Newlyweds had just moved into their new home and immediately wanted to update their kitchen which is located in the center of the household, lacking any natural light source of its own. To make matters worse, the cabinets in place were dark red with black countertops. Not the picture of brightness they were looking for. To increase the amount of light reflected throughout the kitchen, we incorporated some of the following updates: 1. Replaced the solo ceiling light with 4 recessed cans 2. Updated the florescent undercabinet lights with new LED strips 3. Installed custom white cabinets topped with Silestone’s new Artic Ocean white countertops 4. Updated the dark glass pendants over the bar with larger, clear glass pendants that spoke more to the history of the home 5. Painted the walls a soft gray to compliment the palette The original kitchen layout was updated to eliminate the existing soffits and open the visual feel of the space. A large white farm sink now centers the natural wood bar area, inviting guests to sit and gather for ballgames and celebrations. Glass tile and USB ports at charging sites complete the space for the family to grow over the years. Photo by Stockwell Media

Photo of a kitchen renovation feature cabinets finished in Black Licorice and Pure White lacquer. The cabinets are oversized and conceal the appliances with finished wood panels. Unique features include a wall of natural leuders veneer stone with a custom floating ventilation system as a main focal point. Complementing the cabinets are countertops of Satin Cambrian black granite and Honed Calcatta Colorado Marble. Custom hewn wood beams and hand scraped flooring warm the rooms feel against the cool gray walls. Designed and constructed by USI in Southlake Tx.

Our energetic client came to us with a design challenge – take a broken-up layout, make it flow, and add a French flair. And, it was imperative that we maximize storage and make the whole space kid and dog friendly. This interior design project was a true collaboration. When we began, the kitchen and the dining room were completely separate spaces. Our down2earth interior design team proposed layouts that ranged from modest interventions (retaining the wall that divided the dining room and kitchen), to moderate interventions that left a partial wall in place, to major realignments that opened the space wide up. By creating design drawings for these different levels of intervention, the homeowners were able to view the pros and cons and price the different options. Happily, after having engineers verify that it was doable, they chose a wide open layout, which allows these party people to have a fabulous entertaining space. Once the layouts for the kitchen and dining room were established, it was time to collaborate with the builder on lighting placement and with the woodworker to get all the little details right, such as dog dishes in the blue island and specialized storage at the perimeter. The wood fumehood was part of the homeowners’ original vision and is the focal point of the back wall. The brass and glass shelves over the bar cabinets were sourced by the homeowners as well, and we worked within the company’s offerings to get the proportions just right. A brass bar was added to the toe-kick area of the custom designed breakfast nook to match the brass bar shelf brackets and support little feet. Lighting, furniture, upholstered bench cushions, and drapery all soften the space and provide that desired French flair. Counter tops are super white leather granite.

