Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

Gaithersburg, Maryland-based TWP Enterprises, the largest independent regional building materials company serving Maryland, D.C. and Northern Virginia, will be acquired by Raleigh, North Carolina-based building materials supply company BMC Stock Holdings Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

Gaithersburg, Maryland-based TWP Enterprises, the largest independent regional building materials company serving Maryland, D.C. and Northern Virginia, will be acquired by Raleigh, North Carolina-based building materials supply company BMC Stock Holdings Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

TW Perry, founded in 1911, has six area lumber yards, retail stores, a design studio, a custom millwork operation and a truss manufacturing facility. The company sells lumber, building supplies and materials, doors, windows, hardware and power tools to professional remodelers and custom homebuilders.

The company has $200 million in annual sales.

We are impressed with their pro remodel business, highly diverse customer base and value-added product mix, which is aligned with BMCs core strategy. This addition will expand our portfolio in the growing Northern Virginia, Maryland and D.C. markets, said Dave Flitman, president and CEO of BMC, in a news release.

The acquisition is expected to be completed in December.

Earlier this month, TW Perry announced its acquisition of Hyattsville, Maryland-based building materials supply company Peoples Supply Co. Inc. Peoples Supply was founded in 1932.

BMC Stock Holdings is one of the nations largest building materials supplier, with $3.6 billion in annual sales across 18 states.

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Gaithersburg building supply company TW Perry to be acquired - WTOP

AFTER dominating at the HIA Perth Housing awards last month, Giorgi also outshone the competition at the 2020 HIA Colorbond Steel State Housing Awards, collecting seven gongs.

Their stylish build in City Beach was crowned WA Home of the Year and also won Custom Built Home and Residential Interior Design awards.

In addition, the Osborne Park-based builder received awards for Apartment Complex and Apartment of the Year for a South Perth development and Innovation in Housing and Outdoor Project for a magnificent Caversham residence.

More: The HIA Perth Housing Award winners

HIA WA executive director Cath Hart said Giorgi were well deserving of their achievements.

We saw Giorgi walk away from the Perth Housing Awards with an abundance of accolades and now theyve replicated that success at the WA Awards, which is a huge effort given the competition they were up against which included winners from all over the state, she said.

They have a highly reputable team who have been behind some incredible homes this year, and they now have the honour of being among the contenders at next years Australian Housing Awards which is an outstanding achievement in itself.

Ms Hart also congratulated all the winners and finalists, saying they should be extremely proud of the work they were able to produce in a year that presented many challenges.

Golden Key Award for WA Display Home of the Year was won by Grandwood By Zorzi for a striking home in Dalkeith, while the GreenSmart Sustainable Home was won by McAullay Builders for a clients home in the Mid-West suburb of Waggrakine.

WA home of the year: Giorgi, City Beach

Affordable housing project: Promenade Construction, Nollamara

Apartment complex: Giorgi, South Perth

Apartment of the Year: Giorgi, South Perth

Custom built home: Giorgi, City Beach

Golden Key for WA display home of the year: Grandwood by Zorzi, Dalkeith, Dalkeith

Excellence in service (small builder): joint winners: Character Living and Dorrington Homes

Excellence in service (medium builder): Nulook Homes

Excellence in service (large builder): Blueprint Homes

Excellence in showroom display: Summit Homes Group, Myaree

Framed housing: Arklen, East Fremantle

GreenSmart sustainable home: McAullay Builders, Waggrakine

HIA professional small builder/renovator: Ultimo Constructions

HIA professional major builder: Summit Homes Group

Innovation in housing: Giorgi, Caversham

Liveable home: Weststyle, Swanbourne

Outdoor project: Giorgi, Caversham

Project home: VM Building, North Perth

Renovation/addition project: AMG Home Builders, West Leederville

Residential building designer: Humphrey Homes, Mosman Park

Residential interior design: Giorgi, City Beach

Small commercial project: Assemble Building Co., Cloverdale

Small lot housing: Resonate Homes, Bunbury

Spec home: Averna Homes, Como

Specialised housing: Inspired Homes, Treeby

Townhouse/villa development: Dasco Building Group, Claremont

Townhouse/villa of the year: Perth Renovation Group, Fremantle

Transportable/kit home: Evoke Living Homes, Gillingarra

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HIA State Housing Awards: City Beach home named best in the State - PerthNow

