Types of things that are eligible for these credits are:

• Water Heaters
• Furnaces
• Boilers
• Heat Pumps
• Central Air Conditioners
• Building Insulation
• Windows
• Roofs
• Circulating Fans (used in a qualifying furnace)

Maximum Incentive

Here is a quote that talks about the maximum incentive (in aggregate) you can be eligible for:

For purchases made in 2011, 2012, and 2013: Aggregate amount of credit is limited to $500. Taxpayer is ineligible for this tax credit if this credit has already been claimed by the taxpayer in an amount of $500 in any previous year.  For purchases made in 2009 or 2010: Aggregate amount of credit for all technologies placed in service in 2009 and 2010 combined is limited to $1,500

For more information, please visit the DSIREUSA.org website.

Caitlin and her husband Brad attended the event and really enjoyed seeing coach Bill Snyder and other award recipients.  “I thought it was really nice to take the time to honor people who are making a difference in the Kansas City local sports scene. The life story of Colin Dougherty was especially touching and inspiring considering he plays on the varsity squad of his high school basketball team while suffering from autism.”

List of Award Recipients

Waddell & Reed Executive of the Year: Robb Heineman – CEO of Sporting Club, parent organization of Sporting KC

Sprint Community Champion: John Denison – Metro Sports

Kansas City Life Sportswoman of the Year: Kelly Dippold – Lockton Companies

Kansas City Downtown Marriott Sportsman of the Year: Colin Dougherty – Leavenworth High School

Burns & McDonnell Coach of the Year: Bill Snyder – Kansas State University

Here is a map to the recycling event.

You can bring:

• Medications - The Overland Park Police Department will be accepting any unwanted or expired medication for proper disposal.

• Confidential documents, which will be destroyed on site by ProShred Security, and you can watch. The suggested donation for this service is $5 for a standard file box and $10 for larger quantities.
• Cell phones will be collected by Sprint. Your old cell phone has moved from your hip, pocket or purse into a drawer or cabinet and is ready for recycling. Sprint will be on hand to make certain your phone is properly recycled while benefiting great charities such as the Boys and Girls Club of America.
• Usable building material will be collected by Heartland Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Donate your new and usable building materials, hardware, fixtures and appliances to ReStore. Your donations may be tax deductible, and will benefit Heartland Habitat for Humanity’s building projects.
• Clothing will be collected by Goodwill Industries. Clothing, housewares, small appliances, furniture, toys and many other items will be accepted.
• Electronics such as computers, monitors, printers, TVs, VCRs and stereos will be responsibly recycled by Surplus Exchange. While most items will be accepted at no charge, there will be a fee of $10 for monitors, and $10-$25 for TVs.
• Bicycles will be collected by Revolve. Give your unwanted bike new life and bring a smile to another by donating it. Revolve will repair and reuse whatever is feasible on your old bike and recycle the rest.
• Used carpet and padding will be collected by Deffenbaugh and recycled by Heritage Recycling for use in manufacturing polypropylene pellets, which are used to make buckets, as well as plastic parts in the automobile industry.

Here is the link to the official event page.  We hope you can take advantage of this great opportunity to recycle and maybe even help area not-for-profits out!

KC Home Solutions is one of those companies.

• They are professional, extremely courteous, and are always willing to go above and beyond for us when we ask them to.
• They do a wide variety of work, including tiling, fencing, wood rot, HVAC, plumbing, hot water heaters, sump pumps, roofing, gutters, they do all of our snow removal, and pretty much all other general maintenance.
• They will go out to a house on a moment’s notice if we ask them to.
• Their communication and follow through is as good as any vendor we use.
• They appreciate your business.  They brought us all a very nice Christmas gift basket, with sausage, cheese, chocolate and wine for all the work we have sent their way.
• KC Home Solutions is located in Olathe, Kansas.  Their crews are very mobile and will travel to any area within a 250 mile radius of Kansas City.

