All in the Details: A peek inside the Pearl’s new home and kitchen store Rancho Diaz

click to enlarge
New Pearl outpost Rancho Diaz is located in the space previously inhabited by Austin-based accessories designer Leighelena. - BRYAN RINDFUSS

  • Bryan Rindfuss
  • New Pearl outpost Rancho Diaz is located in the space previously inhabited by Austin-based accessories designer Leighelena.

Diving even deeper into the realm of brick-and-mortar retail may sound like a risky game plan in the midst of a pandemic that’s seen iconic American companies file for bankruptcy and independent businesses shutter permanently. Yet that’s precisely what Ginger and Mario Diaz have bravely done by opening Rancho Diaz — a sizable new Pearl outpost that aims to cater to locals and tourists alike with a smartly curated mix of kitchenware and artsy home decor.

Although built on the success of their bright and bubbly Olmos Park gift shop Feliz Modern and its playful Pearl offshoot Feliz Modern Pop, Rancho Diaz is perhaps a more accurate reflection of the couple’s interests: he’s a foodie, she’s into home decor and they both love art and travel.




Travel, as it turns out, is essentially the germinating seed for Rancho Diaz — and it arrived in the form of a brass donkey Ginger picked up from a vintage store while road-tripping through New Mexico, Colorado and West Texas.


“I spent way more on him than I would ever spend at home,” she confessed. “But I always like to buy one trinket from each place [I visit] that only I would

All in the Details: A peek inside the Pearl’s new home and kitchen store Rancho Diaz Read More

$5 million in COVID-19 aid funding to support construction of middle-course houses in Muskegon

MUSKEGON, MI – Muskegon is leveraging $5 million of COVID-19 relief funds to catch the attention of a further $5 million for development of new center-course housing.

Officials feel they can recoup substantially of the city’s revenue, relying on the styles of home owner support they make your mind up to supply, to continue reinvesting in the city.

“It’s an expenditure that will return to us,” Muskegon Town Manager Frank Peterson told town commissioners last thirty day period.

The income is predicted to end result in the development of 40 new households on city-owned vacant plenty and give a raise to the city’s formidable purpose of introducing 240 new housing models in the following couple of many years.

The federal American Rescue Plan funds will be utilized to finance 50% of a builder’s design costs as nicely as for down payment guidance for household purchasers. Builders will be reimbursed their charges at the time the residences are offered, or 45 days soon after their completion if they stay unsold.

The properties will be designed for the metropolis, with 50 percent of them staying bought to men and women earning 125% or a lot less of the area median money. Peterson instructed MLive the households will price tag an typical of $250,000 to build.

“We do not have housing available for folks who are in that middle range, that have a career, that have two incomes,” Peterson stated. “They had been picking for a long time to not are living below.”

$5 million in COVID-19 aid funding to support construction of middle-course houses in Muskegon Read More

Do indoor vegetation purify air?

Dwelling vegetation have grow to be amazingly well-liked in current years, but do indoor plants purify air? 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, there is certainly been a large focus on the great importance of indoor air excellent considering that so numerous of us have expended escalating quantities of time within.

Further more to this, the Environmental Protection Company (EPA) reports that Americans invest up to 90% of their time indoors, wherever amounts of pollutants can be up to 5 times higher than outside air. And which is one particular of the numerous motives why it is vital to assure the air we breathe indoors is as clean up as probable. 

So, even though residence plants are often advertised as a way to purify the air in your home, is there really any fact in that? Below we look into the science powering plants and their outcome on air good quality.

 

Do indoor vegetation purify air?

You might now know that air top quality, in normal, is affected by carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, as very well as unstable organic and natural compounds (VOCs), which can exist in some of the products and resources within our homes.

Through photosynthesis, plants convert the carbon dioxide we exhale and also get rid of gases from the air by a system known as absorption.

In an often-cited 1989 report, NASA scientist Monthly bill Wolverton claimed that home plants could offer a “promising inexpensive remedy to indoor air pollution.” Wolverton analyzed the means

Do indoor vegetation purify air? Read More

17 fall decor and decorating ideas



CNN
—  

Though some people thrive in the summer, others look forward to the season of sweater weather, pumpkin spice and apple-everything, and the joys of adding autumn decor and textures to every corner of their space.

