Thoughtful planning will help homeowners get the most from this popular amenity. Home theaters were all the rage ten years ago. These rooms were designed for passively watching TV and movies, and were acoustically separated from the rest of the house. While some homeowners still want home theaters, most now opt for a media room
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Flex spaces, or flexible-use rooms, are increasingly common in modern housing to address homeowners’ needs to accommodate their changing lifestyle and allow them to “age in place”. Flexible-use rooms provide important options to homebuyers. Whether they be young couples with a growing family or retirees needing creative outlets. A den might one day serve as
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Regardless of a home’s size or style, all construction follows a consistent pattern and pace. Excavation and foundation work will be followed by the framing phase, which will be followed by rough mechanical, electrical and plumbing work. As soon as those stages are complete, insulation will be installed. These steps follow each other quickly and
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Everyone has a vision about a dream home. The dream may have a particular style, such as a Mediterranean or Colonial, or perhaps a certain room is the focus, such as an idealized kitchen or master suite. These visions are an important starting point in your search for a new house, helping to narrow your
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One of the most exciting and dynamic periods in the construction of a new home is the structural framing stage. It is the time when two-dimensional plans take on a three-dimensional shape. As floors, walls, and a roof rise from the ground, the owners can envision the finished home and walk through its spaces. As
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Here’s the secret you’ve been waiting for: To help ensure a successful and satisfying homebuilding experience, maintain regular and productive communication with your builder and his team. Lack of communication is, without a doubt, the single leading cause of headaches and hard feelings. Minimize stress and ease the building process by keeping the lines of
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As a professional builder, we keep our eyes on emerging trends in the housing industry, from new structural materials and energy-saving systems to interior finishes. One of the big trends we’re tracking — and accommodating for an increasing number of our homebuyers — is the use of cabinetry in a greater variety of rooms and
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When we hear the term “green building,” most of us think of energy efficiency and, increasingly, healthy indoor air quality. While those are certainly central components of high-performance housing — especially given our nation’s current energy prices — they are not the only factors that ensure a truly sustainable approach to home building. One of
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Healthy indoor air quality may be the most important aspect of building green. After all, what could be more important to your health than the air you breathe? Achieving healthy indoor air, however, depends on a comprehensive approach to high-performance building. There’s no way, for example, to make an indoor environment comfortable and healthy without
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Walk into any new home and you’ll immediately notice a big difference from many older homes: an abundance of natural light. Because of poor thermal performance, windows and glass doors in older homes were necessarily scaled down. Today’s builders, however, are able to take advantage of advanced technologies, a wider range of sizes and styles,
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A lot of people don’t understand the sheer complexity of the builder’s job and the systems required to build a house from scratch. Many analogies have been used to describe the professional builder: the conductor of an orchestra, the captain of a ship, even a general executing a military campaign. The point is that the
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How far the bathroom has come in housing history, from an unheated shack outside to a treasured private retreat. Sure, the basic functions of a bathroom are intact and in place, but in today’s master suites, especially, the space has evolved to include a variety of spa-like amenities and luxury features. As in the kitchen
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Most of us have fond memories of family barbecues in the back yard or running through the sprinklers. Only the clairvoyant among us could have imagined the new ‘back yards’: the highly appointed outdoor spaces that are becoming increasingly popular in today’s new homes. Long gone are the days of the patio slab, rectangular swimming
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As life gets busier and stress levels increase, more and more people are turning to their homes as a place of refuge and escape. As a professional builder, we’ve seen an increasing interest in the transformation of the master bedroom into an “owners’ suite”; a true, in-home retreat area. This trend has evolved from a
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Every family is unique. We strive to create a distinctive home and living experience for each of our valued clients. Our sales and design staff consider the number of people in a household, the gender and age of each family member, and even particular preferences, interests, and special needs. A critical element in fulfilling that
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Successful builders are choosy about the people they work with. Here’s why. The best business relationships are those where everyone has high standards, both for themselves and for the other parties. This is certainly the case when building a new custom home—a complex, expensive and emotion-laden effort in which the homeowner and builder must collaborate
Celebrating 25 years of home building, Castle Homes marks the occasion with the official unveiling of the national House Beautiful, Whole Home Concept House, powered by LG. The stunning Belle Meade home is open daily for tour November 3, with proceeds benefiting the Nashville Symphony. Here’s more on this incredible project, – the top home
As featured in The Wall Street Journal, Friday, October 18, 2019. More photos from this amazing Castle Homes project
Latest In Home Building And Interior Inspiration Packed with inspiration from 15 interior designers from across the United States, visitors will see the latest in beautiful color, wallpaper with Sure Strip technology, durable yet chic furnishings, new technology, and creative kitchen and tile products. A design-build project, Castle Homes collaborated with architect Kevin Coffey on
The ability to weather storms is another advantage of hiring a pro with up-to-date knowledge about building science. One often overlooked benefit of a high-quality new custom home is that it will better handle severe weather events and power outages. These are a fact of life in all parts of the country. Atlantic hurricanes routinely