Who's living there? Owner-occupied houses decline in Clark County: Before she bought a new home in 2004, Debra Michaud couldn't understand why a sales agent kept assuring her "only 20 percent" of neighboring houses would be sold to investors with no plans to live there. After all, she had not asked about out-of-town landlords or even considered what they might mean for her new neighborhood. But Michaud soon realized that many homes were sold to non-resident owners after all and quickly leased to tenants who, she said, didn't care for their homes, congregated in the street day and night, attracted criminals, and intimidated other residents. Crime has become such a concern that no-parking red zones line every inch of curb in her subdivision, speed bumps were installed and "No Loitering, Police Enforced" signs are posted in all public areas."We had the police here all the time. There was gang activity and a lot of break-ins. It was a scary place to live. This street was so bad that neighbors wouldn't come here to trick or treat," Michaud said. Her neighborhood lies near Commerce Street and Centennial Parkway in the northern outskirts of North Las Vegas. Michaud, who owns a window-cleaning business with her husband, purchased the home at a time when real estate values were skyrocketing and investors thought Southern Nevada real estate looked more prosperous than other investments. Now Michaud, her neighbors and hundreds of others who bought in those days live in neighborhoods where 40 percent or more of the homes do not belong to the occupants.
Public officials and others are quick to point to Las Vegas' foreclosure and unemployment rates, the worst or near worst in the nation, to explain the decline in home ownership. With Southern Nevada's unemployment the highest in the nation, and with the newest crop of outside investors - some from as far away as Guam and Israel - paying cash for 40 percent to 50 percent of the foreclosed homes for sale, Debra Michaud is worried what the future holds for her neighborhood. If an original investor who paid more than $200,000 for a home chose to lease to undesirable tenants a couple of years ago, she contemplates aloud, who will the new investor, who paid $100,000 or less for the same house, allow to occupy it? "I am afraid it will happen again," Michaud said. "They don't care about the neighborhood because they don't live in their home. All they care about is getting their money."
An 85-year-old widow claims she is forced to ‘live in a pig sty’ despite having paid her flat service charges in full for three years. Dina Sale bought her ground-floor flat at Ainsworth Court, Belgrave Heights, Darwen, three years ago after the death of her husband, Cliff. She pays a £57.55 monthly to Manchester-based property management firm Stevens Scanlan as a service charge for maintainence and insurance. Mrs Sale, who has mobility problems, said: “At first everything was lovely. Now I can’t open the blinds, they are so dirty. “The windows have not been cleaned since last August.A spokesman for Stevens Scanlan, said the problem had occured because half of the tenants of Ainsworth Court had not paid their service charges. He said: “All owners pay into a fund for services and they are jointly liable. "We are administrators who just collect the money that is paid. "Legally, we can’t underwrite the payments to people like the gardener or the window cleaner on behalf of the other people who fail to pay. “The money that has been paid by tenants is used for essentials such as buildings insurance, third-party liability and electricity for the communal areas. “Health and safety must come first before cosmetic things like gardening, but it’s not correct to say that they have been suspended – they are just less frequent.
A former Carlisle window cleaner who falsely claimed nearly £45,000 in benefits has been ordered to cash in his investments to pay back as much of the money as he can. Stephen Nicholson, 58, of Linden Terrace, Harraby, was handed a 36-week suspended jail sentence in June after admitting claiming benefits even though he had up to £40,000 in the bank. A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing at the city’s Crown Court yesterday heard that he had already repaid nearly £21,500. He admitted that he had benefited by another £22,000. But, because he had only £10,187 left in his bank accounts, that was as much as the court could order him to pay. He will go to prison for eight months if he does not pay within 28 days.
Eric Silver, owner of the local Fish Window Cleaning® franchise, received the Rising Star Excellence Award for the midwest region at the company’s annual convention held in St. Louis in July. The award recognizes his franchise’s overall operational excellence, sales revenue, and account development during 2009. Silver’s franchise provides commercial and residential window cleaning services to customers in Denton, Corinth, Lake Dallas, Hickory Creek, Argyle, Westlake, Trophy Club, Roanoke, Little Elm, Oak Point, Aubrey, Gainesville, Decatur, Krum, Justin, Ponder, Crossroads, Sanger, Valley View, and Prosper, Texas. St. Louis-based Fish Window Cleaning has over 220 locations in the United States and is the largest window cleaning company in the country. The organization ranked 182nd on Entrepreneur Magazine’s 2010 Franchise 500.