Diablo Flooring Inc - Danville CA HomerWood is an American brand you can trust! Using only the highest quality, local raw materials they hand-craft premium hardwood flooring in a range of beautiful colors, styles, textures and surface treatments to fit both residential and commercial interiors. HomerWood Hardwood Flooring is visually opulent with distinct looks and is a truly unique hardwood flooring with a personal reflection of one's own taste and lifestyle. Allow Nature To Customize Your Floor! HomerWood Hardwood Flooring Traditional Character - Click to View Selections Traditional Character™ Crafted from the entire tree, all of nature's beautiful distinctive markings are revealed. These one-of-a-kind markings are highlighted beneath a smooth durable finish. Amish Hand-Scraped® These floors are truly fashioned by hand by local Amish artisans and like a true piece of art, each plank bears the signature of the proud craftsman who created it. HomerWood's Traditional scrape covers the full surface of the floor. Whereas Time Worn, a softer scrape, provides a subtle rolling surface variation. Smoked Specialties™ Dramatic, rich and alluring visuals that add design and depth to a room. Using a technique achieved by gently flaming the wood, board by board, the heat from the open flame caramelizes the sugars in the sapwood creating a shadowed look that can't be imitated. Aesthetics™ by HomerWood® Oak and Ash hardwood sourced from the Appalachian region are custom crafted into beautiful long, wide planks that are precisely milled to enhance the overall presence of your wood floor. These visually pleasing floors are offered in a 9/16" engineered construction to provide installation versatility and excellent stability. HomerWood's designer inspired color choices are highlighted beneath a smooth durable matte finish making these floors an attractive option for both residential and commercial interiors. Birch Run™ The rich elegance of HomerWood's all American birch lends an air of distinction to any room where the beauty of the wood is of the utmost importance. Birch wood is fine grained with an attractive satin like luster. While all trees are naturally renewable, not all are able to be utilized to the full extent like the Birch tree. This capability makes it an environmentally friendly resource precisely milled by HomerWood. Raw Material Homerwood uses only the highest grade, center cut, raw material from verifiable sources in the Appalachian region. Visually beautiful floors with tight grain. Allows for long lengths and wider widths with excellent stability. Species Homerwood uses only domestic species which include hickory, cherry, black walnut, hard maple, ash, birch, red oak, white oak and rift and quartered white oak. With a broad range of species and colors to choose from, you have many options and choices to design to your taste and style. Green Homerwood hardwood flooring is produced with zero waste, is Carb II compliant with zero off-gassing and no VOC's. Engineered floors are cold pressed with no urea formaldehyde. Environmentally friendly. Provides for healthy living with no allergens. Warranty - Lifetime Structural Warranty Superior Finish Warranty - Aluminum Oxide only: 50-year residential / 3-year commercial Custom Options Custom stains, gloss levels, long lengths, wide widths, textures, reclaimed flooring, pre-cut herringbone and pre-cut parquets.

Diablo Flooring Inc - Danville CA HomerWood is an American brand you can trust! Using only the highest quality, local raw materials they hand-craft premium hardwood flooring in a range of beautiful colors, styles, textures and surface treatments to fit both residential and commercial interiors. HomerWood Hardwood Flooring is visually opulent with distinct looks and is a truly unique hardwood flooring with a personal reflection of one's own taste and lifestyle. Allow Nature To Customize Your Floor! HomerWood Hardwood Flooring Traditional Character - Click to View Selections Traditional Character™ Crafted from the entire tree, all of nature's beautiful distinctive markings are revealed. These one-of-a-kind markings are highlighted beneath a smooth durable finish. Amish Hand-Scraped® These floors are truly fashioned by hand by local Amish artisans and like a true piece of art, each plank bears the signature of the proud craftsman who created it. HomerWood's Traditional scrape covers the full surface of the floor. Whereas Time Worn, a softer scrape, provides a subtle rolling surface variation. Smoked Specialties™ Dramatic, rich and alluring visuals that add design and depth to a room. Using a technique achieved by gently flaming the wood, board by board, the heat from the open flame caramelizes the sugars in the sapwood creating a shadowed look that can't be imitated. Aesthetics™ by HomerWood® Oak and Ash hardwood sourced from the Appalachian region are custom crafted into beautiful long, wide planks that are precisely milled to enhance the overall presence of your wood floor. These visually pleasing floors are offered in a 9/16" engineered construction to provide installation versatility and excellent stability. HomerWood's designer inspired color choices are highlighted beneath a smooth durable matte finish making these floors an attractive option for both residential and commercial interiors. Birch Run™ The rich elegance of HomerWood's all American birch lends an air of distinction to any room where the beauty of the wood is of the utmost importance. Birch wood is fine grained with an attractive satin like luster. While all trees are naturally renewable, not all are able to be utilized to the full extent like the Birch tree. This capability makes it an environmentally friendly resource precisely milled by HomerWood. Raw Material Homerwood uses only the highest grade, center cut, raw material from verifiable sources in the Appalachian region. Visually beautiful floors with tight grain. Allows for long lengths and wider widths with excellent stability. Species Homerwood uses only domestic species which include hickory, cherry, black walnut, hard maple, ash, birch, red oak, white oak and rift and quartered white oak. With a broad range of species and colors to choose from, you have many options and choices to design to your taste and style. Green Homerwood hardwood flooring is produced with zero waste, is Carb II compliant with zero off-gassing and no VOC's. Engineered floors are cold pressed with no urea formaldehyde. Environmentally friendly. Provides for healthy living with no allergens. Warranty - Lifetime Structural Warranty Superior Finish Warranty - Aluminum Oxide only: 50-year residential / 3-year commercial Custom Options Custom stains, gloss levels, long lengths, wide widths, textures, reclaimed flooring, pre-cut herringbone and pre-cut parquets.

