HGTV Local Casting!

Ever see those shows on HGTV and wonder how you can be a part of it?  Well now is your chance! They are going to be taking applications for their next season if you want to give it a shot.  They are now casting for a couple different shows, including "Renovation Raiders", "I hate my kitchen", and "I hate my bath". 

If you haven't seen these shows "Renovation Raiders" is a show that basically gives you a whole new makeover for a room in your house (kitchen, living room, etc...). In one night while you and your spouse or loved one are out for dinner, a team comes in and completely remodels whichever room was chosen while your spouse/loved one knows nothing about it.  Sneaky sneaky! Lots of fun to watch!
"I hate my kitchen" and "I hate my bath" are basically just shows where they come in and give you a full kitchen or bath makeover.  They have their own designer come up with a design and then a crew comes in and does the whole remodel for you! You might have to contribute financially depending on the scope of the design.

If you think this is something you would be interested in, go to this website and find out what the requirements are and if this is something that would work for you! www.magneticproductions.com/casting/ Good Luck!

Written by Melissa Bye

Dakota County Fair

Hey everyone, its that time of year again! The Dakota County Fair is going on all week this week starting today Monday Aug.5th and ending Sunday Aug. 11th.  The fair hours are going to be Monday 4pm-10pm, Tues.-Sat. 7:00am-10pm, and Sunday 7:00am-5pm.  There will be many fun things to watch and see while you are out there including shows at the grandstand every night, Heritage Village, and of course the Carnival!

The Carnival tickets cost $1.25 per ticket or you can get 18 tickets for $20.  They also have the Passport to Fun which gives you unlimited rides for the entire 7 days of the fair for $60.  Most of the rides vary between 2 to 4 tickets depending on the ride.

Heritage Village is another fun one to check out.  You can see how rural life was like back in the early 1900's with interpreters dressed up in period costume and many activities for everyone to participate in. There are 22 buildings to check out including a blacksmith shop, newspaper shop, and schoolhouse. The hours for the buildings will be Mon. 4pm-9pm, Tues.-Sat. 10am-9pm, and Sun. 10am-6pm.

The Grandstand will have fun things to see everyday of the fair.
    Monday 5th- Donkey Races
    Tuesday 6th- Tractor Pull
    Wednesday 7th- Bulls and Barrels
    Thursday 8th- Love and Theft/ Craig Campbell Concert!
    Friday 9th-Sunday 11th- Demolition Derby

A few other things to note: Tuesday is Kids day- any kids between the ages of 6 and 12 get in for only $1 (any kids 5 and under are free).  Wednesday is Military Day- as a thank you for serving our country, any military member and their family who presents a military ID gets in for free as well as gets free parking. Thursday is Senior Day where anyone 60 or over gets in for free as well as gets free parking.

There are many other fun activities to keep you busy and entertained! If you want to know more just visit www.dakotacountyfair.org

Written by Melissa Bye

Cheap DIY Kitchen Counter-tops

My husband and I recently bought a house.  The house was a foreclosure built in 1959 and was in dire need of some updates.  Unfortunately it also needed all new plumbing, electrical, windows, floors, etc.  I was hoping we would have enough money left over from fixing those previously mentioned items to get a new kitchen- boy was that naive.  We barely had enough to get those things done let alone a whole kitchen remodel, which as most people know can get up into the tens of thousands of dollars.  Yet I still HAD to do something about this kitchen! I figured I could at least paint the cabinets and put some new hardware on the doors and drawers for relatively cheap, but what can you do for counter-tops?  It was the most hideous laminate counter-tops and I could not leave them that way.  After doing some research online, I found a product that I was willing to try.  At this point I figured even if it looked terrible and didn't work, they couldn't be any worse than they were. 

The product I ended up going with was called Rustoleum Counter-top Transformations.  It's a do-it-yourself way to change your counter-tops that's relatively inexpensive. Each kit contains enough product to cover 20 linear feet or 50 square feet.  I have quite a bit of counter space so it took me two kits, but even then it is much cheaper than getting a new counter-top.  I was able to get 1 kit for around $150 at Home Depot.  The kits come in 5 different colors: onyx, charcoal, Java Stone, Desert Sand, and Pebbled Ivory.  I used Charcoal and was very happy with the results.  The kit comes with a diamond sanding block that you use to scuff up the counter-tops.  Then you roll on the paint color and immediately cover it with the "flecks" they give you.  You let that dry for about a day or two then come back and vacuum up the leftover "flecks".  After that you sand down the top to smooth it out and then put on a clear coat.  It is ready for "light" use in about 48 hours, but takes about 7 days to fully cure. 

I loved the end result, however, if I were giving any suggestions to anyone who wanted to do this, I would tell them to do it with a second person (especially if it is covering a large area), and that it does take a couple days to go through the whole process(just because of the dry time). I would also warn you that this gets MESSY.  Mostly just with the flecks.  Make sure you put some sort of tarp on the floor for easy clean up and TAPE the edges of the counter-tops so you don't get it on the appliances or walls.

Written by Melissa Bye

Tour de Luce

What is Tour de Luce? Tour de Luce is a free-form bike ride between all Twin Cities Pizza Luce locations. You can begin and end at ny location you choose and you can visit as many of the 6 Twin Cities locations as you'd like. For each check-in and a Pizza Luce location you will be entered into a prize drawing not to mention you will gain the honor and prestige of getting a stamp in your Tour de Luce passport. To make your tour more convenient they have created a "suggested" route between each location.

The Tour de Luce is scheduled between the hours of 8am to 4pm, the same day as Open Streets Lyndale Ave in Minneapolis (Sunday, June 23rd). Lyndale avenue will be closed to motorized traffic between the hours of 10am and 4pm.

The cost to enter Tour de Luce is $10 per adult and $5 per child 12 years of age and younger.

Register for the Tour de Luce today

Apple Valley Looks For Transit-Fueled Development

Apple Valley officials are banking that the soon-to-be-launched bus rapid transit line can jump-start development in Central Village, a partially completed mixed-use project that stalled during the recession.

Last year saw a significant step forward with the city’s approval of plans for Parkside Village, a 332-unit upscale apartment complex that’s part of the Central Village development area. It’s the biggest multi- family project to be built in Apple Valley in more than 10 years. The developer hopes to begin work on the project in August.

Planned by the city in the early 2000s, Central Village is a 60-acre project that already has townhouses, senior housing, affordable/workforce apartments, a hotel, a small office building, shops and restaurants. The economic downturn slowed progress of filling in vacant portions of the project, with some parcels being taken back by lenders. About half of the 60 acres is yet to be developed.

The city now is eyeing six vacant, tax-forfeited properties west of the new apartment development, in an area near 152nd between Galaxie and Garrett avenues.

An office building — one with a large employer as an anchor tenant — is high on the city’s priority list for filling some of the empty space. Nordquist said the city would like to see up to 100,000 square feet of office space, a total that likely would require an anchor tenant taking about 50,000 square feet. The addition of bus rapid transit could help Apple Valley attract this employer.

Apple Valley’s reach for a large corporate presence fell short about a year ago, when tech-support company Stream Global Services considered relocating its headquarters from suburban Boston to Apple Valley but later said it could not find adequate space and instead opted for Eagan. The company has said its new headquarters would have 40 to 50 employees, with hundreds more workers in a neighboring call center.

Apple Valley had planned to use an $866,000 grant from the Metropolitan Council to help redevelop an older two-building office complex for Stream Global. The city recently got Met Council approval to use the funds instead to acquire three of the tax-forfeited parcels in Central Village for the office building. The property is about one-half mile from the Apple Valley Transit Station on Cedar Avenue that will be the southernmost stop for the new bus rapid transit line.

The city believes the location could be attractive for an office project, because it’s bordered by a post office and the Grandstay Hotel & Conference Center.

Mass transit is another key ingredient. Initiated by the Dakota County Board almost 10 years ago, the bus rapid transit line is envisioned as the county’s connection to the metro area’s transit network.

Buses every 15 minutes will carry riders along Cedar from Apple Valley to the Mall of America, connecting to light rail that runs to the airport and downtown Minneapolis.

Jumbo Loans and Luxury Homes

Expensive homes come with expensive mortgages. Lenders have developed large specialized loans known as "jumbo loans" that allow borrowers to borrow more. The luxury home market is continuing to rise, so naturally, the jumbo loan market is following. According to the National Association of Realtors, sales of homes worth between $750,000 and $1 million are up 38.7% since last year. Homes selling for over $1 million has gone up 25.7%

Interest rates of these jumbo loans have been creeping closer and closer to the rates of ordinary loans, some jumbo's interest rates have been just as good as the average priced loans. This is one of the main reasons we are seeing a boom in jumbo's. The rates have been able to decrease because only the most qualified buyers are being approved for such a large amount of borrowed money.

Written by: Brad Novy

Companies Do Not Fool Around On April Fools Day!

Many large corporations aren't fooling around this April 1st of 2013. Google came out with a few new apps, one being the smell search feature called Google Nose. Google also dropped a new version of Maps called Treasure mode. Among the other jokers, Sony revealed its new "Animalia" electronics line. It features cat friendly headphones, dog paw friendly TV remotes, and a hamster wheel with its own home theater system! Click here for an extended list of April fools spoofs!