Lofty Building Group Urges South Australians to take advantage of the Commonwealth's $25,000 HomeBuilder Grant while they still can

ADELAIDE, Australia-December 4, 2020- (Newswire.com)

Don't miss out on the Australian Government's $25,000 HomeBuilder Grant. The pressure is on to get contracts signed by 31 December 2020, so be quicktime is running out to take advantage of this incredible offer.

With the recently announced extension, contracts signed between 1 January 2021 and 31 March 2021 (inclusive) can still qualify for the Grantbut for the reduced amount of $15,000.

Lofty Building Group will remain open over the Christmas and New Year period to ensure South Australians can take advantage of the current $25k Grant and get a head start on home ownership. That's right, Lofty Building Group is only closed on Christmas Day, to help reach the deadline.

One of South Australia's best custom home builders.

The talented Lofty team are leaders in construction and property development, boasting an enthusiasm and passion for bespoke builds that has seen Lofty recognised as an award-winning builder.

From the initial concept through to giving life to the ultimate vision, Lofty consultants create stunning homes in all shapes and sizeswhether it's realising a unique design from the ground up, developments such as sub-divisions or hammerheads, or the selection of an affordable, customisable house and land package.

No challenge is too great.

Years of experience and extensive, intimate knowledge of building design enable Lofty to hit the ground running so projects can be underway without delay, which is of great importance due to the timelines imposed on HomeBuilder contracts.

It's about building better, smarter and faster.

Lofty FastTrack is a targeted, streamlined and efficient process that enables the group to construct innovative, custom homes faster than evera great benefit when it comes to reaching the construction commencement timeframe of 6 months for the HomeBuilder Grant.

This responsiveness coupled with a flexible approach to custom home design allows Lofty Building Group to adapt to any deadline. The Lofty approach, both on site and off, makes a huge difference when it comes to meeting strict targets.

Take the effort and stress out of building a new home.

The Lofty project management service puts the client first. Lofty is committed to delivering exceptional results, ensuring a smooth build process and mitigating any risk.

Get a jump start on building and home ownership by taking advantage of the $25,000 HomeBuilder Grant, while it is still available. Lofty Building Group are open over the Christmas break to help eligible South Australians meet the deadline and get into a Lofty home sooner.

Contact Lofty Building Group today on (08) 8266 0011 or book a consult online (loftybuildinggroup.com.au) to explore eligibility for the HomeBuilder Grant and to lock in an exciting build project before this rare opportunity passes by.

Press Release ServicebyNewswire.com

Original Source:Lofty Building Group Welcomes the Federal Government's HomeBuilder Grant Extension but Urges Eligible South Australians to Act Quickly to Avoid Missing Out on the $25k

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Lofty Building Group Welcomes the Federal Government's HomeBuilder Grant Extension but Urges Eligible South Australians to Act Quickly to Avoid...

DAYTON A plan in the works since April reaffirms the town of Daytons commitment to providing quality water to its citizens and outlines practical ways to do that.

Michelle Christopher, source water protection specialist with the Wyoming Association of Rural Water Systems, has been partnering with the town to develop a Source Water Protection Plan. The plan outlines how the town will maintain the quality of its drinking water as it continues to develop and grow.

Maintaining the quality of water will maintain quality of life in Dayton, Christopher said. Protecting that resource becomes more and more important as development comes in and the town continues to expand.

Christopher was approached earlier this year by Daytons water and sewer operator Lorren Lane to work on the plan, which is provided free to all communities that request it.