The homes in Heritage Hills in Chapel Hill, NC are representative of the popularity and explosive growth of American Home Ownership that occurred during the economic expansion that followed the end of WW II. They were designed and built to foster the benefits and sense of “community”, where families could come together and share theirs and their children’s lives. They are typically in very desirable locations within their larger communities, and remodeling them with modern amenities, increasing the performance and efficiency of them, and having them Green Certified (independent third-party verified) makes them extremely attractive to buyers, and helps to raise other property values within the neighborhood. Green Certified Remodeled Homes offer significant value and advantage in the marketplace over similar homes in their area, which is especially important as a new, younger era of home buyers enter the market. Current trends suggest that younger (as well as many “seasoned”) homeowners are interested in smaller, more efficient (and thus affordable) homes situated closer to shopping, their work, entertainment opportunities, and access to the economic and environmental benefits of mass transit. These older homes also offer an additional value that is continuing to gain visibility and appreciation in the market place. They were built from lumber from slower-growth trees (denser and harder wood), and as such offer superior structural support compared to the same home built using lumber from today’s faster-growing (softer and less-dense wood) trees. Robin and Kent had lived in their 2-story Gambrel Roof home in Heritage Hills since 1994. The house was structurally sound, due in large part to the old-growth (and denser) yellow pine that was used in its framing. They loved the quiet neighborhood, its sense of community and amenities, and their home. It suited their life-style and needs; and they had decided that they would remain in the home. It was showing its age, and was in need of general repairs and maintenance, and its energy, water, and indoor air quality performance was continuing to increase their ongoing cost of ownership. Robin loved the screen porch that looked out on their private and nicely landscaped back yard, but she wanted to be able to use it in the colder months of the year. She was unsatisfied with the kitchen and the mud room / laundry room, and the darkness of other living spaces. A previous water leak in the laundry room had resulted in a large patch of mold that had compromised flooring, wall board, and insulation and contributed to the homes reduced indoor air quality. The home lacked insulation in the crawl, and inadequate insulation in the attic. The single HVAC unit had been replaced a few years earlier with a more efficient unit, but with a single programmable thermostat control on the first floor and aging and un-insulated ducting, the second floor was often over-heated in the summer months. The original wood windows had begun to deteriorate and were drafty and inefficient, and the original wood-burning fireplace was an open conduit for escaping conditioned air as well as an inlet for wood-smoke smelling air being pulled into the home. The siding had been replaced a few years earlier with a cement-fiber product, but the exterior wood trim was compromised and beginning to look unsightly. Its original architecture had been altered over the years in ways that presented ongoing maintenance and durability issues, as well as disrupting the elegance of the original design. Kent has worked for over 30 years in the Environmental Sciences field, and is considered to be a national expert in understanding the sources of, and human exposure to pollutants in indoor environments. He had always been very conscious and cautious about the effects on indoor air quality that the construction, furnishings, and products used in home had on him and his family. Project Goals Increase the performance of their home by improving energy efficiency by at least 40% and lowering their natural gas and electric utility costs. Increase the performance of their home by reducing water usage by at least 40% and lowering the water utility costs. Increase the comfort of their home that was being compromised by an inadequate HVAC design, inadequate insulation, inefficient and compromised wood windows, and copious air intrusions and drafts. Improve the healthiness of the homes indoor air quality that was being compromised by an open wood-burning fireplace, and prior water intrusion that had allowed colonies of mold to thrive. Create a new Kitchen, Family Room, Home Office, Mudroom, and Laundry Room that featured some of the latest designs and trends and harmonized with the rest of the homes charm. Increase the usefulness and aesthetics of the screened porch by creating a warm and inviting semi-conditioned 3-Season Room that extended the times during the year that it was comfortable. Introduce day-lighting into areas of the home that were dark and uninviting. Brighten and harmonize all of the interior finishes. Protect and restore the exterior of the home with superior-performing products and finishes. Achieve Gold Level Green Home Certification in conformance with the ICC 700-2012 National Green Building Standards (NGBS).

