A recent study conducted by the National Association of Realtors has revealed a great deal of information about the types of neighborhoods Americans wish to live in. The Community Preference Survey showed that an astounding number of Americans would prefer to live in a walkable, mixed-use neighborhood, otherwise known as smart growth neighborhoods, over those that require them to drive between work, home, and recreational activities, according to Residential Design + Build magazine.

77 percent of Americans surveyed by the National Association of Realtors said they look for neighborhoods with pedestrian-friendly features like this one in Florida.

The survey’s results revealed that 77 percent of the respondents said they look for neighborhoods with sidewalks and pedestrian-friendly features, while 50 percent noted they would like to see improvements to existing public transportation over new roads and developments. The survey also revealed that consumers would willingly sacrifice square footage space for less driving.

Ron Phipps, the President of the National Association of Realtors, said “Realtors care about improving communities through smart growth initiatives… Realtors understand that different home buyers are looking for all kinds of neighborhood settings and that many home buyers want walkable, transit-accessible communities.”

Image Courtesy of EPA Smart Growth/Flickr via Switchboard.nrdc.org.

Interior design is a multi-aspect career in which technical and creative solutions are related within a structure in order to attain a constructed interior setting. The interior designing procedure follows a coordinated and systematic methodology, including analysis, research, and assimilation of knowledge into the artistic process, whereby the resources and needs of the customer are met in order to create an interior area that satisfies the project objectives.

There is a broad assortment of employment opportunities and working conditions within interior design. Tiny and large businesses frequently hire interior designers to work for them on a regular working time. Designers for smaller companies typically work per job basis or on a contract. Self employed interior designers, which are 26 percent of all interior designers, typically work the largest amount of time. Interior designers frequently work under stress in order to meet deadlines, meet customer’s needs, and stay on the budget. In some situations, licensed experts check the work and authorize it prior to passing the design to the construction permitting or clients for approval. The necessity for a licensed verification and signature differs by relevant legislation, range of work, and locality. Their career has the tendency to involve a huge deal of travelling to visit various studios, locations, or offices and homes of the client. A lot of interior designers are employed by bigger architecture companies. With the assistance of new technology, the procedure of calling clients and getting design options across has become simpler and needs less travel. A number would argue that essential makeovers have reformed interior design from a client viewpoint, making the designing process more exciting and interactive, in a fairly technological yet labour intensive setting.

A theme or style of an interior design is a continuous idea utilized throughout a space in order to create a sense of completeness. Themes are not to be mistaken as design concepts or the higher level party, which involved a deeper comprehension of the architectural framework, the programmatic and the socio-cultural needs of the customer. These styles frequently follow era styles. Examples of these are Art Deco, Indian Mughal, Gothic, English Georgian, Minimalist, Mid Century Modern, International, Feng Shui, Islamic, Victorian, Louis XVI, Louis XV, and a lot more.

The development of interior decoration styles has now bred to include styles not necessarily dependable with a certain era theme permitting the combination of pieces from various eras. Every element has to contribute to function, form, or both and keep up a constant standard of quality and blend to create the wanted design. An interior designer develops an interior and home architecture design for a client that has a theme and style that he mentally relates to and personally likes. For the past ten years, architects, designers, and decorators have been discovering the innovative fixtures that were created post war of the 50s and 60s from the new supplies that were created for military functions. A number of the trendsetters include Herman Miller, Knoll Miller, Ray Eames, and Charles Eames.

Did you know April is considered New Homes Month? If you’ve been thinking about planning and building a new home, now is definitely a great time find information on constructing your dream home! Current homeowners looking to build a new home and prospective homeowners alike can find lots of beneficial information on the National Association of Home Builders website. There you can find resources on the home building process, as well as the basics on financing a home and so much more information that can help make the process of becoming an educated consumer a lot less stressful.

Trilogy Partners can help you create the home of your dreams! Since 1998, we have partnered with our clients to create custom homes throughout the Colorado mountains. We use an integrated design-build process to serve our clients from concept to completion. Visit our website or contact us to learn how we can help you build the mountain home you’ve always dreamed of!

Contact Trilogy Partners to begin planning your new home!

Image Courtesy of Trilogy Partners.

Lake Norman resident Starr Miller considered getting rid of the whirlpool tub in her master bathroom when she realized her housekeeper was in it more than she was.

