This Friday, the doors will open to the 10th Annual Home Show. You will find limitless choices on everything that you need to make your house a home. Shop, compare and save on all of your home building, interior and landscaping needs. Share your ideas with design experts in kitchen, baths, flooring, window treatments and so much more! There will also be FREE “How to Seminars” along with the Lowe’s Kids Zone. Admission is $6 for adults, $4 for seniors and kids 12 and under are free. $1 off tickets are available at www.BuildingNCW.org. Don’t miss this year’s Home Show…Dreams…Ideas…Reality! February 8th, 9th and 10th at the Town Toyota Center!

Comments

Want to comment on this story? All Wenatchee World members are invited to comment on stories, by using the form below. Please know that we at wenatcheeworld.com hope our site is useful, entertaining and civil. So we’ll delete comments that are obscene, abusive or way off topic. We appreciate it when readers use the “suggest removal” button to flag inappropriate comments. For more about interacting with the site, see our Use Policy.

Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.

Sign in to comment

Q I’m a professional ready to make a move in the job market. My traditional résumé is ready to go, but I’ve heard about adding a “présumé,” a creative résumé alternative that jumps to life on a digital screen. Good idea? — L.N.

A Yes. Incorporating a présumé (an alternative and dynamic online presentation of who you are and what you offer employers) shows that you’re not falling behind in a fast-moving world and are open to new ideas.

Présumés are Web-based, animated slideshows that can be stunning additions to your stable of job search materials, but keep in mind, they don’t replace traditional résumés and may even include static résumés.

The power of an online présumé — with its multimedia look and feel — is hard to capture in words alone. The quickest way to grasp its power is to see a few examples in its natural habitat: the digital screen.

Présumé software is offered by a number of companies, the biggest of which are Prezi.com, SlideRocket.com and HaikuDeck.com. Prezi.com (which coined the term “prezi” for their online presentions) encourages you to use their basic product for free after you register. To visualize what’s possible, search for “job search présumés” or “job search prezi examples” and see what turns up.

Once you’re on board with trying a présumé, consider these several helpful suggestions from the Prezi.com team:

BE CREATIVE

You need not reinvent the wheel. When constructing a présumé, don’t give up if you’re not a top-notch designer. By using Prezi.com’s free customizable template feature, any public Prezi.com presentation can be copied and repurposed to fit your needs. Cool!

Don’t go overboard in flashiness. While good design and an innovative approach helps you stand out from the crowd, it’s a mistake to allow dazzling graphics to distract from your qualifications and accomplishments.

BEYOND JOB HISTORY

Presentation platforms offer opportunities to tell your unique story beyond the mere facts of your education and job track record. A rainbow of your talents can shine through on enriched media presentation platforms.

USE SOCIAL MEDIA SMARTLY

A présumé link to your professional website or Twitter handle can help showcase your personality and make you memorable. But tread lightly; you may appear shallow if you seem to be plugged in 24-7 and use social media only to promote yourself. While social media is important in today’s job market, you offer much more than just the sum of your followers.

Q You often mention that job hunting has changed and that we need to become more aware of and use the right new tools. Which are the most important tools? — C.T.

QNo one knows more about the most effective new tools than Alison Doyle, job search guide for About.com. She wrote the first book on the topic several years ago. For a quick personal tuneup, search online for the article “Job Search Tools, Widgets, and Gadgets” by Alison Doyle.

Check out more of Doyle’s up-to-the minute search advice by also browsing for her “Ten Steps to Find a New Job.”

Q I interviewed at a small but profitable landscaping company where the owner asked me to submit a plan to restore native habitat. He offered no pay. I agreed but later realized that the assignment will take hours and hours, and I’m rethinking the whole thing. Is it common practice for small companies to make such outrageous demands? — V.S.

A Demanding free work samples is an old game, but it’s not only small company owners that play it. In the future, if the freebee issue comes up, just offer previous work samples of your designs and projects, explaining that your work is meticulous and that you view new projects as too important to a company’s success to volunteer to create new samples on the fly.

For your immediate problem, short-cut your ill-advised landscaping agreement by providing the owner with a very small sliver of your promised plan, one that requires no more than eight hours of your time to prepare. And if you do land the landscaping job, I’d start boning up on how to get pay raises because they won’t fall in your lap.

