Bridging Generations: Connecting with Each Other

14579820_SMany people, particularly baby boomers, find themselves taking care of parents and children at the same time. When everyone shares a home, it can be difficult to get everyone to communicate and feel connected.

Even if grandchildren and grandparents get along well for visits, once everyone is living together 24/7 the situation may change. As the person in the middle, it may be up to you to build a bridge between the generations. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Plan family dinners: With crazy schedules this may be difficult, but start with one dinner together a week and build from there. Fix something that everyone enjoys and make it feel special with fresh flowers or candles. Don’t rely on chance for discussion topics. Make a plan for questions that would be fun for people of all ages. For example: what was your favorite birthday and why? If you have trouble coming up with ideas, pick up a packet or a book of fun questions or dinner table topics.

Play games: A challenging game of Monopoly or Clue can bridge generations. Or you may have your children teach grandpa to bowl on the Wii. By sharing fun experiences barriers will break down and everyone will be more comfortable. Shared fun memories are a great way to make friends.

Tell stories: These might be prompted by family heirlooms or just memories of past events that were exciting, funny or important. Remember to draw out stories from every generation. Grandparents may enjoy hearing about last year’s school play and your kids might like to know what it was like to live in a world without computers and the Internet.

Just a bit of effort can help every generation connect with every other, turning a house full of different people into a true family that enjoys being together.

Bridging Generations: Merging Styles

12310479_SSo your mom is moving in with you and your family. Your new Fulton home has a great extra master bedroom and a bathroom with special easy-access options for her. Everything, you think, is perfect.

Then she says, “Oh honey, I want you to use some of my furniture in your living and dining room. I know you will enjoy having such good things in your home.”

But your taste is very contemporary and her style is very like the photo shown here. You don’t want to hurt her feelings, but you’ve spent years getting just the right furniture in your style. Understanding that this is just the first of a number of bumps in the road as you all learn to live together, here are a few ways to make your home’s style work for all of you.

Go for Eclectic: Select a few of your mom’s favorite pieces and incorporate them into the living space of your home. You may be surprised to discover that a few more traditional pieces actually add character and charm.

Hand her a room: If she has a dining table and buffet that she is particularly proud of, move your more casual table into the kitchen eating area and set up the dining room with her pieces. Add a few pieces of modern art on the walls and a simple window covering, and you may find the room works well for you. Consider a daring paint color to make the space feel more adventurous.

Coordinate accessories: Does she have lamps that could work in your home? How about rugs or artwork? Consider grouping like accessories in one place, allowing them to provide a surprise punch of personality. For example, if she has numerous collector plates, fill a narrower wall at the end of a hall or the side of the entryway with plates set randomly from floor-to-ceiling about an inch apart.  She will see all her plates on display, and you have turned a plain wall into a point of interest in your home.

With a little imagination, you can merge both of your styles together, and who knows, you may find yourself happier building the differences into your home.

Bridging Generations: Together in One Home

8929512_SIn years past, it was common for three or more generations to share a home. For many years that idea seemed old fashioned, but recently it’s come back. Some aging parents can’t stay in their homes alone anymore, and many adult children need a landing pad after graduating from college, losing a job or experiencing a divorce. Today’s homes need to reflect these new demands.

Fulton Homes has many choices for multi-generational living. From simple shifts such as more bathrooms in a home to garages prepared to handle adult and teen vehicles, you want to find a home that works for you now and in the future as your family’s lives change. Here are some things to consider as you choose a home that will meet today’s and tomorrow’s needs:

Multiple-use rooms: Today’s bedroom can be tomorrow’s home office. A formal dining space could change into a TV room. Look for larger rooms in versatile arrangements. Bonus rooms can change roles as your family’s needs change.

Storage space: When people move in, they bring their stuff. Walk-in closets, built-in cabinetry in the house or garage, and plenty of shelf space can help absorb mementos and other favorite items.

Multiple living spaces: With a living room and a family room, different members of the family can entertain their guests at the same time.

Luxurious master suites: When dealing with three or more generations living in one home, it’s important for you to have an escape. Treat your master bedroom and bath as your private resource for relaxation and rejuvenation.

Today’s empty-nester could be tomorrow’s care-giver or helper for an un or under-employed child. Make sure your home is ready for the challenge!

Fall Tablescapes

7843574_SAre you ready to bring your dinner table into autumn? If you’ve started making stews and homemade baked beans again because you just can’t wait any longer, how about making the table itself feel like fall?

Start with a walk through your neighborhood. Even desert landscaping may have some dried branches around that have fallen off a nearby tree. If you don’t find anything, visit your local hobby store or florist to pick up some dried branches, pinecones or any other dried plants or branches.

Next, wander through your kitchen for pottery vases or bowls that mirror the fall colors. Any natural-color basket or wood container would also work well.

Fall flowers can be found in every grocery and warehouse market. Consider sunflowers in traditional yellow or bright dark orange coupled with Japanese lanterns and fall berries in dark reds and greens. Fill in with mums, which come in every color of fall. Add a few of those dried branches and you have a floral masterpiece to echo the season.

Because fall is harvest time, you can add almost any combination of fruit or vegetables and have the mix work. Look for pomegranates, bosc or other yellow or brown pears, apples, and dark red or purple grapes.

Do you have a fall table runner? That’s a good place to start. Now, set all of your discoveries on the table and move things around until it looks right. Those branches may work well in a tall vase or pitcher, or maybe just lay them along the center of the table. Pile fruit in a bowl – a couple of apples, a pear, an eggplant and a few fall leaves and you have created the vision of a harvest feast.

Above all, enjoy the process. Celebrate the changing of the seasons with complementary changes in your home, and you can welcome autumn‘s bounty along with the cooling temperatures. For more ideas, we invite you to visit Fulton Home’s Pinterest board: Seasonal décor.