We highly recommend KC Home Solutions!  You can reach them at (913) 568-1818 or (913) 706-1400.

International Auto Show This Weekend (March 6th – 10th)

This week is the annual Greater Kansas City International Auto Show at Bartle Hall downtown.  There will be more than 500 cars, trucks, SUVs, minivans and crossovers on display from dozens of manufacturers.  There will also be attractions and events throughout the show.  For complete information, check out the official website.

St. Patrick’s Day Run (March 9th)

This will be the 35th annual Saint Patrick’s Day Run in Westport.  The run begins at 10am on March 9th in the Westport area.  For more info on the run, go here.

St. Patrick’s Day Parade (March 17th)

March 17th is Saint Patrick’s Day, and it is celebrated in a big way in Kansas City.  There is a big parade on the 17th from 11am – 1pm.  It is in the Midtown/Westport area and begins at Linwood/33rd Street
and goes south to 43rd Street.  For detailed parade information, check out the official website.

Even More Stuff!

For a more complete listing of March events, be sure to go to VisitKC.com.
This link will show you upcoming events in the next 30 days.

This is one of those necessary maintenance things that is never fun, but so important to get done.  It has been a few years since we have upgraded our network server, and it will be great peace of mind when the project is complete.  One of the best things that will happen as a result of this upgrade is a significant upgrade in the amount of storage we have.  Another is the fact that the backups will be taking a full snapshot picture of our entire server.  Why does this matter?  If the new server crashes in the months/years to come, we will be able to restore the snapshot image to a new server and be back up and running within hours instead of days!

Thank you for your patience as we go through the server project this weekend, we appreciate it!

Accommodations by Apple supplies temporary, furnished apartments all over Kansas City.  They offer short term accommodations for business travelers and relocating families.  We get calls from people that are coming to Kansas City for a 3 month contract and they want to stay in a furnished apartment instead of the typical week-long stay options.  We refer them to Kiersten and she takes great care of them.

Kiersten refers business back to us as well.  Sometimes, it is someone she has heard from that is going to be here for a longer period of time and wants to stay in a home versus an apartment.  Other times, it is someone that has rented an apartment from Accommodations by Apple and ends up taking a permanent job here in Kansas City.  They want to upgrade to a rental home while they figure out their long term living situation.  That is where we come in!

So thanks to Kiersten and Accommodations by Apple for being a company that does what they say they are going to do.  We know when we refer someone to her that they will be well taken care of.  It is a great milestone for them to be able to celebrate their 20th year of doing business here in Kansas City.

If you know someone that needs a temporary, furnished apartment, give Kiersten a call at (913) 888-8100.

We have found a great resource for all recycling called RecycleSpot.org.  They can help you figure out what to do with all kinds of waste including hazardous materials (paint and varnish), technology (computers and old TVs) as well as glass, yard waste and old prescription drugs.

One of the best features about their web site is the ability to search by material, community or service provider.  In other words, you can type in GLASS and your zip code to find where to recycle glass nearby.

Kandy connected the dots between key and pop-tab recycling and RecycleSpot.org.  Apparently, RecycleSpot.org didn’t have a good referral partner for old keys… which is perfect for the Ronald McDonald house!  Kandy did an introduction and they are talking to see how they can work together.  How cool is that?

If you have any tips on recycling or appreciated us telling you about RecycleSpot.org, please leave us a comment below!

After some research, we found LucidChart and we love it!

LucidChart is an online flow charting tool that integrates seamlessly with Google Apps and is used by a ton of companies you would recognize (like Fidelity, USA Today, Groupon, Google, Disney and more)  You don’t have to install any software on your computer… the whole thing is done through your browser.  You can try it out for free, which we took advantage of to make sure it was going to work for us.  It works so well!  It is easy to use and when you are done with your flow chart, you can share it in so many ways.  A hyperlink to a PDF, a web page, you can download it and attach it to an email and more.

Lucid Chart Sample
(Click to Enlarge)