Commercial Roofing Contractors in Carrollton, TX

When Heather Fujikawa was growing up in Salt Lake City, she would often join her mother during work. “You’re gonna help style,” her mom, an interior designer, would tell Heather and her twin sister, Heidi Andrews. The girls would cut and arrange flowers and fluff pillows. Heather says this “apprenticeship from a young age” instilled a lifelong passion for interior design.

But at her mother’s urging, Heather, who now runs House Sprucing, a North Texas home design service, majored in communications instead of interior design at Brigham Young University. Then she married her husband, Tyson, and she founded a fashion accessories business. Heather and Tyson moved to Italy in 2011 for a few years before returning to the U.S. and settling in Texas in 2013.

“That was a hard move,” Heather says, and she wondered what she was going to do here in Texas. She knew she needed something that she was “stimulated and fascinated by.” She and Tyson had a baby in 2015 and built a house. Then, while she was pregnant with twins in 2016, Heather decided it was time to officially dive into home design.

“I was like, ‘if I don’t launch this business now, then I never will after the babies get out of my tummy,’” she says. “I’ll have all the excuses to say no.”

So, Heather hosted a home décor market at her house with items from all over the world, officially launching Heather Fujikawa Design. She’d help people plan remodels and style their space. Heather describes her style as “new traditional.” She likes a classic look mixed with modern, organic, and European elements. Everything has a “joyful living-inspired design,” her mantra. Pieces are kid-friendly and livable. They can handle wine spills. They can handle children jumping all over them.

“You can have both things,” she says. “You can have nice things and you can have a life too.”

For a time, Heather’s business “was a just a one-woman show.” But then UPtv approached her with a proposition: How would Heather; her sister Heidi, who’s also a designer; and their families like to make a family-centered home-makeover reality TV show? They had been asked to make a show before, but Heather says this one felt right.

“It was so easy to hand over our life and the keys to our home,” Heather says. Heidi’s whole family moved into Heather’s house, and together they filmed for seven weeks. Design Twins, which premiered in 2019, follows Heather and Heidi as they launched Joyful Living, an interior design company.

After the show aired, Heather got pregnant with her fourth child and planned to scale back on her design business. But then, her husband Tyson lost his job, and asked Heather if they could go all in and scale up the business instead.

“I put on my boots, and we went to work,” she says, building up their design company. It’s now called Habitat Studio. (The company name changed to House Sprucing in 2020 after they merged with a local business, already called House Sprucing, from Highland Village.)

“I’ve always wanted to be a business owner,” says Tyson. “I’ve always wanted to work with Heather.”

The business was the same as what Heather did before: helping clients design their spaces, picking furnishings and window treatments, planning remodels and new constructions. It’s been a ton of work—“late nights, early mornings, nonstop work, don’t count my hours”—especially with four small children, says Heather, but empowering.

The scale-up happened quickly, too. They grew their staff to 20, provide services in 20-plus states, and have worked on more than 200 homes. Design Twins, which fizzled in the pandemic, helped. It created demand and gave them credibility, Tyson says, and let people get to know Heather. “She’s such a joyful, happy, energetic person that people want to work with,” he says, and people could see that on the show.

The couple, who were working out of a small Frisco studio, never planned to open a storefront. But as the business grew and the pandemic nearly halted furniture supply chains, “we thought we can really get ahead of the game and provide a much more elevated design experience,” says Tyson, “if we can have more inventory on hand for our clients.”

So, in June 2021 they started looking for a showroom. They wanted something central and easy for people to get to from across D-FW. In October, they signed a lease on a 10,000-square-foot Carrollton office space, not far from the Dallas North Tollway. The building was “a drop-down-ceiling labyrinth” of cubicles, Tyson says. It took months to renovate. The store, which is called House Sprucing, finally opened late last summer.

The bright and airy space is a bit of a maze, filled with living room vignettes, carpet displays, and walls of side tables. The Fugikawas source their pieces from markets across the country and the world—in addition to their sojourn to Italy, Tyson also lived in Spain. “It’s really important for me to bring a different point of view to Dallas,” Heather says.

Since they opened, Heather says House Sprucing has been a “great place for clients to come” and check out their stock, but they’ve also gotten plenty of walk-ins. They’ll welcome anyone. “I want it to be approachable for people to walk in and feel like they can shop here.”