“She has to climb in it and clean it every week. It’s a total dust magnet,” said Miller, who works as an interior designer in Davidson. “Every time I walk by it all I think is, ‘That’s 42 square feet of wasted space.'”

Miller is not alone.

Patricia Dunlop, a spokeswoman for the American Society of Interior Designers, said many people are opting to replace their oversize tubs and Jacuzzis for extra vanity, shower and storage space.

“We all have more products and appliances in the bathroom than we used to,” said Dunlop. “We want the space to be calm and relaxing, so having the ability to put those items away and keep the space clear and serene is important.”

And while most interior designers and real estate agents agree it’s still important to have at least one tub in the house for bathing children, animals and other needs, oversize tubs are now seen as a frivolous use of space.

Dunlop cited one study that found the average whirlpool tub is used only seven times during its lifetime as reasoning for the shift in home design priorities.

Residents would rather invest in shower amenities that will create a spa experience, such as multiple shower heads, benches, steam showers and jets, said Miller.

Huntersville resident Deborah Maher said remodeling the master bathroom was her first priority when she moved into her home in Birkdale.

While the bathroom had an elegant whirlpool tub with stone work all around, it also had a vanity with only one drawer and a tiny shower.

Maher decided she was through with large tubs after living at her previous residence in Cornelius, she said.

“All I ever did was dust it and put decorations around the edges,” she said. “I never used the thing.”

So Maher worked with Miller to redesign her bathroom. With the help of sub-contractors, they removed the tub, expanded the shower by 2 square feet and added plenty of cabinet space for the couple’s bathroom supplies.

Maher said she’s most pleased with the shower, which now features a bench, a rain shower head, a handheld shower head and a built-in shelf.

Miller said she has many clients like Maher who are opting for larger showers over whirlpool tubs. Still, Miller said homeowners should be cognizant of how the remodeling will affect resale value.

“It’s more about how you do it than whether you do it,” she said. “If you take it out and do something fabulous with the rest of the bathroom, you can come out even or above. If you take it out and don’t do anything, I would suspect you’re taking value out of your home.”

Kathy Byrnes, a Realtor with Re/Max Executive at the Lake, said most real estate agents still consider a bathroom to be a full bath even if there is no tub. What really decides the classification is whether there’s a shower in the room, she said.

Source: Charlotte Observer

Have you connected with Trilogy Partners on Facebook yet? If not, be sure to stop by our page the next time you log into your Facebook account and click the like button on our page. By liking our Facebook page, you’ll receive our posts in your newsfeed, so you’ll never miss an update. Our Facebook page is the place to be for all the news and information in sustainable building practices, design tips and trends, events and happenings, and so much more!

Once you’ve liked our page, do us a favor by suggesting it to all of your Facebook friends. We currently have 78 people following us on Facebook, and we’d love to see that number rise to 100 over the weekend, but we need your help to accomplish that goal. Also, be sure to like The Haitian Orphan Rescue Program on Facebook, too. The Haitian Orphan Rescue Program is a charity co-founded by Trilogy Partner Michael Rath that provides permanent shelter for orphaned and abandoned children in Haiti.

We hope to see you around the Trilogy Partners Facebook page soon!

Coverings 2011, the International Tile and Stone Exposition, was held earlier this month in Las Vegas and revealed the latest trends in tile and stones. According to Editor at Large, new technology has had a great impact on the latest innovations, bringing about an abundance of unusual textures, shapes, and sizes.

Tiles that take on the appearance of other materials, like wood, are expected to be popular this year.

Porcelain tiles that mimic other surfaces are expected to be highly popular this year, as many manufacturers present at the show presented porcelain tiles that take on the appearance of materials like marble, travertine, wood planks, and bluestone.  For texture, dimensional dots are appearing on tiles to create the illusion of linear patterns, as well as enhance color contrasts by making them appear more dramatic. The hexagon was a most popular shape among all the exhibitors present.

You can learn more about the latest tile and stone trends at Editor at Large.

Photo credit: Editoratlarge.com.

How not to lose sight of the big picture.

Photo: Artful Magpie/Flickr

By John Brown, Slow Home Studio founder | Designing a house is a complicated task. Anyone who has ever built a home knows that there are literally thousands of design decisions to be made, ranging from the smallest detail (what color of grout do I want in my shower?) to the largest of issues (how big should my house be?). In between there are a wide array of technical decisions, stylistic questions, and functional issues to resolve. The addition of a sustainable design agenda to “green” the house complicates the whole process even more.

