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.

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.

One of the biggest challenges for a homebuilder is keeping up with all the building code updates and changes. There are national regulations, state codes, municipality rules – and each is often open to interpretation and/or debate. And sometimes they seem nonsensical or irksome. They interfere with the design of your house. They prevent you from getting a good signal on your mobile phone. And the more there are, the more costly your home will be.

Why?

The ancient Babylonians kept it simple – only six laws pertaining to building from the Code of Hammurabi:

• 228. If a builder has built a house for a man, and finished it, he shall pay him a fee of two shekels of silver, for each sar built on.
• 229. If a builder has built a house for a man, and has not made his work sound, and the house he built has fallen, and caused the death of its owner, that builder shall be put to death.
• 230. If it is the owner’s son that is killed, the builder’s son shall be put to death.
• 231. If it is the slave of the owner that is killed, the builder shall give slave for slave to the owner of the house.
• 232. If he has caused the loss of goods, he shall render back whatever he has destroyed. Moreover, because he did not make sound the house he built, and it fell, at his own cost he shall rebuild the house that fell.
• 233. If a builder has built a house for a man, and has not keyed his work, and the wall has fallen, that builder shall make that wall firm at his own expense.

The codes have evolved a little bit since then. Now they cover 700+ pages of sections and subsections and charts and graphs and numbers and calculations and conditions and exceptions. And it all seems too excessive and too confusing. But you know what? Those codes save lives. We can’t build for every condition, situation, or disaster; but we’re getting better at anticipating their potential and defending against them. A lot of lives were regrettably lost in the recent catastrophe in Japan. But a lot of people survived who might not have otherwise because of the strict building codes.

"Japan’s Strict Building Codes Saved Lives" from The New York Times

(click photo to read article)

Kevin McNulty takes you on a virtual tour of The Wrenwood in The Sanctuary at Watermill.

For reference, here is the floorplan:

Kevin wrote a blog on Monday morning. Monday afternoon, we had a plan to turn his blog into a major Christmas special production complete with snow, singing, and Santa. Two takes on Tuesday, a little editing, and by Wednesday morning the video was posted on YouTube and Facebook.

Thank goodness we are better at building houses that McNulty is at singing!

“Five stone veneers. . . ”

Merry Christmas from all of us at Lifestyle Builders!