By: Steve Nicoles, Reporter
IOWA CITY - The Furniture Project in Iowa City is overstocked and not able to help people fast enough. Ever since the company Successful Living took over a year ago the Furniture Project has been working overtime. A lot of the furniture comes from college students leaving Iowa City for the summer. Furniture Project employee Bill Hardy said, “We’d have people say can you pick a couch up for us and we would end up cleaning out a two-bedroom apartment. Stuff like that we really get backed up and overloaded on. And we can’t get it out fast enough.”
The Furniture Project accepts used furniture from anyone. It then gives the furniture to low-income families. The group has everything from box frames and mattresses to kitchen table sets and televisions. The Furniture Project only charges to deliver furniture.
For information or to set up an appointment call 319-358-6800.
August 23rd, 2007
By Gerald Carroll
A number of Visalia furniture-store customers who say they never received their purchases are taking the former owner of Anna Marie’s Home Furnishings to court.
Anna Shoemaker has failed to deliver furniture to at least eight people — some for as long as 18 months — the customers claim.
The buyers combined paid at least $10,000 for the furniture, said Kathy Ezell of Visalia, who on Monday earned a $1,200 judgment against Shoemaker in Tulare County Small Claims Court.
“I think we all just want our money back,” she said.
Ezell said more aggrieved customers could surface.
“We’re just now finding out how many of us have been affected,” she said. “A family was there in court with me to find out what they have to do. They told me they’ve lost $5,300 on a bedroom suite they saved for years to buy.”
The Visalia Police Department has launched an investigation, Visalia Police Det. Brian Fomavia said Tuesday.
He said he could offer no details.
Shoemaker was not available for comment Tuesday.
The business — full name: Anna Marie’s Home Furnishings at Colonial Shopping Center — operated in southwest Visalia for 10 years.
It closed in July 2006 and Shoemaker announced plans to move to the Visalia Shopping Center on the northeast corner of Mooney Boulevard and Caldwell Avenue.
The new store never opened.
Last November, Visalia Shopping Center’s Dallas-based owners informed customers, on behalf of Shoemaker, that problems conforming with city of Visalia guidelines had delayed the opening of the new store.
But on Tuesday, a business called Professor Toy began moving equipment and merchandise into the building.
Another Anna Marie’s customer, Rich Davis, is scheduled to appear in small-claims court Oct. 1. He said he bought a table from Shoemaker’s store and liked it so much that in January 2006, he ordered $891.50 worth of additional items.
“No furniture yet, and we paid full price,” Davis said. “We’ve been after her for quite some time.”
At the time of the purchase Shoemaker had a “store full of furniture,” he said.
On Tuesday, Shoemaker’s trademark pink furniture-delivery truck was parked at her residence on Parkwood Street near El Diamante High School. A BMW convertible parked alongside it has drawn the attention of another customer, Susan Vossler of Visalia.
“That’s a new BMW,” said Vossler, who said Shoemaker owes her $1,250. “How is it possible to buy a new BMW when she owes everyone all this money?”
The sale of Shoemaker’s delivery truck would generate “at least $14,000 to $15,000 and help pay all of us off,” Davis said. Tulare County property records show that on Feb. 15 and June 26, tax liens were attached to property owned by Shoemaker. A notice of default was filed June 14, and an ownership change was recorded July 28 by Deutsche Bank National Trust Company.
The reporter can be reached at gcarroll@visalia.gannett.com.
August 23rd, 2007
By ANI
Wednesday August 22, 02:35 PM
By Sarfaraz Khan Bijnore, Aug.22 (AN): There was a time when villages in the Rajasthan’s Bijnore District were known for their quality bamboo furniture. T
he bamboo furniture, of late, is facing stiff competition from plastic furniture.
In olden times, bamboo chairs of Bijnore, were a favourite even with royal families. Today, the craftsmen, who manufacture the bamboo chairs, have to compete with modern furniture and are also under pressure from environmentalists.
Many fear that their ancestral profession is all set to fade into oblivion. They have not cultivated any other skills. And, most of them are facing starvation.
According to an estimate, around 20,000 persons are engaged in the manufacture of bamboo furniture.
These bamboo furniture-makers also face a lot of problems due to strict regulations enforced by the Forest Department that keeps a check on the raw material.
Dharamveer Singh, owner of a bamboo furniture unit, said: “We don’t get raw material easily now. We bring it from Forest Department and their officials create problems for us. Police want palm-greasing. Our business is badly affected. ”
A bamboo chair takes a full day to prepare. It is sold at rupees 60 and the profit is rupees forty. Artisans complain that they get a meagre amount for their labour.
Mansingh, another bamboo chair maker, said: “Our furniture gets little money. Officials at the Forest Department stop our private vehicles and demand money at the check-posts. We receive rough treatment everywhere.” (ANI) Latest Photos - Reuters Ram Gopal Varma has sex on his mind India, Japan agree on basic currency Iran agrees to answer questions o Google Earth to launch new service fo » More Photos Latest Videos - IBNlive.com Iran agrees to answer questions o Left to hit the streets against G Cops free rapist,
August 23rd, 2007
Janice Feldman started Janus et Cie almost 30 years ago with the notion of bringing European design to the United States.
Now the former San Franciscan, who studied industrial design, is in West Hollywood and has opened several U.S. showrooms, including one recently in a corner of the Design Center Showplace in San Francisco.
“The company has doubled every year for the last few,” said Northwest territory manager Ginger Gumpertz.
She credits Feldman’s aesthetic sense and the large selection of casual but sturdy and well-designed indoor and outdoor furnishings as the key to the success. “There’s something for everybody here,” she said.
At 11,000 square feet, it is one of the largest showrooms at the Design Center, enough to show off dining tables like the Gargantua, a 57-inch, round jatoba and stainless steel picnic bench made in Germany (shown above: $8,854), and the leaf-shaped lounge chair of hularo, a synthetic material that resists wear and tear and bacteria (shown at upper right; $4,986).
The furniture stresses style and durability. Loom, a coated paper-over-wire weave, is the material that bleacher seats at Wrigley Field in Chicago were made of. Manufactured in Great Britain, everything in the line can be taken outside and hosed down, Gumpertz said. “You don’t have to worry about taking care of it.” (Loom butterfly armchair, shown above right, $601.)
For a Bay Area garden, a Loom table and four chairs would run about $2,500, while a couple of powder-coated aluminum, teak and mesh metal chairs from the Hugonet collection would look lovely on a city balcony at $900 each.
Prices are high, but these are definitely once-in-a-lifetime purchases.
For those looking for just the right patio chair, Janus has about 144 styles in metal, wood, glass, iron and synthetic combinations. The cafe collection (Luxembourg side chair shown above left, $264) features table and chairs for small nooks or gardens.
Janus et Cie, 2 Henry Adams St., Suite 195 (at Alameda), San Francisco. Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday. www.janusetcie.com.
August 23rd, 2007