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Stylish Hill duplex’s spiral draws you in

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 23 Februari 2013 | 16.30

This charming Beacon Hill penthouse duplex has been carved out of the top two floors of an unassuming beige brick building.

The owner-architect has created a bright, airy, open contemporary space with an open living/dining area, a double-height master bedroom and a spiral staircase to a loft studio surrounded by a wraparound two-level roof deck. This 1,488-square-foot, two-bedroom corner condo — completely redone including an elevator in 1993 — is available for $1,324,000.

The five-unit building was constructed as apartments in 2002 and has an arched stone entryway and dentil molding along the roof cornice. A brown-and-white marble lobby leads up three flights of carpeted stairs to the unit, which is up an additional flight.

Unit 5 opens into a foyer with wide plank oak floors and a stylish spiral staircase. Straight ahead is a nearly 40-foot long open living/dining area with oak floors, recessed lighting and nine windows that have bull's eye molding and curved oak sills.

The living room has a wood-burning fireplace at one end with a green marble hearth and skylight above, and a side wall of built-in bookcases

The dining area has windows with views of the Charles River, and features a custom designed freestanding curved cabinet with display and storage space and built-in bookshelves.

Off the dining room is a galley kitchen with red tile floors and great views out of the city. There are 18 white cabinets above and below white Formica counters and a built-in with bookshelves above. There are white appliances, a Jenn Air electric stove, a Kitchen Aid dishwasher and an Amana refrigerator.

Off the kitchen is a full bathroom with white ceramic tile floors and wall around a tub/shower and a pedestal sink.

On the other side of the foyer sits a double-height carpeted master bedroom with 17-foot ceilings, recessed lighting and a wall of windows with city views. There are two closets with built-in storage and two large closets on a wall right outside the room.

The en-suite master bathroom has white glass tile floors and walls for a tub shower. But the custom-made curved white fixtures here are excluded.

The spiral staircase leads up to a bright studio space with hardwood floors, six skylights, six windows and two large built-in work tables and bookcases. There are glass doors out to a wraparound deck that has a second level on top of the studio.

Through one corner of the studio is a wood stepladder down to the second carpeted bedroom, which sits on a mezzanine above the master suite.

The unit has a two-zone electric heat and central air-conditioning system.

There is no parking on site, but on-street parking with a residential permit or there is nearby rental parking available.


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Foodie’s feeds need for upscale Southie grocery

Festivities today will formally mark the arrival of the long-awaited Foodie's Urban Market in South Boston.

After quietly opening last month, the 8,000-square-foot store at West Broadway and C streets has been fine-tuning its product mix to the wants and needs of a community that was in need of another grocery.

"So far, so good," general manager David Healy said yesterday. "There's been a few requests and complaints that we tried to take care of. The biggest complaint has been parking, but if you walk up and down the street, we're the only ones who have parking."

Foodie's has nine parking spaces, five checkout lanes and five aisles of food, with produce, butcher, deli, dairy, dessert and prepared food departments.

"(The dessert) and the cheese departments are my two biggest surprises as far as volume," Healy said.

There's also a four-foot section of Irish food. "We are in Southie, after all," Healy said.

"We love it," South Boston's Marie Krohn said after shopping there yesterday. "It has great produce. They have a great selection of cheese. They have the same selection as Whole Foods, only smaller. It definitely beats Stop & Shop."

Southie residents previously had to make do with the Stop & Shop nearly a mile away on East Broadway or travel outside the neighborhood to stock the fridge and pantry.

Foodie's prices match those of its South End store, as they share advertising circulars and weekly sales. The chain has a third location in Duxbury.

"The prices are high — it's Whole Foods prices," Krohn said. "But Stop & Shop has very high prices as well. We make them fit into our budget."

Healy has heard no complaints about pricing, but he's been surprised at the customer mix from the evolving neighborhood, where luxury condos are sprouting up to join new restaurants and, soon, Southie's first Starbucks. "It seems more like the young, yuppie crowd — 30-somethings, upscale," he said.

Boston police officer Jen Grogan stopped in yesterday to pick up lunch from the salad bar. "It's nice because they serve a lot of healthy stuff," she said. "It's nice for the community. The meats and the produce look a lot fresher than they do at Stop & Shop."