Email career questions for possible use in this column to Joyce Lain Kennedy at jlk@sunfeatures.com; use “Reader Question” for subject line. Or mail her at Box 368, Cardiff, CA 92007.

<!–

–>

The city of Cincinnati is recruiting the help of University of Cincinnati students to revitalize approximately 600 empty lots in Cincinnati neighborhoods.  

The Cincinnati Property Maintenance Division will tear down abandoned buildings on the lots within the next year, and needs help to ensure the empty lots do not become problems for the neighborhoods surrounding them, said Ed Cunningham, manager of Cincinnati’s property maintenance code enforcement division.

“The question is, what do we do with these vacant lots so they don’t become blighted — you know, overgrown with weeds and littered with broken bottles and trash,” Cunningham said.

The lots could lower property values in approximately 10 neighborhoods if they are left alone after demolition, he said.  

Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, a nonprofit agency dedicated to citywide beautification, is working with the city to transition the abandoned buildings to easy-to-maintain lots. Linda Holterhoff, executive director of Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, sought the help of approximately 30 students from the College of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning to create a how-to guide designed to help city employees better utilize the lots.  

Holterhoff said a mix of students studying horticulture, architecture and city planning worked for a weekend generating ideas and will work through an interdisciplinary class to earn college credit and help the city.  The students will not receive payment.  

Jenny Russell and Frank Russell of the Niehoff Foundation are in charge of the class, but the students have not been chosen yet.  

“We’ll have three to five different scenarios of how a lot will look after the house is demolished on it, and they’ll basically make a selection matrix that will tell us the application to use on it,” Holterhoff said.

The selection matrix is a guide the city and Keep Cincinnati Beautiful will use to easily identify the best and most efficient way to “clean and green” the lots, Holterhoff said. Based on certain criteria — like the size, location and amount of light in the lot — the guide will suggest what types of plants would work best for easy maintenance.  

Building Value, a nonprofit agency that salvages reusable materials, will collect materials such as brick and wood from unusable parts of the blighted buildings, and the DAAP students will plan for potential landscaping uses of the materials.  

The class will present a book of potential uses for the empty lots to Keep Cincinnati Beautiful and city officials in March.  

“They even went a little deeper into how to look at the community as a whole and what’s going on in that certain area, and maybe take these lots and connect them to make a public space or a garden,” Holterhoff said.  

Most of these lots are privately owned, and even if the funding to transition the lots to a usable public space becomes available, the private owners would need to donate the land, Holterhoff said. 

Many years ago, I came upon a quote, erroneously attributed to Aristotle, that appealed to me. It said, “Almost everything has been learned, but many things have been forgotten.” The first half was pretty clearly untrue, but the last half is surely correct. Not just facts are forgotten, but many people who have made significant contributions are allowed to fade from our collective memory as time passes.

I was reminded of this by a book. A couple who are friends of ours gave me the book a long time ago. I brought it home, put it up in a safe place, and as is my custom and true to the quotation above, forgot about it. Recently, while looking for something else, I came upon it hiding on a closet shelf. I snatched the book from its place and began reading. And was fascinated.

The book is “Miracle in the Mountains,” by Harnett T. Kane (Doubleday, 1956). I read it, and then I read everything else I could find about its subject, Martha Berry. All I’d known before was that she founded Berry College in Rome, Georgia, and that Highway 27 bears her name. Her amazing life and accomplishments I had not known and many others no doubt have forgotten.

Young Martha traveled with her father among the mountain people in North Georgia in the late 19th century and saw their extreme poverty and the lack of amenities and social institutions available to them. She told Bible stories one Sunday afternoon to three small, grubby, illiterate mountain boys who came upon her as she was reading. This grew into weekly Sunday School and then into more secular schooling, in an unplanned, seemingly haphazard manner. This small human dynamo, with only limited advanced formal education, began with 83 acres of land inherited from her father, and limited funds, and parlayed it into what became known as “the Berry Schools.”

One of the characteristics of the incredible Miss Berry was her absolute confidence that she could do what she set out to do, no matter that many others, including her own family and her long-suffering and finally departed fiance’, thought she was nuts. She slowly added land to her holdings, added levels of instruction to her backwoods institution, and added roads, buildings, and landscaping, with most of the work done by students, who earned their education with their sweat. With an almost super-human gift of persuasion, she enlisted the help of experts to advise her on such things as legal and financial matters, and ignored their advice when it was too conservative for her free-wheeling ideas.