I just thought it was really good to have it as a resource, Lane said. Its a good way to keep an eye on our water. It just shows that we care about the quality of our water. I think it can be hard to care about water quality as a landowner if you dont sense that the town has the same priorities. So this is a way to get those priorities down in black and white.

Christopher helps anywhere from three to five Wyoming communities develop water protection plans each year, but Dayton proved to be more challenging than most because of its unique water resource structure. The town has two water sources a well, which pumps in groundwater from the Madison Aquifer, and surface water from the Tongue River.

Dayton was a challenge because its a two-source system, Christopher said. So I was completing a surface water plan and a groundwater plan at the same time. It was like writing two plans at once. But the nice thing for the town is that, if something happens to the well, they still have the surface water from the Tongue River and vice versa. They are really set up well if something unexpected happens.

When drafting a water protection plan, Christopher considers a variety of ways to improve the water quality. These solutions usually involve working with those who share the water source including the county, forest service and adjoining land owners.

We start by asking whats going on in this landscape that could affect source water quality, Christopher said. We cant stop development, and we cant stop industry. But, sometimes, even small changes to how you develop a parcel of land or permit septic systems can have major impacts on water quality.

Daytons hundred-page draft plan has two major suggestions for how to improve water quality, Christopher said. The first is working with the U.S. Forest Service to designate the Upper Tongue River Watershed as a municipal watershed. This would require the forest service to make clean drinking water a priority when making management decisions involving the Tongue River.

The second suggestion involves working with the county planning and zoning board to ensure septic permitting in the town does not have an impact on the drinking water sources, Christopher said.

The draft source water protection plan is currently being reviewed by Dayton Town Council. Once the council makes their edits to the document, Christopher will hold a public meeting to inform community members about the plan and how it could affect landowners in the area.

I dont know what that will look like or when it will happen, Christopher said. The way things have been going, we may just hold a Zoom meeting where we hang out in our pajamas and talk about source water quality. But we definitely want to hear from the community and all the stakeholders. After that, we can hopefully adopt it.

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Dayton working to keep water clean | Local News | thesheridanpress.com - The Sheridan Press

EUGENE, Ore. After the Holiday Farm Fire devastated communities in Western Oregon, a local group has come together to help victims take steps toward rebuilding literally.

One Hope Lane County has gathered together with other local churches, businesses and organizations to build sheds to be placed on properties of people who lost their homes in the wildfire.

The aim of the project, Sheds of Hope, is that anyone who is trying to start rebuilding on their property would be able to store tools in the shed. They can also use it as a shelter from the rain if they are working to rebuild over the winter.

Executive Director Steve Buss said they have a short-term goal of building 50 sheds and have completed six so far.

These sheds -- for a group of about five or so, the pre-fab work can get done in about five hours. Then we are partnering with community members in Blue River and Vida to validate homeowners who lost their home in the fire, and then we can connect them with one of those homeowners to go ahead and install the shed on their property, Buss said.

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Sheds of Hope to help wildfire victims rebuild - KEZI TV

The Knight Commission likes to take credit for things that either:

1. Already happened.2. Will happen soonanyway, regardless of its input.3. Will never happen, period, but it sounds good to make the case.

This self-importance has been at the core of the three-decade history of this body, which set up shop one day in 1989 using tax-protected foundation funds and soon commenced issuing edicts about the direction it believed college athletics should follow in the future.

MORE: College football Week 14 primer: Heisman Watch, upset picks, predictions and more

To be fair, some members of the media have helped inflate the delusion that the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletic matters, covering its public hearings and panel discussions as though they were working the halls of the U.S. Capitol and composing articles whose very existence indicated the commissions work should be given serious consideration.

There was more such material presented Friday, following the most recent boondoggle suggested by the Knight Commission: the creation of a new governing body for programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision, separate from the NCAA but only in that single sport.

Say what now?

