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4. Recycled Options
Reusing materials that have proven they can handle difficult conditions — such as stone, concrete and brick —combines resiliency with sustainability. You also can look for composites made from recycled materials. These cut down on waste and reliance on landfills. You’ll often see these materials used for decking and edging as well as other hardscape features. “There are companies that use recycled plastic, such as grocery bags, for fences and benches,” Vogt says. Products made from recycled materials have become much more natural-looking in recent years, and can be lower-maintenance and longer-lasting than natural wood.
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2. Gorgeous Countertops
Counters help define your outdoor kitchen’s style. “Choose a stone [or other material] that ties the whole look together or provides a fun accent,” says Kara Gorski of Landed in Alexandria, Virginia.
Practical considerations. Add plenty of countertop area around the grill. “No matter how small an outdoor kitchen is, it needs to have adequate counter space,” says landscape designer Deborah Gliksman of Urban Oasis Landscape Design in Los Angeles. Douglass recommends leaving enough room for utensils as well as your cooked and uncooked food.
New York-based landscape designer Todd Haiman says you’ll probably need to seal the countertop when it’s installed and then reseal it every few years. “Fats from cooking as well as staining from metals left on top of it can stain it, and the elements can take their toll,” he says.
Finally, make good use of the cabinetry the counters sit on. It’s a prime space for storage as well as other amenities, such as an undercounter refrigerator.
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Jeff True, Hursthouse Landscape Architects and Contractors, Bolingbrook, Illinois
Chicago is known for its brutally cold winters and hot, dry summers. “Just a few hours north and south of here is a very different climate,” says Jeff True.
Turn to native hardwoods. True says that native hardwood trees can handle weather extremes and are often his starting points. These include several maples, such as red maple (Acer rubrum, zones 3 to 9), sugar maple (A. saccharum, zones 3 to 8; shown here), silver maple (A. saccharinum, zones 3 to 9) and Freeman’s maple (A. x. freemanii, zones 5 to 8).
Native white oak (Quercus alba, zones 3 to 9), which is the state tree of Illinois, is also a tried-and-true favorite, as are swamp white oak (Q. bicolor, zones 3 to 8), Chinquapin oak (Q. muehlenbergii, zones 5 to 7) and shagbark hickory (Carya ovata, zones 4 to 8). “I personally love Kentucky coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioicus, zones 3 to 8) and hackberry (Celtis occidentalis, zones 2 to 9),” True says.
He adds that the new elm varieties resistant to Dutch elm disease, such as Triumph elm (Ulmus ‘Morton Glossy’, zones 4 to 7), are fast-growing, allowing them to fill in spaces quickly.
8 Reasons to Plant a Great Tree
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4. Historical Preservation
Bringing a fresh look to a historical home’s landscape while still maintaining some original charm means navigating a fine line between past and present.
Challenge: Designer Sara Yant of Twistleaf was tasked with reimagining outdoor spaces in the Historic District of Fredericksburg, Texas, including for a Queen Anne Victorian mansion, a carriage house, a five-unit barn conversion and three 1930s bungalows. “We needed to create a cohesive look that would complement the different architectural styles and prioritize an intuitive circulation between the spaces,” Yant says.
There were some hiccups along the way that impacted the original plan. A long-abandoned and crumbling drainage pipe beneath the mansion’s front yard was a safety risk. Stringent watering restrictions also were implemented for the Texas Hill Country during that time.
Solution: Yant replaced the fencing and gates with period-appropriate designs. She also updated the hardscape using a mix of concrete, bricks and decomposed granite to create paths and relaxing courtyards and retreats. Removing the crumbling pipe allowed her to reinforce the surrounding ground.
She finished the space with a mix of native and adapted plants that complement the architecture of the Queen Anne Victorian home. Black and blue sage and soft leaf yucca provide seasonal interest and attract butterflies and hummingbirds. American beautyberries (Callicarpa americana, USDA zones 6 to 10; find your zone), dwarf palmetto palms (Sabal minor, zones 7 to 10), aromatic aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium, zones 3 to 9) and inland sea oats (Chasmanthium latifolium, zones 3 to 8) define the restorative green retreat by the bungalows.
“We also reduced the amount of lawn in the original design and replaced several areas [including the space shown here], with Leavenworth’s sedge (Carex leavenworthii, zones 6 to 9) as a water-conscious solution,” Yant says.
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Time-Saving Templates
“Using templates is one of the best time-saving techniques I’ve used in my various businesses over the years,” says contractor Travis Logan of Handyman Rescue Team in Seattle.
“I first started using templates, or scripts, in my early sales career after college,” he says. “By using proven sales scripts and rebuttals, I could quickly and easily replicate the success of those who came before me, since they were fine-tuned and honed over the years through actual customer interactions.
