Happy Halloween! In honor of today being the spookiest day of the year, we wanted to share some of our favorite all time Haunted Movie Houses.

One of the all time scariest movies has got to be Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”. Jack Nicholson role as Jack Torrance was truly frightening. Who can forget his famous line in the 1980 film, “Here’s Johnny!”?

The Overlook Hotel in The Shining

Another classic horror movie is the 1979 hit, “The Amityville Horror”. Based on the “alleged real-life experiences” of the Lutz family who buy a home in Long Island, NY, where a mass murder was committed a year before.

The Amityville Horror

The original Amityville Horror movie was not filmed in the actual home where the hauntings took place.  Below is an image of the real home on 112 Ocean Avenue.

The Bates Motel was the scene for the Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film “Psycho”.

Norman Bates’ home was filmed on a movie set at Universal Studios, Hollywood, California.

Last, but not least scariest home has got to be the Doyle residence from the hit horror film “Halloween.”

The Doyle Home from Halloween.

What are some of your all time favorite horror movie homes?

Gardening is a favorite hobby of many homeowners. Now that cooler weather is starting to invade Colorado, soon many gardeners will be taking their precious potted plants in before the winter weather arrives. But instead of tending to those plants in a drafty garage or shed, wouldn’t a lovely garden room be a much nicer environment to continue caring for the plants? A garden room is a great sustainable room for your home if you love caring for your own garden and potted plants. The room itself is ‘green’ in nature because it is a safe place where you can care for your home’s plant life.

When you are taking care of your plants indoors, you need space. Plenty of room to move around in so you can take time to prune, plant and arrange all your potted plants for safe indoor keeping during the frigid winter. Take a look at a few garden rooms that provide plenty of room to get creative and maintain your home’s plant life.

Photo Credit: Howard Puckett via My Home Ideas

Southern Accents via My Home Ideas

Photo Credit: Andrew Bordwin via thisoldhouse.com

Are you looking for more sustainable home design ideas for your new Colorado home? Contact Trilogy Partners if you need home builders who know sustainable home design.

When you are renovating your home or building a new home, your children’s bedroom should always be a place where great design that grows should always be considered. Depending on the age of your kids, they will have quite a bit of time in that room maturing over the years. That is why the design of their room should be flexible and easy to transform over time.

The personality of the design should also fit your child’s personality. No matter what the overall style of your home is – contemporary, traditional or transitional, your child’s bedroom should and can be designed in order to fit both the style of the home and the imagination of your child.

Sangiorgio Mobili via interiorarcade.com

Photo Credit: Emily Minton Redfield via Mountain Living

Photo Credit: Anice Hoachlander/HDPhoto via House Beautiful

Your children should have imaginative spaces that foster inspiration, play and gaining knowledge. What creative kid friendly design elements are you thinking about for your home renovation?

Now that the nation is finally embracing sustainable living spaces, many homeowners are researching more ways they can make their new home or new renovation more sustainable. A great place to start is with the floors. Cork is an excellent material for your new sustainable home for 5 great reasons.

1. Cork floors are made from recycled cork (pre-consumer) that is left over from the production of cork stoppers.

2. Because cork floors have air pockets, they make a very efficient non-conductor of heat, meaning they reduce heat loss in rooms and reflect heat back through the feet, retaining body heat.

3. By nature, cork is hypo-allergenic and anti-static.

4. Cork is resistant to mold and bacteria growth which make it a great choice for families that suffer from allergies and asthma.

5. Cork flooring absorbs impact so noise of dropped items and walking feet are contained in the room.

For information on building a sustainable mountain home in the Breckenridge, Colorado area, please give us a call at 970-453-2230 or visit us online at trilogybuilds.com.

Source: www.realcorkfloors.com, Photo:myatlantaflooring.com

We are one step closer to commercial space travel as the Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space’s main hangar and visitor’s experience center finished construction in Spaceport America, New Mexico. On hand for the celebration was the mastermind behind Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard Branson, New Mexico’s Governor Susana Martinez, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and 800 guests, including 150 international Virgin Galactic customers who have already reserved their spot in the first space flights. The highlight of the dedication was the flight of WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo, two spacecrafts in the Virgin Galactic fleet.

Courtesy of Virgin Galactic

Courtesy of Virgin Galactic

“Today is another history-making day for Virgin Galactic,” said Sir Richard Branson. “We are here with a group of incredible people who are helping us lead the way in creating one of the most important new industrial sectors of the 21st century. We’ve never wavered in our commitment to the monumental task of pioneering safe, affordable and clean access to space, or to demonstrate that we mean business at each step along the way.”