The 83 acres would eventually grow into some 30,000 acres, and the little grade school would grow into one of the premier small colleges in the country. This would take many millions of dollars, and the young woman who had first traveled through the back country by horse and buggy would eventually use trains, cars, ships, and airplanes in her quest for funds. Working tirelessly over the years, she managed to make contact with and draw into her circle not just uncounted ordinary people, but also the likes of Andrew Carnegie, Theodore Roosevelt, FDR’s mother, and Henry Ford. She met Ford, famously resistant to outsiders seeking his support for their causes, and persuaded him to visit the Berry Schools. He fell in love with the place and with her ideas, returned for many visits, and poured millions into what would become Berry College.

She might deal with the powerful and famous, but her focus was always on the poor youngsters from the mountains. She pushed them, badgered them, worked them to exhaustion, and loved them fiercely. They returned that love. One student, a poverty-stricken 14-year-old girl, was dragooned into duty as Martha’s secretary and assistant. She stuck with the bewildering, exhausting, ’round-the-clock duty for decades, expanding into public responsibilities and a bewildering mass of duties she’d never imagined. Eventually she achieved a doctorate and the vice presidency of Berry College.

Martha Berry’s impressive store of energy eventually drained away. She was laid to rest near the Berry chapel, her funeral attended by students, alumni, mountain people, and throngs from all over the South. The vastness and diversity of her reach was symbolized by two figures who came independently to the grave to offer their prayers in the dusk when the crowds had gone. Then they turned and walked away silently together. One was Inez Henry, Martha’s confidant, secretary, and special assistant. The other was Henry Ford.

The grave behind them would be marked by a simple stone with an inscription that summed up this uniquely giving life: “Not to Be Ministered Unto, but to Minister.”

Robert B. Simpson, a 28-year Infantry veteran who retired as a colonel at Fort Benning, is the author of “Through the Dark Waters: Searching for Hope and Courage.”

By Jack Barnwell
jbarnwell@ridgecrestca.com
Ridgecrest’s Old Town Action Plan Committee will see a brief switch of scenery when it meets at the Historic USO Building on Tuesday to consider the Balsam District Brand.
While the committee typically meets at city hall on an as-needed basis, it made a decision to meet at the USO Building as a way to attract more input from the city’s downtown merchants, property owners and the general public.
City Planner Matthew Alexander said Friday that some 250 flyers had been distributed across the downtown area, including more than 100 distributed by the children of one committee member.
“They ran out of flyers to hand out,” Alexander said. “I think we will get good turnout.”
One reason for the location — coupled with the 6 p.m.. meeting time — is for convenience.
Alexander said when the committee utilized the USO Building two years ago, it had a fair turnout of approximately 50 people.
“Everyone is encouraged to attend and offer input,” Alexander said.
The Balsam District brand is one of the feathers in the cap of the city’s Old Town Action Plan.
The idea, first envisioned in 2009 as part of the city’s updated General Plan, includes revitalizing Ridgecrest’s traditional downtown area around Balsam Street and Ridgecrest Boulevard.
The Balsam District itself is the product of Lancaster councilman and marketing guru Ron Smith, incorporating an art deco-styled theme lending itself to the city’s aerospace industry background.
Alexander indicated there might be some talking points the public could offer insight into.
“One example would be signage to the (entrance) of the downtown area,” Alexander said. Locations would include the corners of French Avenue and China Lake Boulevard, China Lake Boulevard and Ridgecrest Boulevard and Ridgecrest Boulevard and Norma Street.
Other ideas might include discussion over storefront renovations and some additional landscaping.
Some concern was mentioned at the committee’s January meeting about how to fund it, and whether businesses might face the brunt of it.
Alexander said it was categorically untrue.
“No body is proposing tax increases or anything of the sort,” he said.
Ridgecrest’s city council had earmarked some of the $24 million in Tax Allocation Bond money to help fund it.
Alexander said funding might be tight, however.
“Clearly it would be good sense to set priorities,” he said.