Today's grand opening at noon features a ribbon cutting with owners Victor Leon and Mayor Thomas M. Menino, free hot dogs, food samples, free Foodie's reusable bags for the first 100 customers and a chance to win an iPad Mini tablet.


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Santa Fe design turns heads

The well-crafted and overhauled 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport is a comfortable crossover utility vehicle with a solid ride that is spoiled by the bugaboo for this manufacturer — indifferent steering response. Despite switching to Sport, one of the three optional driving modes, it did little to improve the slushy electronic feel with a dead spot on top and a tendency to wander on the highway.

I've found many of the Hyundai/Kia models suffer from this poor steering, and it's too bad because these are very good cars now. The quick modernization is due to engineers working with a former BMW designer, blending European and Asian influences to quickly reposition the line in many classes. Just look at the steep uptick to sportier and more sophisticated cars from the rather humdrum everyday offerings of just a few of years ago.

The Santa Fe's eye-pleasing total redesign, with striking angular lines and a bigger footprint, is much classier than earlier versions. A sweeping windshield blends nicely into the panoramic sunroof and finishes with a tailored tailgate.

But this all comes with a price. It appears that Hyundai is setting itself up as the premium buy versus the more affordable sister company Kia. The MSRP on the Santa Fe is $29,450, but with the Leather Premium and Technology Packages like our test model, the 2013 will cost you $35,925.

The five-passenger base model is well fitted with a solid package of standard features and the new long-based Sport has seating for seven. Hyundai offers two bundles in which the upgrades, including leather, climate control, rearview camera, panoramic roof, navigation with touchscreen and Infinity surround sound can be found.

The restyled cabin is quiet and accented with contrasting patterns in the nicely fitted panels. Some soft touches have made their way onboard, and just a hint of wood trim smartens up the interior. The leather seats were mostly comfortable, supportive and are highlighted with contrasting stitching. Dropping the rear seats provides for a large-capacity cargo area. And here's something you don't often find: heated rear seats.

The infotainment center was easy to use except for the navigation, which was not very intuitive and, frankly, annoying. The dash is clean with two large gauges for the speedometer and tach­ometer separated by a digital display with a variety of car information. The steering wheel controls are well engineered, and the phone mated quickly with some nice prompts.

The driver sits up nice and tall with good forward sight lines. The slight driver forward positioning had a tendency to throw my turning radius off a bit. I found myself cutting corners tighter than the wheelbase allowed leaving me a bit askew when parking — and look out for the blind spot in the rear corners.

Under the hood, the 2.0-liter turbo is a solid performer making 264 horsepower but sucked a lot of gas even in ECO mode — just 21 mpg on average, which had my wallet open a couple of times in just a week of driving. The six-speed transmission was smooth under city driving but under heavy acceleration had trouble finding the right shift point.

This is a big, competitive class of cars; so how does the Santa Fe carve a niche stacking up against the Ford Escape, Nissan Murano, Toyota Rav 4 and Honda CRV? Well, one way is to continue to offer the best warranty in the business — 10 years or 100,000 miles.


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Fed urges growth as 'fiscal cliff' looms

Written By Unknown on Senin, 18 Februari 2013 | 16.30

Wal-Mart execs sweat slow February salesWal-Mart Stores Inc. had the worst sales start to a month in seven years as...

HONG KONG — Disneyland in the southern Chinese city of Hong Kong has turned a profit for the first time since it...

All work and no play would make ZeroTurnaround — a Java productivity tools maker — a dull company, but that...

A Boston-based company that raises money for charity by selling donated and consigned tickets to music and sports...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is concerned about the effect that looming, drastic across-the-board budget cuts...

SOFIA, Bulgaria — Thousands of Bulgarians protested on Sunday against rising electricity and heating bills, and police...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After backlash from customers, the producer of Maker's Mark bourbon is reversing a decision to cut...

A Staples Inc. deal to sell Apple products in the United States would not be a "game-changer" for the...

Fidelity profit fallsFidelity Investments said its operating profit plunged 29 percent to $2.3 billion in 2012.The...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says the U.S. doesn't have to choose between growing the economy and shrinking the...

MOSCOW — Finance chiefs from the world's 20 leading industrial and developing countries attempted Saturday to calm...