Luckily, since fall has a massive fan base, there are many clever and classy ways to incorporate pumpkins, candles, chunky knits, dried flowers and wreaths into your indoor and living areas. The key is to keep it simple by choosing pieces that ooze the vibe you’re going for without cluttering up your living room, front door and dining room table.

From the inside out, here’s our ultimate guide to fall decorating, straight from design experts who have mastered the perfect balance.

Classic Home and Garden Honeysuckle Patio Pot Planter ($38.84; amazon.com)

Classic Home and Garden Honeysuckle Patio Pot Planter
Amazon

Classic Home and Garden Honeysuckle Patio Pot Planter

Think outdoor flowers are only for summer? Think again, says Rainey Richardson, the principal of Rainey Richardson Interiors. She recommends planting chrysanthemums, a hearty, flowering plant that flourishes in the fall. “Choose the yellow, orange, red or even purple colorway and plant in a large pot,” she says. “With little care, these plants should last through the fall season and make your porch inviting.”

Hearth & Hand with Magnolia Faux Rusted Eucalyptus Plant Wreath ($34.99; target.com)

Hearth & Hand with Magnolia Faux Rusted Eucalyptus Plant Wreath
Target

Hearth & Hand with Magnolia Faux Rusted Eucalyptus Plant Wreath

If you want to spruce up your home with a nod to fall but you’re strapped for time, an autumn-inspired wreath will add

17 fall decor and decorating ideas Read More

HUD Sells Flood-Prone Houses To Often Unsuspecting Buyers : NPR

Homes that were sold by the Department of Housing and Urban Development between January 2017 and August 2020 are in federally designated flood zones at almost 75 times the rate of all homes sold nationwide in that period. New Jersey is one hot spot. Here, flooding from Tropical Storm Henri in Helmetta, N.J., this August.

Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images


hide caption

toggle caption

Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images


Homes that were sold by the Department of Housing and Urban Development between January 2017 and August 2020 are in federally designated flood zones at almost 75 times the rate of all homes sold nationwide in that period. New Jersey is one hot spot. Here, flooding from Tropical Storm Henri in Helmetta, N.J., this August.

Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The first thing Larry McCanney fell in love with was the tree in the front yard. It cast shade on the porch of a house that, if he were honest, needed some work. But McCanney is handy, the price was right and the location was perfect, just a couple of miles from his childhood home in Burlington, N.J.

“We just kind of wanted to get our family started, and it was affordable for us,” McCanney says. “I’m still paying college loans off 11 years later, [and] we wanted to ensure that we were purchasing a place that, should I lose my job or if [my wife] lost her job, we wouldn’t be out of a house in two

HUD Sells Flood-Prone Houses To Often Unsuspecting Buyers : NPR Read More

Construction: Just try and find a builder

Photo: Only a temporary footbridge for workers spans the Muddy Brook. The busy commuter route linking Williston and South Burlington is expected to reopen by December. VBM Photo.

Contractors busy while managing ongoing COVID-19 uncertainties

by Olga Peters, Vermont Business Magazine “No one here has the bandwidth to talk with you,” said a Chittenden County contractor politely declining an interview.

“I’ll give [the boss] the message, but I don’t know when he’ll be available,” said a contractor in Windham County. “He gets here at 5:30 am and is still here when I leave at 6 pm.”

Contractors regularly spin multiple plates to take a project from design to completed build. This summer, the side effects of COVID-19 have heaped on additional ingredients. 

Extras like a backlog of projects rescheduled from last year’s industry shutdown as part of the state’s pandemic response. 

“This has been the craziest two years I’ve ever seen,” said Don Wells, president and CEO of DEW Construction Corporation. “And I’ve been in this business for about 45.” 

Or extras like material shortages and delayed timelines caused by knots in the supply chain. 

PC Construction Vice-President Eve Norris said that it’s hard to guess which supplies will be back-ordered. 

Recently, a project had a hard time obtaining chemical additives used for fire and waterproofing, Norris said. 

“It’s pretty far-reaching,” she said.

Add a few dashes of price increases and workforce shortages, and 2021 has become a jam-packed year for Vermont’s contractors. 

Norris and Wells said their companies have

Construction: Just try and find a builder Read More