Volunteer Ron Falldorf (left), a retired electrical engineer, introduces (left to right) Kathy McDowell, Alexandra Hafer, and her aunt, Katie Hafer, to their jobs on the Habitat for Humanity project, which provides homes for wounded veterans.

LAKESIDE Some of the bank tellers, loan officers and executives who descended on a Lakeside construction site Saturday had never actually built anything before.

Even so, it didnt take long for these white-collar workers to get into the swing of drilling, hammering and sawing all in the name of community service.

The team from Bank of America is the latest in a series of crews to take a turn at constructing three townhouses for wounded veterans, a project from San Diego Habitat for Humanity.

I have done a lot of volunteer work, but never anything that required power tools. This is a whole new world. I had to stop and take a selfie just so my boyfriend would believe that I did this, said Megan Allen, an educational training specialist who drilled exterior siding above a second-story window while gingerly navigating scaffolding.

Founded in 1988, the San Diego affiliate of the faith-based Atlanta charity has provided homes to 192 families who meet need, income and credit requirements and are willing to work 500 volunteer hours of sweat equity for the groups cause. Volunteers have also renovated homes of more than 60 low-income families and veterans.

Habitat builds homes for roughly $250,000 and sells them to clients for about $150,000 to $160,000, with the goal that zero-percent 25- to 30-year mortgage payments make up no more than 30 percent of the homeowners take-home pay.

Habitats construction and renovation projects benefit families who are losing access to the American dream, said Elizabeth Berg, director of development for the local affiliate. The projects also make for an experience that often doubles as effective team-building exercises, offering volunteer employees a shared experience that transcends the confines of a traditional work environment.

In the workplace there are set strata levels. But on our work site, everyone is on the same level, Berg said. This lets people make a tangible and long lasting difference in the world. You can drive by a home and know that you put that wall or tile in the kitchen. It is very gratifying.

The $1.2 million townhouse project broke ground in March and is about halfway finished. Wall frames were prepped for dry wall, and exterior siding went up Saturday. The project is expected to be completed in June due to the efforts of thousands of volunteers.

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Volunteers hammer away for wounded vets

1206 Carnoustie Cir, Grove City, OH Presented by Gregory Skinner.
Click link to see more photos, school, area information and more: http://www.searchallproperties.com/listings/1796585/1206-Carnoustie-Cir-Grove-City-OH/auto?...

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By Susan Dunlap

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By Susan Dunlap - Sun-News Silver City residents Amanda Welford (left) and Lori Reyes were part of the crew of 20 artisans who made the 20,000 tiles Syzygy Tile shipped to Disney World in Orlando, Fla., on Wednesday.

SILVER CITY >> Twenty-one years ago husband and wife team Lee Gruber and David del Junco were driving through Pennsylvania on a pleasure trip when they stopped in Doylestown at the home of Henry Mercer who was an early twentieth-century tile artist. They were so inspired, they learned as much as they could from the ceramicists at the Mercer home, bought some books and started their own tile company here in Silver City.

Now with a crew of 20 artisans, their company, Syzygy Tile, shipped off a box of tiles produced for Disney World in Orlando, Fla., on Wednesday.

"We're delighted to have the order," Gruber said.

The process to make the tile that will be on display by mid-February in Disney World starts with wet, soft clay, showroom floor manager Patrick Hoskins said.

By Susan Dunlap - Sun-News Lee Gruber, co-owner, along with her husband, David del Junco, started Syzygy Tile in Silver City 21 years ago out of their home.

"We really, really strive for handmade," Hoskins said.

The clay gets shaped through one of three methods, through a cookie-cutter process cutting the tiles into shapes or through pressing out the tile or by extruding the tiles. The tiles that Disney choose were cut into diamond-like shapes.

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Syzygy Tile ships 20,000 tiles for Disney World Wednesday

(PRWEB) January 30, 2014

HomeThangs.com the Online Home Improvement Store has made their goal to deliver the right product to the consumer. With that in mind, shopping and home design tips, as well as special product selections are being introduced.

Mediterranean style bathroom vanities have a distinctive, slightly exotic style. Antique vanities inspired by French and British designs are more commonly available, but are markedly different in style from their southern neighbors. HomeThangs.com has introduced a guide to this elegant style, as well as a few features to look for.

Victorian style bathroom vanities are practically defined by their floral and scalloped seashell detailing, and many French-inspired antique pieces use similar vines and flowers to accentuate their woodwork. But in a Mediterranean style bathroom, woodwork is bigger, bolder, and oftentimes more abstract, with a more assertive, masculine appearance.

Bold starbursts, and lots of intricate, and geometric detailing are more at home in a Mediterranean style bathroom than subtle florals. Especially in bathrooms with a lot of intricate tile work, the woodwork on the vanity should reflect the geometry of the mosaic tile. Both Moroccan and Turkish inspired bathrooms make use of colorful, starburst patterned tile called zillij, and a bathroom vanity that mimics the pattern can really help ground the design.

Moroccan bathrooms also make extensive use of wooden latticework called jali screens. These can be carved with broad geometric shapes or smaller, more delicate and lace-like detailing, and are used to create screens between spaces, cover windows, or simply decorate the walls or ceiling. Mediterranean bathroom vanities with similar woodwork can be used to supplement or substitute these elaborately carved wood screens.

