Category Archives: Family Fun

Use Antiques to Add Visual Interest to Your Home

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Antiques tell a story, hold a bit of mystery to them and always add character to a space.  That’s why it can usually add to the beauty of your home to add a bit of decor to it from time’s past.  Whether large or small, commonplace or unusual, antiques can draw the eye and be a conversation starter.  Collecting items for your home can be very exciting and you may want to start incorporating things right away but your best bet is to do a little research first.  Find out what styles you prefer by visiting a few thrift shops, flea markets and antique stores.  A pattern may emerge and you might notice that you are drawn to a distinct time, styles originating from a certain country or pieces produced by a popular designer of the past. Once you know what you’re looking for, the process can begin!

 

When it is time to introduce older items into your home’s design, a gradual approach is always best. While you may be a big fan of certain pieces, you also want to be sure that they will look appropriate in your home once you’ve purchased them.  Sprinkle items throughout the space to create flow and allow their placement to look more natural.  Simple ideas can be an old-fashioned spice rack in the kitchen, a gilded mirror in the bathroom and matching antique lamps for your bedroom nightstands. Larger furniture pieces can be used in guest rooms in the form of a dresser or in the dining room with a buffet. 

 

While some of these suggestions are more functional in nature, it is still a good idea to add artistic pieces to your home. Miniature statues, delicate vases and beautiful artwork will only add charm to a living space.  When properly spaced, guests will be able to appreciate all the modern amenities in your home, while enjoying the old-world appeal of your decor. So, get out there and explore the antique world to find out which pieces best evoke your sense of style!

Be a Good Neighbor

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Whether you are new to the neighborhood or have lived there for several years, it is always a good idea to get to know your neighbors. Neighbors can become unexpected friends and provide a watchful eye for your home and family’s safety. In order to make friends, you must first be a good neighbor.

 

Tips on being a good neighbor:

  1. Get to know your neighbors. Go to the homes surrounding your house and introduce yourself. Plan to introduce yourself and/or family at a reasonable hour of the day. Get to know their names and write down their contact information if you ever need to reach them. 
  2. Keep your yard neat. Generally, the curb appeal of your home affects the curb appeal of your neighbors’ homes. Everyone wants to live in a well-kept neighborhood because it adds to the value of the houses. 
  3. Talk about community concerns. A lot of times, things that concern you about your community will be a concern to your neighbors as well. Talk about the things you are thinking and a reasonable course of action to take. 
  4. Start a neighborhood watch program. Your neighborhood’s safety is a concern to everyone. No one desires to have their homes or cars broken into! Start a voluntary neighborhood watch program. Two people can patrol the streets at night and report any suspicious activity to the police.
  5. Offer to watch their kids or pets. There is nothing like having a backup babysitter in case you are in a pickle. If you offer to watch their children, odds are they will return the favor. It is nice to have a trusted adult watch over your kids and animals while you are away from home. 
  6. Start a block party. This is a great way to get to know the people around your neighborhood. It is helpful to learn everyone’s professions and see if you can be of service to each other. 

 

Just like you, your neighbors want the best for the neighborhood. Make the first step in becoming a good neighbor. Plus, that neighbor you do not know yet may become a really great friend!

Organizing Cleaning Supplies

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Whether you have children or pets, they way we store potentially hazardous cleaning supplies can be essential to healthy living. Although cleaning may not be your favorite pastime, it is important to evaluate your supplies and how easily it can be accessed. Let us plan on how to keep your cleaning supplies organized, safe and ready to use. 

 

Where to start:

  • Reevaluate: Look at where you are currently storing your cleaning supplies. Be smart and safe, think about if it can be easily accessed by your children or pets. In the circumstance of having hazardous supplies, the higher the better. Find a high shelf to put your items on or place them in a cabinet with a lock. It is always better to be safe than sorry. 
  • Relocate: The place you choose to have your supplies in needs to be easily accessible to you while cleaning. Try not to create more of hassle for yourself by moving it to an extremely difficult location. Think about when you are cleaning and what area in your house would be a neutral location for all of your rooms.
  • Reorganize: Getting yourself to clean can be hard enough, but when your cabinet is unorganized it makes cleaning the cabinet a process in itself. Always try to keep your cabinet clean and ready to function. For your smaller items, purchase a carrier to move from room to room with your supplies. For your larger items, you may need a closet or space in the garage or basement. If you are a fan of DIY cleaning products, make sure to always label your spray bottles. There is nothing more stressful than not remembering what liquid is in a particular bottle. 
  • Reassess: Look at your current cleaning routine: Is it as efficient as it could be? Make a schedule and keep on track of your household duties. If you have the time, separate cleaning into two days to relieve some of the stress. Try to get other family members involved to help move along the process. Also, assign a weekly chore list for everyone to stick to so that when “cleaning day” comes, everyone will have less to do.
  • Reinvent: Cleaning does not necessarily need to be a boring task. Make it fun by playing music or watching television. 

