Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

If the average person were to hollow out a tree branch, turn it into a light fixture and hang it over a dining room table, it would look like the work of a Cub Scout. But in Constantin Boyms weekend home in the Hudson Valley, the branch is perfection. Not too crusty, not too knobby, so artless as to be almost invisible.

Mr. Boym, the chair of the industrial design department at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and co-principal with his wife, Laurene Leon Boym, of the design company Boym Partners, is very good at making things and has recently had lots of opportunities.

Sequestered with his family for 18 months in their 1955 cabin in Esopus, N.Y., he embarked on a long busmans holiday. Inside, he designed a second bedroom for the couples 24-year-old son, Rob, and a mudroom where the refrigerator and laundry appliances could live.

Outside, he introduced to the propertys eight acres a firepit, a village of acquired birdhouses in various architectural styles, a tomato garden, a pavilion with a faux deer trophy that he assembled from found wood (part of a series Mr. Boym calls Upstate Safari) and a metal sculpture on the site of a recently cleared glass-and-metal scrap pile, made from detritus found there (I think something from a baby carriage, he said).

Ms. Boym, who has recently taken to making ironic drawings of controversial consumer products like Land O Lakes butter and Sun-Maid raisins, received a new studio extending from a woodshed.

The couple renamed their augmented property Boym Park.

For people fortunate enough to own a country home during a pandemic, the relief of having a refuge is often tempered by the stresses of making it work. Stuffing a weekend house with a full complement of family members puts a strain on more than the septic system. And with the shortage of available contractors and the scarcity and expense of building supplies, it hasnt been easy to renovate ones problems away.

Which gives designers like the Boyms an advantage: Subjected to the same pandemic conditions as the rest of us, they are equipped to make scrappy home improvements that help maintain their sanity. They can act as their own general contractors, nudging the results they want from builders, electricians and plumbers, or they can do the jobs themselves, without making them look D.I.Y.

It pays to be hands-on and off-the-shelf (or out-of-the-forest). Mr. Boym estimated the cost of the art studio, built with hired help, at $20,000. Yet choosing humble materials like $27 worth of pressure-treated lumber for an outdoor bench that will last half a century is not just a matter of thrift, he said, but a commentary on consumption. He quoted the Russian Constructivist artist Vladimir Tatlins support of not the old, not the new, but the necessary.

Mr. Boym found it necessary that the bench hang around long enough to merge with a tree trunk, fitting into a notch carved into the seat. It was also necessary that another bench be built from logs embedded with oyster mushroom spores that will erupt over much of the piece. A third bench, up the slope, includes a cocktail or beer bar.

If he had his way, Mr. Boym, who was born in Russia, would also have included Soviet-style statues a worker or a girl with an oar but they are not so easy to find, he said.

Twenty-five miles northeast of Esopus, in the Columbia County hamlet of Elizaville, N.Y., Peter Matthiessen Wheelwright was finding it necessary to finish his second novel. An emeritus architecture professor at Parsons School of Design in New York, he had been working on the book for six years and had hit a dry patch when the pandemic struck. Mr. Wheelwright bolted with his wife, Eliza, for their little gambrel-roofed house on 200 acres. They had bought the property, a former marijuana farm, in 1986, after it was seized by the authorities.

I wanted a place to really get out and howl at the moon, he said. But with children and grandchildren swarming in less than 2,000 square feet, there was no quiet place to write.

As an architect, Ive never really had a chance to do a little free-standing thing for myself, he said, making it doubly rewarding to design a tiny studio with a sleeping loft. Construction began with the first Covid-19 stirrings, so he was able to secure most of the materials and labor before they were swamped by demand. The building is heated with a Danish wood-burning stove and has hot and cold water supplied by an office water cooler mounted over a sink that drains into a downspout. There is also a composting toilet and an elevated deck pierced by a fire cherry tree.

The job wrapped up in six months, a labor of love but not economy. Its the famous triad that good architects will explain to their clients, he said. You want it fast, you want it cheap, you want it well done. Pick two.

Mr. Wheelwright wanted it fast and with high-quality windows and doors, an angled ceiling and bead-board paneling instead of Sheetrock. He estimated the cost at $150,000 to $160,000.

Eight months later, his book was done. The Door-Man, a multigenerational saga that centers on the fossil discoveries of the real-life 20th-century paleontologist Winifred Goldring, is due out on Feb. 1 from Fomite Press.

A bit south, in the Dutchess County town of Rhinebeck, N.Y., Calvin Tsao and Zack McKown were also galloping to complete a small outbuilding on a large, rural parcel. The New York-based architects, along with their domestic partner and financial manager, David Poma, had been occupying a renovated gatehouse on 82 acres of protected land as their weekend home, but its 800 square feet left no room for hobbies, much less work. Limited by covenant to 600 square feet for the new structure, they laid out three small studios side by side, connected by a pair of bathrooms, one with a toilet, the other with a shower.

We wanted to use every bit of space, Mr. Tsao said. I always thought that corridors were pointless. The trio of rooms can also be reached from a common screened porch at the end.