The Knight people are not suggesting the "Power 5"break away and form their own governing body for all sports, which has been posited by some media analysts and a college coach here or there (a terrible idea that underestimates the value and importance of the NCAA Tournament). They're saying that only FBS football should separate and form a governance structure theyre calling it the National College Football Association to handle "health, safety, revenue distribution, litigation, eligibility, and enforcement."

Yes, thats right: This group is so pretentious it uses the Oxford comma.

What is not covered in the organizations 1,300-word release is why the Power 5s-that-be in FBS football would have any interest in diverting a substantial portion of the revenue generated by the College Football Playoff into the creation and maintenance of a separate entity to lord over one particular sport, or why individual schools would wish to take on the inconvenience and, almost certainly, added expense of dealing with one regulatory body for football and a second for the many other sports they offer.

Not everyone who follows college sports understands that the most significant FBS athletic programs known inside the NCAA as the autonomy conferences and to the general public as the Power 5 currently have authority, according to the NCAA Manual, to use their resources to advance the legitimate educational or athletics-related needs of student-athletes and for legislative changes that will otherwise enhance student-athlete well-being.

To an extent, they make their own rules.

To the fullest extent, they keep nearly all the money generated by the CFP.

To the greatest extent possible, they have no incentive to take the action suggested by the Knight Commission.

MORE: College football picks, predictions against the spread for every Week 14 top 25 game

A commission survey of Division I university presidents, athletic directors and conference commissioners indicated dissatisfaction with the current arrangement a predictable outcome, given that Division I comprises more than 350 universities, only 130 of which make up FBS football. Of that group, only 65 are in Power 5 leagues.

The Knight Commission concluded a "big solution"was warranted. But a separate NCFA would do little more than take certain expenses off the NCAAs balance sheet. It wouldnt force the Power 5 into a legitimate playoff system, or one fairer to the other 65 football programs. There would be no guarantee of a more equitable revenue distribution from the CFP.

The Knight Foundation itself is a worthwhile endeavor, presenting grants that help facilitate advancement of education, journalism and the arts, particularly in communities that once were served by newspapers in the esteemed Knight-Ridder chain. Its dalliance with the college sports world, however, has been a worthless exercise in grandstanding that produced no tangible benefit to college athletes or college athletics.

In its materials, the commission lauds itself for the "improved graduation success of student-athletes,"although the NCAA already began taking significant action after it was revealed during the 1980s before the commissions formation that high-profile athletes in both football and basketball had gone through college while functionally illiterate.

It has done little, meanwhile, to advance the concept of the student-athlete experience. Cost-of-attendance payments never were a significant part of its campaign. The commission tried to take credit for recommending name/image/likeness (NIL) reform in early April although, in fact, the NCAA had a working group in place, led by Val Ackerman of the Big East and Gene Smith of Ohio State, in May 2019 that produced a comprehensive proposal for NIL reform on April 30.

"No single entity is responsible for FBS football the most powerful sport in Division I athletics,"incoming Knight co-chair Nancy Zimpher said in the organizations release. "It is time to end this leadership void and bring more accountability to the sport, both for the benefit of athletes and for the future of FBS football."

Which athletes would benefit? Thats not clear. And how would it enhance the future of FBS football? Theres no obvious answer. So why would the strongest programs agree to this proposal? Your guess is as good as mine. And the Knight Commissions, apparently.

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Knight Commission's proposed college football 'solution' sheds no light on why it would work - Sporting News

New research suggests there is a gender gap in affective polarization: Women in the United States tend to be more hostile than men towards their political rivals. The findings, which have been published in the journal American Politics Research, indicate that this gender gap is related to womens stronger partisan identities and stronger attitudes about abortion.

In the media, women politicians are often stereotyped as consensus building and willing to work across party lines, said study author Heather Louise Ondercin (@HeatherOndercin), an assistant professor at Appalachian State University.

This portrayal of women did not match what we know about womens political behavior, mainly that they hold stronger partisan attachments than men. We wanted to figure out how womens political identities and issue positions shaped their feelings towards the parties compared to men.

