Month: January 2009

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Man lost his house

You have to watch the city government sometimes and this seems even more true in Detroit, Michigan.  There are lots of houses that are on the list to be demolished because they are in such bad shape.  Well it seems a man bought one of them for $7,000 and got it taken off of the demolition list.  He had put about $30,000 into repairs in the house, went by one day and couldn’t find his house.  It seems the city put it back on the demolition list and didn’t tell him.

“I drove up and down the street three times – where is my house?” Roslonski said. His lawyer, Jeffrey Dworin, said the house was taken off a demolition list, then apparently reinstated without Roslonski’s knowledge. “It happens,” Dworin said.

A message seeking comment was left with the city’s law department, which was closed for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday Monday.

Roslonski is suing Detroit for his losses under a federal civil rights law. He fixed another house on the same street and sold it for $85,000. “I see all these boarded-up and burned-out houses. I’m trying to make the city a better place,” he said.

Can you imagine that happening to you?  It happened a lot down here but most of the houses were not being repaired so they should have been torn down.  This man was fixing the house.  I hope he wins his case.

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No one worked yesterday

I told everyone working on the apartments to take the day off yesterday because they needed to witness history.  That was more important than working for me.  I know there are some people that think this is the worst thing that could have ever happened but they’re wrong!!  This is a great day that will go down in history as just that, a GREAT DAY!!!  One thing is for sure, I didn’t think I would live to see it but thank God I was wrong.

New Orleans has always been known for welcoming PEOPLE to our fair city.  We don’t look at a person and say they aren’t welcome because of their heritage, skin color, accent, or anything else.  Everyone is welcome in New Orleans just as everyone is welcome in America, or used to be.  They should be because the only true ‘American’ are the Indians.  Everyone of us that does not have American Indian in our background, are from another country in all reality.  We are all immigrants but we all became Americans and that’s what is the most important thing.

I sure  hope each and every one of you took the time to watch history in the making unfold before your eyes.  I sure did and loved every moment of it.

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Moving right along

Boy I tell you what, these guys are working like mad men and on the weekend at that.  I am totally amazed at what they have gotten done in just a couple of days.  It’s a shame you can’t find good help like these guys on every job but there seems to be more that want to earn big bucks for doing nothing.  I’m sorry but you have to work in this world if you want to make something of yourself and for yourself.  That’s what my father taught me.  It’s a shame it’s not still being taught.

As fast as they are moving, I need to start looking at flooring, kitchen appliances, kitchen and bathroom cabinets, lighting and so much more.  I have decided that I’m not going to paint the walls with anything but the primer and then let who ever moves in pick out the colors they want and then paint the rooms.  I hate everything one color.  I do like a white room but not everyone does.  If I was to choose my colors, someone else might think it’s ugly to them.  Everyone is different in how they like their living space decorated so I will at least let them paint their own apartments.

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Plans in hand and materials on the property

Well I have the plans for my new project in my hands and all the rough in materials are on the property.  I have all the proper permits, the electrician has been contracted, the plumber and carpenters too.  I’m on a roll.  I found the best web site that helped me to find everyone that I needed to get this project started.  It still amazes me at just what you can find on the Internet.  Seek and ye shall find I guess, huh?

Now comes the fun part, picking out all of the lighting, the bathroom and kitchen fixtures, the kitchen appliances and cabinets, counter tops and boy do I have a lot to do.  I bet I can find everything I need right here online too.  First of all I’ll go by our local building supply store and get the prices on what I want.  That way I can shop around online and see if I can get it or something comparable to what I want any cheaper.

This is the bath tubs I want installed.  I have one similar myself in my bathroom.  What do you think?  I just love those claw and foot bath tubs with the old English telephone faucets.  I found this one at vintagetub.com.  They have some beautiful bath tubs on there.

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Getting the plans all drawn up

I have a friend that’s an architect and he knows how to design what I want.  After all, that is what an architect does, you know.  Of course you know that.  That was sort of a dumb thing to say but anyway.  I told him what I want and he checked out the upstairs of my business and said it wouldn’t be a problem at all.  He asked what I had in mind and when I told him, he said that he would have the complete plans to me by Wednesday or Thursday at the latest.

He did tell me to check and make sure I could get the permits to do what I wanted.  Well I made some phone calls, went down to the tax office and paid for all the permits I’m going to need.  It was relatively painless too.  They have to come inspect everything once I get all of the blueprints and they have to check them out too.  If everything is as they think it should be, we could be building as early as this weekend.

My architect said that he would call around and find the best deal for me on the materials because he can probably get them cheaper than I ever could with his ‘clout’ around here.  Hey, saving money is my middle name.  He’ll call me tomorrow with the estimate on the materials too.  So now that I have the ball rolling, it’s just about time to start shopping for lighting, ceiling fans, appliances……….no I think he even said he could get those at a discount too.  Sounds good to me.  I’m getting excited about my new project.