The building looks out to an apple orchard and is painted a color based on tree-bark samples collected by the architects and mixed by Benjamin Moore. Six hundred square feet for a studio is not meant to be a razzmatazz design statement, Mr. Tsao said. It is meant to blend in with the flora.

The building nevertheless had a razzmatazz price $350,000 despite the use of engineered flooring, supplies from the local lumberyard and hardware store, and only a slight indulgence in Heath tiles for the bathrooms. The cost of construction is just skyrocketing, Mr. Tsao said.

A bit of the budget was shaved when they needed a column for the breezeway. We just bought a tree trunk for, like, $12, he said.

Started before the pandemic, the house was finished in May 2020, becoming a remote office, where the partners work on projects like rebuilding the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan.

The rural setting has rubbed off on them in profound ways; they are reclaiming oversight of the apple orchard, which had been outsourced to a local farmer, and turning it organic. We want to spend more time here to truly understand what agrarian life and culture is about, Mr. Tsao said.

Architecture is among the most restless of professions, with its far-flung client meetings and site visits. For an architect, to be locked down in a well-appointed studio is likely to feel unnatural. To be locked down in ones home could easily shade into torture.

I was working in about 15 square feet in my bedroom, and trying to coordinate showers and changing clothes and making the bed, Ryan Mullenix, a partner at the Seattle architecture firm NBBJ, recalled about the period in which he was under one roof with his wife and three remote-schooled children. What emerged out of desperation (plus an architect-build-it-thyself urge) was a 70-square-foot free-standing office in his backyard in suburban Bellevue, Wash.

The co-lead of NBBJs corporate design practice, Mr. Mullenix was like a scientist dosing himself with his own serum. His advice for clients trying to adapt workplaces for the future, he said, is to test it dont try to make it perfect the first time out. His little office is a model of minimalism just waiting to be tweaked.

Begun in June 2020, the project took a year to complete, with materials costing about $10,000. Mr. Mullenix did the work himself in his leisure hours, aided sometimes by friends and a professional electrician. He made dozens of trips to Home Depot and sanctioned only two custom moments in the form of a pair of sliding-glass doors for views and cross-ventilation. And, OK, the floor has radiant heat.

Two hours west of Seattle, at the tip of the Toandos Peninsula, Kristen Becker has spent her pandemic weekends learning to use a chain saw, drive a tractor and demolish a carport. This knowledge has all been in the service of renovating an old house that she and her husband, Saul Becker, bought three years ago after learning that it had once belonged to Mr. Beckers grandfather, who gambled it away in a drunken poker game. The couple, partners in the Seattle-based architecture and design company Mutuus Studio, paid $139,000 for the dilapidated three-story building, which had been abandoned for a decade. Gradually, they fixed it up as a weekend retreat and design laboratory.

Aiming for a cabin vibe, the couple created a sleeping loft for their two children that was open to the kitchen, to voices and evening conversations, to the sound of the fire crackling, Ms. Becker said. On the lower level, they furnished a game room with a free pool table they were offered unexpectedly one night, and dismantled and carted home. (Ms. Becker was in heels.)

As for the experimental part, Ive been suspending metal lampshades in the canal and growing barnacles on them as part of making fixtures for the house, said Mr. Becker, who trained as an artist and designs lighting for the company. His laminated linen and canvas panels, reminiscent of fine-art paintings and proletarian drop cloths (he has experience with both), were used on lamps and kitchen cabinet fronts. The crushed shells of oysters pulled out of the bay nearby became countertop material.

Ms. Becker calls the vintage finds she likes to collect and restore puppies. She described the house as a very large puppy.

Its going to be endless, a lifetime project, she said. Check back next year.

For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @nytrealestate.

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What Designers Have Been Doing at Home During the Pandemic - The New York Times

College of The Albemarle (COA) administrators, Dare County elected officials, builders and students gathered at the Professional Arts Building at the Manteo campus for the wire cutting ceremony for the new electrical lab on Wednesday afternoon, January 12, 2022.

COA President Jack Bagwell gave the welcome. It is awesome to grow and expand the campus, he said. This is an example of what we can do when we partner together.

Many members of the Dare County Board of Commissioners were present to celebrate the event. The Dare County Guarantee Scholarship program, funded by Dare County, provides qualified students with the ability to attend COA for free.

There are lots of exciting thing going on in Dare County, and we are blessed to be here. This is just a beginning step, theres more to come, Bagwell said. One year ago, the campus opened its new welding lab and this spring a ribbon cutting ceremony is planned for the opening of the new state-of-the-art academic building currently under construction in Manteo, which will open to students in the fall.

Robert Woodard, the chair of Dare County Board of Commissioners, talked about the countys contribution and vision. We are providing an opportunity at our location for students to obtain skills for a trade-based job. It is of utmost importance to retain students. Dare County needs skilled labor and it will also boost our local economy. We are stepping up to the plate and offering trades more and more, Woodard said.

We are living in truly remarkable times. We are blessed to live in Dare County today. We are looking forward to seeing this new facility full of new students and seeking opportunities that are available to our children in Dare County, Woodard continued.