 

We hope these tips help you with your cleaning process. Let us know how you make cleaning fun by leaving a comment below!


Bringing Autumn Home

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48429825 - autumn decoration accessories stored in a wooden compartment.

It’s challenging facing Autumn in Arizona if you’re originally from another part of the country. For many of us who originated in states with four seasons, this time of year always promised chillier weather, crisp evenings and the start of fall leaves turning.

But if you’re new to Arizona and used to digging out your sweaters and crockpots to make chili and your mom’s chicken soup, it may seem strange to face the fact that here in the middle of September we’re all still wearing shorts every day. But for those of us who have been here a while, we have developed some habits to make it feel at least a little bit like fall. Here are a few suggestions:

Showcase fall colors: Use table runners, placemats, or add some pillows and throws on your sofa to pull some of the colors of autumn into your home. Yes, you’ll still see bright greens outside, but you can add gold, rust and brown to your interiors.

Bring your autumn accessories out: Pick up a few small pumpkins, gourds, pine cones or whatever takes your fancy. If you want you can even go to a hobby shop for some branches with silk autumn leaves. Then have at it on coffee and side tables. Make your home look like you’ve been wandering outside and brought some gleanings in from the woods.

Fix some cocoa: OK, it may still be too warm for that chili recipe, but a mug of hot cocoa with a few marshmallows might be a nice preview of the treats you’ll enjoy in the cooler days to come. After all, our evenings really are starting to cool down. And eventually we will get to see some leaves turn and drop… in December!

Throw a Mind-Blowing Boy’s Birthday Party

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It’s pretty easy to put together a party for toddlers. Get some cake and ice cream, play a few games and have them run around the yard. Then have the parents come and get them while their sugar high is still going strong enough that they haven’t all crashed into each other yet and turned into a soggy mess of birthday goo.

But as children get older, particularly boys, it gets harder to keep them entertained. Taking them to a water-park or movie can get expensive, plus it’s easy to lose control if you have too many boys along. Here are a few ideas for a fun party that’s also easy on your budget.

Take a hike: Plan to explore one of the many safe hiking options available near Phoenix. Choose one with limited height exposure or distance. Plan a picnic lunch. If you’re in a National Park you may be able to take advantage of a park program with a ranger to explain some of the wildlife or other insights of interest to the age group. If it’s not snake or scorpion season, a night hike followed by ghost stories around a campfire might be a fun variation.

Have a Lego party: Create a series of Lego contests using Legos you provide. Include Lego giveaways as prizes. This only works if you son and his friends are Lego fans.

Create an all-night movie marathon: Choose a great series that they will all like like Star Wars or X-Men. Pick up a variety of popcorn and movie snacks. Plan on pizza at about 11 p.m. and sleeping bags out at midnight. Chances are they won’t make it all the way through but that’s OK. It’s the possibility and the permission that makes it exciting.

For some other great ideas and venues for birthday parties around Phoenix, Raising Arizona’s Kids has a list of opportunities. We’d love to hear about your ideas.

Make your Garage Something Special

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design center 7It’s easy to end up with a garage that’s a catch-all. When you first move in you may find that extra boxes and other items you don’t know what to do with end up in the garage. Then add in the kids sports equipment, yard supplies and tools, and then other odds and ends. Before you know it, the whole space is a mess.

If you find yourself cringing every time you open your garage door, think about choosing some of these garage options when you design your new Fulton Home. Just a few organizing elements could make a big difference in the look and functionality of your new garage. Let’s take a look at some of these choices.

Cabinetry: Garage cabinetry has a heavy-duty structure designed to hold up to power tools, yard equipment and other larger items. This is perfect storage for the home handyman, and it keeps everything under control. The countertop area is great for small assembly projects or organizing outdoor plantings.

Storage racks: Everything is so much more under control if it stays off the floor. With coordinated storage racks designed to hold yard tools and sports supplies you can easily put your hands on whatever you need whenever you need it. And when you are finished you have just the place for it to go back. And when not in use everything stays in place, out of the way and clean until the next time.

A garage can be a messy catch-all or it can be a great resource for storing things that fit well in that space, well beyond a place to keep your cars. Take advantage of options such as these to make it into a functional addition to your new Fulton Home.

What Makes a Neighborhood Special?