People can try out the furniture, run a hand over textiles, see how a chair pairs with other pieces. The store is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and the team will also host pop-ups, holiday events, and one-on-one “shop & style” sessions—private consultations with Heather—in store.

Their hope is to inspire “joyful living” for all their clientele in the store and the rest of their business. And, natch, they’ll keep scaling it up, Heather says. “The sky’s the limit.”

Made in America Policies and New Technical Standards Support the Future of the Electric Vehicle Charging Industry, Public and Private Actions Accelerate Buildout of National Network and Catalyze Manufacturing Boom

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced its latest set of actions aimed at creating a convenient, reliable and Made-in-America electric vehicle (EV) charging network so that the great American road trip can be electrified. These steps will help the United States meet President Biden’s ambitious goals to confront the climate crisis, by building a national network of 500,000 electric vehicle chargers along America’s highways and in our communities and have EVs make up at least 50% of new car sales by 2030, all while advancing an industrial strategy to continue to build-out the domestic EV and EV charging industry. The path to net-zero emissions by 2050 is creating good-paying manufacturing and installation jobs on the way.

President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invests $7.5 billion in EV charging, $10 billion in clean transportation, and over $7 billion in EV battery components, critical minerals, and materials. These flagship programs complement the Inflation Reduction Act’s landmark support for advanced batteries and new and expanded tax credits for purchases of EVs and to support installations of charging infrastructure, as well as dozens of other federal initiatives designed to drive domestic manufacturing and build a national network of EV charging. The result is that the future of American transportation is on track to be cleaner, safer, more affordable, and more reliable than ever before. Today’s announcements are a further demonstration of the President’s successful industrial strategy, ensuring that the clean energy transition is powered by American manufacturing and good-paying union jobs.

Because of President Biden’s leadership and record federal investment, EV sales have tripled and the number of publicly available charging ports has grown by at least 40% since he took office. There are now more than three million EVs on the road and over 130,000 public chargers across the country. Further accelerating the buildout of a convenient, reliable charging network is critically important to make electric vehicle charging a seamless experience. Today, companies including Tesla, General Motors, EVgo, Pilot, Hertz and bp, among others, are announcing new commitments to expand their networks by thousands of public charging ports in the next two years, using private funds to complement federal dollars and putting the nation’s EV charging goals even closer within reach.

Today’s actions include:

These announcements build on the well over $100 billion that the private sector has invested in electric vehicle, battery, and EV charging manufacturing in the United States to date. Today’s announcements are evidence of the President’s successful industrial strategy, ensuring that federal funds are attracting private investment to ensure the clean energy transition is powered by American manufacturing and good-paying union jobs. Combined with investments in battery manufacturing and tax credits for electric vehicle purchases and charging infrastructure driven by the Inflation Reduction Act, these programs are key to achieving the Administration’s climate goals.

ACCESSIBLE, RELIABLE, CONVENIENT, USER-FRIENDLY EV CHARGING NETWORKTo ensure ready access to charging and spur good manufacturing jobs at home, President Biden has publicly committed to building out a convenient, reliable, and user-friendly national network of 500,000 EV chargers by 2030. In support of this vision, the Department of Transportation announced the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program (NEVI), a $5 billion initiative to create a coast-to-coast network of electric vehicle chargers focused on major highways that support the majority of long-distance trips. This national network will give drivers confidence they can always find a place to charge, jump start private investment in charging infrastructure and electric vehicles, and support the President’s goal of at least 50% of vehicle sales to be electric by 2030.

Today, FHWA, with support from the Joint Office, unveiled new national standards for federally funded EV chargers, including NEVI-funded chargers. All 50 states, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico are participating in the NEVI program and initial investments will electrify over 75,000 miles of the national highway system. These standards will direct federal dollars to build out a national EV charging network that is user-friendly, reliable, and accessible so that charging is as easy as filling up at a gas station. Until now, there were no comprehensive standards for the installation, operation, or maintenance of EV charging stations, and disparities exist among EV charging stations in key areas, such as connector types, payment methods, data privacy, speed and power of chargers, reliability, and the overall user experience. A recent survey of EV users reported frustration with chargers that are too slow, too crowded, or that just don’t work. Under FHWA’s new standards, we are fixing this. The standards will ensure that:

The standards will also help to ensure that these historic investments in EV charging create good-paying jobs and that EV chargers are well-serviced by requiring strong workforce standards such as Registered Apprenticeships and the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Training Program (EVITP). Through the White House Talent Pipeline Challenge, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) has certified 20,000 electricians through EVITP.

