John Hanncock
Elegant dark wood floor enclosed dining room photo in Richmond

Allison Cartwright
Inspiration for a contemporary beige tile bathroom remodel in Austin with flat-panel cabinets, dark wood cabinets and gray countertops

View of garage work desk and studio work stations Mark Herboth photography
Contemporary exterior home idea in Raleigh

Photo: Jordana Nicholson © 2016 Houzz
Inspiration for a large cottage medium tone wood floor great room remodel in Nashville with white walls

Keller Homes
Example of a classic enclosed carpeted family room design in Denver with beige walls and a wall-mounted tv

The client wanted the window to hold more detail than the original photograph had, to achieve this the detail was added from another image with less exposure. Copyright Carl Mayfield Photography

Scheurer Architects and Keller Homes designed a beautiful, award-winning community on a mountainous site located just outside Colorado Springs, Colorado. Their goal was to create something special by presenting fresh, new site plans within the local housing market while remaining sensitive to the traditions and benefits of rustic, mountain living. In order to remain true to the area in which the property is located, they made a joint effort to maintain the simple warmth and agricultural base found in the surrounding communities. Three unique floor plans and living space designs were developed and had an average 2,667 square feet in size, with 2 bedrooms/2 bathrooms and full basements. There was a focus on indoor and outdoor living, reminiscent of historic village homes that were organized in clusters to maximize space, preserve views, and encourage spending time in nature. Since the land was originally occupied by a dairy farm, the dynamic teams found existing stone on an old barn as well as retaining walls and wanted to incorporate these old stones into their new design. However, that meant that they needed to find just the right stone for the homes in an effort to blend the existing stone not only with the new stone, but also with stone that was being used for landscaping purposes. Eldorado’s blend of Fieldledge and Hillstone combined with the custom overgrout technique added the authenticity that the project called for. Eldorado Stone Profile Featured: Meseta Fieldledge with a custom mortar technique Eldorado Stone Profile Featured: Meseta Fieldledge with a custom mortar technique Architect: Dennis Danahay, Chris Rost, Scheurer Architects, Newport Beach, California Builder: Keller Homes, Colorado Springs, CO Website: www.kellerhomes.com Colorist: Ann Matteson, Ann Matteson Consulting, Newport Beach, CA Website: www.annmattesonconsulting.com Distributor: C&C Sand and Stone Company, Colorado Springs, CO Website: www.ccsand.com

Nobody would be foolish enough to knowingly purchase PIZZA using a third party call-center middleman.But every day, thousands of people do exactly that when they purchase flowers for delivery! That’s because a NEW TYPE of “florist” has appeared on the scene. And that means most flower buyers pay as much as 50% MORE than they should pay! Finding A Floral Supplier When a prospective flower buyer wants to buy flowers, his first stop is usually the internet. The author’s flower shop is in Charlotte, NC and the two most widely used search terms in this area are: “Charlotte flowers” and “Charlotte florist.” When the customer searches for either of these terms, he will get a list of results. Paid results (advertising) are usually shown first. Organic (website) results come after the advertisements. When a customer clicks on an advertisement, he is usually taken to a beautiful website owned by a call-center floral middleman offering beautiful flowers, hand-delivered by a LOCAL florist. And the products are sales TAX FREE. But what is not revealed is that the middle man does not actually have a flower shop in Charlotte! The Difference Between Toasters and Flowers With “durable” products like toasters and sweaters, the location of the seller isn’t terribly important. That’s because the products will be shipped from a warehousevia USPS, UPS or FedEx. But flower arrangements are *fragile* and cannot be shipped that way! Instead, they must be locally custom-hand-crafted and hand-delivered! And this means that if a customer orders from a middleman’s website, the order must – somehow – be passed from the middleman’s company to a REAL local florist in, for example, Charlotte, NC. This “order transfer” is done by one of the three florist-to-florist networks: FTD, Teleflora and Bloomnet (1-800-Flowers). Too Many FEES and COMMISSIONS Membership in these networks is not free, so the middleman always adds a “handling charge” – typically about $15 -- to the customer’s bill to help pay for hiscosts to access to the network. Please note that the $15 handling charge usually far exceedsany TAX FREE “savings!” But the “handling charge” only helps pay for *access* to the network. The florist-to-florist network also takes a 7% commission, and also credits a 20% selling commission back to the middleman! What this means is that, for a typical online floral purchase, just under HALF of the customer’s money vanishes in unnecessary FEES and COMMISSIONS. By comparison, when a customer buys a toaster from an independent business listing it on Amazon, only a few percent of the purchase price goes to fees and commissions. With this huge profit potential available to third party floral marketers, it is not surprising that these middlemen spend huge sums on advertising and sales promotion. A few years back, one even took an ad during the Super Bowl! Buy Direct For Better Value Clearly, the consumer will always get His Best Floral Value by placing his floral order DIRECT with a Real Florist n the City where the flowers will be delivered. Sometimes it may be difficult to tell whether a Flower Supplier is located “in town.”Here are three easy ways to separate a “real” florist from a floral middleman: 1. Look for the street address, city and state on the website. Often this will be found on a tab labeled “About Us” or “Contact Us.” If you cannot find an address at all, then this is almost certainly a middleman! 2. Look at the telephone number. If the only number on the website is a TOLL FREE “800” number, then the floral supplier is probably not local. 3. Look at the invoice (before you click the BUY NOW button!) for any “Handling” or “Service” charges. A REAL florist will never add these charges to your bill! For more information about Charlotte Flowers and Charlotte Florist, please visit the author’s Flower Hut website at http://flowerhut.com. BUT, if you do not want flowers delivered to Charlotte, Matthews, Mint Hill or Pineville, NC, please do NOT order from us! Take the time to find a REAL florist in the town where you need flowers delivered. You’ll be glad you did!

This custom home was beautifully designed by one of our clients in New Mexico and features many hand crafted eco-friendly furnishing and decor pieces from Koenig Collection. Each custom made piece smoothly blends into and accentuates this outstanding homes Tuscan interior design. You can have a home like this also! Contact us to day to receive a quote or an account for our website! Dallas Market is also this week! Stop by our booth to see our new catalog and finishes! Have a wonderful Monday! -Koenig Collection

Example of a transitional home office design in Toronto

Bedroom - contemporary master gray floor bedroom idea in Melbourne with white walls and no fireplace

Inspiration for a transitional exterior home remodel in Edmonton

Photography by www.stephanibuchmanphotography.com Interior Design by Christine DeCosta www.decorbychristine.com
Transitional single-wall dark wood floor wet bar photo in Toronto with an undermount sink, shaker cabinets, white cabinets and white countertops

Caesarstone Stone Grey
Large trendy master gray tile and porcelain tile porcelain tile and beige floor bathroom photo in Vancouver with flat-panel cabinets, medium tone wood cabinets, beige walls, an undermount sink, quartz countertops, a hinged shower door and gray countertops

Nick Smith
Transitional 3/4 white tile and subway tile corner shower photo in London with flat-panel cabinets and gray cabinets

Example of a trendy master concrete floor bathroom design in London with an undermount sink, flat-panel cabinets, gray walls and glass countertops

Example of a trendy dining room design in Dublin

photos by Rob Karosis Architecture by TMS Architects General Contractor Castelli Construction, Inc.. Landascape Conteactor Site Structures Landscape

Cottage chic bedroom photo in Other