Whether you're considering renovations in order to sell your home or simply want to increase the property's overall value, small improvements can lead to big payoffs. One of the most cost-effective ways to improve the appearance of a home's interior is to clean the house thoroughly and reduce clutter, said Pat Petrosillo, a real estate broker in Wappingers Falls. Petrosillo also suggests shampooing carpets and putting some elbow grease into window cleaning. "This may sound nuts, but if windows are clean they sparkle more," she said. She said, "Houses are selling, but not for what people are expecting." "It's priceless what some simple cleaning and de-cluttering can do for a home," she said.
How to Get Fingerprints Off of Anything: The almighty baby wipe takes care of grubby fingerprints on mirrors and windows. It seems to be able to cut through grime easily, and without leaving unsightly streaks. If you've already tried to clean your window or mirror and you're dealing with streaks, get your hands on a microfiber cloth, like the ones that come with a new pair of glasses (but you'll find bigger window cloths at the grocery or hardware store). Microfiber cloth is almost perfectly suited for cleaning glass surfaces, and often works great completely dry.
Now that you're impressed with all my ant knowledge, which has been of no help whatsoever, here's how to get rid of them in your house: window cleaner. Yep, Windex or some other variety of window cleaner will wipe away the ants. More importantly, it will remove the ant scent trail, which will leave all the other ants without a clue as to where to go to bother you!
Frank McCowan has a song in his heart - a song about Oakland. It's a beautiful ballad he has composed and would like adopted as Oakland's official song. Wanting to create a lasting tribute to his favorite city, McCowan wrote "Oakland, California" back in 1983.He has diabetes, arthritis, and walks with a cane. He no longer drives, but he doesn't need eyeglasses. He still travels - Egypt a few years ago - and he mows the lawn at his East Oakland home, literally across the street from San Leandro. "I'm making it," he said with a smile. McCowan once played the bass and sang for such local bandleaders as Chuck Phillips, Junius Courtney, Olen Greenwell and Clarence "Candyman" McGuirt. "I liked singing ballads," he said. "That was back with the big bands." Those were side jobs. McCowan was a laborer, mainly a window washer. After retiring, he went back to his native Oklahoma for two years, but couldn't stay away from Oakland and thus returned to the scene of his fondest musical memories of 50 years ago, when Seventh Street was hopping with blues and booze.
If you have some things that go bump in the night, there's a new company that may be able to help you figure out just what it is. Jim Berkowitz and Eileen Higgins have recently opened Queensbury Paranormal Investigation Team and will investigate any potential paranormal activity free of charge. Berkowitz works for the post office, and Higgins is a nurse, and the business is the pursuit of a hobby. Both have had personal experiences with the paranormal, and now have the equipment to discover and record this activity. A couple of years ago, the pair ran a janitorial company and were cleaning an old building on Warren Street at night. "I always felt we weren't alone in that building," Berkowitz said. "On our third night there, a woman in a black dress walked by the bathroom."
If the very idea of a spray-on film that can turn windows into solar collectors sounds too good to be true, think again. After all, Japan's University of Tokyo did come up with a Wi-Fi-blocking paint, while a number of companies including Konarka have developed solar cells that sit within the window.Pushing the envelope on solar panel technology is Norwegian company EnSol, which has patented a prototype thin film solar cell technology designed to be sprayed onto any glass surface. In fact, plans are afoot for a thicker solution to coat exterior walls or be used in the form of "clip-together" solar roof tiles. If this technology works as planned, it could take away the need to plonk big solar panels on rooftops, particularly in industrial settings.
Unlike traditional silicon-based solar cells, EnSol's film uses metal nanoparticles embedded in a transparent composite matrix. Ensol's collaboration with the University of Leicester's Department of Physics and Astronomy could have the product seeing the commercial light of day by 2016. Pictured - Testing EnSol's spray-on film inside a deposition chamber.
