Masco Home Services and its affiliated company Energy Sense, part of the Masco Contractor Services family of companies, recently surpassed a milestone of verifying more than 200,000 Energy Star compliant homes combined.

Las Vegas -- Necessity is the mother of invention. 

Jon Nolle is a contractor who needed to take down a deck and fast. His solution: a two-pronged demolition bar that fits over the joist and provides the mechanical advantage to pry up the boards on decks. 

Nolle was demonstrating his invention – the Deck Demon – here at the National Hardware Show in the Las Vegas Convention Center. 

The head of the tool fits over single or double joists. And both prongs of the product 

Cascade, Iowa-based Cascade Lumber Company, a family-owned and operated retail lumberyard, is celebrating its 60th year of operation in 2013. Operating from a single location in eastern Iowa, Cascade Lumber operates a lumberyard in addition to a full-service home center serving retail and contractor customers. In addition, floor covering sales and installation are conducted from the Cascade location and a second outlet in nearby Monticello, Iowa.

A Chinese bank funding two huge Lennar Corp. housing developments has attached a condition to the loan, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal: Lennar must work with a Chinese state-owned contractor.

The Toro Co. signed a three-year installment financing services agreement with Clemmons, N.C.-based Sheffield Financial.

The Toro Company supports a variety of customer financing options and has agreed to endorse Sheffield as an exclusive provider of installment financing programs for its Toro and Exmark residential and contractor brands of outdoor power equipment sold by Toro and Exmark dealers throughout the United States.

An article headlined “Illinois contractor gets 10-year sentence for asbestos violation” generated the following reader comments:

Northern Tool + Equipment, a leading supplier of professional tools and industrial equipment, has entered into an agreement with Blue Tarp Financial that will provide commercial credit to the retailer’s contractor customers. BlueTarp will develop and implement a customized line of credit for Northern Tool under the private label NTE Net 30.

The fact that contractors and remodelers have been losing bids over pricing should come as no surprise. They’re under tremendous pressure for price concessions from homeowners, and if they want to stay in the game, contractors have to lower their prices somehow. But how they choose to cut costs through purchasing, and what goes into their decision-making process, is the subject of a newly released study by L.E.K. Consulting, a global management consulting firm.

Judy Dinelle, an 84 Lumber contractor sales representative in Asheville, N.C., has been named the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Professional Women in Building (PWB) Council “National Member of the Year.”

Valley Forge, Pa.-based CertainTeed Roofing gave away a new car in the name of customer service, and through a promotion called "On the Road Again." 

“The ‘On the Road Again’ promotion is a way for us to show our appreciation to loyal customers like Jack Impriano,” said Jay Butch, director of contractor programs for CertainTeed Roofing.

This summer, my dad, he one of the “Greatest Generation,” passed away after a full life. He died in the home he built with his own hands for our family in 1958: a three-bedroom cape on the south shore of Long Island, about 3 miles north (as the seagull flies) of the Great South Bay.