Roof

One hundred years ago tonight, Marylanders gasped at what The Sun described the next morning as a "brilliant shower of aerolites" -- meteors that seemed to fall all around the region shortly before 10 p.m. The bright flash "outshone electric lights along the streets" and "made its rays noticeable in brightly illuminated rooms." A city patrolman said one object hit the roof of the Belair Market, leaving only "small clouds of smoke." For more on this curious event, visit the Weather Blog at the URL below.

A fire that began on the roof of The Mall in Columbia yesterday forced the evacuation and temporary closing of the sprawling complex, creating confusion and fear among many of the hundreds of customers and employees inside."

A fire destroyed a privately owned barn next to the U.S. Naval Academy's dairy farm yesterday an Anne Arundel County Fire Department spokesman said.Lt. Robert Rose said the contents of the barn also were destroyed, The loss was estimated at $150,000."It was a total loss," he aid.Rose said charges were pending against a youth suspected of a setting the fire.The youth entered the barn, on Claffy Avenue in Gambrills, about 3 p.m. and used a cigarette lighter to set fire to hay, quickly engulfing the building, Rose said.

Remember the details of trigonometry, the study of relationships between the sides and angles of triangles?Of course not. Unfortunately, neither do many of the youngsters who apply for jobs at Brett Schoolnick's Columbia-based building and remodeling company. So Schoolnick has taken matters into his own hands, showing Howard County kids how to translate concepts such as cosines and tangents into something real.Schoolnick spent two days last week showing area students who went to the county's Applications and Research Laboratory -- Howard's vocational-technical school -- how to frame a roof using their own calculations.

In 1903, a disastrous tornado swept through Baltimore, destroying 250 buildings and toppling half the steeple of St. Mary, Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Church, but the sanctuary remained open for Sunday services.Until this month.The South Baltimore landmark closed July 2 for what is believed to be the first time in its 130-year history after the roof slid off its foundation, opening a gaping hole and forcing the evacuation of six nuns.The church, built in 1869, serves more than 400 families who are now worshiping at nearby Holy Cross Church on West Street.

YOU KNOW you're having a bad day when:You arrive home to find the bomb squad has cordoned off your house.You arrive at your office to find the crew of "60 Minutes" waiting for you.You arrive home to find it's raining in the dining room.The latter, alas, is what happened to Karol in the recent meteorological unpleasantness. She got home about 7: 30 p.m. and discovered that the roof had leaked in the dining room until a piece of plaster fell down, and then water had poured in through the hole.

Last winter Angela and Luke Steckel's friends were calling them crazy.The idea of transforming a tiny cottage into an "eclectic Victorian" sounded outrageous. Now those friends are eating their words, while they stretch their necks to get a full view of the three-story creation."I knew he could do it," Angela said. "I've seen what he's done before."The couple always had loved the Victorian style, but those homes were hard to come by, especially at the right price. When they found a 1940s-era cottage in Sparks, and Luke said he could change it, Angela wasn't going to try to talk him out of it.And she's glad she didn't.

YORK, Pa. - When five members of the Howard family were stripped of their Maryland home improvement licenses in the late 1980s, it seemed to end a long, costly series of swindles against elderly homeowners.No more shady come-ons about leaky roofs that didn't really leak. No more "senior citizen discounts" like $6,000 for a new toilet. And no more shoddy or nonexistent repair work, at least not from the Howards, who began leaving Baltimore.Now, a decade later, the saga of the Howards has resumed.

Towanda Mackall is a first-time homebuyer and she's a little bit nervous.The home inspector has arrived and, although she knows the property is perfect for her, she's concerned about what dangers lurk within the 50-year-old, three-bedroom rowhouse she is buying for $65,900 in Belair-Edison.Enter Chris Snyder, the inspector, on this cold overcast January afternoon. He begins by telling Mackall, a laboratory technician at Johns Hopkins Hospital, what he'll be looking for, what it all means and what it doesn't mean.

Northern principal did what was needed to impose disciplineI am appalled that Alice Morgan-Brown was driven into retirement at Northern High School. All she did was try to restore order to her school.The things she did were much better than a predecessor who rarely came out of his office and was afraid to speak to students. When she came, Northern was in its worst state. What happened this year is small compared with things I had seen six years ago.Not many principals in the Baltimore City school system were or are as bold as she was in taking the measures she took.

