Want Great Resale Value for Your Home?

It is a fact: brick homes have a higher resale value. The reasons for this are simple- homes with face brick - or the brick exterior of a home- look (and often are) more solid than homes built with other materials. This fact alone inspires buyer confidence. Face brick also has an aesthetic weight and a heft to it that suggests respectability and endurance. After all, from an early age, we learn that it is the brick house that can’t be blown down with a quick huff and puff! Additionally, face brick is great for creating a unique look that can appeal to the design sensibilities of changing times. With a variety of color and textures available, it is a versatile masonry material that can appear both timeless and contemporary. So, if you want a home that will withstand the test of time, weather the elements, and also offer great resale potential, take a lesson from the Three Little Pigs- choose brick!

It’s the Most Wonderful Time to give your Fireplace a Facelift!

Fireplaces see a lot of action this time of year! Freezing temperatures and snowy days have led most people to put away outdoor fire pits and grills.  Now, ’tis the season to gather around a cheerful fire to roast marshmallows or chestnuts, curl up with a good book, or just laze away a few minutes while watching the flames dance.  In many homes, winter coziness is almost synonymous with a well-used fireplace.   Since your fireplace will be such a center-point of life this winter, it is a good time to consider a facelift.

While there are many ways to change the look of your fireplace- like painting a mantle or rebuilding the entire structure, one of the best options for this project is a stone veneer.  This material offers a quick way to change the look of your fireplace without completely gutting your living room.  Stone veneers come in many colors and textures, so you can choose an exterior for your fireplace that will fit your design tastes.  With a few quick days of shopping, planning, and work (which you can do yourself or hire someone to do), you can change the look of your fireplace just in time to hang the stockings from it!

Think Outside the Yearly Portrait: Celebrate Your Children’s Growth through Art and Nature!

While there are many objects on the market to celebrate the growth of your children- photos, plaques, and clay handprints, to name a few- some objects endure longer and say more than these items.  A photo may fade, a clay handprint can turn to dust in the bottom of a box, but a living thing like a tree or a piece of art can grow and change with your child. 

Recently, some parents have decided to start commemorating their children’s growth not through yearly portraits or through adding another line on the wall growth chart.  Rather, they have chosen to watch a living thing like a sapling develop as their children do.  These parents plant the young tree in their yards when their children are small.  Each year, they take a picture of their children by the tree.  Through this tradition, parents create many things- a constant reminder of their children, a point of connection for those children to the home, and- not least of all- a beautiful, shady addition to the yard.

Planting a tree is not the only way to create this same sort of growing, changing memento.  Other parents turn to art, not nature, for their reminders.  These parents find a space- a concrete retaining wall, a garage door, a basement wall- and let their children paint part of or a whole mural on it every year.  From the time these children are small, they add to their mural.  By the time they are ready to leave their parent’s home, they leave behind them years of memories and a unique piece of art. 

So, if you’re looking for a different way to commemorate your children’s lives and growth, look beyond the typical souvenirs of childhood.  Look to nature and art, and you may find just the sort of keepsake that is as unique as your own children. 

Make Your Kids’ Play House a REAL Fort!

Every kid brags that their play house is better than the neighbors, but most of that is just wishful thinking.  It does not have to be, however! If you want to be the coolest dad or mom on the cul-de-sac, then spruce up your child’s play house by making it a real fort or castle!   What little boy or girl would say 'no' to a play area made of sturdy brick?  Who doesn’t want turrets?

These days, clay pavers come in all sorts of colors, textures, and sizes.  You can customize your child’s play area to match your home or you can make it mimic the stones at Valley Forge or Old West Point.  So, whether its battlements or crenellations you build, one thing is sure- your kids will be the kings or queens of the neighborhood with this sort of play house.  Consult with the kids, make some plans, head on down to you local building supply store, and let the good times begin!

Plan Your Garden Now!

It is sad but true- summer is long gone, autumn is on its way out, and winter is just a few weeks away. Because of bad weather and freezing temperatures, most outdoor projects are on hold for the next few months. As you winterize your garden, load your half-full bogs of potting soil into the shed, sort through your reusable versus throwaway flower pots, and pull out the dried husks of your perennials, it is the perfect time to take a look around your backyard and begin planning for next year’s garden.

Like most good plans, this one starts with some questions. What sort of garden do you want next year? What practical steps do you need to take to get it? Do you need to expand any flower beds? What sort of color scheme will you put forth? Will you accent your garden with any sort of brick paving in the form of a tidy walkway or patio edging? Will a water element make your yard even more perfect? Will you need to buy more outdoor furniture?

Having a clear plan in the winter can save you many hours and lots of work in the warmer months! So, take a look at some gardening books and magazines, browse home improvement stores, and begin your spring garden plan before the first flakes of snow even hit the ground!

Face Brick: Solid and Study from the Outside, In

Face brick is the brick you see on the outside of homes, garages, walls, and other building projects.  It is the face of the home, and it provides many things like durability, solidity, sturdiness, and a pleasing exterior.  It is also a great idea for home building because homes made from brick often merit lower fire insurance rates.   Face brick can come in many colors, styles and sizes.  It can often be customized like other masonry materials.   Homes built from brick not only look beautiful, they are also more economical because they use less energy to heat and cool than other, non-brick homes.  When choosing your next home’s outside surface, consider the benefits- both economical and aesthetic- of face brick!

Thick or Thin, Stone Veneers are Gorgeous!

Stone veneers are great ways to add beauty and a natural look to the inside or outside of any home or business. Essentially a covering of stone that is attached to a wall (rather than the wall itself being built entirely of stone), these veneers are favorite choices for all sorts of projects. They can be used to line pools or create pool areas; they make lovely patios and floors; they enhance indoor bars and counters; they are used to cover up old fireplaces or make new ones; and, they often cover the exteriors of entire homes. Really, almost anywhere full stones could go, these veneers can also be used. These masonry materials can be thick or thin. Thin veneers are gaining in popularity because they can achieve the same look as heavier veneers, but they are less costly. Thick or thin, red, gray, blue, black, white- whatever type of stone veneer you choose, be prepared to marvel at how it enhances your home or business!

Lovely Limestone

Limestone is a fairly common masonry material that is used in many building and architectural projects and products. Like many other types of stones, limestone has been quarried for centuries and it is still used all over the world today. Very popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it is found in many statues, trains stations, churches, banks, and other large scale structures. This handy stone is also a part of concrete mixtures. It has also been used in garden fertilizers in pellatized form to help regulate soil acidity. Many home and garden projects can be enhanced by the presence of limestone- be it in tile form or in the form of stone veneers on the outside of a home. One particularly appealing aspect of limestone is that it comes in a range of colors depending on where it originates. Versatile and beautiful, limestone is a great addition to any building or garden!