Our energetic client came to us with a design challenge – take a broken-up layout, make it flow, and add a French flair. And, it was imperative that we maximize storage and make the whole space kid and dog friendly. This interior design project was a true collaboration. When we began, the kitchen and the dining room were completely separate spaces. Our down2earth interior design team proposed layouts that ranged from modest interventions (retaining the wall that divided the dining room and kitchen), to moderate interventions that left a partial wall in place, to major realignments that opened the space wide up. By creating design drawings for these different levels of intervention, the homeowners were able to view the pros and cons and price the different options. Happily, after having engineers verify that it was doable, they chose a wide open layout, which allows these party people to have a fabulous entertaining space. Once the layouts for the kitchen and dining room were established, it was time to collaborate with the builder on lighting placement and with the woodworker to get all the little details right, such as dog dishes in the blue island and specialized storage at the perimeter. The wood fumehood was part of the homeowners’ original vision and is the focal point of the back wall. The brass and glass shelves over the bar cabinets were sourced by the homeowners as well, and we worked within the company’s offerings to get the proportions just right. A brass bar was added to the toe-kick area of the custom designed breakfast nook to match the brass bar shelf brackets and support little feet. Lighting, furniture, upholstered bench cushions, and drapery all soften the space and provide that desired French flair. Counter tops are super white leather granite.

Corner shower with subway tile and frameless glass surround adjacent to under mount tub in this contemporary master bathroom makeover.
Corner shower - mid-sized contemporary master white tile and subway tile porcelain tile corner shower idea in Sacramento with an undermount tub and gray walls

Tuscan kitchen photo in Houston

Diablo Flooring Inc - Danville CA HomerWood is an American brand you can trust! Using only the highest quality, local raw materials they hand-craft premium hardwood flooring in a range of beautiful colors, styles, textures and surface treatments to fit both residential and commercial interiors. HomerWood Hardwood Flooring is visually opulent with distinct looks and is a truly unique hardwood flooring with a personal reflection of one's own taste and lifestyle. Allow Nature To Customize Your Floor! HomerWood Hardwood Flooring Traditional Character - Click to View Selections Traditional Character™ Crafted from the entire tree, all of nature's beautiful distinctive markings are revealed. These one-of-a-kind markings are highlighted beneath a smooth durable finish. Amish Hand-Scraped® These floors are truly fashioned by hand by local Amish artisans and like a true piece of art, each plank bears the signature of the proud craftsman who created it. HomerWood's Traditional scrape covers the full surface of the floor. Whereas Time Worn, a softer scrape, provides a subtle rolling surface variation. Smoked Specialties™ Dramatic, rich and alluring visuals that add design and depth to a room. Using a technique achieved by gently flaming the wood, board by board, the heat from the open flame caramelizes the sugars in the sapwood creating a shadowed look that can't be imitated. Aesthetics™ by HomerWood® Oak and Ash hardwood sourced from the Appalachian region are custom crafted into beautiful long, wide planks that are precisely milled to enhance the overall presence of your wood floor. These visually pleasing floors are offered in a 9/16" engineered construction to provide installation versatility and excellent stability. HomerWood's designer inspired color choices are highlighted beneath a smooth durable matte finish making these floors an attractive option for both residential and commercial interiors. Birch Run™ The rich elegance of HomerWood's all American birch lends an air of distinction to any room where the beauty of the wood is of the utmost importance. Birch wood is fine grained with an attractive satin like luster. While all trees are naturally renewable, not all are able to be utilized to the full extent like the Birch tree. This capability makes it an environmentally friendly resource precisely milled by HomerWood. Raw Material Homerwood uses only the highest grade, center cut, raw material from verifiable sources in the Appalachian region. Visually beautiful floors with tight grain. Allows for long lengths and wider widths with excellent stability. Species Homerwood uses only domestic species which include hickory, cherry, black walnut, hard maple, ash, birch, red oak, white oak and rift and quartered white oak. With a broad range of species and colors to choose from, you have many options and choices to design to your taste and style. Green Homerwood hardwood flooring is produced with zero waste, is Carb II compliant with zero off-gassing and no VOC's. Engineered floors are cold pressed with no urea formaldehyde. Environmentally friendly. Provides for healthy living with no allergens. Warranty - Lifetime Structural Warranty Superior Finish Warranty - Aluminum Oxide only: 50-year residential / 3-year commercial Custom Options Custom stains, gloss levels, long lengths, wide widths, textures, reclaimed flooring, pre-cut herringbone and pre-cut parquets.

