Create Curb Appeal at Your New Ball Home!

Now that you've moved into your new Ball home, you're ready to add your own personal style to it. There's furniture to arrange and cupboards to fill, but don't let winter weather keep you from putting your personal touch on the outside of your home. There are things you can do right now to add curb appeal to your new home and add "you" to your new abode.

Knock, Knock

Your front door makes the first impression for your house. Make it shine with a new wreath or door mat to greet your guests, like this DIY welcome mat from bottosblog.blogspot.com. If you have a porch, add a decorative bench or rocking chairs. Create symmetry with topiaries or sconces flanking the doorway.

 Photo Source

Light Up the Night
Attract attention to your home even after the sun has gone down. Install decorative lighting in your landscaping or along your front walkway. The bright side (no pun intended) with installing outdoor lighting is that it provides safety and security as well as looking great. Here's an article from the designers at HGTV on working with landscape lighting.

Stop and Smell the Flowers
Plants and flowers can bring instant color to a dreary landscape. Because planting in the winter can be tricky, install ready-made planters or window boxes. Keep your shrubs trimmed and freshen up the mulch to keep your garden areas from looking overrun or tired-looking. Eventually when the weather warms, you can define your landscape with edging stones to add more color and texture to your garden beds.

New Products Added to our Design Center

At Ball Homes, we're always looking to improve our selection of upgraded products and services we offer in our new construction homes. In the past few months, we've added a variety of new features to include in our selection process. 

We have added new styles of interior doors to choose from in our selections process. These doors are added to our selection options, alongside our standard interior door, which is our two paneled arch top door with a textured finish. 

Cheyenne Two Paneled Plank Smooth Interior Door

Combining Form and Function with a Kitchen Island

One of the most common requests we get is to have a multi-use space where families can cook, eat, entertain, and help children with their homework. A kitchen island is the ultimate multi-tasking space, even sometimes replacing the family room. Make sure there is plenty of seating for everyone at the island, like in the Jackson II floor plan. It’s a perfect place to perch while you’re waiting for that pot to boil. To cut down on scuff marks, place a stone front on your island, like in the Baldwin floor plan.

Storage is a hot commodity in any kitchen. Make your kitchen island work for you by incorporating power outlets and built-ins into the island, like a wine rack in the Arlington II Expanded or the Coventry II.

When it comes to kitchen islands, you don’t have to stick with the straight lines or square shapes. We offer a variety of curved islands which are conducive for conversation, like in our Hudson and Alexander floor plans.

Laundry Room Must-Haves

The laundry room. It's a place that we probably spend more time in than we'd really care to think about. Just because this room serves as a very cut-and-dry purpose (no pun intended), it doesn't mean that the room can't be useful as well. 

A few weeks ago, we asked you what is on your laundry room wishlist. We received a lot of comments about what people love (and don't love) about their laundry rooms.

Here's the top 3 must-haves:

1. Folding counter

Have you ever had a hard time finding a clean surface to fold your clothes? Having a folding counter gives you a designated space to spread out and keep your clean clothes clean (and off the kitchen counter or couch). We've incorporated a folding counter into many of our floor plans, like the Hudson or the McCormick II.


2. Located on the second floor

Laundry rooms have been moving out of the basement and closer to the source of the dirty clothes. For those with two story homes, many people prefer to have their laundry rooms upstairs, like in the Cavanaugh II or Livingston plans. For added convenince, we've also started including a doorway from the master closet for easier access to put freshly laundered clothes away.


3. Mudroom

If you're not able to have a laundry room on the second floor, many people prefer to have a laundry room/mud room located near the garage entry. These helpful buffer zones allow you to have a drop off location for all the shoes, gym bags, and sports gear that tends to accumulate near entrances and exits. Our popular Preston and Hartford II floor plans allow for customization of your mudroom, including a boot bench or utility sink.

Did You Know? Laminate Flooring Edition

One of the most sought-after home amenities is wood flooring. From its timeless, classic look to its durability, wood flooring has been a leader in home floor coverings for decades. It’s stylish and can be easily maintained and cared for compared to its counterpart, carpet.  However, hardwood flooring may not be the right choice for every homeowner. It can be very expensive and may not work for every homeowner’s lifestyle. For homeowners who want the natural look of wood without the high costs, laminate floors can be an alternative solution. They are generally cheaper than wood floors and they achieve a similar look and feel of wood. If you’re on the fence about deciding if hardwood or laminate is right for your home, here are a few facts about laminate flooring.

Laminate wood flooring is made from composite wood pressed together at high temperatures. The top layer is a high resolution photo of wood which is super-imposed onto the planks and then topped with a clear protective layer.  Most people cannot tell the difference between wood and laminate because the photos are of such high-quality.

 

Laminate has grown in popularity for a number of reasons.

 

      They are very easy to install. Most laminate floors are clicked together and don’t require nails like hardwood flooring. It can be installed in virtually every room of the house, including stairs, bathrooms, kitchens, and basements. Laminate floors are often called floating floors because they are not glued to the slab.  They typically "float" over the sub-floor on top of a foam or film underlayment, which provides a moisture barrier and has a sound-reducing property.

They are easier to maintain than traditional hardwood flooring. Laminate floors are scratch- and impact-resistant, which means they can hold up in high-traffic areas without losing its shine or durability. Homeowners won’t see the scratch marks left by pets, children, or high heels like you might with hardwood floors. Laminate flooring is also considered a good selection for allergy sufferers because it doesn’t capture and trap dust particles like carpet does.

In terms of care and maintenance, the most important thing you need to remember is water and laminate DO NOT mix.  Sitting water can cause the planks to warp and swell, which is not covered under warranty.  Spills are not a problem if they are wiped up quickly, but it is not a good location for your pet’s water bowls. You may want to consider using area rugs underneath their bowls or move them to another location if your pets tend to be messy!

 

Choosing the right flooring for your new Ball home is a big decision. Many factors come into play when deciding on the type of flooring you will use. To help you decide, take a look at our previous blog post for some questions to ask yourself when choosing flooring for your home.

 

As always, our dedicated team of Ball Homes Specialists and Design Consultants are here to help you make your dream home a reality! Contact us for more information!