Next, COA Dean Tim Sweeney introduced Dave Stormont of the Outer Banks Home Builders Association, whose speech answered the question: What does the new lab means for students? We have more work here [in the county] than we can deliver. There is more demand than there is labor. And were not getting ahead in that, were getting farther behind, Stormont said. Citing the age of the majority in the electrician work force mid 40s and 50s Thats concerning, he said. Thats a sign that we need to make some changes. This lab is a first effort.

Stormont talked about the good income possible with trades, and the almost guarantee of full employment because of the growth of the county and the increased demand for labor.

After passing out honorary COA Alumni Association certificates and hats to builders Matt Neal, Jake Overton, Duke Geraghty and Dave Stormont and to Chris ONeill from Kellogg Supply Company for their donations, it was time to cut the wires.

Doing the honors were theDean of Business, Industry and Applied Technologies Michelle Waters, COA President Dr. Jack Bagwell, Dare County Board of Commissioners Chairman Bob Woodard, Outer Banks Home Builders Association member Dave Stormont, general manager of Suburban Electric and new COA electrical instructor Mark Melton, builder Duke Geraghty and COA Dean Tim Sweeney.

Three wires were cut, after which visitors and students were invited inside to tour the new electrical lab. The first course offered in the lab is Intro to Electrical: Residential Basics. The classes began January 17 and runs through May 12, meeting two evenings a week.

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New College of The Albemarle electrical lab celebrated with wire cutting ceremony - The Coastland Times | The Coastland Times - The Coastland Times

The Biden administration wants to increase the Internal Revenue Service budget by $80 billion, claiming that would let Americas favorite federal agency hire more auditors to go after tax cheats and bring in an estimated $400 billion in extra revenue over the next decade. Right now Congress appears unlikely to release the funds, but the question remains: Will an energized IRS mean more audits for small- and medium-sized businesses?

Miri Forster

Either way, entrepreneurs and other taxpayers can take some steps to reduce the chance of an audit or to increase the likelihood of coming out unscathed, said Miri Forster, a tax partner and leader of the Tax Controversy Practice at Eisner Advisory Group LLC.

One recommendation: Taxpayers should make sure that all information returns like form W-2, form 1099 and schedule K-1 are received and that all income is reported, she said. The IRS gets copies of these forms and matches the information with the recipients tax return that is filed. Any discrepancies can raise a red flag with the IRS.

In addition, [t]axpayers that claim large non-cash charitable deductions should make sure to obtain the proper documentation for the deduction, Forster noted. As a general rule, IRC Section 170 requires that deductions for non-cash contributions of more than $500 are supported by contemporaneous, written acknowledgement by the donee organization of the non-cash contribution received, a qualified appraisal by a qualified appraiser that sufficiently details the donated property, and a Form 8283, Noncash Charitable Contributions, which is properly completed.

Red flags for small- and medium-sized businesses

Some business deductions fall into a gray area, where they might be legitimate but will probably cause the IRS to sniff around, according to some tax experts. Others are just begging to be investigated.

Lipton CPA Associates LLC Senior Partner Rich Lipton has been practicing for more than 30 years, but he still gets surprised at some of the tax deductions that some clients suggest.

One of them asked if he could claim the family dog as a deduction, since we provide more than half of his living expenses, Lipton recalled with a chuckle. I told the client, first you have to get a Social Security number for your pet.

A more-frequent question has to do with IRS Roulette, or taking a dicey deduction and hoping itll slide by due to the sheer volume of tax returns. Some clients say, Ive heard that IRS only audits an average of 1% of returns is it worth trying my luck? relates Lipton. My answer is pretty simple. I ask them, If you happen to be audited, do you think the IRS will only examine 1% of your return? That sets them straight.

Some strategies definitely raise red flags with the IRS, he added. Generally, pass-through entities like limited liability companies and partnerships dont pay income taxes at the entity level instead, the owners generally are taxed on their personal return, Lipton said. Some people think that if they dont take a salary are instead tak[ing] a distributive share of the profits they may be able to avoid Social Security and other payroll taxes. The problem is that bells are likely to go off if the IRS sees a company is turning a healthy profit, but no owners are taking a salary.

Lipton thinks the problem isnt that people are inherently dishonest, but that they feel theyre being taxed unfairly. If President Biden wants to hire more IRS auditors to catch tax cheats, thats fine, he said. But do it without raising taxes, because every time you increase the tax burden, you find that more people look for a way around it legally or otherwise.

When it comes to chancy deductions, Airplanes are a big issue, said Grassi Tax Services Partner Robert Tobey. A successful businessperson who buys an airplane, a boat, or art and other collectibles, including high-priced cars like a Ferrari, and then puts it on the companys books so it can be depreciated is basically asking for an audit. We advise clients to steer clear of that maneuver unless theres a legitimate business reason to do so.

A business that reports a lot of revenue, but very little profit may also raise a red flag, cautioned Ted Carnevale, a Grassi partner and co-leader of the New Jersey Market. Another is an S-corporation with no salaries and all draw, a tactic that is generally designed to avoid payroll taxes. Another attention-getting scheme is a highly profitable C-corporation with high salaries but no dividends, which may indicate a desire to avoid double taxation.