The homes in Heritage Hills in Chapel Hill, NC are representative of the popularity and explosive growth of American Home Ownership that occurred during the economic expansion that followed the end of WW II. They were designed and built to foster the benefits and sense of “community”, where families could come together and share theirs and their children’s lives. They are typically in very desirable locations within their larger communities, and remodeling them with modern amenities, increasing the performance and efficiency of them, and having them Green Certified (independent third-party verified) makes them extremely attractive to buyers, and helps to raise other property values within the neighborhood. Green Certified Remodeled Homes offer significant value and advantage in the marketplace over similar homes in their area, which is especially important as a new, younger era of home buyers enter the market. Current trends suggest that younger (as well as many “seasoned”) homeowners are interested in smaller, more efficient (and thus affordable) homes situated closer to shopping, their work, entertainment opportunities, and access to the economic and environmental benefits of mass transit. These older homes also offer an additional value that is continuing to gain visibility and appreciation in the market place. They were built from lumber from slower-growth trees (denser and harder wood), and as such offer superior structural support compared to the same home built using lumber from today’s faster-growing (softer and less-dense wood) trees. Robin and Kent had lived in their 2-story Gambrel Roof home in Heritage Hills since 1994. The house was structurally sound, due in large part to the old-growth (and denser) yellow pine that was used in its framing. They loved the quiet neighborhood, its sense of community and amenities, and their home. It suited their life-style and needs; and they had decided that they would remain in the home. It was showing its age, and was in need of general repairs and maintenance, and its energy, water, and indoor air quality performance was continuing to increase their ongoing cost of ownership. Robin loved the screen porch that looked out on their private and nicely landscaped back yard, but she wanted to be able to use it in the colder months of the year. She was unsatisfied with the kitchen and the mud room / laundry room, and the darkness of other living spaces. A previous water leak in the laundry room had resulted in a large patch of mold that had compromised flooring, wall board, and insulation and contributed to the homes reduced indoor air quality. The home lacked insulation in the crawl, and inadequate insulation in the attic. The single HVAC unit had been replaced a few years earlier with a more efficient unit, but with a single programmable thermostat control on the first floor and aging and un-insulated ducting, the second floor was often over-heated in the summer months. The original wood windows had begun to deteriorate and were drafty and inefficient, and the original wood-burning fireplace was an open conduit for escaping conditioned air as well as an inlet for wood-smoke smelling air being pulled into the home. The siding had been replaced a few years earlier with a cement-fiber product, but the exterior wood trim was compromised and beginning to look unsightly. Its original architecture had been altered over the years in ways that presented ongoing maintenance and durability issues, as well as disrupting the elegance of the original design. Kent has worked for over 30 years in the Environmental Sciences field, and is considered to be a national expert in understanding the sources of, and human exposure to pollutants in indoor environments. He had always been very conscious and cautious about the effects on indoor air quality that the construction, furnishings, and products used in home had on him and his family. Project Goals Increase the performance of their home by improving energy efficiency by at least 40% and lowering their natural gas and electric utility costs. Increase the performance of their home by reducing water usage by at least 40% and lowering the water utility costs. Increase the comfort of their home that was being compromised by an inadequate HVAC design, inadequate insulation, inefficient and compromised wood windows, and copious air intrusions and drafts. Improve the healthiness of the homes indoor air quality that was being compromised by an open wood-burning fireplace, and prior water intrusion that had allowed colonies of mold to thrive. Create a new Kitchen, Family Room, Home Office, Mudroom, and Laundry Room that featured some of the latest designs and trends and harmonized with the rest of the homes charm. Increase the usefulness and aesthetics of the screened porch by creating a warm and inviting semi-conditioned 3-Season Room that extended the times during the year that it was comfortable. Introduce day-lighting into areas of the home that were dark and uninviting. Brighten and harmonize all of the interior finishes. Protect and restore the exterior of the home with superior-performing products and finishes. Achieve Gold Level Green Home Certification in conformance with the ICC 700-2012 National Green Building Standards (NGBS).