The researchers analyzed data collected from 1980 to 2016 by the American National Election Studies. In the nationally representative surveys, the participants were asked to indicate how warmly or coldly they feel towards the Democratic and Republican Party on a visual thermometer scale which was used as a measure of affective polarization.

Women are slightly more affectively polarized than men, meaning that there is a larger difference between womens feelings towards their political party and their feelings towards the other political party, Ondercin told PsyPost.

The surveys also asked how strongly the participants identified with their political party, and whether they considered themselves extremely liberal, liberal, slightly liberal, moderate or middle of the road, slightly conservative, extremely conservative. In addition, the surveys assessed attitudes towards social welfare and abortion.

All of these factors helped to explain the difference between men and women in regards to affective polarization.

These differences in affective polarization are a function of the strength in political identities and issue positions. Women hold stronger partisan identities than men, and the strength of these partisan identities matters more for women than men. In addition to partisanship, womens stronger attitudes about abortion contribute to the gender gap in affective polarization, Ondercin explained.

The researchers controlled for variables such as race, income, education, region, age, employment status, religious tradition, church attendance, and marital status. But like all research the study includes some limitations.

One question steaming from this project is, why do women hold stronger partisan identities? We find that womens higher levels of affective polarization are partially a result of women holding stronger partisan identities. Other research also finds that women tend to hold stronger social identities and attribute this to womens being more pro-social. More work needs to be done to understand what role pro-social behavior plays in the formation and strength of partisan identities, Ondercin said.

The study, Youve Lost That Loving Feeling: How Gender Shapes Affective Polarization, Heather Louise Ondercin and Mary Kate Lizotte

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New study sheds light on why women tend to have greater animosity towards political opponents - PsyPost

Fatts Russell had 17 points and Jeremy Sheppard scored 14 as host Rhode Island closed on a 15-2 run to beat Seton Hall 76-63 on Wednesday night in Kingston, R.I.

Ishmael Leggett and Makhi Mitchell (11 rebounds) each had 11 points for the Rams (3-2), who broke open a close game late to win their third in a row. Rhode Island overcame 25 points from Seton Hall star Sandro Mamukelashvili to prevail.

Rhode Island led by one at halftime, but the two teams played back-and-forth basketball with the lead until the hosts used a 5-0 run to take a 66-61 lead with just under 6 minutes to play in the game. With the game tied at 61, Sheppard hit a 3-pointer and Leggett followed with a basket to give his team some breathing room.

Sheppard's long basket with 1:23 left in the contest put the Rams up 71-63. Seton Hall (1-2), which shot 42.3 percent for the game, went the final 3:08 without a point and missed its last eight field-goal attempts. It also did not help that the Pirates went 13-of-23 from the free-throw line.

Rhode Island jumped out to a 9-0 lead before Mamukelashvili hit a pair of free throws at the 17-minute mark for Seton Hall's first points of the contest. Thanks to the early play of Russell and Leggett, the Rams led by as many 14 (23-9) during the first 20 minutes.

However, the Pirates were not about to roll over and shook off some early shooting woes (3-of-11 start) to get back into the game. Seton Hall used a 9-0 run, capped by Jared Rhoden's turnaround jumper with 51 seconds left in the first half, to take a 35-34 led. Rhode Island, though, took a 36-35 lead into the break on a Jermaine Harris bucket.

Seton Hall, which has been hindered by COVID-19 issues to its early schedule, was playing its third game in six days.

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Rhode Island sheds Seton Hall with late run - jacksonprogress-argus

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. The coronavirus (COVID-19) was silently circulating through the United States in mid-December, a federal study published Monday found, indicating the virus was spreading globally weeks before scientists and health officials previously thought.

The study, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, analyzed blood samples collected by the American Red Cross in nine states from Dec. 13 to Jan. 17 and found evidence of coronavirus antibodies in 106 of 7,389 donations.