Some individuals try to play the IRS audit lottery, where they insist on taking a questionable deduction in the hopes that itll slip past an audit, added Carnevale. Some years back I represented a new client whose prior-year return was being audited. As I was reviewing the already-filed return I noticed his business travel and entertainment deductions seemed to be pretty high. It turned out he had deducted the sizable expenses of his daughters wedding as a business expense. I asked him how he justified it, and he quickly responded, marketing expense. I told him it would be difficult to defend if the auditors picked it up.

Did they? He got lucky, said Carnevale with a smile. They missed it.

Other CPAs also say that taxpayers who keep their nose clean dont have to worry too much. Pass-through entities like S corporations, partnerships and LLCs [where profits generally get taxed at the owners level, and the company itself is not taxed] have been vilified by some politicians, but I just dont see that, said Ted Carnevale, a partner and co-leader of the New Jersey Market at the accounting and advisory firm Grassi. Shareholders get K-1s, and they get matched up by IRS to individuals who have to report them. So its similar to W-2 statements.

Grassi Tax Services Partner Robert Tobey thinks the IRS is likely to go after low-hanging fruit, like cryptocurrency reporting. Its very complicated because the rules are very thin on cryptocurrency, and in the agencys 2021 criminal investigation annual report, IRS reported seizing $3.5 billion of cryptocurrency, or 93% of all seizures for the year.

Carnevale also pointed to a lot of discussion about ultra-wealthy individuals who borrow money against their assets while taking little or no salary to minimize their tax bite. Its particularly attractive during a low-rate environment like were seeing now, and some reports have called it the Buy, Borrow, Die strategy But the fact is theres generally nothing illegal about it. If Congress wants to change their behavior, the tax laws will have to be changed.

Not all deductions are permitted for tax purposes, Forster cautioned. Recently, in Geiman v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo 2021-80, the Tax Court disallowed deductions claimed by an electrician for a concert ticket, ski lift tickets and for a suit and tie to attend a holiday work party. The burden is on the taxpayer to prove that expenses claimed are valid business expenses rather than non-deductible personal expenses. The taxpayer failed to demonstrate that the expenses were ordinary and necessary in connection with his work as an electrician.

[The IRS is likely to go after] low-hanging fruit, like cryptocurrency reporting. Its very complicated because the rules are very

Tobey

thin on cryptocurrency, and in the agencys 2021 criminal investigation annual report, the IRS reported seizing $3.5 billion of cryptocurrency, or 93% of all seizures for the year.

Robert Tobey, Grassi Tax Services Partner

In another case, Lucas v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo 2018-80, the Tax Court disallowed deductions claimed for legal and professional fees incurred by an investment advisor-taxpayer for his own divorce proceedings, she added. The taxpayer claimed that the fees were incurred to defend a claim for distributions from his business. The court disagreed, ruling that the legal and professional fees were non-deductible personal expenses as they would not have been incurred but for the taxpayers marriage and related divorce proceedings.

Finally, in Vest v. Commissioner, 119 AFTR2d 2017-2043, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the Tax Courts determination that deductions claimed for expenses incurred to investigate the death of the taxpayers father were non-deductible, Forster explained. The taxpayer owned an internet dating and advertising business and wished to turn his fathers death into a book or movie. The fees were held to be non-deductible personal expenses because the investigation lacked a profit motive. The court determined the investigation was not run in a business-like manner, the taxpayer generated years of losses without any profit, the likelihood that the assets used in the investigation would appreciate in value were small, and there were strong personal reasons for the investigation.

The bottom line: Regardless of what happens to the IRS funding, playing by the rules will improve your chances of escaping an audit.

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Feeding the beast - NJBIZ

Plumber James Anderson, 52, was so upset at the poverty one family was living in that he gave them 170 of food, gas and electricity to help them out. (SWNS)

A kindly plumber who visited a starving family provided them with 170 worth of food, gas and electricity after seeing the 'actual poverty' they lived in.

James Anderson, 52, whose company provides emergency plumbing services to vulnerable people, said the family called him at the weekend as they were struggling to keep their heating on before they reached their next payday.

He said when he visited the family of five, he was shocked by the "actual poverty" they were living in, with the parents sobbing while two of their children thought they were "going to die" from the cold, prompting him to provide them with food and power to help them out.

Anderson said he noticed he could see the family's breath because their house was so cold. (SWNS)

Anderson, from Burnley, Lancashire, said: "They rang me to see whether there was anything we could do to help them get through until the next time they got paid.

"I said Id pop in and see what I could do. But when I got there, I realised the actual poverty that theyre living in and the impact all this is having on people.

Read more: Schoolboy who cares for disabled mum wins scholarship to Eton

"You walk in and youre talking to them, and you can see your breath while youre talking to them.

"Theyve got children there. Theyre confused because they dont know whats going on.

"The children are like: Why is this happening? Why am I cold? Why cant my mum and dad keep me warm? Why cant they put the boiler on? Why cant they give me a meal."