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I’m thinking about building some apartments

I have a house behind my business and and there’s room above my place of business to build about 4 small apartments that my employees could live in.  I’ve hired a handy man to do the work for me.  He’ll start in the morning.  What I want is 2 one bedroom apartments, 1 two bedroom apartment and 1 three bedroom apartment.  I have one single lady working for me with a couple of kids.  She’s having trouble making ends meet trying to pay rent and drive 30 miles to work.  She has to live that far away because the rents cheaper there.  Well I’ll fix that.

Each room will have ceiling fans to make them more energy efficient.  I can’t wait to start picking out everything.  I’ll have to pick out bathroom fixtures, flooring and I don’t want any carpet either.  I like the laminate floors.  They can get an area rug if they want carpet.  This is going to be a lot of fun for me and my employees are even going to come in on their time off to help my handy man so it can get finished sooner.  I told them that if they do, I’ll give them the first months rent free.  It’s the least I can do.

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Won’t be long now

Well it won’t be long before the new President is sworn in.  I sure hope he has some good plans to get things back up and running.  There are so many people without jobs and a lot more that are worrying that they’re about to lose their job.

The stock market took it’s toll on every one’s 401K so there are probably a lot of people that were thinking about retiring this year that are having to rethink that.  With all of the bail outs that everyone is asking the government for, I don’t know if we will ever get the National Debt down again or not.  All we can do is hope and pray that this man will do what he said he’ll do.  I think he’ll try awfully hard anyway.

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Well the new years starting off good

Thanks to my little Angel Tree and a lot of help from local business owners, there are several families with new jobs, and new hope.  I told you that someone donated $100 to each family, well one of the families used the money to buy paint to help get their house back to looking like a home.  They had been living with nothing but dry wall on the walls for about year now.  Now it’s beginning to feel like home to them again.

Another family used the money to buy a bigger used refrigerator.  They had been using one of those dorm type refrigerators.  They traded it in to a used appliance store and put the $100 with it and got a full size refrigerator.  That will help them save money by not having to go to the store as often.  They’ll save a lot of gas.

I am just overwhelmed by what these people have done with the help of my little Angel Tree.  I’m even thinking of putting up one for Easter.  There’s still a lot that need help and that’s one way to help without them feeling like they’re getting a hand out, just a hand up.

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I am so ashamed that he’s from New Orleans

I got on my computer this morning and my heart just sank.  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  This so called ‘Man’ was ordered to pay child support and instead of paying it………….well here is what happened.

Danny Platt confessed, told police where to find the child’s body and will be booked on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of Ja’ Shawn Powell, Riley said at a news conference. “He had said he would kill either his wife or his child before he paid child support,” which he recently had been ordered to do, Riley said.

Riley said he did not know the amount of child support and would not describe how the boy was killed, saying the coroner would do that after the autopsy was complete. The coroner’s spokesman did not immediately return a call. “The mother is in a safe place,” Riley said.

Although he had visiting rights, Platt, 22, of New Orleans, had never visited the boy until he picked him up Friday, Riley said. Police put out a notice Saturday asking people to look for the boy and saying his father had told them three men with dreadlocks and AK-47 rifles had piled out of an SUV and kidnapped Ja’ Shawn shortly before midnight Friday.

“His story never really added up,” Riley said. “He was a suspect from the very beginning.” Riley said Platt eventually confessed and told officers where to find the body.  “How does an individual – because he’s ordered to pay child support to take care of a kid … believe that this is so much pressure that he would face – he would do this hideous act to his own child, or to any child, and think that is a remedy to paying child support?” Riley said. “I mean there are some sick individuals in this society, and this gentleman is clearly one.”

After having so much pride in the good people of New Orleans over the Christmas holiday to reading this just doesn’t seem possible.  How could he?  This is not anything even remotely close to a ‘Man’.  This is a monster and deserves to be punished to the fullest extent of the law.  It’s bad enough when someone else hurts a child but their own father?  I want to make sure you and everyone else gets to see this monster.

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Happy New Year one and all

Well we all made it through another year.  Now I can hardly wait to see what this new year brings.  Last year was hard on a lot of people.  The new president has a tough job ahead of him but so far, he’s choosing some really good people to help him lead the country out of the mess we’re in.  I sure hope he can anyway.

I feel that it’s time to bring our soldiers and Marines home from Iraq.  We’re not doing much of anything but losing our people now.  They don’t want us there and a lot of us don’t want them there anymore either.  So hopefully the new president will bring them home.

Any time there is an election, there are promises made that they just may intend to follow through on but for one reason or another, they can’t fulfil each campaign promise no matter how hard they try.  Well as long as they at least fulfil most of them, I’m happy I guess.  I have enough to worry about in my own little corner of this world to try and fix the world.  It ain’t gonna happen.  Well I just wanted to wish each and everyone of you a very HAPPY AND PEACEFUL NEW YEAR!!!!!!!