Together, the standards will ensure that chargers operated by different networks operate similarly and provide the traveling public with a predictable EV charging experience – no matter what car you drive or what state you charge in.

ACCELERATING THE BUILDOUT OF EV CHARGING NETWORKSThe Biden-Harris Administration’s actions on EVs have spurred network operators to accelerate the buildout of coast-to-coast EV charging networks. Public dollars will supplement private investment by filling gaps, serving rural and hard to reach locations, and building capacity in communities. Announcements being spotlighted today will add more than 100,000 public chargers available for all EVs, and include:

AN ELECTRIC VEHICLE FUTURE THAT IS MADE IN AMERICAThe Build America, Buy America implementation plan for EV charging equipment reflects the success of the Biden-Harris Administration at spurring new domestic investments in the manufacture of EV fast-charging equipment. The rapidly-expanding industry is ramping up production to make high-quality, Buy America compliant chargers, creating good jobs and helping the Unites States strengthen its leadership in clean energy manufacturing. That strategy will ensure that electric vehicle chargers purchased through the NEVI program will be assembled in the United States, effective immediately, and fully compliant with Build America, Buy America requirements for manufactured products by July 1, 2024 to support investments in the supply chain consistent with an aggressive expansion of domestic manufacturing.

Today’s announcement is a tool to promote domestic production. The Build America, Buy America requirements for EV charging equipment will help revitalize our manufacturing base. The phased approach to these requirements will incentivize companies to invest in domestic production of EV charging components, positioning U.S. workers and businesses to compete and lead globally while providing a transition period for companies to onshore their supply chains. In order to meet the requirements of the Build America, Buy America Act, domestic manufacturing is ramping up aggressively. The Office of Management and Budget’s new Made in America Office is working with agency experts, labor and industry to implement industrial strategy by incentivizing greater U.S. manufacturing in key sectors.

Federal agencies and states are standing up processes to implement and track Made in America requirements to ensure that federally-funded infrastructure projects use American-made iron, steel, construction materials, and manufactured products. Our success in creating an EV charging equipment industry nearly from scratch demonstrates what Made in America policies can do to build a manufacturing base.

MANUFACTURING BOOMThe Biden economic agenda has ignited a manufacturing boom. Made in America requirements have already sent a strong signal to the market that federal dollars will be spent on products that are produced and sourced in the United States – and industry has responded. Since the President took office, companies have announced more than $100 billion in manufacturing investments for EVs, batteries and chargers.

A recent report found that private sector investment in EVs and related infrastructure in the United States is now surpassing China and other nations for the first time. Three years ago, there was little American footprint in the advanced EV charging industry. Now, producers are making investments to establish new headquarters, facilities, or production lines to build the next generation of EV chargers in the United States. For six of these companies, these investments represent their first U.S. manufacturing footprint.

Investments include:

Other companies and networks are working to ensure EV chargers are well-maintained:

For more information on these announcements visit driveelectric.gov. See here for amore comprehensive list of investments in EV charging in the United States.

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With desperation mounting and temperatures falling below freezing in the quake zone, North Texans are doing all they can to speed relief supplies to Turkey. Turkish Airlines has offered to fly supplies from Dallas to Turkey for free.

DALLAS - Rescuers are working in freezing temperatures looking for survivors in the rubble of the deadly earthquake that hit Turkey and neighboring Syria.

The death has climbed to more than 7,200 people and is expected to rise with thousands still unaccounted for. The region also suffered widespread damage and more than 100 aftershocks.

Meanwhile, Turkish Airlines has offered to fly supplies from Dallas to Turkey for free. So the Turkish American Association of North Texas is working to gather as much as they can for the first flight scheduled for Thursday evening.

With desperation mounting and temperatures falling below freezing in the quake zone, North Texans are doing all they can to speed relief supplies to Turkey.

Erdal Sipahi leads TURANT.

