| USC Upstate Alumni’s Company To Be Featured On HGTV
Spartanburg, S.C. - This spring, drivers on Interstate 26 just west of Spartanburg near Campobello, S.C., have been watching the earth moving equipment and pre-construction activity occurring next to Blue Ridge Log Cabins, manufacturer of factory-built, modular, log cabin homes. The company, owned by Milton A. “Chip" Smith, a 1978 USC Upstate graduate, has also caught the attention of Home and Garden Television (HGTV). “Amazing Log Homes," a special HGTV presentation, will air on Sunday, April 29 at 9:00 p.m. and Monday, April 30 at 1:00 a.m. and focuses on alternative log home construction companies that produce high quality, affordably-priced homes in half the time as traditional site-built log homes which typically take a year to build. “There's nothing old-fashioned about 21st century log homes! The quintessential American construction method is blended with the latest trends and technology to create log homes that are larger and more luxurious than ever," according to HGTV's Web site.
Reach For The Skies
When industrial designer Aidan Quinn wanted a new home, he put his skills and concern about the environment together, and came up with a rather unusual design. Having previously worked on domes, modular buildings and pyramids, and having fitted out boats and mobile homes, the cartoon-rocket-shaped Eco Pod is perhaps not surprising, but, insists Aidan, its not just a gimmick. "I opted for this design because I love the organic shape. But its also easy to manufacture, and its about as energy efficient as you can get. Its easy to heat, and easy to insulate because the roof is the walls too." Launch pad Aidan Quinn outside his Eco Pod Before launching the Pod on the people of the Earth, Quinn decided to test out the structure himself. He has now been living in the four metre squared prototype for around six weeks, which is parked next to his workshops in a field in Stretford,Manchester.
Quick-dinner recipes a snap
The make-it-fast field of cookbooks and magazines is crowded these days, but the concept is well over 50 years old, says Laura Shapiro, a culinary historian and author of "Julia Child," a new biography of one of America's best-known cookbook authors. Packaged-food companies "manufactured" the idea of the time-crunched family cook to encourage women to buy prepared foods as ingredients for dinner dishes after World War II, Shapiro says. With the growth of two-career homes and a more mobile society, time constraints are much more real today, she says, giving the books a natural market. Seasonal and healthy ingredients began to play a bigger role in the 1980s, and in recent years moved to the center of things, she said. Now the important thing is for the books to also look good, she says.
Boise mobile home residents upset about having to move
BOISE -- Several dozen people who now living in a Boise mobile home park say they'll soon be out on the streets after learning the land their homes sit on is about to be sold. The owner of the Thunderbird Mobile Home Park on Amity Road is selling his land to a developer who plans to build 72 homes there. That means 35 mobile homes that are now on the property will be moved or destroyed. Park residents and developers met last night to discuss their concerns. "I personally bought this place in November and I took the last of the money that I had in savings, had upgrades done to it, plumbing and roofing and had it painting and two months later I am finding out this is the sale," said Nick Rex, resident. "We've been talking to Boise city to find out what kind of assistance they could offer and what we can do to ease the transition," said developer Brad Klahr, Tri-fecta Land Holdings.
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