Lift Caregiving Provides Information for Caregivers About Potential Stipends

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Richmond

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As reported in the Times Dispatch earlier this month, Katie Gilstrap, cofounder of Lift Caregiving here in Richmond, describes the potential of a stipend for the more than 70 million people who provide unpaid care for a friend or family member. Many of these people spend significant time providing the needed care, so much so that it impacts their personal and professional responsibilities.

Katie describes the ways you may be eligible:

  • If the parent, spouse, or other person you’re caring for is eligible for Medicaid, its Cash and Counseling program, can provide direct payments that could go to you.
  • If the person you’re caring for has long-term care insurance that includes in-home care coverage, in some cases those benefits can be used to pay you.

Please visit their post about getting paid to be a caregiver for more information and a sample contract.

 

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Richmond Outdoor Lighting Company: Inaray

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Richmond

You finally purchased the home of your dreams and you feel great driving up to it in the day time.  But at night, there are only shadows and perhaps a lone front porch light.  That means it’s time to call INARAY for your outdoor lighting needs.

Inaray Outdoor Ligthing House

While it may be easy enough to pick up a couple of floodlights from your local home improvement box store, your home is your most major investment.  Why not take the time and give it the consideration to light it properly for both beauty and safety?

Lighting for your home takes more than just placing random fixtures around the property.  Lighting design is an art, and you need help from professionals who know the principles of lighting design, including spatial placement, architectural and landscape elements to achieve your desired effect.

Leave your outdoor lighting to the experts.  INARAY will come in with their team of professionals and spend time with you to address your needs and wishes with regard to lighting your property.  They’ll review the project requirements as well as study the creative intent of the architect in the design of your home.  They use the latest in technology to put together for you a custom sustainable solution that addresses both the architecture and the environment of your property.

When you meet with the experts from INARAY, this is what you can expect.

  • An initial meeting to discuss design intent, budget, and conservation goals for your property.
  • An opportunity to review presentational materials that include conceptual drawings, images of previous property designs, computer modeling and site renderings.
  • You’ll get technical layouts, specifications, energy density and conservation analysis.  They’ll also look at the issue of light trespass so that your design won’t be a hindrance to your neighbors.
  • They’ll help you evaluate bits, supervision and the final installation of fixtures.
  • Once the project is done they’ll show up to inspect and evaluation to make sure that you’re happy with the results.

The professionals at INARAY aren’t just in the lighting business to make money.  Sure that’s part of it, but they really are passionate about lighting.  That passion shows in each unique lighting project they undertake.

INARAY takes a client-based approach.  You make the calls.  You tell them what you’re looking for.  Because of this they don’t show up at your doorstep with a box of lights that they try to convince you are right for their property.  Instead, after their consultation, they develop the concept for the lighting project.  Then they evaluate the architecture and landscape for opportunities to use lighting.  Then they work with you to make the final decisions on how and what you want to have illuminated.  The best part about their approach is that they work hard to capture your ideas rather than working hard to convince you of their ideas.

The company doesn’t go it alone.  They’ll work with landscape designers, architects, and architectural distributors to bring you the best lighting design for your home or your business.  Any system that is exposed to the elements will need routine maintenance to keep it in the best working order.  INARAY offers several service plants to help maintain your lighting design.  They’ll come check the bulbs, provide routine maintenance which will include things like checking fixture seals, gaskets and replacing the lamps.

They not only offer terrific outdoor lighting designs but they can also help light your home for the Holidays. They are experts in holiday lighting design which can help take away the stress of decorating the outside of your house. This is time of year to start decorating your home with Christmas lights so why not give Inaray a call.

holiday-lighting

INARAY recommends and uses the finest products in their lighting designs.  But not only that, they’ll work with you to develop a custom maintenance plan.

INARAY Design Group, inc. is based in Richmond and serves the Commonwealth and various clients abroad.  INARAY is a part of a legacy of family owned businesses.  Many of these have been operating in Richmond for more than four generations.

The company was founded in 2002 and quickly became the region’s first choice for residential clients in the greater Richmond area.

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Stamie E. Lyttle Septic Company

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Richmond

While more and more homes are being connected to municipal sewer systems,septic-company septic systems are actually quite common in the Richmond area suburbs.  If you are a prospective home buyer, you need to be aware of what type of system their new home has, and you need to know when the last maintenance was performed on the system.

If you already own a home with a septic system, you know that a backed up or failed septic system may be a homeowner’s worst nightmare.  Properly maintaining your septic system is one of the most important tasks that you want to be sure and stay on top of.

The Richmond area is subject to the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act which was adopted by the Virginia General Assembly in 1988.  The Bay Act requires homeowners to have their septic tanks pumped every five years.  Your locality should keep a record of that, but you should also.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency there are four basic things you need to do to maintain your septic system.

  1. Regularly inspect your system and pump your tank as necessary.
  2. Use water efficiently.
  3. Don’t dispose of household hazardous wastes in sinks or toilets.
  4. Care for your drain field.

Here are some other dos and don’ts for managing your septic system.

If you have a garbage disposal, pump the grease trap every 1-3 years

Make sure all your faucets and fixtures are not leaking and are in good working order.