"Turkish Airlines has graciously contacted all the Turkish American organizations to carry this cargo back to Turkey," he said. "First flight out of DFW will be Thursday night.

Esh Selvi is the co-owner of Toros Outlet. He knew their Garland warehouse could make room for donations, and his business was able to donate several pallets of winter clothing.

"As a company, we provided a pallet of gloves, neck warmers, shoes for kids for winter," he said. "They don't have any house or clothes in the streets. That is why we need to help."

Selvi is hoping that more people will contribute for the first Thursday evening flight.

"We need a lot more for sure," he said.

Bahadir Koseli was born and raised in Dallas, but all of his extended family is near the epicenter in southern Turkey.

"My cousin told me when it happened at 4:15 in the morning, they ran outside as fast as they could," he said. "Multiple buildings across the street, feet from them, there were 15-story buildings now flat on the ground."

Koseli says all of the family members he's made contact with in Adana are physically okay, but they are among tens of thousands who are displaced.

"Unfortunately they are not able to go back into their homes. They are staying in tents where they can find them and really trying to stay warm in this winter weather," he said.

TURANT is accepting donations at three warehouse locations in Garland, Dallas, and Carrollton, and they will also receive deliveries there.

After this Thursday's flight, they are planning another flight for next week.

Drop-Off Locations

Garland Warehouse – 2525 South Shiloh Road, Suite 200, Garland TexasMonday – Friday 9:00AM – 10:00PM

Downtown Dallas – 3907 Elm St, Dallas, TX 75226Monday – Friday 11AM – 2PM

Motif Tile Inc – 3235 Skylane Drive, Suite 125, Carrollton, TX 75006Monday – Friday 10:00am – 6:00PM

NEW and UNUSED Winter Clothing for Adults and Children

Winter coats & raincoatsWinter boots, moon bootsSweaters, pantsWinter gloves, and glove/hand warmersScarfs, beanies, socks, and underwear

Other Supplies

4 person tents & cotsWinter blankets, thermal blanketsThermos and insulated water bottlesSleeping bagsFlashlights and appropriate batteries

Food and other Items

Canned vegetables in cases or boxesNonperishable foods & MREs – Meals Ready to EatBaby Foods, baby formula, baby bottlesBaby Diapers

Health Products, Personal Items

Personal cleaning supplies, soft soap, toothpaste & toothbrushFemale hygiene productsFirst Aid KitsOver the Counter Pain Medication, Tylenol, AdvilBand-Aids – Medium and Large gauze pads

Monetary Donations

Ahbap platform | https://ahbap.org/AKUT Search and Rescue Donation | AKUT Search and Rescue Association | Turkish USAR Team Bridge to Turkey Foundation BTF Disaster Relief Programs | Bridge to Türkiye Fund (bridgetoturkiye.org)

Carolyn Benavides’s story started when her family settled down in Carrollton when she was just six months old and has been there ever since.

As she grew up in Carrollton, Benavides continuously made an impact on the community in more ways than one, living and working in Carrollton as a businesswoman while also serving on the Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD Board of Trustees.

Benavides purchased Joe’s Pizza in 2006 and her son used to feed the homeless after hours as a way to help those in need in the community.

“At Thanksgiving, he said ‘Mom, can we pitch in some money and cook these guys turkeys?’ and I said ‘Yes,’” Benavides said. “I started making all my mom’s recipes and the first year at Thanksgiving, we cooked for 250 and fed over 500 and the second year we cooked for 500 and fed over 1,100.”

Ever since, the Benavides family has utilized the restaurant as a beacon of light to the community in need, she said.

“Supporting the downtown community is important to keep it alive because everyone in the country goes everywhere in the country for this experience,” she said. “You know, you come back, sail through times, stroll the streets, we have candy, we have ice cream, we have boutiques, we have excellent food throughout and everyone down here has a heart of gold and is here to serve you. Just the vibrance of downtown Carrollton is very important to my mayor, and to our citizens of our community.”

Just last year, the Benavides family purchased Amici Italian Restaurant in Downtown Carrollton. Bartolino Cocuzza was the executive chef at the restaurant for 30 years and retired early, which provided Benavides with an opportunity to purchase the restaurant. The family closed the Joe's Pizza Beltline location in July 2022 and moved permanently to Amici's.