Summers were anything but vacations for Haloti Ngata. Before he became a burly 6-foot-4, 345-pound defensive tackle for the Ravens who would emerge as one of the top run-stuffers in the NFL, Ngata was a teenager at the mercy of his father, Solomone, who owned a construction business. So while his classmates could sleep the morning away and wake up just in time for lunch, Ngata usually had already put in five to six hours of work, laying down concrete, mixing cement and hauling away large slabs of concrete.

Not all landmarks are beautiful. For more than 90 years, what is now a fire-blackened, gutted building at the northwest corner of Charles Street and North Avenue has been a rusty anchor of this intersection. Never a beauty, it seemed in need of paint, a new roof and a better reputation. But even as it rests, due for demolition, it deserves to have its life story told. Some people call it Goldbloom's, after a popular apparel shop that occupied the ground floor for decades. I grew up hearing it called the Hotel Chateau but never knew of any rooms being rented there.

LOS ANGELES - Green roofs are good. They clean the air, cool the house below, provide rest stops for birds and butterflies. If you work well with wood and want to try a green roof, why not start by building one for your dog? Landscape architect Stephanie Rubin and her partner, sculptor Chris Isner, sell doghouses with rooftop gardens for $1,000 to $4,000. Your homemade version will cost a lot less - and the dog in residence will appreciate a plant-topped refuge that is cooler, in every sense of the word, than anything else around.

The next project at my home is a screened porch. I have looked at many plans, but none of them really excite me. I have some good ideas about what I want in my design. What should I take into consideration in this planning phase so that I end up with the perfect screened-in porch? Good screened porch designs are often hard to find. Most of the ones I have seen seem to be mutations of decks that are just thrown onto the rear or side of a home. The first thing you need to consider is the size.

City Hall isn't glowing purple this year. Last year's plum-colored bulbs have apparently been mothballed. As the Ravens lose and lose and then go ahead and lose a little more, Baltimore, it seems, has recovered quite fully from last year's football fever. Yet, on a well-trafficked corner southeast of downtown, the Ravens spirit of at least one stout-hearted fan hasn't gone dark - in fact, he's not coming down from a Canton roof until the team rewards his positivity with a win. As a man who lives, breathes and dreams Baltimore football, Ron Stack considers this literally lofty campaign no less than his duty, his sacred calling, really, as a sports-minded Baltimorean.

Falling off ladders and roofs is surprisingly common and can result in broken bones, brain injury, paralysis and sometimes even death - as in the case of former Green Bay Packers football star Max McGee, who was blowing leaves off the roof of his Deephaven, Minn., home in October when he fell and died. More than 2 million people were treated at emergency rooms for ladder-related injuries between 1990 and 2005, according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

As I looked for leaf-raking tools in the debris field formally known as my garage, I realized I need a storage shed. I want to build my own. Are wood sheds the way to go? One of the first steps in your shed project should be to visit your local government officials. You need to know how zoning laws deal with sheds, as well as to familiarize yourself with local building codes. For example, where I live, the building department is not concerned with sheds that are under a certain square footage.

Around the house Check, clean and vacuum dust from your dryer vent, air-conditioner, stove hood, room fans, baseboard heaters and cold-air returns. Keep your heating and cooling vents free from furniture and draperies. Check your crawlspace or basement for standing water, mold - and wildlife. Check pilot lights and burners, too, and look for gas leaks and adequate ventilation. Clean your gutters and downspouts, and make sure they're securely attached. Your roof should be watertight, too. Look for missing, cracked or loose shingles; gaps in the flashing where the roofing and siding meet; and damaged mortar around the chimney.

One hundred years ago tonight, Marylanders gasped at what The Sun described the next morning as a "brilliant shower of aerolites" -- meteors that seemed to fall all around the region shortly before 10 p.m. The bright flash "outshone electric lights along the streets" and "made its rays noticeable in brightly illuminated rooms." A city patrolman said one object hit the roof of the Belair Market, leaving only "small clouds of smoke." For more on this curious event, visit the Weather Blog at the URL below.

A great exterior paint job should make you think, "What a lovely home," not "What great colors." If you get it right, your house will be in harmony with its surroundings -- nature and the neighborhood. Get it wrong and passers-by will wonder, "What were they thinking?" "You want to try to do something you feel will have longevity," said Barbara Richardson, director of Color Marketing for ICI Paints/Glidden. "If you want funky, limit yourself to the front door." You can achieve a harmonious color scheme if you follow a few guiding principles.