Alexander said the committee is independent of the planning commission, though its make-up includes three outgoing planning commissioners and Commission Chair Chris LeCornu. It was an advisory committee, Alexander said.
OTAP committee participant Alan Alpers pointed out Friday that the meeting would be useful in many ways.
“We hope the turnout’s going to be good and that business owners will at least figure out what it is about and give us input,” Alpers said. “It’s for the downtown businesses to help them develop new business opportunities.”
Alpers pointed out the area was the original heart of the city, built back during the late 1950s and early ‘60s.
“It was the civic center,” he said. “The city council met down there, you did your banking down there, the post office was there, so when you went down Balsam Street, that was where Ridgecrest folk congregated.”
“It’s just struggling because shopping districts are getting spread out all over the valley, so we’re hoping to give this place an identity that will draw people to shop,” Alpers said.
And the timing couldn’t be better, he said.
“The money is coming to fix West Ridgecrest Boulevard this year or the next year out,” Alpers said.
West Ridgecrest Boulevard is set to receive a major renovation in the 2013-14 fiscal year with money funneled through the Kern Council of Governments.
“So if we get this all established and give everything a coordinated look, timing couldn’t be better,” Alpers said.
A good aspect of the meeting is that it is in the area that is directly impacted by the proposed revitalization.
“You really want to go into the area where the shops are and get their approval,” he said. “You don’t want to sit high in city hall down several blocks and look like you’re dictating to the shop owners.”

(This version corrects the committee meeting’s start time. It starts at 6 p.m., not 6:30 p.m.)

World photo/Mike Bonnicksen

Wenatchee Avenue looking south from the Cascadian Apartments in Wenatchee.

Overlay project at a glance

(Does not include suggested improvements to downtown streetscape)

What: Resurfacing and below-surface utility upgrades along five blocks of Wenatchee Avenue between Second and Kittitas streets in downtown Wenatchee

When: Set to begin in spring of 2014 and continue for two to three months

Street upgrades: Repaving, truck prevention barriers (signs or mini-roundabouts at intersections), traffic signal upgrades to allow left turns from Wenatchee Avenue onto Orondo Avenue.

Utility upgrades: Relining of sewer pipes, 10 fireline extensions to buildings with possible redevelopment of upper floors, possible replacement of 17 water service connectors.

Other upgrades: Replace direction signs, install new irrigation lines for trees and planters, replace banner brackets on street lamp poles.

Cost: $1,798,995

— Source: City of Wenatchee Public Works Department

Some extras

(Suggested improvements beyond the basic overlay and utility upgrades)

TRAFFIC FIXES

A roundabout at the intersection of Second Street and Wenatchee Avenue

Intersection and mid-block “bulbouts” that extend into the street to shorten the distance for pedestrians in crosswalks. This includes some new curbs and pavers.

A tractor-trailer prevention barrier at Second Street.

LIGHTS, BENCHES AND BIKE RACKS

Repaint poles and replace globes on light fixtures

Energy-efficient LED lights

Wood and stainless-steel trash containers instead of plastic

More artistic, well-placed bike racks

Large, ceramic flower pots with mixed native plants

Sleeker, more functional benches

NEW TREES

Remove and replace at least 20 downtown trees in the worst condition

Source: Last year, the Wenatchee Downtown Association hosted a series of six monthly meetings to explain proposed Wenatchee Avenue improvements and elicit comments from business people and residents. The WDA also conducted surveys of Avenue business people and downtown shoppers.

WENATCHEE — Nearly 15 years of cars, trucks, bikes, parades, walkers, shoppers, plowed snow and baking sun have taken their toll on the main thoroughfare through the city’s commercial core.

“Wenatchee Avenue is ready for a facelift,” said Linda Haglund, executive director of the Wenatchee Downtown Association. “But how much of one?”

That’s the question facing downtown property owners, commercial tenants, business managers and residents as the city prepares a $1.8 million resurfacing of the five busy blocks between Second and Kittitas streets, not upgraded since 1999.

Set to begin in spring 2014, the months-long repaving and utilities project will kick up dust, disrupt traffic and likely displease more than a few business people as the old street surface is stripped off, underground water and sewer lines upgraded and a new surface laid down. City officials said they’re hoping to minimize the mess and keep traffic flowing by doing much of the work at night.

The good news? “This is a huge opportunity for us to make further improvements to our already people-friendly downtown,” said Haglund. “It’s going to be messy, so we should take advantage of that, make improvements and have the mess just once.”

A revitalization of the historic downtown’s tired streetscape, last upgraded in 1989, could include adjustments to traffic flow, the rerouting of trucks, better landscaping, new street furniture, modern lighting and attention to curbside trees — some sick, some just overgrown.

“At this point, nothing’s certain beyond the repaving and improved utility lines,” said Haglund. “The rest? Well, we gathered suggestions, but we’re not sure yet how much we can afford and how we can fund it.”

Nobody’s sure yet how much the extra streetscape improvements would cost, but a very rough estimate by civic and business leaders puts the total at around $1 million.

“We’re really hesitant to put a dollar figure on these (streetscape) improvements,” said Assistant City Engineer Matt Leonard, “since the hard costs haven’t been figured yet.”

In coming months, city and business leaders have said they’ll draw up a menu of options with estimated costs for each suggested improvement. Some downtown property and business owners have insisted on this step before talks begin on how to pay for the upgrades.

At an open house on the project last week, funding options for streetscape improvements had been narrowed down to one — a Local Improvement District (LID) that would assess property owners fees based on the size of parcels owned. If approved, the LID assessments would take effect in 2015.

“LIDs are a hot-button topic for the business community,” admitted Haglund. “We still need lots of discussion on this so we can strike the right balance and make improvements that really pay off in the long run.”

Funding for the repaving and below-surface utility upgrades is much more certain, said Leonard. The city will pay for the nearly $1.8 million project with the help of a $499,894 federal grant and monies from various public works funds, including a matching amount from the city street overlay fund and $426,765 from the city sewer fund.

Some street overlay details:

Matching monies from the city’s overlay fund — $499,804 — mostly comes from the Transportation Benefit District, which assesses a $20 fee on new cartabs.

Sewer line improvements will involve insertion of an expandable liner within existing pipes. The liner will enlarge to seal leaks and holes.

Ten fireline extensions are also included in the below-surface utility upgrades to serve buildings where second- and third-floor development — mostly residential — has been considered and improved fire protection requred.

Traffic lights at the intersection of Wenatchee and Orondo avenues could be upgraded to allow left turns onto Orondo. Turn signals would need to be installed. The improvement would give a smoother flow to traffic headed to the new Pybus Public Market at the foot of Orondo.

Mike Irwin: 665-1179

irwin@wenatcheeworld.com

» Recommend this story.

Sonny’s Diamonds Jewelry is closing its doors after more than 30 years of doing business in Denver.

“It’s tough out there,” said co-owner Michael Nedler. “I’d like to say that the economy is coming back; I think it is, but it has a long way to go and luxury items are still not the top of people’s lists.”

Nedler, 60, said that the business was doing fine when he made the decision to close the store, but that he was just ready to move on.

“The plan was going to be that (my business partner) was going to take over, but it has just become so difficult to run a jewelry store as it is a very expensive proposition,” Nedler said. “He just plain didn’t want to take it on and I didn’t want to wait any longer.”

Nedler and his business partner Mark Allen moved the store in 2009 from its original Cherry Creek location — which was founded in 1979 by Nedler’s father, Sonny — to its current spot on South Colorado Boulevard.

At that time, the partners revamped the store’s brand to a rock-‘n’-roll-themed jewelry store, renaming it Sonny’s Rocks, in an attempt to separate it from the posh image of the higher-end Cherry Creek area.

“As people came in, they really enjoyed the experience and the look of the store, but there seemed to be a difference between what they perceived us to be and what we actually were,” Nedler said.

When the store continued to receive phone calls from people looking for rocks for landscaping projects and other purposes, and after sensing enough customers’ confusion over the store’s concept, the owners changed the name back to Sonny’s Diamonds Jewelry in 2011.

“Some people took it too literally when I thought it was clearly tongue-and-cheek,” Nedler said. “You don’t know until you try.”

Sonny’s is having a clearance sale through Saturday to liquidate its entire inventory.

Nedler and his wife are hoping to move to France in the next few years, but he and Allen have kicked around a few business ideas that the two may or may not try out.

“Ultimately what it comes down to, I’ve been doing this 40 years, and I want to retire,” Nedler said. “I’ve accomplished what I wanted to accomplish. I’m proud of it but I’m just ready for something else.”

Kristen Leigh Painter: 303-954-1638, kpainter@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kristenpainter

Bill and Louise had never visited the annual home show in the Lancaster County Convention Center before this weekend.

The Wrightsville couple nevertheless fit the 2013 show-goer profile to a T.

They’re not reassured by the state of the economy — or the world.

They’re well settled in the house they’ve lived in for 55 years.

But they’re not beyond investing in their home to make it more comfortable, attractive and enduring.

“We have to have a place to live,” said Bill, who declined to give his last name. “We might as well enjoy it.”

That could have been the theme of the day Friday at the Suburban Pennsylvania Spring Home, Hot Tub and Landscape Show at 25 S. Queen St.

The free event produced by Syosset, N.Y.-based American Consumer Shows continues Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

First-day traffic was steady at midday Friday despite off-and-on rain.

American Consumer Shows’ Larry DeMarco reported “a dramatic uptick” of about 30 percent in attendance this year at the company’s expos nationwide.

People might simply be relieved to get past the presidential election and the fiscal cliff, DeMarco speculated.

He noted with more certainty that the folks the shows draw “are not really do-it-yourselfers.”

But because of the lingering effects of the recession, relatively few of them seem to be upgrading to larger properties.

“More people are putting money back into their homes” than trying to sell them, said Patrice Colegrove of Mid-Atlantic Waterproofing in York.

“It seems to be the era for that,” added Colegrove, who was handing out miniature cinder blocks made of foam.

She acknowledged that the service she was pitching is a necessity: “If you’ve got water in your basement, you need to fix it.”

Same idea when the paint is peeling off your walls.

“A lot of people don’t want to, or can’t, venture on that ladder,” pointed out University Painters’ Jonathan Frank, who said his franchise in Millersville has seen growth of 35 percent a year since launching in 2008.

But other vendors said people are increasingly shopping for value-added products, such as triple-pane windows or solar panels.

There’s a corresponding move toward self-sufficiency, according to Matt Kemper, a sales agent for J.K. Mechanical Inc. in Willow Street.

Kemper said the company’s biggest sellers in that vein are geothermal energy systems, which prompted a lot of inquiries Friday.

People want to “enhance their comfort and save money,” added Kemper, who laughingly called himself a “comfort consultant.”

Indeed, said Ben Kauffman of Penn Dutch Furniture in Glen Rock, a bit of luxury has a place at the recessionary table:

“One thing we’ve seen since the recession, there’s a lot of custom work being done,” even though it’s pricier.

People aren’t keeping up with the Joneses, Kauffman added. “They don’t want what the Joneses have. … If they’re going to spend a couple of grand, they want it like they want it.”

Matt Breyer said customization and high-tech materials have taken on new luster, too, in the landscaping industry.

“There’s always opportunity in every market,” added Breyer, of Breyer Construction Landscape in Reading.

And exceptions to every economic motif.

“I’m actually going to be building a new home,” not renovating an old one, said Willow Street resident Frann Moyer, who was gathering ideas on solar installations, among other things.

“I want to go as green as possible,” Moyer said.

Janet Smith, Mountville, said she had the double goal of picking out new flooring for her home in Mountville and keeping her spouse, Karl, busy installing it.

“We do it ourselves,” she said. “My husband’s retired, and he likes to be a handyman.”

jrutter@lnpnews.com

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by
Disqus.blog comments powered by Disqus

WATERLOO, Iowa — In the depths of winter when “every mile feels like two,” the annual Eastern Iowa Home and Landscaping Show is a sign spring can’t be far off.

The 62nd annual event opens Friday at the Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center and runs through Sunday. Nearly 175 exhibitors are expected to participate, displaying the latest ideas and products for home, lawn and garden. Co-sponsored by the Waterloo Exchange Club and Iowa Show Productions Inc., it is the club’s annual fundraiser.

Barb Miller of Iowa Show Productions expects between 6,000 and 8,000 people will come through the show.

“Hopefully, we’ve had the snowstorm of the winter last week, and we won’t have to worry too much about weather. People look forward to the show because it gives them a touch of spring. Some people like to browse and see what’s new. Some people come because they already have a project in mind and it allows them to talk to several different contractors in a short period of time. Others just like to come through and see what’s new,” she said.

And, she added, “People want to come out and support the Exchange Club that helps children in the community through their programs.”

Exhibits will include new home contractors, remodeling experts, home entertainment, landscaping experts and kitchen specialists. Experts will be on hand with energy saving solutions and creative options for the home. Consumers can shop for lighting, plumbing, real estate, painting, flooring, windows, doors, siding, hot tubs, fireplaces, sunrooms, grills, lawn care equipment and much more.