Unfortunately, the Amici Italian Restaurant in Downtown Carrollton is not the best place to run a soup kitchen, she said, but she still serves communities through Benavides Family Charity. The charity is run out of North Dallas Family Church.

Through the Benavides Family Charity, she is helping to provide food and clothing support to around 15,000 people a year who are in need. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, that need went up to 50,000 people.

“We're excited and I just love being in downtown Carrollton,” Benavides said. “I used to march the streets in the drill team as a child because I've been here my whole life. South Carrollton is my hometown. We just give back to the community every single day and never say 'no,' because we really don't know the tragedy of one and we don't know where you've been, but if we can offer you a home cooked meal, we definitely want to be able to do that and give you that immediate sense of satisfaction.”

Beyond being a businesswoman and running a charity, Benavides also serves on the CFBISD Board of Trustees, where she is running for her second term.

“The children are where I started, you know, serving them on the streets for food, because of the grand need here and the ability to serve them from a different capacity is even better for them,” she said. “I love the children in my community, and the need is great and we really do try, not just from the street level, but from the governance level to provide for them. In today's day and age, there's no reason why every child should not be set up for success when they leave our district.”

Saint Sarkis Armenian Church, located in the north Dallas suburb of Carrollton, has received the most votes in the World-Architects’ poll for US Building of the Year 2022. Designed by David Hotson Architect, the church reaches far back in time and thousands of miles across the globe to link itself with Armenian traditions and people.

Saint Sarkis Armenian Church was consecrated on April 23, 2022, and held its first Sunday service one day later, on April 24, the traditional day for commemorating the 1.5 million victims of the 1915 Armenian Genocide. The small church — small especially in comparison to the megachurches littering the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex — is far from Armenia, about 7,000 miles, but some members of the church’s growing congregation are descended from the Armenians who fled their home country after World War I.

The importance of history and tradition in the Armenian Orthodox Church extends to the design of Saint Sarkis Armenian Church, which derives its form from the 7th-century Saint Hripsime Church near the Armenian capital of Yerevan and memorializes the genocide in an image of the Armenian “tree of life” composed of exactly 1.5 million circular icons — each one unique, like the lives that were taken over a century ago.

As the World-Architects network described the church when it was featured as US Building of the Week on April 25, just two days after its consecration, the design “melds ancient forms and contemporary technologies to express the church’s Armenian roots and memorialize the victims of the genocide.” The image on the west facade, seen above, was printed by the Italian company Fiandre in high resolution on UV-resistant porcelain panels. Furthermore, a Grasshopper script guaranteed each icon was unique and their distribution resulted in a legible overall image.

The abstraction of Saint Hripsime Church — itself an austere, monolithic mass built entirely of stone — involved matching three main materials on the exterior: precast concrete walls, glass fiber reinforced concrete light coves, and standing seam zinc roofing. Inside, references to the stone dome and vaults of the 7th-century church are rendered as double-curved plaster vaults made with glass-fiber-reinforced gypsum: historically inspired shapes and modern surfaces created with contemporary means.

On hearing the news that Saint Sarkis Armenian Church was voted US Building of the Year 2022, architect David Hotson sent the World-Architects network these words:

“It is an honor to have the Saint Sarkis Armenian Church receive this acknowledgement, an honor that I share with the full project team and with all of those who voted for the project, most especially those throughout the Armenian Diaspora for whom this building has a special significance. The Saint Sarkis Church reaches back fourteen centuries to connect with the architecture of the world’s most ancient Christian nation, even as it brings a contemporary spatial sensibility and progressive construction technology to a suite of buildings overlooking the vast Texas plain. The western facade of Saint Sarkis memorializes each of the 1.5 million victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide, an event that forced the ancestors of many members of the congregation from their ancient homeland. It is my hope that the visibility the church receives from this honor will help raise awareness in America of the history of the world’s most ancient Christian nation, and of the persecution of Armenian Christians that is still happening today in Nagorno-Karabakh.”

The US Building of the Year poll on American-Architects was open during the month of January and asked visitors to the website to pick their favorite building from the 40 Buildings of the Week featured in 20221. Saint Sarkis Armenian Church won by a considerable margin, tallying approximately 64 percent of the roughly 8,500 votes cast.

The three runners-up, all with double-digit percentages of votes, are: