Landscape Design Tips for Arbors and Pergolas

June 15, 2016 by ·

Landscape Design Tips for Arbors and Pergolas

When you hire professionals for home remodeling in College Station, TX, leave some money in the budget for arbors and pergolas. In the hot Texas weather, these structures provide shade without restricting air flow to windows and doors. They also provide wonderful opportunities to improve the look and feel of your backyard. No matter what size or style pergola or arbor you have built, these landscape design tips can help you create the most attractive and useful style.

Pergolas Attached to the House

Although this type of outdoor renovation is more complex than building freestanding pergolas in College Station, TX, it can provide extra benefits as you will read below. This type of pergola must be attached to the beams of the house and the roofing material matched.

When it comes to landscape design, a pergola with a solid roof that flows directly from the house roof gives the impression of more living space and a larger home. It also breaks the backyard up into different sections suitable for entertaining or just relaxing after a hard day.

Stand Alone Arbors and Pergolas

Most pergolas and arbors stand away from the house and shade a patio, outdoor kitchen or area around a pool. Many of these are surrounded on three sides by gardens. Low shrubs and flowering perennials make for a beautiful landscape design that will not block air flow.

Under a pergola, arrange outdoor seating and a small table or simply include a couple of benches and some potted plants. Arbors are often used where one part of the yard transforms into another, such as at the entrance to a garden spot or a secluded hot tub nook. If privacy is the goal, larger bushes and climbing vines are a great option.

Great Texas Vines to Grow on Arbors and Pergolas

Vines not only provide beautiful flowers and foliage to look at, they can also increase privacy and shade for anyone sitting under the arbor or pergola. Texas weather allows for several attractive vines to grow.

Purple wisteria is always a favorite flowering vine to grow over landscape structures. This hearty plant provides thick coverage and beautiful blooms. Another flowering option is coral honeysuckle with bright orange-red blossoms. It climbs readily and attracts hummingbirds. Mexican flame vine can also attract these jewel-like birds as well as butterflies. It is particularly hardy and has bright orange flowers.

No matter what type of arbor or pergola you decide to add to your landscape design, it will provide plenty of interest and good use for your entire family. In the grand scheme of a home renovation in Brazos Valley, TX, adding one of these outdoor structures is relatively low cost. Added beauty, backyard use and an economical way to improve cooling in and around your home are all great reasons to have a pergola or arbor installed.

Filed Under: Uncategorized ·

Remodel With Painting – Simple Yet Effective Style Updates

May 18, 2016 by ·

While other remodeling projects may result in a greater change in your home, painting can update style and revitalize the room very effectively without dipping into your budget very much. With all the modern options of paint, these remodeling projects can turn any room in the house into a truly unique experience. Consider some of the following possibilities and then begin to plan your own painting upgrades as well.

Remodel With Painting - Simple Yet Effective Style Updates

Remodel With Painting

In the Kitchen

Old wood cabinets that lack the style of more modern choices could be replaced for a brand-new look, but having them painted is also a great way to remodel on a budget. One popular style for an updated home is white cabinets on the top and a dark color on the bottom such as slate gray, black or espresso brown.

Living Spaces Lift

Painting a brightly colored accent wall is still a stylish way to add interest to your living room, library, media entertainment room or home office. Although you may prefer white or a pale neutral on most of your walls, making one a striking red, brilliant blue or sunny yellow can change the whole ambience of the room.

The right paint color in a living room can change the entire mood. Just imagine a soft be living room being remodeled in a stately navy blue with white trim or a stark white with red and black accent walls.

Bedrooms Burst with Style

Relaxation and luxury is the goal of most remodels in the bedroom. With paint, can easily create this style with very soft tones such as sage green or silver gray. Bedrooms also look wonderful with darker colors, which can make them more restful for sleeping. Deep blues and greens, passionate reds and darker neutrals like chocolate brown and charcoal are all options.

One of the best things about remodeling a bedroom with paint is that, because it is a more private room in your house, there is a greater sense of freedom to do unusual things or use more unique colors. After all, your friends and family may be shocked by a bright red living room or a purple kitchen, but in the bedroom you are free to enjoy more unique personal tastes.

Exterior Paint Options

Painting your entire house a new color during a remodeling process can definitely make it stand out on your block. Of course, you do not want to stand out too much by picking an exceptionally bright or showy tone. Professional remodelers can help you choose the color that is more suitable to your neighborhood and still support your personal sense of style. Popular exterior whom colors include various neutrals, especially grays, soft terra-cotta reds, muted and darker blues and soft greens.

Other possibilities for a paint only remodel job include changing the trim color throughout the home inside or out, painting fences to delineate property lines more clearly or revitalizing an old-fashioned decorating scheme for a more modern home.

Filed Under: Remodeling ·

What to Expect With a Whole Kitchen Remodel

May 5, 2016 by ·

What to Expect With a Whole Kitchen Remodel

What to Expect With a Whole Kitchen Remodel

Having any part of your home remodeled can be a big headache and disrupt your life considerably no matter how careful and respectful the contractors and laborers are. Having your kitchen remodeled is at the top of the list for disruption, however. After all, you will not have access to your appliances, dishes or food storage for the duration.

If you want to get through a whole kitchen remodel with your sanity intact, be prepared for these intrusions on your life:

1 – Dust, dirt and garbage. Even with the careful preparation and consideration of a professional remodeling team, there will be dust, dirt and garbage in the kitchen, speaking into other rooms of your house and in your driveway or on the street. None of this should be left around lying in unsightly fashion, but extensive remodels to require garbage skips conveniently located and things will simply look messy for a while.

2 – Constant loud noise. All sorts of electric tools such as saws and sanders will be running for many hours during the day. After all, you want your entire kitchen remodel to be done quickly, so it makes sense that the workers have to work long hours. Hand tools like hammers and even the noise of workers talking and calling to each other can become abrasive after a while.

If you cannot spend some time in a hotel room or friend’s house, invest in some comfortable earplugs or noise-canceling headphones. This can be especially helpful for any children that live in the home.

3 – Really unpleasant surprises. Most homeowners do not know the precise history of their home or what is going on inside the walls floorboards. When a whole kitchen remodel takes place, there is a high chance of finding something unpleasant and unexpected. This could be water damage or mold near pipes and plumbing, evidence of past fires that have been covered up, insects or rodent evidence or even substandard subfloors supports for cabinetry.

4 – Over budget, over deadline. Professional contractors and construction crews understand the importance of sticking to the homeowner’s budget and working as quickly and diligently as they can get the job done on time. However, a kitchen remodel requires many different things to make it complete: cabinets built and installed, plumbing upgraded, painters, stonecutters to make the countertops, glaziers for new windows and flooring experts for the tile.

All of these smaller jobs need to fit neatly together so that every team has enough time and space to work. For example, it is impossible to installing cabinets while someone is retitling the floor. If one thing goes wrong such as a breakage, a back order or even an illness, the deadline can get pushed back. If any of the unexpected surprises mentioned in #3 above occurs, the budget can be affected negatively as well.

As long as you choose the right company to handle your whole kitchen remodel and expect the unexpected during the whole process, it should go by with minimal disruption and headaches. No matter what, standing in the middle of your new kitchen when everything is done will be worth it.

Filed Under: Kitchen Remodeling ·

Adding Sunrooms and Screened Porches to Your Home

April 21, 2016 by ·

Adding Sunrooms and Screened Porches to Your Home

Contracting a expert in home remodeling to adding sunrooms and screened porches to your home is just about as complex as adding an entire new enclosed room. They use the same structure, need electricity run into them and have added complexity of many windows and even skylights that need to be handled and installed professionally. When you find the right contractors to handle this general remodel project, you can rest assured they will do exactly what it takes to have the perfect sunrooms/screened porches added to your home.

Sunrooms and Screened Porches to Your Home

Here is how it works from start to finish:

1 – The foundation is either prepared, poured or constructed for the sunrooms and screened porches to your home first. If there is no existing structure in the place where the new room will go, a concrete slab is constructed to support the sun room or porch. They can also be built on existing patios or even decks.

2 – Framing of walls and the roof is done next. The roof must be tied into the existing house so it may be necessary to open up a wall or existing roof line. This is done in much the same way as building an actual room on a house using 1×6 and 2×4 boards. The framework has to be sturdy enough to support all the glass windows for the sunroom. If a screened porch is being constructed instead, the builder may not worry as much about it being super strong instead of lightweight and cost effective.

3 – All utilities such as electricity is run into the new construction and hooked up so it functions properly. Most sunrooms and screened porches at least have a light inside so you can use it any time of the day or night. Ceiling fans are also popular additions unless the roof of the building is also completely glass or screening.

4 – Floors and walls of the new construction are finished. Some insulation may be added especially in sunrooms. In most cases, these types of additions have either cement, stone or tile floors, though hardwood is another option. Some people opt for outdoor carpeting as well, although it is not considered very stylish these days.

5 – Windows, skylights and screens are installed and secured next. If there are any doors to either the rest of the house or to the outside, they are also hung at this time. Sunrooms and screened porches frequently open up onto an existing deck or patio in the backyard to further extend the living area to the outdoors.

6 – All finishing construction is completed at the end. This includes replacing or repainting the shingles, brick or other material on the outside of the house and the newly constructed room, painting the interior walls, window trim and ceiling and completing any other cosmetic procedures.

7 – The final step in the creation of a sunrooms and screened porches to your home is to decorate and enjoy it. Bring in plenty of seating, some lighting so you can enjoy the new room after hours and any decorations such as houseplants that you enjoy best.

Filed Under: Outdoor Living Spaces ·

Get Ready for Summer Entertaining – Outdoor Living Spaces

April 7, 2016 by ·

Summer Entertaining – Outdoor Living Spaces

Get Ready for Summer Entertaining - Outdoor Living Spaces

A few folding chairs on the lawn and a grill on the patio may be how most people think of outdoor summertime entertaining, but if you are serious about outdoor living spaces and having friends over for dining al fresco or just having fun in the cool evenings under the stars, you should consider a home renovation in College Station, TX project that will greatly improve your outdoor living spaces.

Outdoor living spaces need three main things: protection from the weather, a platform that gets you off the grass and gardens and plenty of places to sit. The ways in which you tackle these three needs depends largely on how extensive the general remodel projects you want to undertake are and how much of a budget you have to work with.

Here are some home remodeling in Brazos Valley, TX ideas to consider:

Sunrooms/Screened Porches

While sunrooms and screened porches require a more extensive construction project and cost more than other options, they also provide more comfortable spaces for living a semi-outdoor lifestyle. In fact, a sun room simply lets the sun in to warm the bright, airy space and is more of an indoor spot than an outdoor one. It does allow the homeowner and her guests to enjoy a nearly unobstructed view of the landscaping and yard.

Screened porches let fresh air in as well and are usually much easier to construct. Screening is frequently stapled neatly to the inside of existing framework on a porch or deck.

Arbors/Pergolas

If there is already a deck or patio attached to the house, the addition of an arbor or pergola can help block some of the hot Texas sun without blocking the fresh air and full outdoor experience. Home remodelers in College Station, TX can easily add an overhead semi-solid roof to a deck area. These arbors or pergolas provide only minimal protection from the sun, but the partial shade can be enough to extend the use of an outdoor living space. Another option is to grow a vine or other climbing plant over it and thus afford more shade.

Decks and Patios

When it comes to providing a platform for friends and family to sit on, nothing is better at creating an outdoor entertainment spot than the addition of a deck or patio. These can be as simple as a flat wooden platform or a slab of concrete or as extensive as multi-level constructions with built in seating and grill station. They can include space for a hot tub or spa, planter boxes for pretty flowers and even private entrances to upstairs bedrooms.

When summer approaches and homeowners get ready to invite friends and family over for their hot weather parties, they need to provide the perfect place to hang out and have fun. Experienced professional home renovation experts in Brazos Valley, Texas region can help you decide whether a sunroom or screened porch, arbor or pergola or just an attractive and functional deck or patio is right for your home and outdoor living spaces.

Filed Under: Outdoor Living Spaces ·
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