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TYRA PACHECO/Standard-Times specialThe 16x20 master bedroom is tucked into an open loft overlooking the living room. The result is a unique room with just enough privacy.
Like so many other SouthCoast communities, Acushnet is a town filled with architectural diversity. From modest starter homes to increasingly more elaborate construction, and everything in between, there is a little piece of suburbia here for everyone. Even in a town with such variety, our Home of the Week at 260 Mendall Road in Acushnet is a bit of a surprise.
Some 50 feet off this country road, surrounded by a good number of tall oak and pine trees, sits the Cape-style log home. Since it was built in 1983, only two families have called this house their home. In Realtor Sharon Seifert's eight years of selling real estate, this is only the third log home she has shown.
AMES, Iow -- Family members and several prominent Iowa lawmakers called on Thursday for a new investigation into the death of an Iowa contractor in Iraq after video surfaced of the killing. Keven Dagit of Jefferson was working for Halliburton last September when insurgents attacked his convoy. Dagit's parents, Lloyd and Gloria, want to know why U.S. troops left their son and a group of contractors alone, with no way of defending themselves after their convoy came under attack. The new video may shed fresh light on that and other questions. .
Home builders and school officials celebrated their new partnership Thursday in a noontime ceremony in front of the Old Merced County Courthouse, symbolically signing the pact which could lead to construction of new schools here. Merced Union High School District trustees ratified an agreement Wednesday night with the county's Building Industry Association which will see new homeowners pay $3.06 per square foot, four times the amount previously collected. Guy Maxwell, president of the building industry group, lauded the new agreement in the half-hour ceremony below the courthouse steps. More than two-dozen people attended the event. "It's the end of a very long journey. A lot of people worked hard to make this happen. I love our new relationship. This is a win-win situation for the betterment of Merced County," Maxwell said.
Established in April 2005, FFB provides sale and leaseback financing for model homes to builders of single-family homes across the United States. FFB affords builders a stronger position with the lending and investment community by allowing them to create simplified balance sheets.
To date, FFB has two separate funds under its corporate umbrella, which, collectively have invested over $40 million with six builders developing homes in 10 states throughout the U.S. Targeting primarily new developments and sub-divisions, FFB typically invests in homes ranging in price from $150, 000 to $450,000. Among the new services to be offered by FFB are financing and joint ventures for land acquisitions and single-family subdivisions. A third fund of $100 million is currently being offered.
Loudoun Housing Advisory Board members sought to drum up support among local builders yesterday for their proposed solutions to the county's housing needs, including a half-cent tax that would generate revenue for a $5 million housing trust fund.Four members of the board presented the results of a workforce housing study to about 50 members of the Loudoun County chapter of the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association at a breakfast meeting at the Washington Dulles Marriott.Since its inception in 2005, the board has been focused on studying possible housing solutions to recommend to the Board of Supervisors. With the recent study completed in the spring, the board is taking the results and its subsequent policy proposals to the public before it makes its recommendations to supervisors in October.At the NVBIA meeting, board members told builders that among other things, the study noted that there is a shortage of more than 14,600 affordable units for Loudoun workers in four industries.In those industries, a disproportionate number of workers commute into the county for their jobs.
A complaint being heard in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) over action taken by electrical and maintenance workers on Tasmanian ports has been withdrawn. Tasports accused the workers of taking illegal industrial action when they walked off the job earlier this week over concerns about the use of a contractor. The AIRC hearing resumed this morning and both parties agreed to meet in a few weeks to try to resolve the matter. On Tuesday, workers at three of the state's main ports walked off the job because a contractor was doing work in Hobart they said permanent workers should do. Workers returned to the job the following morning. However, several hours later Tasports lodged a complaint with the AIRC, claiming the action had been illegal under the industrial relations laws.
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