Watch: More turn to food banks in England as inflation soars

The kind-hearted plumber, who runs not-for-profit company Depher and has built up a reputation for helping people out, said it wasn't the first time recently that he'd been in a freezing home as families try to save money by switching off their heating.

He said: "Over the last few weeks, Ive been to a few houses, not just families but elderly and disabled people as well, and you can see a plume of air coming out of their mouth.

Story continues

"Its that cold you can see your words before you can bloody well hear them, and that should not be acceptable in this day and age."

Anderson called on the government to do something about the cost of living crisis. (SWNS)

He called on the government to help families struggling with the cost of living crisis, and warned that poverty-stricken parents may turn to crime if they can't make ends meet. Where do we draw the line as a society and say, 'Now we need to act?'.

"Theres a lot of stuff the government can do to cut the cost of living by capping these companies that are charging stupid, extortionate, out of reality rates.

The poorest and the lowest in the country are always going to be penalised and expected to pay the most in the country out of everybody else.

Its wrong, and its time for a change.

He added: "There are two options either go to a loan shark and then they get themselves in debt, and that will drive up the crime rate on that side.

"Or even worse, theres going to be more crime with vans, schools, shops getting robbed.

"People are going to go out and take stuff that doesnt belong to them to feed their child thats the next stage were going to see."

Watch: How to solve the problem of inflation

Originally posted here:
Kind-hearted plumber gives family 170 in fuel and food after seeing their 'starving poverty' - Yahoo New Zealand News

Britain's kindest plumber has told of his heartbreak after needing pay for a poverty-stricken family's food and gas bills in the depths of the countrys energy crises.

James Anderson, 52, paid provided the family with 170 worth of food, gas and electricity to help them reach their next payday without going hungry.

He said two of the children thought they were going to die from the cold while their sobbing mum and speechless dad looked on helplessly.

The plumber, whose company Depher gives emergency services to vulnerable people, said he was initially shocked to see his breath in the family of fives home last Saturday.

He quickly realised that their woes were far worse than he first imagined as he got a glimpse of the actual poverty they were living in.

But as energy bills sky rocket, the tradesman said similar scenes would soon be replicated around the country and called on the government to act now to stop them.

He said: Where do we draw the line as a society and say, Now we need to act?

Theres a lot of stuff the government can do to cut the cost of living by capping these companies that are charging stupid, extortionate, out of reality rates.

The poorest and the lowest in the country are always going to be penalised and expected to pay the most in the country out of everybody else.

Its wrong, and its time for a change.

James, from Burnley, Lancs., said hed got a call from the family over the weekend as they were struggling to keep their heating on before they reached their next payday.

He said: They rang me to see whether there was anything we could do to help them get through until the next time they got paid.

I said Id pop in and see what I could do. But when I got there, I realised the actual poverty that theyre living in and the impact all this is having on people.

You walk in and youre talking to them, and you can see your breath while youre talking to them.

Theyve got children there. Theyre confused because they dont know whats going on.

The children are like: Why is this happening? Why am I cold? Why cant my mum and dad keep me warm? Why cant they put the boiler on? Why cant they give me a meal."

Worryingly, James said this wasnt the first time that hed been in a home recently where he could see his own breath as families saved money by switching off their heating.

He said: Over the last few weeks, Ive been to a few houses, not just families but elderly and disabled people as well, and you can see a plume of air coming out of their mouth.

Its that cold you can see your words before you can bloody well hear them, and that should not be acceptable in this day and age.

James believes that many poverty-stricken parents were likely to turn to crime to pay for their familys needs if they couldnt make ends meet in the future.

He said: There are two options either go to a loan shark and then they get themselves in debt, and that will drive up the crime rate on that side.

Or even worse, theres going to be more crime with vans, schools, shops getting robbed.

People are going to go out and take stuff that doesnt belong to them to feed their child thats the next stage were going to see.

James said the government should already be aware of families growing financial problems, which he believed may out-live the pandemic.

The government should know this. The prime minister should know this. Its going to create an unstable problem lasting more than two to three years.

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Plumber gives family 170 of food and fuel to get through to pay day - Wales Online

THERE'S no need to call a plumber for slow drains anymore.

It only takes four effortless steps to fix your slow drain.

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Thanks to expert Carolina McCauley's handy cleaning hack, the solution to your slow drain will be resolved in just ten minutes.

The video, which has received over 205K views, shows the step-by-step method that can be done with only three products.

McCauley first poured a cup of baking soda and white vinegar down the drain.

She then covered the drain with a towel, which helped the heat of the reaction concentrate where it needed to be, and left it for ten minutes.

Once the ten minutes were up, she then poured hot water down the drain.

The results could be seen instantly, as the water drains faster.

Multiple viewers offered their opinion on the cleaning hack.

One person suggested first putting the towel down and then pouring vinegar down the drain.

"Do not pour hot water. Many pipes can be made of plastic and you could melt the plastic," warned another.

Carolina has gained 2.5M followers by providing cleaning tips that are used throughout her house.