Our energetic client came to us with a design challenge – take a broken-up layout, make it flow, and add a French flair. And, it was imperative that we maximize storage and make the whole space kid and dog friendly. This interior design project was a true collaboration. When we began, the kitchen and the dining room were completely separate spaces. Our down2earth interior design team proposed layouts that ranged from modest interventions (retaining the wall that divided the dining room and kitchen), to moderate interventions that left a partial wall in place, to major realignments that opened the space wide up. By creating design drawings for these different levels of intervention, the homeowners were able to view the pros and cons and price the different options. Happily, after having engineers verify that it was doable, they chose a wide open layout, which allows these party people to have a fabulous entertaining space. Once the layouts for the kitchen and dining room were established, it was time to collaborate with the builder on lighting placement and with the woodworker to get all the little details right, such as dog dishes in the blue island and specialized storage at the perimeter. The wood fumehood was part of the homeowners’ original vision and is the focal point of the back wall. The brass and glass shelves over the bar cabinets were sourced by the homeowners as well, and we worked within the company’s offerings to get the proportions just right. A brass bar was added to the toe-kick area of the custom designed breakfast nook to match the brass bar shelf brackets and support little feet. Lighting, furniture, upholstered bench cushions, and drapery all soften the space and provide that desired French flair. Counter tops are super white leather granite.

Diablo Flooring Inc - Danville CA HomerWood is an American brand you can trust! Using only the highest quality, local raw materials they hand-craft premium hardwood flooring in a range of beautiful colors, styles, textures and surface treatments to fit both residential and commercial interiors. HomerWood Hardwood Flooring is visually opulent with distinct looks and is a truly unique hardwood flooring with a personal reflection of one's own taste and lifestyle. Allow Nature To Customize Your Floor! HomerWood Hardwood Flooring Traditional Character - Click to View Selections Traditional Character™ Crafted from the entire tree, all of nature's beautiful distinctive markings are revealed. These one-of-a-kind markings are highlighted beneath a smooth durable finish. Amish Hand-Scraped® These floors are truly fashioned by hand by local Amish artisans and like a true piece of art, each plank bears the signature of the proud craftsman who created it. HomerWood's Traditional scrape covers the full surface of the floor. Whereas Time Worn, a softer scrape, provides a subtle rolling surface variation. Smoked Specialties™ Dramatic, rich and alluring visuals that add design and depth to a room. Using a technique achieved by gently flaming the wood, board by board, the heat from the open flame caramelizes the sugars in the sapwood creating a shadowed look that can't be imitated. Aesthetics™ by HomerWood® Oak and Ash hardwood sourced from the Appalachian region are custom crafted into beautiful long, wide planks that are precisely milled to enhance the overall presence of your wood floor. These visually pleasing floors are offered in a 9/16" engineered construction to provide installation versatility and excellent stability. HomerWood's designer inspired color choices are highlighted beneath a smooth durable matte finish making these floors an attractive option for both residential and commercial interiors. Birch Run™ The rich elegance of HomerWood's all American birch lends an air of distinction to any room where the beauty of the wood is of the utmost importance. Birch wood is fine grained with an attractive satin like luster. While all trees are naturally renewable, not all are able to be utilized to the full extent like the Birch tree. This capability makes it an environmentally friendly resource precisely milled by HomerWood. Raw Material Homerwood uses only the highest grade, center cut, raw material from verifiable sources in the Appalachian region. Visually beautiful floors with tight grain. Allows for long lengths and wider widths with excellent stability. Species Homerwood uses only domestic species which include hickory, cherry, black walnut, hard maple, ash, birch, red oak, white oak and rift and quartered white oak. With a broad range of species and colors to choose from, you have many options and choices to design to your taste and style. Green Homerwood hardwood flooring is produced with zero waste, is Carb II compliant with zero off-gassing and no VOC's. Engineered floors are cold pressed with no urea formaldehyde. Environmentally friendly. Provides for healthy living with no allergens. Warranty - Lifetime Structural Warranty Superior Finish Warranty - Aluminum Oxide only: 50-year residential / 3-year commercial Custom Options Custom stains, gloss levels, long lengths, wide widths, textures, reclaimed flooring, pre-cut herringbone and pre-cut parquets.

