Earth Hour Phoenix
Earth Hour Phoenix is getting even hotter! With Mayor Gordon’s support, the Phoenix Suns basketball team has signed on to score one for the planet by supporting Earth Hour. The US Airways Center plans to turn off its lights for Earth Hour and Arizona State University is pledging its participation as well.

Earth Hour Chicago
Earth Hour’s U.S. flagship city continues to amaze, as it broadens its commitment to turn off the lights city-wide. Soldier Field, the University of Chicago, over 500 area McDonald’s and over 3,000 Walgreen’s stores will all turn out on the 29th, as will the 16,000 lights on the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier. Quarterback of the Chicago Bears Kyle Orton knows this is an important issue for Chicagoans and is supporting Earth Hour in his team’s city.

Earth Hour San Francisco
Beware…Alcatraz goes green! Yes, the infamous Alcatraz prison–which in 1972 became a national recreation area–will turn off its lights (and turn on the spookiness) for Earth Hour. Across the bay, decorative lighting on the Golden Gate Bridge will dim, as all of San Francisco embraces the need for change.

Earth Hour Across America
The Earth Hour movement is spreading. The cities of Charlotte, NC, Northbrook, IL and Denver, CO are all on board. Groups in Alaska and Hawaii have joined. Cookie sale season is in full swing, but Girl Scout troops all over are showcasing the Earth Hour logo on their websites. A mom’s group in Hamilton, Montana, is taking part. And cities, towns and villages across America are urging their residents to turn out for Earth Hour. If your town’s not on the list, you can take the lead It won’t take a fight to get City Hall involved.
Let us know what you’re doing for Earth Hour!

Earth Hour Around the World
The capital of the Emerald Isle, Dublin, will look a darker shade of green for Earth Hour. The Irish city,home to nearly one million people, has signed on as one of more than two dozen official Earth Hour flagship cities worldwide.

SEARS TOWER in Chicago, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and Toronto’s CN Tower have joined a growing list of landmarks that will have their lights switched off during Earth Hour this month.

The Coca-Cola sign in Kings Cross went blank during last year’s event, and this year the company’s headquarters in Atlanta will follow suit.

A spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund, Andy Ridley, said: “It’s almost beyond our control now – we’re starting to see hundreds of projects and different organizations taking part this year, some of which we’d never even heard of.”

In Chicago the lights will be switched off at the home of the Chicago Bears American football team, Soldier Field; City Hall; the headquarters of Boeing; and many skyscrapers.

Groups in Moldova, Mexico, Venezuela, Uruguay, Chile, Jordan and Syria have independently contacted the organizers, WWF and Fairfax Media, the publisher of the Herald, to announce their intention to take part.

In Sydney, where it all started, the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, Sydney Tower, the Town Hall, State Parliament, Kirribilli House, Luna Park and office buildings fronting Circular Quay will darken at 8pm on March 29.

By 11am yesterday about 60,000 people had signed on the Earth Hour website, surpassing the number of participants who declared their intention last year. About 3600 businesses had joined by late yesterday.

5030 Blue Ridge CutOff, Kansas City Missouri Phone 816-353-4411

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10134 T Truman Road, Independence Missouri Phone 816-833-4546

BY: Chris Rodgers, Staff Writer

A film crew from the HGTV show “What You Get for the Money” visited the Kansas City area in May to film six houses, including one in Overland Park.

Steve and Cyndi Reid’s house at 14032 Melrose in the Coventry subdivision will be featured in an episode originally scheduled to air this fall that showcases houses across the country in the $800,000 to $900,000 price range. The show has been rescheduled to air in the spring.

Each episode highlights six residences in one price range. The show’s Web site explains, “From a 500-square-foot urban dwelling to a five-bedroom rural house, find out what your money really can buy.”

HGTV research and casting producer Jason Mercado said the show has not featured this area before.

“We had been to Kansas, more west, and had also been to Missouri – St. Louis and Columbia – but this was our first time hitting Kansas City itself,” said Mercado, who works at High Noon Entertain-ment in Denver.

He said the show staff decides where to travel.

“We all get together and see which cities are kind of bustling and which cities are some of the most livable cities in the area, which are on the rise, which have a good kind of feel and lifestyle to them, and that drives where we go,” Mercado said.

Staffers work with local architects, real estate agents and interior designers to find house owners willing to appear on the show.

In the Kansas City area, the crew filmed six houses in six price ranges. The other five are on the Missouri side, Mercado said.

“Everybody was incredibly helpful,” he said. “It was a really smooth shoot. The home owners we profiled were fantastic and it was a really good trip for us.”

