational testing, and imaging and diagnostic services.The second floor will be home to the Specialty Clinic, Great Bend Internists and the licensed ambulatory surgery center.

Golden Belt Home Health & Hospice will remain in the Kirby Medical Office Building, located just south of St. Rose; other support offices also will move into the Kirby facility.

The ambulatory surgery center will include one main procedure room with three spaces for patient care before and after procedures, Irsik said. These are same-day procedures that require local or regional anesthesia or sedation. The most common are minor biopsies, endoscopies, colonoscopies, pain management and carpel tunnel treatment.

The parking lot will be directly south of the lobby, outside the new entrance. Parking also will be available on the west side. After the new building opens, the west entrance temporarily will be used while the east end is completed after the circular towers are separated from the MOB.

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Remodeling progresses at St. Roses Medical Office Building

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) - To appreciate the history behind the Sanford House, start with the wallpaper mural in the grand entrance hall of the 168-year-old pillared landmark.

Depicting scenes of life in the Americas in the 1820s, the design is called Vues dAmrique du Nord. It was created by Jean Zuber, a French artist whose company made luxury handmade wall coverings in the late 19th Century, according to The Grand Rapids Press (http://bit.ly/1yKkk6T ).

In 1960, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy salvaged the same woodblock-printed wallpaper and installed it in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House. Youll also find the pattern in the dining room of the Old Governors Mansion in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the elegant Monmouth Historic Inn in Natchez, Mississippi.

Zuber never visited America, but painted scenes from places and events about which he had heard and read. Hence, Boston Harbor has tropical Spanish moss hanging from its trees and the Indians look like they are from India, not North America.

Rae Green, who restored the house in Grand Rapids with her husband, David, said shes amazed the murals have survived all of the owners and non-profit agencies who have occupied the home since the wallpaper was installed during a 1907 remodeling.

There have been stories that some of the owners almost took it down, said Green, who will operate Sanford House as a private treatment center for women with addictions to alcohol and drugs.

The Greens bought the house for $365,000 in July after it served as an office building for several health and recovery-related agencies over the previous 23 years. Since then, they have invested more than $1 million while restoring and remodeling the home for its next life.

Green makes no apologies for the plush setting, the in-house chef or the $20,000-per-month fee they will charge their clients. Out-patient clients will be charged $600 a week for three-hour thrice-weekly sessions.

There is so much stigma when it comes to someone getting treatment for substance abuse, she said. Sometimes, the stigma is even greater for women.

We want to create an environment that was comfortable so they could focus on the work that they are there to do and restore their lives and the lives of their families.

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168-year-old Grand Rapids house restored as treatment center

Hackensack, n.j. When designer Marlene Wangenheim was called in to renovate a master bath, her client was looking to make the space beautiful and comfortable.

But Wangenheim, of Interiors by Design in Morristown, N.J., thought the 50-something client should think about the long term, and what she might need as she aged.

The result is an expansive, three-room luxury renovation, but with a secret: It can accommodate a person who uses a wheelchair or walker. Design choices like low shelves, an oversized shower and wider doorways mean that the homeowner can keep using the room even if she loses mobility.

This kind of accessible design is expected to become more popular as the giant baby boomer generation ages. Experts say even small design choices can help people stay in their homes in their later years which, according to polls, most want to do. And, as in the Kinnelon bathroom, the accommodations dont have to be obvious or look institutional.

One obstacle to the use of accessible design, however, is that a lot of homeowners resist the idea that they might ever become disabled. Often, theyll say, Theres nothing wrong with me; I dont need a grab bar.

Rather than raise the thought of disability, Wangenheim tries a softer approach, saying, How about we make it so you dont have to worry if youre still in the house in 10 or 15 years? And she paints the design choices as ideas that would make the homeowner comfortable now: for example, rounded edges so they dont bump into sharp corners if they use the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Stephen Melman, director of economic services at the National Association of Home Builders, agreed that many accessible design choices such as curbless showers and improved lighting make homes safer and more comfortable for able-bodied people, too.