Preparation for Malaysia's 53rd Independence Day: Workers are seen completing the glass tinted works of the Malaysian Flag 'Jalur Gemilang' onto window panels of a building in Kuala Lumpur in preparation for celebrating the upcoming Malaysia Independence Day. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Bird Friendly Glass Helps To Prevent Birds Flying Into Them: Someone has apparently crunched the numbers and estimated that more than 100 million birds are killed every year due to collisions with glass surfaces – not to mention the untold numbers of beverages spilt by surprised people as a bird slams into a nearby window. Birds see the tree or sky reflected in a window or the environment behind the glazing, but not the glass itself. German company Glaswerke Arnold (or Arnold Glass) has come up with a simple way to prevent these collisions by producing a glass that appears normal to humans but is visible to birds.
Working on the principle that birds possess the ability to see light in the ultraviolet spectrum, the company’s Ornilux Bird-Protection Glass borrows a trick from orb-web spiders that protect their laboriously woven webs from birds flying through them with a special UV-reflecting silk. Recognizing this, the company developed the glass with a patterned UV reflective coating that makes it visible to birds while maintaining transparency to the human eye.
The glass was first introduced in 2006 but the company has released an aesthetically improved version with a crisscross pattern. Developed in collaboration with the Max-Planck-Institute for Ornithology, this latest version is called Ornilux Mikado because, when looked at against a backlight, the coating looks like a randomly unfolding layer of the game Mikado pick-up sticks.
Testing at the Max-Planck-Institute for Ornithology at the Ornithological Station in Radolfzell, Germany resulted in a bird strike reduction of up to 75 percent in comparison to standard double glazing. Not sure if any animals were harmed in the testing procedure but if so, they obviously gave their noggins for a good cause. Glaswerke Arnold’s Ornilux Mikado Bird-Protection Glass picked up the red dot award for product design 2010. See previous blog here.
Float glass manufacturer, Sezal Glass today said it has formed a 50:50 joint venture company with UK based CGI International for marketing fire rated glass under the brand ''Pyroguard''. "We have formed a joint venture company with UK''s CGI International called Sezal Firebaan Glass for marketing fire rated glass under the brand Pyroguard," Chairman and Managing Director of Sezal Glass, Amrrut Gada said. Our UK partner offers fire rated glass which is heat resistant for between 60 to 120 minutes, and the time frame can be enhanced depending on the consumer demand, he said. The company expects the market for this type of glass to grow by 40 per cent in India amidst rising security concerns. "In future we expect huge demand for this type of glass to come from sectors like defence and railways, as the security concerns are rising," Gada said, adding there is also demand from commercial buildings, hospitals and shopping malls.
Family Scammed Out Of Rental Home: INDIANAPOLIS - A family who recently moved to Indianapolis lost a $450 rental deposit and is now searching for a place to live after being taken by a scam. The couple was duped by two men who claimed to be in charge of renting a duplex at 142 S. Emerson Ave., on the city's east side. Kristen Carr said she believes the men broke into the duplex to show them around. After being provided with a rental receipt and keys, Carr and her husband, Chad Yattaw, realized the keys did not work. "It's awful. It's horrible. I can't believe somebody would do this, and they knew we had kids and what the situation was and still took advantage," Carr said. The couple and their three children are now staying at a hotel. They were hoping to move into their new place over the weekend. "I mean, they took from my family. Obviously they're taking from what's closest to me," Yattaw said. "I'm a high-rise window washer. I risk my life every day to make the money that I make."
There's something about living with other people that calibrates your tidiness against each other and assigns one person the role of Clean Freak (aka The Nag) and someone else the role of Messy Pig (aka The Nagged). It's a widely held misconception that clean freaks are female. Wrong. I live with a Domestic God and I don't say that to brag. It's hell. My husband may not be able to bake, but he is a very tidy guy. Organised, too. I am neither tidy nor organised domestically and this causes many problems. For him. But for me, too. May I please speak up on behalf of messy people and state it's not fun to be told constantly how to be less messy? Pretty soon, you're lying on the couch in stained pyjamas defiantly flicking belly-button lint on the floor, while your partner whips on a white glove to do the finger test on window sills while glaring at you from across the room. The thing with cleaning is that it's a war of attrition. It's not that Messy People will never clean. We will and we do. It's just not as ... you know, urgent, for us as it is for Tidy People.