Bathroom vanities with very detailed inlaid woodwork work well in a Mediterranean style bathroom, too. These are different from vanities with traditional veneers even patterned veneers in that they use different types of wood (or differently finished wood) inlaid in small pieces to create a more intricate image. Once again, these nicely echo the beautiful mosaic tile work thats so closely associated with a Mediterranean style, and have a beautiful, hand-made antique quality that fits well with a slightly more glamorous Mediterranean style bathroom.

That said, many Mediterranean bathrooms tend to emphasize natural building materials, like soft, sandy travertine or even adobe walls. These have a sun-drenched, earthy quality to them that reflects the lush coastal environment of the region. And while many Mediterranean bathrooms have a very posh, sophisticated look, others emphasize a simpler, more old fashioned style that hearkens back to ancient, stone-hewn architecture. For this type of bathroom, look for a much more rustic bathroom vanity made of weathered wood with a distinctive, natural grain.

Finally, while many northern European inspired antiques put a lot of emphasis on intricate metal door and drawer pulls, for a Mediterranean style bathroom, aim for a bathroom vanity that uses wood hardware instead. Again, this is part of emphasizing the more rugged, rustic look of the Mediterranean style, but carved wood pulls (or even simple wooden knobs) also have a nice feel to them that underscores the very tactile element of this type of bathroom.

To see more of this gorgeous Mediterranean style, check out more vanities from James Martin, or read the full article here.

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HomeThangs.com Has Introduced a Guide to Mediterranean Style Bathroom Vanities

Serviced Apartments London - Luxury Penthouse Rentals In Kensington
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3527 Aero Ave | Daniel Nowak
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They needed to demonstrate again what kind of players they are.

It is very important in that sense to win things and the only way to win is with a high performance from all of them, but with style to do it.

Maybe, of course, I think they want revenge. This team is growing and I am sure we are in the correct way to try to do it.

Having finished second in La Liga to Barcelona with Real Madrid four years ago with a record runners-up points haul of 96 points Pellegrini has yet to win a league title as a coach in Europe. But the Chilean believes that City are capable of ending his barren run this season.

It is an important possibility because I have a team that can win a title, Pellegrini said. The other 10 years I was in Europe, maybe the only team I could win with was Real Madrid and it was a pity we played against a great Barcelona.

I am not only thinking just to win a title here for myself because I think it is important the club wins a title. But to win the title, you must win more points than the other clubs. I think in the second half every team will drop points, it is important for us to drop fewer.

We have a month of February where we have very important games for the Premier League, to try to continue on the top of the table with Arsenal and Chelsea. After we have knockout games against Chelsea in the FA Cup and the first leg against Barcelona, very difficult games.

From now until the end of the season we must continue in our best form.

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Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini hopes Premier League tile hurt will work in club's favour

HUNTSVILLE Operations at Huntsville Fire Station No. 2 are close to being back to normal.

Firefighters have not used the station on Sam Houston Avenue since a storm last April flooded the building with up to three inches of rain. Just as Huntsville assistant fire chief John Hobbs said last week, water and Sheetrock dont mix.

The flood caused enough damage to prompt the City Council to approve $150,000 in restoration funds to get the fire department back on its feet.

Costs for the mold and asbestos remediation make up $60,000 of the budgeted money requested, while drainage improvements accounted for $15,000. Another $75,000 was spent on replacing the exterior siding, interior walls, ceiling tile, heating and ventilation duct work and electrical work.

It came through here like a river, Hobbs said while standing at the back of the fire station.

A mobile home park sits behind the station on higher ground where a small retention pond is supposed to collect water. Between a suspected overflow of the retention pond and drainage issues, the fire station experienced its worst water damage in decades.

Fire department officials said the station has experienced water damage dating back to the 1970s and 80s, but never a flood quite like the most recent one that caused mold and asbestos to develop.

In the 1990s, there was a concrete water trough built to help divert water toward the U.S. Army Reserve Center, which sends the water through a pipe and eventually dumps onto Sam Houston Avenue.

Since the flood last year, a two-foot wall was built around the retention pond to help do the same thing. The stations ground level is now three feet higher and sandbags have been carefully placed in the area as well.

Over the years (the retention pond) has filled in, so its useless, Hobbs said. When it rained, the water would come down the hill and then it would pile up. Our drain wasnt big enough at the time. We had five inches of rain in this particular area of Huntsville. So we started doing measures to raise some doors and enhance the drainage with the citys street department.

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Back to normal, almost

LA CROSSE, WI (WKBT) -

One La Crosse church is getting involved in a community discussion about compassion this weekend.

More than 6,000 students in La Crosse's schools are creating their own canvas tile to depict what compassion means to them.

Sunday, the First Congregational Church invited the public to take part and make their own compassion tiles at a workshop. Paints, art supplies and food were provided to those who attended.

Event participants say it's a way to express your own view of compassion, and its importance in our community.

"It's cool because you kind of express what compassion means to you, and you can kind of see everything of what other people think about compassion and what it means to them, said church member Evan Kyte. It's cool seeing everything coming together and everybody's ideas.

If you're interested in taking part, you can buy a tile for $3 from the workshop and work on it at home. Church officials ask that you return your tile by the end of February.

The tiles will be put on display in the First Congregational Community Room during Lent.

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La Crosse Church joins Compassion Project

Beautiful Park Pacifica Family Home
Well Maintained and Updated Park Pacifica Home. Main level features 3 Bedrooms and 2 Full Baths, including a Master Suite, Living/Dining Room, and a Gourmet ...

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