View of the bathroom from the shower. Basket weave marble is throughout the main field of the floor. The crema marfil marble is all on offset pattern 6x12 This is art work from yours truly!

Photography by Tre Dunham
Example of a mid-sized transitional l-shaped dark wood floor kitchen design in Austin with a farmhouse sink, recessed-panel cabinets, white cabinets, quartz countertops, white backsplash, stainless steel appliances, an island and subway tile backsplash

Chipper Hatter
Example of a trendy single-wall porcelain tile open concept kitchen design in Kansas City with a double-bowl sink, recessed-panel cabinets, white cabinets, granite countertops, black backsplash, glass tile backsplash, stainless steel appliances and an island

Gregory Dedona Architect
Example of a large transitional u-shaped medium tone wood floor eat-in kitchen design in San Francisco with a farmhouse sink, white cabinets, stainless steel appliances, an island, shaker cabinets, marble countertops, multicolored backsplash and stone tile backsplash

Diablo Flooring Inc - Danville CA HomerWood is an American brand you can trust! Using only the highest quality, local raw materials they hand-craft premium hardwood flooring in a range of beautiful colors, styles, textures and surface treatments to fit both residential and commercial interiors. HomerWood Hardwood Flooring is visually opulent with distinct looks and is a truly unique hardwood flooring with a personal reflection of one's own taste and lifestyle. Allow Nature To Customize Your Floor! HomerWood Hardwood Flooring Traditional Character - Click to View Selections Traditional Character™ Crafted from the entire tree, all of nature's beautiful distinctive markings are revealed. These one-of-a-kind markings are highlighted beneath a smooth durable finish. Amish Hand-Scraped® These floors are truly fashioned by hand by local Amish artisans and like a true piece of art, each plank bears the signature of the proud craftsman who created it. HomerWood's Traditional scrape covers the full surface of the floor. Whereas Time Worn, a softer scrape, provides a subtle rolling surface variation. Smoked Specialties™ Dramatic, rich and alluring visuals that add design and depth to a room. Using a technique achieved by gently flaming the wood, board by board, the heat from the open flame caramelizes the sugars in the sapwood creating a shadowed look that can't be imitated. Aesthetics™ by HomerWood® Oak and Ash hardwood sourced from the Appalachian region are custom crafted into beautiful long, wide planks that are precisely milled to enhance the overall presence of your wood floor. These visually pleasing floors are offered in a 9/16" engineered construction to provide installation versatility and excellent stability. HomerWood's designer inspired color choices are highlighted beneath a smooth durable matte finish making these floors an attractive option for both residential and commercial interiors. Birch Run™ The rich elegance of HomerWood's all American birch lends an air of distinction to any room where the beauty of the wood is of the utmost importance. Birch wood is fine grained with an attractive satin like luster. While all trees are naturally renewable, not all are able to be utilized to the full extent like the Birch tree. This capability makes it an environmentally friendly resource precisely milled by HomerWood. Raw Material Homerwood uses only the highest grade, center cut, raw material from verifiable sources in the Appalachian region. Visually beautiful floors with tight grain. Allows for long lengths and wider widths with excellent stability. Species Homerwood uses only domestic species which include hickory, cherry, black walnut, hard maple, ash, birch, red oak, white oak and rift and quartered white oak. With a broad range of species and colors to choose from, you have many options and choices to design to your taste and style. Green Homerwood hardwood flooring is produced with zero waste, is Carb II compliant with zero off-gassing and no VOC's. Engineered floors are cold pressed with no urea formaldehyde. Environmentally friendly. Provides for healthy living with no allergens. Warranty - Lifetime Structural Warranty Superior Finish Warranty - Aluminum Oxide only: 50-year residential / 3-year commercial Custom Options Custom stains, gloss levels, long lengths, wide widths, textures, reclaimed flooring, pre-cut herringbone and pre-cut parquets.

