Lifestyle Builders Blog

As the final aesthetic preferences are made to your new home, you may find yourself making the hardest decisions in the kitchen. As a popular gathering area, the kitchen takes center stage for the new home, with the countertops often snagging the role of lead star. But while the glamour and beauty of a countertop may grab our attention, it isn’t just about looks alone. The material’s durability, maintenance and overall fit into your lifestyle are also key factors to consider when making your final selection for your new home. Here is a list of the top five best solid surface counters with both their advantages and disadvantages listed to help you decide.

Marble—A natural stone made from a form of hard crystallized metamorphic limestone. Viewed as the luxury class of countertops, this expensive stone is known for its beautiful appearance and light reflecting finish. You’ll often see it featured on cooking shows, as it is coveted by pastry chefs as a great surface for baking or working with chocolate. While it is heat resistant and won’t chip or dent, it can be susceptible to scratches and stains, even if sealed. It’s a little on the expensive side, but will bring beauty to your new home and last a long time with the right care.

Granite—A very hard, crystallized igneous rock consisting mostly of quartz and mica, it is often used as a building stone. One of the most popular countertops in new homes today, granite adds value to your home, making it great for future resale. It is more durable than marble and still gives off that natural glow of the stone. When cooking it won’t scratch and is heat and water resistant, but it must be sealed once a year.

Corian®—A brand name for solid surface material made by DuPont™, the counter is made of natural materials combined with acrylic polymer and has become popular in new homes. It comes in a range of thickness, colors, patterns, designs and finishes. Customize it to your exact preference. The non-porous material and one piece construction avoids dirt and bacteria traps, and keeps stains from setting in. While it is heat resistant, it is always a good idea to use hot pads to avoid direct contact. Best of all, DuPont™ offers a 10 year warranty.

Silestone or Caesarstone—An engineered surface made from natural quartz. It is available in over 60 colors and patterns, providing great flexibility when building a new home. Its non-porous quality makes it resistant to bacteria. It is also highly resistant to scratches, heat and stains. Plus, it’s maintenance free!

While there are a variety of countertops to choose from outside of this list, solid surface countertops remain the most popular—and it’s easy to see why. They are non-porous, heat resistant, scratch-resistant, easy to clean and maintain, long-lasting and will add not only beauty, but value to your new home. Richmond area home builders, Lifestyle Builders & Developers have put together a team of highly trained professionals who have been actively building homes for over 25 years in Midlothian, Henrico, Chesterfield, New Kent, Powhatan and the West End to insure you get the best options and quality you deserve. And don’t forget to check out their nationally award winning design studio to help you add all the personal touches you’ll love.

After months of study and research, we have just released 8 new house plans.  These homes range in size from 2800 to over 4000 square feet, each with a choice of four distinct elevations.  People love to look at house designs and the section on our website featuring our plans is consistently one of the most popular.

Each of these plans offers something different in terms of room count, function, and flow.  While each plan is different from the next, what they all have in common is they reflect the changing lifestyles and preferences of today’s buyers.  Though each plan is designed to appeal to a broad cross-section of the buying public, make no mistake, when it comes to house plans—one size does not fit all!

One example of this reality is the two-story family room.  Buyers seem to be clearly divided into two distinct camps: those who love the drama, light, and volume of this two-story room and those who see it as wasted space that is expensive to heat and cool.  For that reason, several of the new plans have the availability of a two-story family room with the option of flooring it in thus creating an upstairs game room or fifth bedroom at a very modest price.  It is the same basic plan that can be modified to appeal to two distinct buyer preferences.

Home designs often have floor plans with flexible rooms that have more than one use.  One example is the living room.  About half of the new plans come with a formal living room while the other fifty percent utilize the same space for a study.  As working from home increases and our lifestyles become more informal every year, the home office becomes more practical for many owners than the formal living room.  In plans with first floor owners’ suites, the same space set aside for the living room or study can be opened into the owner’s bedroom creating a private sitting room.  In larger floor plans, we often include the home office/study in addition to the formal living room and dining room.