In another video that went viral, Carolina shares her hack on how to remove the residue from your pots and pans.

In this 30 minute hack, she took a single dishwasher tablet in the pan.

Then she proceeded by filling the entire pot with water.

Once she left the mixture sitting for 30 minutes, she poured all of the water down the drain and shows off how simple the residue comes when rubbing it off with a sponge.

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I saved $500 on a plumber by using three common household products to make the sink drain faster... - The US Sun

When you have a toothache, you call a dentist; when you have a leaky faucet, you call a plumber. You want someone with on-the-job experience dealing with the challenges that confront you.

This used to be overwhelmingly true in our elections, too, as political science research has long found that candidates who have held political office generally outperform candidates with no elected experience.

But there are signs that this is now changing, with voters showing a greater willingness to back amateur candidates. This includes, of course, now-former President Donald Trump the ultimate example but it also applies to, say, plenty of U.S. House members. Its not a one-party trend, either, as both Republicans and Democrats increasingly support inexperienced aspirants. And its likely that more amateurs could be headed to Capitol Hill after the 2022 midterm elections potentially lesser-known House candidates, like AirBnB executive Andrew Kalloch running as a Democrat in Oregon, or higher-profile U.S. Senate contenders, like television personality and physician Mehmet z running as a Republican in Pennsylvania.

The phenomenon of more inexperienced candidates running for office is something political scientists Sarah Treul and Rachel Porter of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have worked to document. Focusing on primaries for House seats where no incumbent ran from 1980 to 2020, Treul and Porter found a substantial uptick in the number of inexperienced candidates beating out experienced candidates, especially in the past three election cycles, as the chart below shows. And while some of these inexperienced candidates have (nonelected) backgrounds in politics or government, most dont.

At first, Treul and Porter thought this trend was confined to Republicans, given that inexperienced contenders won more than 50 percent of Republican primaries in open-seat races in 2016. But in 2018, Democrats also showed a strong appetite for political amateurs, with around half of the partys primary winners in open seats having never held office before. This trend continued for both parties in 2020, too.

We started to see these patterns in the more recent congressional elections where the candidates without prior experience were performing better, said Treul. And we started to think that these old theories the [political science] discipline had might not be holding up anymore. Rather, changes driven by campaign fundraising, voter attitudes, political rhetoric and weak political parties seem to have diminished the advantages that experienced candidates have long had, such as campaign expertise, high local name recognition and already-established donor networks.

For starters, inexperienced contenders just dont face the same barriers they once did in attracting financial support from interest groups and donors. Traditionally, its been a challenge for newcomers to attract donations from political action committees, which are often key to congressional candidates raising enough money to win their elections. But Treul and Porter found that ideological PACs typically interest groups focused on a narrow range of issues or just one have given more to inexperienced candidates in recent years.

Moreover, Porter found in her research with co-author Tyler Steelman (also of UNC-Chapel Hill) that the more money an inexperienced candidate raises from outside their district early in their campaign, the more campaign cash they tend to raise overall. Theyre also more likely to win their primary. In the social media age, its just become much easier for candidates with no elected experience to connect with a broad group of small donors who are receptive to their candidacies. In fact, as I wrote last year, an amateur candidate can raise millions with the right viral video, even in hopeless contests.

Porter told me that the amount of money spent in politics following the Supreme Courts 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission is likely working in concert with the increased interconnectedness brought about by the internet to collectively boost amateur candidates profiles. We don't think it's a coincidence that all of this kind of came to a head at the same time, said Porter.

Beyond money, though, voters are also increasingly disillusioned with our institutions, especially Congress, and are also attracted to anti-establishment rhetoric. As a result, they may assign less value to a candidates previous elected experience and may be more receptive to outsider candidates with messages promising to shake things up. It's this combination of inexperience and anti-establishment rhetoric that makes these candidates especially attractive to voters, too, according to Treul, as outsiders sound more credible making those appeals. In fact, her research with co-author Eric Hansen of Loyola University Chicago has found that voters have more positive reactions to a candidate when the candidate uses anti-establishment messages compared with establishment-sounding rhetoric, and that respondents may somewhat prefer an amateur candidate over an experienced one.

The increased success of inexperienced candidates may also speak to the weakness of our political parties, which serve less of a gatekeeping role than they once did. This is partly down to the growing influence interest groups have in grooming and supporting candidates. Where the party puts its money and where these organizations put their money isn't always the same, said Porter. These organizations say, We don't necessarily need to go with the party candidate. We can pick this other person. Often, though, this person isnt the partys prefered candidate.

Perhaps surprisingly, though, the uptick in inexperienced candidates running and winning nominations hasnt meaningfully hurt a partys chances of winning House seats. Thats in part because primaries are often the main decision point in determining a districts next representative, given there are so few competitive House districts. But Treul and Porter also found that inexperienced candidates just dont perform any worse than experienced ones in general elections where there is not an incumbent. And that may be in large part a side effect of polarization and negative partisanship that is, the reality that most voters are going to support their partys nominee, no matter what.