MADRID — Demonstrations were held across Spain on Saturday to protest harsh repossession laws that have led to...

DETROIT — BMW is recalling almost 570,000 cars in the U.S. and Canada because a battery cable connector can fail and...

WASHINGTON — Congress' latest crack at a new assault weapons ban would protect more than 2,200 specific firearms,...

WASHINGTON — Get ready for two weeks of intensifying warnings about how crucial, popular government services are about...

BOSTON — Gov. Deval Patrick and state economic development officials are on a trade visit this weekend to...

BEIJING — The Chinese subsidiary of ConocoPhillips can resume operations at an oil field off the coast of...


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Faithful flock to @pontifex

The next time a blizzard or another emergency hits Massachusetts, there's a free app to give you the latest...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Rock 'n' roll legend Chubby Checker is twisting mad over a software application...

SEOUL, South Korea — A South Korean lawmaker known for criticism of the Samsung conglomerate has forfeited his seat in...

LOS ANGELES — Tamagotchi is re-hatching as an app.Bandai Co. and Sync Beatz Entertainment are hoping to revive the...

The State of the Union rebuttal last night ceased to be the task of one poor sap who drew the short straw.Though it was...

An alarming news report that Raytheon Corp. has developed lightning-fast software that scours social media to profile...

The White House is open for questions. In what is being billed as the most interactive State of the Union address in...

An app developed by an MIT Sloan School of Management graduate has already built an army of mystery shoppers that it...

HAMDEN, Conn. — The East Coast woke up under a blanket of snow this weekend and collectively documented the experience...

NEW YORK — Dell is trying to reassure shareholders about its proposed $24.4 billion acquisition by a group led by its...

On Feb. 24, millions of Americans will be tweeting while they tune in to the Oscars, and this year Twitter will have...

It's the first Boston blizzard in history with its own name, hashtags and memes, and you didn't even have...

Telecom providers in Massachusetts are gearing up deployments to fix downed poles, reconnect customers and tackle other...

Apple Inc. has recently come under attack for its practice of stockpiling cash. At the end of last year, the company...

WASHINGTON — The government has reached a proposed settlement with Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC, which does business as...

The most advanced robotics test center in the nation will open Tuesday at UMass Lowell with a robotics demonstration...

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Dr. Watson is accepting new patients.The Watson supercomputer is graduating from its medical...


16.30 | 0 komentar | Read More

We're... No. 17 on Forbes' 'best states for business' list

Wal-Mart execs sweat slow February salesWal-Mart Stores Inc. had the worst sales start to a month in seven years as...

HONG KONG — Disneyland in the southern Chinese city of Hong Kong has turned a profit for the first time since it...

All work and no play would make ZeroTurnaround — a Java productivity tools maker — a dull company, but that...

A Boston-based company that raises money for charity by selling donated and consigned tickets to music and sports...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is concerned about the effect that looming, drastic across-the-board budget cuts...

SOFIA, Bulgaria — Thousands of Bulgarians protested on Sunday against rising electricity and heating bills, and police...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After backlash from customers, the producer of Maker's Mark bourbon is reversing a decision to cut...

A Staples Inc. deal to sell Apple products in the United States would not be a "game-changer" for the...

Fidelity profit fallsFidelity Investments said its operating profit plunged 29 percent to $2.3 billion in 2012.The...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says the U.S. doesn't have to choose between growing the economy and shrinking the...

MOSCOW — Finance chiefs from the world's 20 leading industrial and developing countries attempted Saturday to calm...

MADRID — Demonstrations were held across Spain on Saturday to protest harsh repossession laws that have led to...

DETROIT — BMW is recalling almost 570,000 cars in the U.S. and Canada because a battery cable connector can fail and...

WASHINGTON — Congress' latest crack at a new assault weapons ban would protect more than 2,200 specific firearms,...

WASHINGTON — Get ready for two weeks of intensifying warnings about how crucial, popular government services are about...

BOSTON — Gov. Deval Patrick and state economic development officials are on a trade visit this weekend to...

BEIJING — The Chinese subsidiary of ConocoPhillips can resume operations at an oil field off the coast of...


16.30 | 0 komentar | Read More
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