Every choice you make about a house is a design decision and every house is the sum of all of these many choices. A truly sustainable home is one in which all design decisions, from large to small, are made with an eye to reducing the house’s environmental footprint without jeopardizing its livability. To better understand what this means in practical terms, the Slow Home philosophy organizes the various aspects of residential design into a four level design pyramid. The goal is to help you make more balanced and effective sustainable design choices when either building a new home, remodeling an existing residence, or perhaps just buying a resale house.

The Top of the Pyramid: Aesthetic Choices

At the top of the pyramid are choices about finishes, materials, colors, fabrics, and furniture. These interior design decisions are significant because they define the quality of the surfaces that we see and touch on a daily basis. Green design in this context is about making choices that focus on such things as rapidly renewable finishes, recycled content materials, low volatility paints, and natural, low toxicity fabrics. On their own, however, decisions at this level are not sufficient to make a house sustainable.

The Second Level: Exterior Design

The second level of the pyramid deals with exterior design issues such as building style, roof shape, and window placement. These decisions are important because they define not only how the building looks from the street but also how effectively the construction performs.  From a green design point of view, this level of design primarily involves ensuring that the massing of the building is compact, construction materials are efficiently used, and the building envelope is designed for optimal thermal efficiency. This means paying attention to the design of the roof and wall insulation systems as well as properly detailing the windows and doors to minimize air and heat transfer.  Like interior design, however, this kind of decision making does not, by itself, constitute green design.

The Third Level: Systemic Choices

The third level of the pyramid is about technical design decisions regarding the electrical, mechanical, and plumbing systems. Green design in this context is about making

choices that reduce water and energy usage and employ renewable technologies and clean energy sources. These design decisions use technological fixes to optimize energy usage and reduce the amount of greenhouses gases that will be generated by the operation of the house over its lifetime. Technical design plays a very critical role in making a house sustainable, but as with the other levels, it is not sufficient on its own.

The Foundation of the Pyramid: Location, Size, Orientation and Stewardship

At the bottom of the pyramid is the most fundamental level of design decisions. These involve a consideration of the basic elements of inhabitation that are not normally considered in discussions about green design. In actuality, however, they are the foundation on which all other sustainable design choices should rest. This level of design focuses on issues of location, size, orientation, and stewardship. From a green design point of view it’s about ensuring that the broad decisions you make about where and how you live are properly aligned so as to reduce your overall environmental footprint.

Why the Design Pyramid Matters

Good sustainable residential design involves a coordinated approach that simultaneously engages all levels of the design pyramid. If green design thinking is limited to only one or two of the levels the result will not be a truly sustainable home.

For example, at present, too many people limit their green choices to interior design issues. It’s all about bamboo floors, low VOC paint, and recycled countertops. While these are certainly significant choices, in the absence of a more comprehensive approach to sustainability, their impact will be severely limited. It’s like worrying about the toxicity of the dyes in the cushions on the deck chairs of the Titanic. Important, but it won’t prevent the boat from sinking.

In much the same way, an engineering approach that concentrates too heavily on the technical level of design is also an overly limited way of thinking about sustainability. It’s all too easy to get caught up in the technological paraphernalia of sustainability and end up missing the forest for the trees. Heat recovery ventilators, low flow toilets, geothermal heat pumps, and solar arrays are important but their effectiveness is greatly diminished when they are not part of a more comprehensive sustainability strategy that extends to all four aspects of the design pyramid.

Practical sustainability is about making every design decision a green issue. Substantially lowering our environmental impact will not be achieved by just purchasing a few green products or attending to a narrow set of issues. In the end, these kinds of choices only serve to make us, and the homebuilding industry, feel better.

This article was reprinted with permission. It originally appeared here on Networx.com.

Is it cold and wet where you are?  When it’s like this it’s so tempting to light up a fireplace isn’t it?  Except do you know it’s terrible for the environment?  It really is.  The NY Times had an article about that here.

Anyway, we love the idea of using firewood as decoration though.  It’s so organic (so overused, we know), but it just adds warmth to a room without having the hassles and expenses, you know?

Here are a couple of pictures:

Source: The New York Times

Source: Erin Martin Design

Source: InsideAvenue