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icscoccer12When you move into a new home, you choose it first because of budget, then location and layout. You may consider the reputation of the home builder. If you’re smart, you wander through other neighborhoods the builder created in the past to see how well the houses have held up over time.

You might want to see how close you are to grocery stores and restaurants and look up the quality of the school district if you have school-age children. It also pays to check out property taxes because those can vary from city to city.

But take the time also to walk through the neighborhood you’re considering. Check to see if there are any common areas. Will you have access to any parks or playgrounds in easy walking distance? How about places for kids’ sports like this soccer field? Does the community share a pool?

Remember that part of what makes a neighborhood a real community is the opportunity to meet other neighbors in common areas like these. And builders like Fulton Homes that include amenities like this are thinking about their home buyers’ lives long after the homes are sold and their profits are spent building other homes and other communities.

So when you buy a home, you’re not just buying what happens when you drive into your garage or walk in your front door. You’re also buying a community, the neighborhood your children will grow up playing in, the streets where they will ride their bikes, the sidewalks where you will push their strollers in the evenings. And the neighbors who will become your friends over the years as your new house becomes your home over the years.

New Neighbors, New Friends

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gossip-475029_1280 - CopyWhen you move into a new Fulton Homes community, chances are you won’t know any of your neighbors. But here’s the good news. You’re all new neighbors! You will have plenty of chances for casual encounters as other neighbors move in, you and your children meet at the playground and pool or walking through the community. But if you want to make sure you get to know your neighbors, here are a few suggestions to help.

Throw a welcome brunch: Saturday morning is a great time to invite people over for coffee and pastries. You don’t have to be fancy. Just pick up a variety of donuts and other breakfast treats at your favorite shop and cut up some fruit. You can hand-deliver invitations or just post an announcement on the side of the neighborhood mail box. Set it up as an open house so that people can come and go over the course of two or three hours.

Exchange contact information: When you meet your neighbors, take the time to exchange phone numbers and emails. You may even want to put together a roster of numbers and emails for everyone on your street. That way you can contact each other in case of an emergency.

Look for play date opportunities: If you see children the same age as your children in the neighborhood, look for chances to get them together. At first set up something casual such as going to the pool at the same time. Later you can plan home visits if the kids get to be friends.

A new community can feel strange at first, but with just a little bit of effort it will quickly start to feel like home.

Use Height to Add Splash to a Buffet

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food-680180_1280 - CopyYou may have noticed that when fancy restaurants host buffet brunches or dinners the food always looks splashy. One reason for that is that they display food at different heights. Take a look at this photo for one example.

The dish holders here allow food to be displayed at three different heights. This makes it easier to see the variety of food available, and makes the different types of food stand out. It also draws the eye in a number of directions.

Another thing height provides is more real estate in less space. You can display more food in a limited square footage, enabling a restaurant to add an extra table or two.

As a home entertainer you may not need to buy table holders that provide different heights for serving plates and bowls for a buffet, but you can create the same effect and add to your buffet real estate. Just gather up a selection of bowls and boxes. Turn the bowls upside down and use them as bases to raise serving dishes above the table’s surface. Just make sure they are stable so the food won’t tumble when people help themselves.

You can also use boxes to get that raised effect. Just cover them with extra table linens. With just a few items from your cabinets you can create a variety of heights on your own buffet display. Add some flowers and you will have a look to rival even the nicest restaurants in town!

Water Feature Makes a Yard Special

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wBackyard-Sycamore-Warner-Groves-at-Morrison-Ranch-057 - CopyIf you want your backyard to feel unique, consider a water feature. Take a look at this one from the Sycamore model at Warner Groves at Morrison Ranch. This water feature, and this yard, have much more going for them than the standard approach. Let’s take a look at the elements that make this space special.

Dramatic waterfall trio: By positioning the three waterfall fountains along the back of the yard, this space has a unique focal point. Living in the desert, we are naturally drawn to water, and this arrangement provides a cooling look and sound as well as a refreshing place to sit and cool off.

Pavers used in hardscaping: Pavers are versatile and attractive and hold up extremely well in Arizona’s tough weather conditions. They are also a cost-effective alternative to tile and stone.

Raised planter beds: Raised beds allow plants to stand out in a landscape and make it easy to plan a drip irrigation system. They also allow you to make the most of your water use, by planting in the richer soil that is used in raised bed gardening. They also create a sense of intimacy in a backyard.

Comfortable outdoor furniture: Thanks to the new outdoor fabrics and fillers, you can have cushioned furniture outside year-round. This arrangement invites guests to relax for an evening of conversation and fun.

Start with a significant water feature and continue adding elements until you have a backyard like this one – a place to relax, entertain and enjoy.