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WHAT'S HOT IN INTERIOR DESIGN? IF SPORTING gear giant Orvis hits its mark, the future looks bright for taxidermy and fluorescent orange. Through a partnership with Hamilton, Mont.–based Rocky Mountain Log Homes, the 149-year-old purveyor of shotguns, waders, and fly-fishing reels has added a set of...
BRAMBLETON, ONE OF THE nation's first fiber-optic–wired communities, is proving to be forward-thinking in more ways than one. The 2,000-acre planned unit development is one of several in Loudoun County, Va., proffering land deals that promise not just the usual funds for schools and roads but also...
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In September 2004, we wrote about an organization called Homes for Our Troops (www.homesforourtroops.org) that is raising money and building homes for U.S. soldiers wounded in the American invasion of Iraq. A few weeks ago, thieves broke into a trailer in Middleboro, Mass., and stole $4,000 worth...
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NEW-HOME BUYERS SEE dozens of charges on their closing statements. For buyers of Lennar homes in Southern California, the statement includes a unique charge—an “endowment fee” for the Lennar Charitable Housing Foundation.
REZONING INDUSTRIAL PARCELS FOR RESIDENTIAL use isn't new. But here's an unusual snafu that came up in Pennsylvania: If the land to be rezoned for housing abuts other, viable industrial-zoned land, home builders can end up on the opposite side of the table from commercial developers.
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Centerpoint Translucent Systems, a Knoxville, Tenn.–based manufacturer of residential roofing products, has announced a product supply and marketing agreement with specialty chemicals producer Cabot to use Nanogel translucent aerogel in Centerpoint's roofing structures. The translucent roofs will...
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The Florida HBA lost a round in this past spring's legislative session when impact fee reform died in committee. The impact fee bill would have provided builders with credits on previously paid taxes, fees, assessments, liens, charges, or payments. The demise of the impact fee legislation was...
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INSPIRED BY ITS SUCCESS IN pooling purchasing power, a group of Northern Virginia custom builders is helping others start their own purchasing cooperatives.
WHAT IS ARGUABLY THE WORLD'S MOST advanced toilet, Neorest, now has its own store where consumers can kick the proverbial tires and experience the products firsthand.
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The May report on material prices and demand has good news and bad news for builders. The good news is that the residential construction industry shows no sign of slowing.
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Irvine, Calif.
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Columbia Forest Products, a Portland, Ore.
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As part of its ongoing effort to combat the increasing number of mortgage fraud cases, the Mortgage Bankers Association has launched the Mortgage Fraud Against Lenders Resource Center (http://mbafightsfraud.mortgage bankers.org), a Web site designed to be a one-stop shop for the industry to learn...
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IN CONTRAST WITH TODAY'S HOUSING SITUATION IN SAN Diego, where prices rise so quickly they should only be written on a chalkboard, Kensington Heights was conceived in 1926 to appeal to buyers in a declining market. Interest in the new subdivision was piqued when a story in the local paper announced...
HERE'S SOMETHING YOU SHOULD know: New-home buyers spend more time shopping at a Wal-Mart, Best Buy, or Blockbuster than they do at one of your model homes.
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Taken at face value, a study of Mexican bricks conducted at Clemson University's National Brick Research Center, in Anderson, S.C., and released in 2004 gives poor scores to several Mexican brick brands. Of the 28 bricks tested under ASTM C-216 by repeated freezing and thawing, only three passed...
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Back in the heady '80s, Wilmington, Del.
DUPLEXES ARE A REAL ESTATE staple in New York's outer boroughs, where owners typically live in one half and rent the other half to generate a return on investment. When Benjamin-Beechwood (a partnership of Benjamin Development Cos. and the Beechwood Organization) got the green light to move forward...
BILL BROSIUS' INITIAL INCLINATION was to introduce a stretch of townhomes in The Village of WestClay, a 680-acre Brenwick Development community just north of Indianapolis in the town of Carmel. That was before the voice of experience in his head reminded him that Midwestern home buyers were still...