“Now, having templates ready to go eliminates the need to type out individual responses, since we have established wording and scripts for new-customer replies, existing-customer follow-ups and post-project review requests,” Logan says.
“This frees up time to spend on other critical administrative, operational or managerial tasks.”
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7. Multiple Seating Areas and Furniture Pieces
Giving guests options for gathering and relaxing is important for facilitating an engaging party atmosphere. So pros recommend creating multiple seating areas that allow for intimate conversations or larger chats, both inside and out.
Mixing seating pieces like sofas, love seats, chaise lounges, accent chairs, swivel chairs and movable footstools can make numerous arrangements possible.
“We like to provide multifunctional pieces to our clients who love to entertain,” designer Robin Violandi of Violandi + Warner Interiors says. “It might be occasional chairs or upholstered cubes that are easy to move to different rooms to provide additional seating. Multiple small side tables are great for providing a place to put a drink or a small tray for guests. All of these items are easy to move from room to room and can serve double duty.”
This Dallas living room by Delaney’s Design is a great example. It features a casual seating area near a limestone fireplace with a sofa and two armchairs. The armchairs can swivel around to face a second seating area with a sectional sofa and two movable ottomans in front of a large-screen TV.
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28. Brushed nickel. “I love a polished nickel finish paired with a 12-by-24-inch or larger-format tile,” Brock says. “I also love combining matte black fixtures with some beautiful white tile.”
29. Polished chrome or polished nickel. “These days, most of my clients ask me to specify finishes that are not too trendy, so either a polished chrome or polished nickel with a PDV or similar finish is my go-to,” Brock says. “Gold and matte brass are on-trend right now and they are beautiful, but I’m not sure how long they will be around, so I use them sparingly.”
When it comes to fashionable shower finishes, Palicki advises saving “the trends for things that are easier and less expensive to change, such as light fixtures, hardware and faucets.”
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A score higher than 50 indicates that more firms reported an increase in their business expectations than reported a decrease.
Construction Firms
Construction Firms
1. Business activity outlook increased. The Expected Business Activity Indicator, related to project inquiries and new committed projects, increased by 10 points, to 62, for the fourth quarter of 2024, from 52 for the third quarter of 2024. This means more construction firms anticipate quarter-over-quarter growth than anticipate a decline.
Expectations for project inquiries increased by 7 points, to 59 (from 52 for Q3), and expectations for new committed projects increased by 12 points, to 64 (from 52 for Q3).
Both build-only and design-build firms are more optimistic for Q4 than they were for the previous quarter. The expected activity indicator for build-only firms increased 9 points, to 62 (from 53 for Q3), and for design-build firms it increased 10 points, to 61 (from 51 for Q3).
The indicator is based on survey questions about whether businesses expect the number of project inquiries and new projects to increase, decrease or remain unchanged in the coming three months compared with the previous three months.
This article was originally published by a www.houzz.com . Read the Original article here. .
A score higher than 50 indicates that more firms reported an increase in their business expectations than reported a decrease.
Construction Firms
Construction Firms
1. Business activity outlook increased. The Expected Business Activity Indicator, related to project inquiries and new committed projects, increased by 10 points, to 62, for the fourth quarter of 2024, from 52 for the third quarter of 2024. This means more construction firms anticipate quarter-over-quarter growth than anticipate a decline.
Expectations for project inquiries increased by 7 points, to 59 (from 52 for Q3), and expectations for new committed projects increased by 12 points, to 64 (from 52 for Q3).
Both build-only and design-build firms are more optimistic for Q4 than they were for the previous quarter. The expected activity indicator for build-only firms increased 9 points, to 62 (from 53 for Q3), and for design-build firms it increased 10 points, to 61 (from 51 for Q3).
The indicator is based on survey questions about whether businesses expect the number of project inquiries and new projects to increase, decrease or remain unchanged in the coming three months compared with the previous three months.
This article was originally published by a www.houzz.com . Read the Original article here. .
Good-quality accessories and hardware, such as pullout corner units, drawer dividers, and soft-close runners and door hinges, often get excluded from kitchen designs due to budget constraints. But this can be a false economy in the long run as features such as these can make a big difference to your kitchen, boosting its storage potential and making the space far more pleasant to use.
These features do add to the overall cost of a new kitchen, but they’re worth the extra outlay, particularly if you’re an enthusiastic cook.
Solution: Know your options. Ask your kitchen designer about all the storage and hardware options available so you can make a fully informed choice.
If you don’t specify exactly what you want, you may end up with less than ideal hardware and storage solutions, which can be a missed opportunity — think a setup that consists of more cupboards than drawers, drawers without inserts and no soft-closing hardware. If budget is a concern, focus on those features that you feel will make the most difference to your experience of the kitchen.
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