The Reids’ builder, Troy Moore of Madi Mali Homes, said the show’s staff noticed one of his houses on the Parade of Homes.

“They were researching different price points,” Moore, a custom builder, said. “I had a house for sale that was on the parade. I guess they liked the design, the uniqueness … . They got on my Web site and then called us directly and said they wanted to feature one of our homes.

“It was pretty much just dumb luck I guess.”

An Overland Park building inspector for six years, Moore said he always wanted to be a custom builder. Moore said that when he felt ready to start his business, the Reids, his former neighbors, said they wanted to build a house. Moore incorporated Madi Mali Homes in March 2003.

“The Reids were my first clients as a self-employed builder,” he said.

The three collaborated on the design of the house. Moore has degrees in architecture and construction management, Cyndi works as a real estate agent and Steve is a mortgage lender.

“They both are very well-versed in the real estate industry,” Moore said. “Me being a custom guy, they knew they would have some design freedom to get exactly what they wanted. It was definitely a collaboration.”

That collaboration led to some distinctive features, Cyndi said.

“The builder and my husband and I sat down and thought about our family and our lifestyle and built it around that. It’s a floor plan you don’t see that much, which is nice for me since I see a lot of houses every day. I wanted something a little different.”

“Cyndi wanted to use brick inside the home,” Moore said. “So one entire wall of her hearth room/ breakfast area is brick.

“Steve’s big ticket item was the garage. He wanted to have at least a four-car garage. We were able to do a two-car front load and a two-car side load, but widen the side load so he could actually pull five cars in his space.

“Cyndi wanted an upstairs laundry room, with sewing, craft (space). With Steve’s garage orientation, the living space above one of the two-car garages was her craft/laundry/sewing room. … So they both sort of won.”

Cyndi described the house’s exterior as formal French. The two-story house has five bedrooms, and three full and two half-baths.

Other design elements include a screened-in porch, and a two-story great room and foyer with a curved staircase.

Cyndi said the show’s producers did not ask the family to do anything special to prepare for the shoot.

“They wanted our house to look like it does every day,” she said. “Of course we did a lot of things to get ready. … We put quite a bit of landscaping in and put a fountain out front. We were doing that anyway, this just kind of rushed us to get that done.”

She found the shoot more involved than she expected.

“They came on a Sunday at 8 in the morning and they were here for an all-day shoot, until about 6 p.m. that night. They filmed our entire house. They filmed the family and they did some neighborhood shots. My in-laws live in the same neighborhood. They filmed them outside in the back yard with the kids. Then the whole family went to Deanna Rose (Farmstead) and they filmed us there.

“I didn’t realize how interactive it would be. It was kind of nerve-wracking.”

HGTV’s programming offers shows about interior design, home renovation, the real estate market, landscaping, and other house and garden related topics.

“I’m an HGTV junkie,” Moore said. “There are a bunch of creative people on that network.”

Cyndi said that prior to the filming she had not seen “What You Get for the Money.”

“I used to watch HGTV a lot,” she said. “I just haven’t had time the past few years with working and having three kids under age 7. But since they filmed, we tape the show and we watch it quite a bit now.”

Listed By: The Reid Team 913-568-6965 ReidTeam At ReeceAndNichols.com

Beautiful luxury town home in maint provided comm. Home is surrounded by beautiful common areas that incl mature trees & charming flower beds. Enjoy great location w/easy highway access. Spacious floor plan w/two brick fireplaces, wet bar & sun room. Entertain on upper or lower deck.

Also see this property at this web site

Listed By: The Reid Team 913-568-6965 ReidTeam At ReeceAndNichols.com

Listed By: The Reid Team 913-568-6965 ReidTeam At ReeceAndNichols.com

Viewed From Another Site 

Listed By: The Reid Team 913-568-6965 ReidTeam@ReeceAndNichols.com

Be Prepared
Know the other person’s needs and objectives

Answering Is A Skill
Silence gets concessions

Ask questions
“In your opinion,…” “How can this work?” “What would be fair?”

No Ultimatums
Don’t offend, threaten. Calm their fears

Position Yourself
Always ask for more. Give yourself wiggle room. Then, they can have the last word.

Reflect Back
“So I can better understand your position…..”

When You Concede Something, Always Ask For Something In Return

Have Time On Your Side
80% of concessions are made in the last 20% of the time. Have patience.

Positional VS. Be Interest Based
What is the joint/shared committment? Separate the issues from the people.

Listed By: The Reid Team 913-568-6965 ReidTeam At ReeceAndNichols.com