A number of exhibitors are collaborating on exhibits, including a furnished Styrofoam house by Darin Dietz. After a year’s absence, the American Society of Interior Designers will return with two room displays. Katie Bell will show a contemporary bathroom, and Jim Aronson will present a sitting room with Oriental-eclectic style.

“It’s exciting to have them back. The public looks forward to seeing those displays,” Miller said.

Landscaped gardens, grills and energy-saving ideas also will be featured. There will be free seminars featured daily.

Hours are 3 to 9 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday; and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $6 for adults and free for youth 12 and younger.

(BPT) – Even during a challenging economy, the outdoor living trend remains popular as homeowners seek to add lasting value and functional living space under the sky and stars. Whether it’s a do-it-yourself patio or a professionally installed outdoor kitchen, the beauty, usefulness, value and ease of maintenance in outdoor living space is limitless.

Extending living space outdoors is as old as time itself. “Creating an outdoor room is a natural extension of your indoor living space,” says landscape architect John Johnson of Burnsville, Minn. “By creating a space in the open air and adding elements like fireplaces, pergolas, water features and greenery, you get a very different feel. People want and need that connection to the outdoors.”

Adding value

Without erecting the traditional four walls and roof, outdoor living space can be easily added to large, small, twin or town homes. Enhancing an outdoor space with hardscapes adds value and can be adapted for multiple uses.

“Homeowners continue to embrace the trend of maximizing outdoor living space, whether it’s an outdoor kitchen or patio living room with a fire pit,” says Lonny Sekeres, a landscape designer with Villa Landscapes in Oakdale, Minn. “Real estate experts say that for every dollar you invest in landscaping projects, you could see up to a $2 return when you sell your home.”

Do-it-yourselfers will find easy-to-install, maintenance-free pavers and segmental retaining wall systems are budget-friendly for patios, walkways, courtyards, raised gardens, fire features and wall projects. New construction should include plans for exterior hardscapes, and remodels can benefit from the advice of design-build professionals or experts from a landscape supplies retailer, says Sekeres. 

“There are so many solutions to fit any budget and need,” says Sekeres. “Products like Willow Creek permeable pavers allow rainwater drainage if needed, and retaining walls come in colors that complement any environment.”

Al fresco living

As a natural extension of the home’s ground floor, a patio expands a family’s living and entertaining space significantly. It provides a perfect gathering spot for guests and family who will be drawn from indoor dining areas to this enticing space.

A popular trend is to expand kitchen space with outdoor grilling areas, stone fireplaces for cooking wood-fired pizza, or stone counters around a grill for food preparation. “Because the kitchen is typically the customary gathering place in the home, it’s a natural extension for family and entertaining guests,” Sekeres says.

Warming accents

A fire feature such as a fireplace, pit, table, pot or ring creates an inviting outdoor focal point as well as a functional spot for entertaining, says Sekeres. A half-circle seat wall or outdoor furniture around a fire pit or table creates a cozy nook, and adding a grill, pub set, chaise or settee can transform a patio into a lounge for gatherings well into the evening and late in the season.

A newer trend is the green or living wall, says Sekeres. Products like the VERSA-Green Plantable Retaining Wall System from VERSA-LOK lets do-it-yourselfers and professional installers alike easily add drama and beauty to retaining walls. “A living wall planted with herbs near an outdoor grill or a landscaped wall of flowers is an eye-catching, eco-friendly and unique use of retaining walls,” says Sekeres.

Adding ambiance

Pathways created with pavers, stepping stones and permeable pavers can join both back and front outdoor living spaces. “New homes and older homes make good use of the longstanding porch design,” says Sekeres. “It’s easy to create a paver walkway linking the front and back or an outdoor kitchen to a lounge area.”

Lighting installed within steps and along paths can also add a unified ambiance to a home’s hardscape. Adding decor such as pergolas, trellises and arbors covered with natural materials like bamboo or fiber screens is great solutions for privacy, shade or continuity of design.

“There’s no limit to the hundreds of ideas to enhance your yard,” says Sekeres. “Many products are easy for the do-it-yourselfer with manufacturer instructions, seminars and other resources. Talk to a landscape professional, visit a home and garden show and landscape supply stores, or search the Internet for inspiration. Take advantage of the outside to easily expand your living space.”

For more information on VERSA-LOK products, visit its website or call (800) 770-4525.