Specifically, 2% of results collected from California, Oregon and Washington (39 out of 1,912 samples collected from those areas) between Dec. 13 and Dec. 16, 2019 confirmed the presence of the virus. Additionally, antibodies were discovered in 67 samples from Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin in early January.

The presence of antibodies indicates an individual was exposed to the coronavirus and that an immune response was triggered.

The CDC previously analyzed seroprevalence the presence of a virus in a population based on blood samples in 10 different cities and states last spring and found the actual numbers of people infected with the virus was actually between two and 13 times higher than was previously confirmed through positive test results.

The latest CDC study adds to the growing evidence that the coronavirus was stealthily circulating through the U.S. and the rest of the world before health officials and the public were aware. While the first confirmed coronavirus case in the U.S. was reported on Jan. 19, the findings suggest the virus had already gained a foothold well before widespread testing was available.

Despite the research, the scientists who conducted the study said widespread community transmission was not likely until late February.

The scientists said the study also reaffirmed the value of blood donations as a source for conducting SARS-CoV2 surveillance, adding that the research will help broaden the understanding of the virus as cases, hospitalizations and deaths once again surge across the country.

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Study sheds light on how early coronavirus started circulating in U.S. - SILive.com

Earths mantlethe 2,900-kilometer-thick layer of rock beneath the crustremains enigmatic, even to the scientists who study it.

When it comes to the deep Earth, which is one of the unexplored frontiers of our planet, we simply cant drill deep enough to make any measurements of temperature or composition, said Pritwiraj Moulik, a postdoctoral associate in the University of Marylands Department of Geology.

Thats why Moulik and other geologists are using seismological and other geophysical measurements to make a three-dimensional reference Earth model (REM-3D) of the mantle that can be used for everything from better understanding earthquakes to neutrino geosciences. The team will present project updates at AGUs Fall Meeting.

Scientists rely on measurements of seismic waves, which are produced by earthquakes or explosions, to map out the interior of Earth, similar to how doctors use computerized tomography to understand whats going on inside a patient. Because the velocity of a seismic wave varies depending on the temperature and makeup of what its traveling through, researchers can use those measurements to create 3D images of mantle features.

This process, called seismic tomography, is not new. But what makes the REM-3D project unique is that the team collected data and feedback from geologists and other scientists around the world. The number of data points is staggering: Researchers received 227 million surface wave measurements. And they incorporated four different kinds of waves, each of which better reflects a different part of the mantle, to finely tune the model.

Incorporating all of these diverse constraints and the broad expertise in the community is a challenge because there are substantial differences in techniques, said Moulik, who stressed that it was remarkable how much dataand timeother deep-Earth researchers contributed to the project.

Max Rudolph, an assistant professor in the University of California, Daviss Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, agreed that community involvement from deep-Earth researchers around the world makes this project stand out. And I think the fact that this has taken so long to come to maturity really reflects the monumental nature of the undertaking, he said.

In crunching the data, the team has already made new discoveries about the mantle. For example, there has been some debate among geologists about the structure of rare, thousands-of-kilometers-wide mantle upwellings. Members of the team were able to show that the lower parts of the upwellings have a different, denser composition than the upper parts, which allows them to last for hundreds of millions of years instead of being transient features, said Moulik.

Rudolph, who studies geological fluid mechanics, plans to use the 3D mantle representation in his own research to model mantle flows. He also envisions the new project serving as a launching point for smaller-scale models that could show finer levels of detail. Moulik echoed that idea, saying we want to be able to describe the haystack first with the 3D reference model before we go about finding needles.

The new model could also help seismologists more accurately measure the magnitude and other properties of earthquakes, which they currently often do by fitting individual seismogram measurements with older, one-dimensional reference models. And Moulik noted that techniques developed to make this model could eventually be used for similar efforts to probe the interiors of other rocky planets.

The model, as well as Web-based apps and underlying data sets, will ultimately be available to the public.

Elizabeth Gribkoff (@eliz_gribkoff), Science Writer

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Geologists to Shed Light on the Mantle with 3D Model - Eos