If youre bathing a young child in the tub, would it be such a bad thing to have a grab bar and 50 years later, use it yourself? he asked.

Companies that make these products are increasingly trying to win over customers by making them look less institutional offering, for example, designer grab bars in finishes like brushed nickel or bronze, with detailing that mimics towel bars.

Maria Stapperfenne, president-elect of the National Kitchen and Bath Association, said that many products that were designed for accessibility have made it into the mainstream for example, curbless showers, improved kitchen lights, and console bathroom vanities with space underneath.

Excerpt from:
Remodeling Ideas For Aging, Illness

If you are considering remodeling or redecorating an existing home, or if you are building a new home, the space planning and design aesthetic is extremely important to your long-term happiness with the results.

It is vital to have an outside, objective and professional perspective that can allow you to plan appropriately, choose items wisely and prepare for future need s.

Beyond decorating, interior designers also understand building codes, can provide illustrations and renderings and help the homeowner decide the ultimate goals with the space.

These three tips help when deciding what to do with an existing space.

Find a focus: Choose something that you like doing in that room. Whether the room is for conversation, eating, or entertaining, decide the focus of the space.

Then, take one item from that room and center the design aesthetic around that piece. It could be an accent pillow, piece of art or a family heirloom that has been handed down for generations.

Mix and match: Do not feel like every color, texture and style has to match within the room. If it does, the look appears more formal, but less tailore d.

Instead of using the same style for everything, use varying designs for lampshades, art, frames and pillows.

Choose sizes wisely: Analyze the size of your furniture and accessories. Many people choose furniture that is too big and accessories that are too small.

Think about the scale of your items and realize that smaller furniture can make the room feel larger.

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House Calls: Redoing rooms

BEND, Ore. -

From the inside, Mosaic Medical's newest clinic in southeast Bend is small --500 square feet --but still looks pretty typical: exam rooms and medical supplies.

Head outside, though, and you'll see it's not so ordinary: The clinic is housed in an apartment complex -- in an old laundry room, to be exact.

It took about $50,000 to upgrade the room from a place holding washing machines to a room fit for medical care.

There are two exam rooms, and another room that doubles as an office for clinicians and a small lab.

A couple dozen people gathered at Ariel Glen Apartments Tuesday to celebrate that accomplishment and more.

The clinic is the first of its kind in the region, but it's really the result of a bigger endeavor -- a nearly $12 million project renovating and upgrading the low-income apartments at Ariel Glen and nearby Healy Heights.

The project was funded by community partners, including PNC Real Estate, and was spearheaded by Housing Works. Mosaic Medical put in about $20,000 in supplies and equipment for the new clinic.

The renovations included new sidings, paint on the buildings and remodeling of the individual units. Each apartment also was outfitted with washing machines and dryers, so the complex's laundry room was no longer necessary.

"We'll be providing well-women exams, regular physical exams, wellness visits, sickness visits," said the clinic's resident nurse practitioner, Lisa Gladden.

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Bend apartments' old laundry room now clinic

Medical Center Enterprise is preparing for many upcoming construction projects in the coming months, including two projects this weekend.

Between Dec. 12 and 14, the patient parking lot located across the street from the hospital is being completely restriped to create a better flow of traffic for patients and visitors.

Parking will be blocked off in sections but alternate parking will be available close to the entrance to the hospital. Also, during equipment installation, all patients and visitors will be asked to enter through the emergency room entrance through a door marked Emergency until installation is complete.

Once installation is complete, all visitors can enter through the main entrance, located under a sign that says Hospital once again. All hospital services will continue as usual during these projects, but visitors and patients are advised to follow signage and instructions.

This construction is all part of a $1.3 million renovation project that will create a new, modernized look for MCE. Construction has already begun on the Medical Centers third floor, the medical inpatient floor and future plans include the remodeling of the second floor patient rooms.

Some projects that have already been completed are the addition of new flooring for the main lobby and the emergency room, as well as an addition of a multi-purpose classroom in the lobby of the Womens Center.

For additional construction news and updates, please visit MCEHospital.com.

Excerpt from:
MCE emergency room entrance, parking changes Dec. 12-14