The homes in Heritage Hills in Chapel Hill, NC are representative of the popularity and explosive growth of American Home Ownership that occurred during the economic expansion that followed the end of WW II. They were designed and built to foster the benefits and sense of “community”, where families could come together and share theirs and their children’s lives. They are typically in very desirable locations within their larger communities, and remodeling them with modern amenities, increasing the performance and efficiency of them, and having them Green Certified (independent third-party verified) makes them extremely attractive to buyers, and helps to raise other property values within the neighborhood. Green Certified Remodeled Homes offer significant value and advantage in the marketplace over similar homes in their area, which is especially important as a new, younger era of home buyers enter the market. Current trends suggest that younger (as well as many “seasoned”) homeowners are interested in smaller, more efficient (and thus affordable) homes situated closer to shopping, their work, entertainment opportunities, and access to the economic and environmental benefits of mass transit. These older homes also offer an additional value that is continuing to gain visibility and appreciation in the market place. They were built from lumber from slower-growth trees (denser and harder wood), and as such offer superior structural support compared to the same home built using lumber from today’s faster-growing (softer and less-dense wood) trees. Robin and Kent had lived in their 2-story Gambrel Roof home in Heritage Hills since 1994. The house was structurally sound, due in large part to the old-growth (and denser) yellow pine that was used in its framing. They loved the quiet neighborhood, its sense of community and amenities, and their home. It suited their life-style and needs; and they had decided that they would remain in the home. It was showing its age, and was in need of general repairs and maintenance, and its energy, water, and indoor air quality performance was continuing to increase their ongoing cost of ownership. Robin loved the screen porch that looked out on their private and nicely landscaped back yard, but she wanted to be able to use it in the colder months of the year. She was unsatisfied with the kitchen and the mud room / laundry room, and the darkness of other living spaces. A previous water leak in the laundry room had resulted in a large patch of mold that had compromised flooring, wall board, and insulation and contributed to the homes reduced indoor air quality. The home lacked insulation in the crawl, and inadequate insulation in the attic. The single HVAC unit had been replaced a few years earlier with a more efficient unit, but with a single programmable thermostat control on the first floor and aging and un-insulated ducting, the second floor was often over-heated in the summer months. The original wood windows had begun to deteriorate and were drafty and inefficient, and the original wood-burning fireplace was an open conduit for escaping conditioned air as well as an inlet for wood-smoke smelling air being pulled into the home. The siding had been replaced a few years earlier with a cement-fiber product, but the exterior wood trim was compromised and beginning to look unsightly. Its original architecture had been altered over the years in ways that presented ongoing maintenance and durability issues, as well as disrupting the elegance of the original design. Kent has worked for over 30 years in the Environmental Sciences field, and is considered to be a national expert in understanding the sources of, and human exposure to pollutants in indoor environments. He had always been very conscious and cautious about the effects on indoor air quality that the construction, furnishings, and products used in home had on him and his family. Project Goals Increase the performance of their home by improving energy efficiency by at least 40% and lowering their natural gas and electric utility costs. Increase the performance of their home by reducing water usage by at least 40% and lowering the water utility costs. Increase the comfort of their home that was being compromised by an inadequate HVAC design, inadequate insulation, inefficient and compromised wood windows, and copious air intrusions and drafts. Improve the healthiness of the homes indoor air quality that was being compromised by an open wood-burning fireplace, and prior water intrusion that had allowed colonies of mold to thrive. Create a new Kitchen, Family Room, Home Office, Mudroom, and Laundry Room that featured some of the latest designs and trends and harmonized with the rest of the homes charm. Increase the usefulness and aesthetics of the screened porch by creating a warm and inviting semi-conditioned 3-Season Room that extended the times during the year that it was comfortable. Introduce day-lighting into areas of the home that were dark and uninviting. Brighten and harmonize all of the interior finishes. Protect and restore the exterior of the home with superior-performing products and finishes. Achieve Gold Level Green Home Certification in conformance with the ICC 700-2012 National Green Building Standards (NGBS).