If you plan to add onto your home with an addition, a deck or even a swimming pool, check with your local health department.

Don’t save all your laundry for one day.  Try to do a couple of loads daily.

Don’t place mulch or bark over the drain field.

Be careful with what you plant.  Don’t plant things such as maple, weeping willow, sycamore, locust or bamboo in or near your drain field.

Don’t use a drain field area for growing vegetables.

Don’t dispose of grease, coffee grounds, household or automotive chemicals, or products such as insecticides, herbicides, disposable diapers, plastic or rubber products into your drain field.  Your septic system isn’t designed to handle these materials.

Drain cleaners, bacteria, enzymes and things like plumber’s helper are not conducive to the natural organic process needed in your septic system.

Many of those things you can take care of yourself.  But if you’re like most homeowners you aren’t really qualified or even interested in inspecting or pumping the tank.  That’s why you need a reliable company like Stamie Lyttle

In 1947 Stamie Lyttle and Fred Barnes formed Lyttle and Barnes Sanitation. Their specialization was septic tank installation and maintenance. The company became Stamie E. Lyttle Company in 1967. In 1982, Lyttle Utilities, Inc. was formed as a full services utility contractor specializing in the installation and rehabilitation of water and wastewater systems. Together the two companies form The Lyttle Companies. Lyttle has been accredited by the Better Business Bureau since 1996 and holds an A+ rating for customer service.

While the Lyttle Companies got their start as a local plumbing company, today they cover all facets of the water and sewer infrastructure industry.  Their work ranges from residential repairs to the largest municipal wastewater projects.

Lyttle is the oldest company of their time in the greater Richmond area.  While their influence has a broad reach on the Atlantic seaboard they work with individuals as well as businesses and municipalities in a manner that is beneficial for both the company and their customers and partners.

Stamie E. Lyttle Co.
2210 East Belt Boulevard
Richmond, VA 23224
Office: 804.232.6774
Toll Free: 800.232.6774
Fax: 804.232.7641

 

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The problem with finding a great fitting shirt solved right here in Richmond

Posted on October 29, 2012 by M. Fletcher

It’s almost too easy to get punny when you think of two Oxford graduate students starting a shirt company.  But that’s exactly what Paul Trible and Paul Watson have done in creating Ledbury a Richmond-based company providing quality men’s shirts.

The two met at Oxford University where they pursued their MBAs during the worst of the economic collapse.  Realizing that their job prospects would be extremely limited, they decided to pursue a passion and create a business, and jobs of their own.

The company, by the way, was brainstormed and developed during afternoon visits to a local English pub, located on Ledbury Road.  The pub is located in London’s Notting Hill area.

Living in London, they became well acquainted with the tailoring at London’s Savile Row and the shirts of Jermyn Street.  But coming home to the United States, they couldn’t find the same quality and same fit.

Trible has said they were spoiled by the tailors in the U.K. and began discussing what they could do about it.  So they developed a plan and came to Richmond to put it into action.

But you have to ask how Trible and Watson met at Oxford.  Trible grew up in southeastern Virginia where his father, former U.S. Senator Paul S. Trible is President of Christopher Newport University in Newport News.  He attended Washington and Lee University, worked for Operation Smile, running medical missions in Africa, Asia and Latin America.  While he was working in Vietnam he met his first master tailor.  He went on to lead Operation Smile in London for four years before going to Oxford for graduate school.

Before starting their company, they met shirt-maker Robert Emmett, who had a shop on Jermyn Street in London. He agreed to let Trible and Watson work at his business for nine months to learn the craft.

Watson grew up in New Orleans and went to Davidson College.  He worked briefly with the White House and then at the Defense Department.  While traveling abroad, he too noticed a need for a quality American shirt maker.  He met Trible at Oxford where the two decided to become shirt makers.

Now in Richmond, Ledbury is located in a renovated tobacco warehouse that was built in 1866 but they do the bulk of their business online.  The have customers in every state and more than a dozen countries around the world.

Ledbury says, “We live by the belief that a few well-made items are better than many that are not, and although quality and attention to detail are not inexpensive, they do not always require an exorbitant price tag. Our goal is to set trend aside and make great-fitting, high-quality shirts that can be worn in any setting and by any generation.”

Ledbury makes great fitting, high-quality shirts that aren’t trendy and can be worn in many settings and by men of any age.  They make their shirts using less material in the waist and the torso.  Inverse stitching helps to keep the collars standing.  A lower second button helps prevent the shirts from being buttoned to high or too low.  Ledbury uses fine Italian fabrics for their shirts and the buttons are made from mother of pearl.

Ledbury has introduced their Commonwealth Collection which features items produced by other Virginia-based artisans.   Just this month, Ledbury introduced a new line of flannels.  Made from 100% cotton fabric from Tessitura Monti Ledbury skips the traditional muted colors of fall and provides these comfortable shirts in a trio of bold, vibrant plaids.

Visit Ledbury online or if you’re in the Richmond area, stop by their shop located in Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom at 117 S. 14th Street.

Store hours are: 9:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Monday – Friday.  They’re closed on weekends.

By E-mail: customer-service@ledbury.com
By Phone: +1 888 233 1942

Images from Ledbury.com.

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