Treul and Porter plan to do more research on how their findings may apply to the Senate, but theres little reason to think that the same forces arent at work there, too. After all, out of nine Senate contests in 2020 where a newcomer won, five were won by candidates with no electoral experience. In fact, because Senate candidates run statewide campaigns, an amateur candidate who already has a fair bit of notoriety like, say, z in Pennsylvania might have an even easier time getting elected than an amateur in a House race. This is where you see bigger names. It's easier to get media coverage. It's easier to get attention, said Treul. She also noted that because a Senate seat carries more legislative value than a House seat, outside groups may even spend more on behalf of candidates they like.

There are some upsides, though, to more inexperienced candidates winning their elections. Namely, it may lead to more diversity within Congress, with more women and people of color holding office, as they historically have had more difficulty breaking into the elected offices that have traditionally served as stepping stones to Congress. Porter pointed to the 2018 cycle, where she told me a majority of nonincumbent women who won House races didnt have a history of holding political office. The alternative pathways to getting into Congress mean that we're getting greater representation, she said.

But there are some downsides. Namely, there is simply less governing experience in Congress now. Treul and Porter found that between 40 and 52 percent of the freshmen House members in the three most recent congresses had no previous experience as an elected official, compared with an average of about 30 percent per class between 1991 and 2015. If new members keep being this inexperienced, it could have a detrimental impact on Congresss efficacy research suggests that prior elected experience can make a member of Congress a more effective legislator. But perhaps even more troubling than the decline in experience is that some of the newly elected members dont appear to be interested in learning to govern. Their voters may not care that much, either.

Consider freshman Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, who infamously said last year that he had built his staff around communications rather than legislation. Porter told me that might not be an issue for Cawthorn, though, because if members are really good at seeming like they're good at their job, no ones going to be angry. Similarly, Treul mentioned GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and how it might not matter to her constituents that shes been kicked off of committees, as they may have voted for her for other reasons than her ability to govern. What we're all valuing our members of Congress for has completely changed, said Treul. I think that's pretty fascinating and pretty damning for the institution as a whole.

On the one hand, inexperienced candidates arent necessarily a bad thing for Congress, especially if it increases representation, but if many successful political amateurs are uninterested in governing, Treul and Porter fear Congress will become even more dysfunctional. Treul thinks that might be where things are headed, too. I think we're still at the tip of the iceberg, she told me. I see a world continuing to look more and more like the elections of the last few years, where inexperienced candidates just become the norm and that's who we're sending to office.

Original post:
Why More Inexperienced Candidates Are Running And Winning - FiveThirtyEight

City will only pay for homeowner's cost to identify where blockage was coming from

A Burnaby resident is furious the city wont cover all of the costs associated with damage caused from a blockage in the municipal drainage system that flooded part of their home with sewage.

The resident doesnt want their name used in the story, but has backed up the claims with documentation that includes an official letter of decision from a City of Burnaby claims and risk specialist.

The incident happened in October of 2021 and the resident is still fighting with the city because it will only cover part of the cost associated with the damage.

The resident detailed a serious plumbing problem in their downstairs bathroom in which sewage was backing up all over the floor. The resident paid for a plumber to investigate.

Only when the plumber went outside on city property (Stoney Creek) did he find sewage seeping out of the manhole, the resident said.

The city was then contacted and it dispatched a crew to the site. The plumber was brought back to use a camera inside the drainage system to mark the spot of the issue, which was caused by roots from trees on city property.

The city has agreed to pay for the cost of using a camera to identify the problem, but has refused to pay for the full plumbers bill or the cost of cleanup and renovations to fix damage caused by the sewage.

I am very frustrated because the flooring also needs to be replaced, the resident said. The water and sewage has penetrated underneath the linoleum, which needs to be replaced due to the smell, moisture and unsanitary condition. Water and sewage had to be cleaned up by me and long afterwards the smell was horrible.

According to the letter the resident received from the city, Section 744 of the Local Government Act provides that a municipality has no liability for damages (physical loss or expense incurred) arising from the failure of the municipal drainage system. The City responded and took actions immediately after the service call was received; therefore, the City is not negligent in this matter and has no legal liability to the property owner or their insurers for the damages/expenses incurred in this case. However, City policy as it relates to sewer expense reimbursement actually extends somewhat beyond liability and so the City is able to reimburse the reasonable expense incurred to locate the source of a blockage on the City side but only if the blockage is caused by a crushed or broken pipe within the road allowance or by the roots of City planted trees within the road allowance. In this case, the blockage was found on the City side and roots caused the blockage were from trees on the Citys land. The City is willing to reimburse the camera inspection fee that you have paid to the plumbing company.

The resident said they are considering legal action.

Residents living in the Stoney Creek area of Burquitlam have long complained about sewage bubbling up from manhole covers and leaching into the creek and onto their properties. Multiple levels of government are working on long-term plans to deal with the situation.

Read the rest here:
Burnaby resident fuming as city won't cover cost of sewage damage caused by its system - Burnaby Now

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Global Pipe Repair Clamps Market Applications, Types and Future Outlook Report 2021-2027 to Latest Innovations and Major Players are The Plumber's...