The Sir Norman Foster designed building meets LEED Gold standards.The British-based Foster + Partners firm used local materials and installed geothermal heating and cooling systems. To read more about their sustainable design visit inhabitat.com.

Many homeowners are under the impression that a sustainable home can not be a luxury home. That could not be farther from the truth. To have a sustainable home simply means that the home will have minimal negative effects on the environment. There are plenty of luxury healthy materials available on the market today to build your luxury mountain home. There are also healthy finishes and furnishings available that make efficient use of resources.

Having your own custom sustainable home designed and built just for you and your family is a great luxury within itself, because the house will be designed to cater to your family’s lifestyle in addition to causing minimal harm to the environs.

Trilogy Partners

Photo via Interiors Digital Magazine

Photo via Interiors Digital Magazine

For information on building a sustainable luxury mountain home in the Breckenridge, Colorado area, please give us a call at 970-453-2230 or visit us online at trilogybuilds.com.

Last week we highlighted some of our kitchens for National Kitchen and Bath Month, but today we wanted to focus on the bathroom. We find many people will spend the “big bucks” to renovate and remodel their kitchen and outdoor living space, but are hesitant to update their bathrooms, especially the master bathroom. Like a kitchen, you’ll be able to recoup most of the cost of the renovation to the bathroom if and when you decide to sell your home.

There are many levels when remodeling your bathroom, a mid-range bathroom remodel can include installing a new toilet, tub, new sink and vanity and new flooring. A high level remodel can consist of all of the above, plus expanding the room additional footage, adding a window, reconfiguring the layout of the bathroom, adding a bidet, new lighting and shower.

Before you consider what type of renovation your bathroom falls under take a look online and through magazines to get inspired and you’ll need to work out a budget as well.

We hope to provide you with inspiration today in honor of National Kitchen and Bath Month. Take a look at some of our bathroom designs below.

Images from our Trey Parker (of South Park) project that was featured in Architectural Digest.

Images from Trey Parker’s home that we designed in Kauai Hawaii. Just one a side note, the view below does not come with the remodel.

Take a look at a before photo from this project.

If you are looking to renovate or remodel a room in your home please consider Trilogy Partners.

It is ironic that I first learned of the passing of Steve Jobs on my iPhone, one of the many products that he created as the CEO of Apple, Inc. I was saddened to hear about the loss and was a bit nostalgic as I reminisced about how I, like many, have grown up with Jobs’ innovative Apple products.

At the age of 21, Steve Jobs, started Apple, with fellow visionaries Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. He has accomplished more in his 56 years than most men can accomplish in a 100.

We found this great quote on ArchDaily and wanted to share it with you.

“In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service. When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.” — Steve Jobs

Rendering of the Apple Store in 5th Avenue © Apple. Via ArchDaily

Thank you Steve Jobs for making our lives a better place and you’ll surely be missed by all.

Google has been making news of late with its opening of Google Plus to all users, but we are more interested in Google’s new investment in solar power systems right here in Colorado. Partnering with Clean Power Finance, Google will invest $75 million to help install 3,000 homes with solar panel systems in Colorado, California and Arizona.

Google writes in their Google Green Blog that “it makes a lot of sense to use solar photovoltaic (PV) technology—rooftop solar panels—to generate electricity right where you need it at home. It greens our energy mix by using existing roof space while avoiding transmission constraints, and it can be cheaper than drawing electricity from the traditional grid.”

According to Google, “The installer builds the system, the investor owns it (in this case, Google), and homeowners pay a monthly payment for the system, at a price that’s often less than paying for energy from the grid. Maintenance and performance are taken care of by Clean Power Finance and its network of installers.”

With Google already having invested in $850 million in green energy, their new solar panel investment is just another way that Google is branding themselves as “green”.

For more information visit www.cleanpowerfinance.com.

Last Friday, September 23rd, started the 2011 Solar Decathlon with 20 teams competing for the best solar-powered house around. Each collegiate team has been asked to “design, build and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient and attractive.” These 20 innovative homes will be on display at National Mall’s West Potomac Park in Washington, D.C until October 2nd.

Leading the way are University of Maryland and Purdue University.  According to U.S. Department of Energy, who has been spearheading this competition since 2002, the winner will be the team “that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency.”

Take a look at the scene on the National Mall this week.

Aerial view of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011 in Washington, D.C. (Credit: Stefano Paltera/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon)

Aerial view of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011 in Washington, D.C. (Credit: Stefano Paltera/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon)

To learn more about the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon visit www.solardecathlon.gov.