GARY STONEWALL, SAFETY DIRECTOR for R&H Construction in Portland, Ore., says that back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, home builders really didn't have much of a choice when it came to workers' compensation insurance.
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For builder and developer Shea Homes, a proactive approach to safety has been so successful that its California operations earned an award from the state-administered Cal/OSHA program. It's a notable achievement: To qualify for the Cal/SHARP (Safety and Health Recognition Achievement Program) award...
THE INJURIES WERE FRIGHTENING in both their severity and their frequency. Framing crews were the most common source of accidents. One framer fell from a scaffold, breaking his wrist and tearing the rotator cuff in his shoulder. Another tore ligaments in his knee when he leaned against a safety rail...
A test of OSHA safety standards.
YOU CAN LEARN A LOT BY TALKING with OSHA inspectors. First, they're not jack-booted thugs who are out to get you. Second, they do have a mission, and if you get in the way of that mission, you may pay the price.
IT WAS A CRY FOR HELP IN CYBERSPACE: “Anyone know where I can find a pair of safety glasses that will fit me?! I am so tired of mine slipping down while my hands are too busy to push them back up!”
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ALFREDO ALVAREZ'S LAST WORDS were, “Help me, I'm going to die. Talk to my family.”
THE REPORTS COME IN WITH AN almost numbing regularity.
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MAKE NO MISTAKE: Working on a home building jobsite is a matter of life and death. Someone is killed on a home building job every other day of every workweek.
WHY IT WORKED: A great location on the west side of Elgin, one of Chicago's rapidly growing suburbs, is a plus, as is the master planned community's nautical concept, which the builder calls “a taste of New England in the Midwest.”
WHY IT WORKED: Avatar Properties pulled out all the stops with this 1,313-acre community. Bellalago (“Beautiful Lake”) boasts conservation preserves, lakes (man-made and natural), a multimillion-dollar amenity complex, and a well-priced package of designer homes that appeal to all levels of the...
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THE APPLICATION PERIOD for the prestigious Energy Value Housing Award (EVHA) has officially begun. Now in its 11th year, the EVHA offers builders the opportunity to improve their business practices and be recognized by their peers.
THERE ARE ANY NUMBER OF SOFTWARE PROGRAMS that can help builders more effectively manage Internet sales leads, but Hovnanian Enterprises' California and Arizona group, based in Ontario, Calif., decided that what it really needed was a person.
MOST BUILDERS COULD NOT care less about how voice traffic travels over the Internet. All they know is that many of their customers are asking if their new homes can run voice over Internet protocol (VoIP)
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MANY HOMEOWNERS HAVEN'T been content to watch the dramatic run-up in value of their homes. Instead, they've cashed out, pouring that equity into other purchases, including renovations and down payments on second homes.
IN COMMERCIAL CONSTRUCTION, THE USE OF SITE-POURED, TILT-UP concrete walls is growing at record speed. But residential builders, for the most part, haven't joined the tilt-up revolution. It's still primarily a commercial construction tool.
THERE IS SOMETHING DECIDEDLY fascinating about a man who can write the following about mold: “Industrial hygienists like to measure indoor moisture levels, because, though this is simpler than making a sandwich, the use of a hand-held meter imparts an air of brilliance that will persuade hapless...
In January, a superior court judge sided with San Diego
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TWO NEW NATIONAL REPORTS ON HOUSING discrimination indicate that complaints have increased in the past year, and that the overwhelming majority of housing discrimination is never even reported.
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Calendar of award submission deadlines and events
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THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR A SUPER article (
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WHY IS IT THAT BUILDERS CONTINUE to identify components of regulatory costs as the greatest threats to affordability? While I think it is extremely unfair for cities to charge impact fees in excess of the actual costs that the new-home impact will bring to the community, this is not the real issue...
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Ingram Micro, the large California-based IT distributor that helped lead the charge for more efficient Web-based supply-chain management during the Internet era, proved it was serious about entering the home technology market yesterday by buying AVAD, the large home tech distributor based in...