The report Global Plumbing Devices Market2022 delivers a 360-degree view of the Plumbing Devices Market. The most influential trends and their impact analysis data are available in the report. The key drivers, restraints, and opportunities that will shape the market during the forecast period are mentioned in the report. Furthermore, the threat from substitutes and the challenges the market will face in the coming years have also been noted in the report.

The Plumbing Devices Market research study has been composed using key inputs from industry experts. Furthermore, the extensive primary and secondary research data with which the report has been composed helps deliver the key statistical forecasts, in terms of both revenue and volume. In addition to this, the trends and revenue analysis of the global Plumbing Devices Market has been mentioned in this report. This will give a clear perspective to the readers how the Plumbing Devices Market will fare in globe.

Executive Summary

According to GRD Survey data, the global Plumbing Devices market is estimated at million US$ in 2021 and is expected to reach million US$ by the end of 2028, growing at a CAGR of % in the forecast period between 2022 and 2028.

This report studies the Plumbing Devices market dynamics from angles such as new entries, mergers and acquisitions, fundings, exit and major technology breakthroughs. Market performance is evaluated through market size (value and volume) by players, regions, product types and end industries. This report also studies the global market competition landscape, market drivers and trends, opportunities and challenges, risks and entry barriers, sales channels, distributors and Porters Five Forces Analysis.

Geographically, this report is segmented into several key regions, with sales, revenue, market share and growth Rate of Plumbing Devices in these regions, from 2016 to 2027, covering

North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)

Europe (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain and Russia, etc.)

Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, India, Australia)

South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, etc.)

Middle East and Africa (Turkey, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, etc.)

Market Snapshot, By Product Type

Water to Warm

Radiator

Other

Market Snapshot, By Application

Household Use

Commercial Use

Other

Main Market Players Analyzed in this report, including:

TOTO

Rifeng

Moen

Kohler

Joyou

Jomoo

Jinniu

Huida

HHSN

Grohe

Ginde

Barick

The study objectives of this report are:

To study and analyze the global Plumbing Devices market size (value & volume) by company, key regions/countries, products and application, history data from 2016 to 2020, and forecast to 2027.

To understand industry structure of Plumbing Devices market by identifying its various subsegments.

To share detailed information about the key factors influencing the growth of the market (growth potential, opportunities, drivers, industry-specific challenges and risks).

To identify the key global Plumbing Devices manufacturers and regional typical players, to define, describe and analyze their sales volume, value, market share, market competition landscape, SWOT analysis and development plans in next few years.

To analyze the Plumbing Devices market with respect to individual growth trends, future prospects, and their contribution to the total market.

To project the value and volume of Plumbing Devices submarkets, with respect to key regions (along with their respective key countries).

To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the market.

To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.

In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Plumbing Devices are as follows:

History Year: 2016-2020

Base Year: 2020

Estimated Year: 2021

Forecast Year 2021 to 2027

This report includes the estimation of market size in terms of value (million USD) and volume from top-down approach by analyzing major submarkets and their major driving factors, and verified from bottom-up approaches. Key players in the market have been identified through secondary research, and their market shares have been determined through primary and secondary research. All percentage shares, splits, and breakdowns have been determined using secondary sources and verified from primary sources.

For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2020 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.

Key Stakeholders Considered in the study:

Raw material vendors

Distributors/traders/wholesalers/suppliers

Regulatory authorities, including government agencies and NGO

Commercial research & development (R&D) institutions

Importers and exporters

Government organizations, research organizations, and consulting firms

Trade/Industrial associations

End-use industries

A detailed segmentation evaluation of the Plumbing Devices Market has been provided in the report. Detailed information about the key segments of the market and their growth prospects are available in the report. The detailed analysis of their sub-segments is also available in the report. The revenue forecasts and volume shares along with market estimates are available in the report.

The competitive landscape of the market presented in the study profiles the most prominent players in the market. The business overview, recent developments, key strategies, and revenue share of key market players in the global Plumbing Devices Market have been covered in the research report. Moreover, the latest events and their impact on the Global Plumbing Devices Market have been presented in the report. In addition to this, the report features strategic recommendations that will help new entrants or established players optimize their ROI.

For technical data and manufacturing plants analysis, the report analyzes Plumbing Devices Market leading suppliers on capacity, commercial production date, manufacturing plants distribution, R&D Status, technology sources, and raw materials sources.

This report also presents product specification, manufacturing process, and product cost structure etc.Production is separated by regions, technology and applications. Analysis also covers upstream raw materials, equipment, downstream client survey, marketing channels, industry development trend and proposals. In the end, the report includes Plumbing Devices Market new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, investment return analysis, and development trend analysis. In conclusion, it is a deep research report on Global Plumbing Devices Market. Here, we express our thanks for the support and assistance from Plumbing Devices Market chain related technical experts and marketing engineers during Research Teams survey and interviews.

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See the article here:
Plumbing Devices Market Outlook 2022: Overview, Opportunities, Key Companies and Forecast to 2028 TOTO, Rifeng, Moen, Kohler, Joyou, Jomoo, Jinniu,...