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The Master Builders Association has recently implemented its Green Living training plan and accreditation to provide better access to tools and information for a more effective approach to sustainability in construction practices. Builders who complete the training and adopt sustainable innovations in their operations will be able to identify themselves as Master Builders Green Living builders. The brand will enable builders to market their services as businesses that are skilled in the design, construction and maintenance of high quality structures that adopt industry best practice for sustainability in the built environment.To qualify for the accreditation, you must be a member of the Master Builders Association and attend the two day Green Living course. The new training will provide competencies in designing, building, installing and maintaining environmental innovations.
Erik Blitvich, meet tough love, real estate style: If you're trying to move a property in a slow market, you're not only going to have to clean it, you also might have to stage it, too.
Staging is the practice of dressing up, or sometimes dressing down, a home to make it more appealing to buyers. As a business, it's a relatively young field that's gaining a foothold in the Chicago area as anxious sellers look for a way to attract that increasingly scarce commodity: a sales contract.
"When there's a ton of houses on the market, you have to set yourself apart and help the buyer's imagination kick in," said North Side real estate agent Beth Wexner, who routinely uses stagers to help make her listings look more like builders' models than places where people live.
"The performance of the construction industry in the past twelve months has again exceeded expectations" the Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government, Mr. Dick Roche, TD, said today. "The outlook remains positive with the immediate trend being towards further growth. All keys sectors of the industry are now performing strongly. While house building continues to be the pace-setter, commercial development and public investment are also performing strongly. In particular the strong investment in industrial, office and retail development signals a growing level of confidence which augurs well for the economy as a whole and indicates that Government policies are having the desired effect". The Minister was speaking at the launch of the Review of the Construction Industry 2005 and Outlook 2006-2008 produced by DKM Economic Consultants. The report, which is produced annually, is an independent economic assessment commissioned by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.
WASHINGTON — An explosion in the use of earmarks, Congress members' way of funding pet projects without public scrutiny, is fueling new efforts to track the practice amid fears of rising corruption. The number of earmarks surged nearly fourfold over the past decade to 15,877 last year, according to the Congressional Research Service, the nonpartisan research arm of Congress. .
Aaron Beiler didn't get much work done yesterday. The manager of the Pennsylvania Dutch Farmers Market's mind was back home in Lancaster County, where four little girls in homemade white dresses were buried in hand-hewn wooden coffins. He spent part of the day crying. Not just at the memory of the bloody scene left in the schoolhouse where the girls were killed Monday, but at the kindness shown by people here in the Annapolis area and elsewhere. "I came to open up, about 5 this morning, and found this sign," he said pointing to a message hastily written and taped on the employee entrance at the market in Parole. "God Bless You. You are loved. Our prayers are with you, your friends, and your neighbors," the message read. Mr. Beiler went around the building to open the other doors and found bouquets of flowers left by well-wishers.
A lawyer and a contractor yesterday dropped the charges they had filed against each other after they agreed to forgive each other for what had happened.
Dr Claire Bonello and contractor Charles Polidano decided to make friends and forgive each other after he apologised for having slapped her and she, in turn, apologised for insulting him.
The incident took place on 20 June at the Le Meridien Phoenicia in St Julians and continued outside the hotel. The hotel is owned by Mr Polidano, known as Ic-Caqnu.
Mr Polidano had slapped Dr Bonello after she passed a comment which Mr Polidano felt was insulting and provocative.
Following this incident, both Mr Polidano and Dr Bonello filed police reports about what had happened.
As a result, Dr Bonello, 32, from Sliema, was charged with insulting Mr Polidano and the latter was charged with assaulting Dr Bonello.
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