One characteristic these new plans have in common is their ability to be customized to meet individual buyer preferences.  All of these plans have been designed to allow buyers to create additional bedrooms, add extra baths, or accommodate the third garage.  In some cases, the laundry room can be located on either the first or second floor or both.  Finally, several of these plans contain unfinished storage areas that can be finished now or later to create additional living space as the family needs change.

We invite you to take a look at our new house plans and vote for your favorite in the poll below. We encourage you to post your comments suggesting any changes in the plans that would improve their function and appeal.  We know, when it comes to homes, “one size does not fit all” but the right plan for you that fits your lifestyle is still the only design that matters.

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When you were little, do you remember your mom telling you “don’t believe everything you read”? The media may not be reporting it, but there are a lot of POSITIVE things happening in the Richmond Region these days. Did you know that we have ADDED jobs over the past 5 years?^* Did you know that wages have GROWN over the past 5 years?^* Did you know that the number of homes sales in May of 2011 were up 52% from May of last year?^†

This is probably news to you, if you get your “news” from the traditional media sources. They are not focused on these positive stories and trends. Despite the “doom & gloom” reporting so prevalent in our news reports today, there are many positive things happening locally. We have seen a definite shift in the residential real estate market. People who have been sitting on the sidelines, waiting for the right opportunity to buy, have been starting to make the move forward with their purchase decision.

Here at LifeStyle Builders & Developers, we have seen a strong trend of people who are interested in building a home from “scratch” and personalizing it to be their own. We have also seen an uptick in corporate relocation buyers coming into the Richmond region. For many of these individuals and families, a completed inventory home is just the thing they are looking for. A couple of years ago, there were almost no corporate relocations happening anywhere. But today, we are seeing more activity in this arena as companies are beginning to transfer their talent around the U.S., and specifically here to Richmond.

New homes sales and prices appear to be stabilizing and are beginning to show positive trends upward. Interest rates are still incredibly low. Data going back to the mid-1900’s show that approximately every 10 years, housing prices double, even with periodic downward price adjustments. Is now the best time to move forward with your new home purchase decision? Only you can decide that, but the indicators are strong for buying now, before the prices and interest rates begin their inevitable climb upward.

LifeStyle Builders & Developers has been building new homes in the Richmond, VA area for over 20 years. Stop by one of our many communities, or our award-winning Design Studio to see what we have to offer.  We are currently building new homes for sale in Chesterfield County, Henrico County, Hanover County, New Kent County, Powhatan County and the City of Hopewell, plus we can build on Your Land.

Sources:
* Data from Virginia Gateway Region – Economic Development Organization
† Data from Richmond MLS – Pending Sales

The Dog Days of Summer is the marketing tag line on our mid-year sales promotion.  We wanted to be very clear in our advertising copy that the long, hot, summer weather was the appropriate “dog” reference and not the houses.

All of that led me to reflect on a current trend in home buying that has been emerging over the last couple of years and growing in strength in the last 90 days.  That trend is the negative bias against buying a foreclosed home.  National surveys show that almost half of all consumers would now choose NOT to buy a foreclosed house.

Horror stories abound about unsuspecting buyers finding out that the home of their dreams became the house full of nightmares after closing.  It doesn’t take much to see how prior owners would leave the premises in less than satisfactory conditions upon their forced exit. Some, more vindictive, actually sabotage the plumbing and electrical systems causing the new owners thousands to repair.

Beware of getting caught up in the “deal” mentality.  Just this week a customer, against the advice of his realtor, chose to buy an 11 year old house in foreclosure rather than a new home that was equal in size and features priced only $20,000 more.  The older home had no warranty, no builder standing behind the product, an 11 year old roof, hot water heater, heating and air conditioning equipment, etc..

So, when we say, “Don’t Buy the Dog,” we ARE talking about a ‘dog’ of a foreclosed house that doesn’t compare to new construction.  New homes have never been priced as competitively as they are right now and you get better energy efficiency, a 5 year warranty, and everything fresh and unspoiled.  I think new homes are something worth wagging your tail about!

A video from BBC News of a tent that turns into concrete. In less that 24 hours!

For those of you who are interested in the specs, you can find them at the manufacturer’s website.