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Buy a property fitted with solid oak floor flooring

Pay attention to the finishes and materials which have been used in the property. You can use these as a guide to whether the asking price is a fair one. More expensive properties will have hardwood flooring, such as solid wood flooring or natural oak flooring or solid oak flooring fitted. If the property has an expensive asking price and has linoleum flooring or tatty carpets, you should ask the sellers to consider reducing the asking price. Buying a property fitted with wooden flooring is a good investment because solid wood flooring can last for hundreds of years, if it is maintained properly.

Solid wood flooring is also more hygienic than other types of flooring such as carpet, in which dust and grime gets trapped in the fibres. And a solid oak floor will also hold its value over the years, and add value to the property when you come to sell it too. Next you should look at the appliances which are fitted in the kitchen, as these are some of the most expensive items in the home. You should also check that if the kitchen does have appliances fitted that they are in good condition, and are in good working order. If they are not, and need replacing lower the amount of money you are offering and point out that this is the reason why.

When you are being shown around the property make sure you look up, and thoroughly inspect the ceilings in each room. The ceiling will show signs of any water damage and is also one of the first places cracks will start to appear- indicating that there may be a structural problem with the property.As well as giving the interior of the property a thorough inspection, ask to be shown the outside areas too. Pay particular attention to the roof, the gutters, the downspouts, and the walls of the exterior. You should also ask the estate agent if any work has had to be carried out on the exterior in the past.


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Government to sell convicted Jinwright pastors' jewelry

The federal government is preparing to sell more than 40 pieces of jewelry once owned by convicted co-pastors Anthony and Harriet Jinwright.The items – including two Rolex watches, a men's gold nugget ring, a Tiffany's silver ink pen, a woman's silver and diamond Giovanni Beverly Hills watch and a pocket watch given to Anthony Jinwright by his father – were turned over to federal authorities in late April by the Jinwrights' daughter, Anthonea Jinwright.According to a federal court document filed May 9, the U.S. Marshal Service has been charged with disposing of the items, the estimated value of which was not listed.

According to the document, the Marshal Service "may contract with an auction company, jeweler, or any other authorized agent to handle the sale of the levied properties in order to maximize the proceeds generated from said sale."Net proceeds from the sale will be used to help satisfy a $1.2 million restitution requirement imposed on the Jinwrights, of Greater Salem Church, who were convicted in U.S. District Court in Charlotte in May 2010 on multiple counts relating to tax evasion.The Jinwrights, currently serving their prison sentences in West Virginia, have appealed their convictions. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., is scheduled to hear oral arguments in their appeals on Friday, May 18.

The Jinwrights' lawyers will argue that U.S. District Judge Frank Whitney erred in several key areas during the trial and in his instructions to jurors, including his ruling that all money given to the Jinwrights by Greater Salem Church members must be counted as income, not gifts.According to an IRS agent who testified during the trial, the Jinwrights failed to report more than $2.3 million in income between 1991 and 2008. Some of that money was given to the preachers during so-called "love offerings" and was taken home in bags.The Jinwrights took church credit cards on two trips to Las Vegas in 2003, running up thousands of dollars in charges while staying at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino and at the Venetian. The church, meanwhile, was routinely bouncing checks.


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Stars dress for Wintour-hosted, Prada-themed gala

It's known as one of the most glamorous red carpets of the year, with movie stars, models and even a few star quarterbacks putting on their most fashion-forward outfits for the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute gala.Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady, Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Heidi Klum, Tim Tebow and Florence Welch were among those to weave through the tented grand Fifth Avenue entrance to celebrate the new fashion exhibit that compares and contrasts the designs of two Italian women: Miuccia Prada, who wore a pantsuit to the event, and the late Elsa Schiaparelli.

Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue, serves as hostess of the event, and she wore a white gown with lobster-motif gold embroidery by Prada. Carey Mulligan, Wintour's co-chairwoman this year, wore a Prada cocktail dress with metallic fish-scale beading, and Gwyneth Paltrow had on a steel-blue Prada dress with heavily embellished pockets.Among others donning Prada: Eva Mendes, Jessica Biel, Uma Thurman and Linda Evangelista.Unlike other big celebrity red carpets, where designers just want to hear the stars utter their names as the creators of their dresses, they are the A-list dates here. Michael Kors escorted Hilary Swank, wearing a red halter gown; Parker, in a metallic floral-print gown with long sleeves and belt, came with Valentino; and singer Lana Del Ray, cloaked in a long black cape, came with Joseph Altuzarra.

Jason Wu brought model Karlie Kloss, who wore a mostly hot-pink gown with an underlay of black beaded lace; Karolina Kurkova, in a rose-gold sequin gown and beaded cap, attended with Rachel Zoe; and Doutzen Kroes wore a one-shouldered, black-and-white gown as she walked arm-in-arm with Roland Mouret.January Jones could have stopped traffic in her bright yellow custom Atelier Versace bustier gown, and model Coco Rocha also went the bright route, matching pink curls in her hair to the tank top she wore under a vintage taxi-yellow suit.


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Horton Group Installs Historic Floors from Longwood Antique Woods

As part of the renovations to their new downtown location, Horton Group has replaced the office floors with reclaimed oak from a pre-Civil War era tobacco barn. The new floors constructed from wood that is over a century old provides the office interior with a unique mix of modern creativity and antebellum history.The materials for the hardwood floors were provided by Longwood Antique Woods out of Lexington, Ky. Headed by George Gatewood, Longwood works to provide customers with green options that also embrace American architectural history. "We recycle old barns and buildings slated for demolition.

In the next five to ten years some people might not have even known these buildings existed so we do our best to preserve that history," stated Gatewood. "The reclaimed wood used on The Horton Group floors were made smooth enough for a professional setting, but also crafted to retain their original look.""It is a lot of fun being able to tell people they are standing on a piece of history when they visit our office," said Pat McComb Horton leasing manager. "Longwood provided a creative solution that also allowed us to be environmentally responsible."The oak used for the floors was taken from the siding of the historic Handy Barn, located in Cynthiana, Ky.

The English-style barn was among the last of its kind and holds a long and intriguing history. The Handy Farm was established in 1816 by Col. William Brown and later purchased by Dr. Joel C. Frazer in 1848. Experts have determined that the Handy Barn was built sometime in the 1830's and was most likely used for tobacco production. During the American Civil War a majority of the Handy farm land, including the barn, was occupied by Union forces. The army used the barn as a storage facility; it also acted as temporary housing for Union soldiers.


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MEGA Swatch Gives Homeowners an Early Look at Remodeling Projects

MEGA Swatch offers larger and more helpful-sized paper samples of a variety of granite countertops, cabinets and wood flooring, all designed to give homeowners a realistic glimpse of how the finished project will look.Rather than the standard 3" x 3" samples of granite, homeowners can order 20" x 27" paper samples for just $2.99, allowing them to affordably cover the area to be remodeled and get a true peek at the outcome. Paper samples of both cabinetry and hardwood flooring are 24" x 37" and cost just $1.99.The resemblances we were able to achieve are outstanding and, visually, it's difficult to tell the samples from the real thing."

"The idea for MEGA Swatch was born when my brother was remodeling his kitchen," explains MEGA Swatch's Dave Bender. "Before ordering thousands of dollars worth of granite countertops, he and his wife wanted to make sure they were actually going to like how it looked."Bender and his brother, Jim, also own Bender, Inc., a commercial printing operation in St. Louis and decided they could simulate the look of the granite on paper, providing a unique opportunity to better simulate a larger area of granite, cabinetry and wood flooring.

Thanks to the development of a patent-pending process, each sample comes directly from a scan of actual material, which includes more than 40 patterns of granite countertops. Using a proprietary, light-controlled production, color correction and printing process, each MEGA Swatch is created to account for/simulate various lighting conditions."We put a tremendous amount of effort into ensuring that these samples were accurate representations of the various materials," explains Bender, "and the reactions MEGA Swatch has received so far have been extremely positive.


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