Decorate your Entryway for Fall

19586378_SDo you find that less is more when decorating your front entryway for the fall holidays? If you’re satisfied with one pumpkin – uncarved –sitting on your front stoop then this blog is not for you.

If, on the other hand, you enjoy making the most of the autumn season both inside and outside your home, consider some of these fun options.

Wreaths: Start with a grapevine frame and weave in some silk leaf sprays from a hobby store. Or you could make life easy and grab a fall-leaf garland and wrap it around your grapevine. Voila, you have a gorgeous wreath, generally for less than$20. If you want, pick up a few yards of wide fall ribbon and add a bow. The wreath in the photo has the added fun of a few pumpkins and a pinecone or two.

5823969_SPumpkins: Yes of course you want one on your porch. You might as well go home if you don’t have at least one. But how about going for broke? The photo below shows three jack-o-lanterns hogging the stairway daring you to ignore their grinning faces.  A couple of gourds add an additional spark of fall gaudiness.

3750054_SMums: Your local warehouse store has huge mum plants ready to pop into bloom in every fall color. Notice how nice the orange and white mums look at this entrance. They send a message that the adults in this home like autumn too.

Finally, you can go all out and display all of these at the same time. Consider adding a scarecrow such as the one in this final photo, or find the autumn figure of your choice. Maybe you’d rather have a few bats or an owl or two. Florists, discount stores and hobby stores have a rich selection of choices to appeal to any taste.

Let your visitors know you’re up for autumn before they even walk in the door. Make your opinions of the joys of fall loud and clear for the neighbors to hear!

Bring Fall Colors into your Home

14387115_SFor those of us who live in the Phoenix area, September is greeted with relief that the hot weather will soon be gone. But if you’re originally from the Midwest or anywhere further North, you may find yourself missing the magic of leaves that turn golden, red and every shade of fall.

If you fit into that category, you can drive up to Sedona or Flagstaff in a few weeks, or you can pull some of those colors into your home right now.

You might start by shopping your closets. All of those russet tones that seemed too hot to bear in June and July will look more appetizing now. Do you have a throw or two, a pillow or tablecloth in fall tones? Showcase them in your home for the next few months.

Discount and department stores are showing off fall colors. Picking up a few placemats or some serving containers shaped like pumpkins add a feeling of fall. Incorporate just a few fall shapes into your year-round accessories and create a sudden autumn impression in your home.

16396871_SDon’t forget grocery stores. Pumpkins of all sizes, gourds, apples and pears, and mixed nuts in their shells can be used to create a wonderful autumn centerpiece on your dining table or buffet. If you’re a sewist, fabric stores carry a rich selection of fall-toned fabrics which just beg to be made into a runner.

Finally, Pinterest has become a favorite place to grab images of fall. How about printing some spectacular photos of fall scenery and hanging them through the house, temporarily replacing some less seasonal art? Warehouse and office supply stores will make larger prints at a very reasonable cost.

We may not see fall leaves in metropolitan Phoenix, or at least not until December, but you can use these ideas to bring fall into your home even as temperatures still hover around 100 degrees.

Organizing your New Home – Recruiting Others

12057397_SYou may have included your family when visiting your Fulton Home during construction, and they may have helped pack and unpack their own rooms, but now that you’ve moved into your new home, how about recruiting them to help you organize it?

You know that they contribute to the disorganization, so your spouse and children can be a terrific resource when figuring out how to create organizational systems that will last.

Start with one space in your home, such as the front or garage entryway. Do these spaces end up as catchalls for shoes, books, purses, keys and other things? If you chose the Fulton Drop Center built-in for your home, bring your family together to assign spaces, drawers and shelves to some of this clutter. You may even want to label some of it.

Could a drawer be assigned to each child to hold homework as well as notes to or from the teacher, and your spouse’s car keys? Would a bench with slots for shoes under it in the hallway help?

The kitchen is another space that begs for group organization. Setting up a breakfast center with various cereals, an area for making lunches with bags and containers, and placing a selection of afternoon snacks in a specific spot might help contain potential messes. Add in a few rules such as everyone bringing their dishes to the sink, rinsing them off and putting them in the dishwasher and you are on your way to a kitchen that keeps itself under control with only minor reminders from you.

Once you move on to coordinating homework, laundry and any other regular organizational challenges, you’re on your way to a more organized home. One final suggestion: provide regular prizes or little treats as a reward for maintaining the organizational system – for you as well as your family.

Organizing your New Home – A Place for Everything…

18055461_SSo, did you envision your new Fulton home as an organized paradise? With all the extra space, closets and storage, maybe you had hopes that you would finally be able to create order.

Well, if that hasn’t happened, don’t blame the house or yourself for that matter. Organizational experts use a selection of tools and tricks to get and stay organized. Here are a few of their ideas to help you reach your goals.

Use the right kind of storage: Is it easy to get things out when you need them and put them away when you’re done? For frequently-used items, make sure they’re one-step away. For example, pens and scissors can be in an open container on a desk or counter rather than in a drawer that has to be opened and closed. Laundry hampers should be open so dirty clothes can just be chucked in without bothering with a lid. The easier the system, the more likely it will work.

17461493_SDuplicate: Do you need scissors regularly in the kitchen and your office? Have two pair so they don’t have to travel back and forth, increasing the likelihood of their disappearance.

Use containers and dividers: Baskets and boxes will hold underwear or socks if you can’t get your children to fold things. Drawers with dividers are more likely to stay tidy. Peg boards and hooks separate different tools without hiding them.

Keep experimenting: If one system doesn’t work, try another and another until you discover what works best for you.

Getting organized is not a one-time effort. It’s a constant, steady plan to head in a better direction. You won’t reach organizational nirvana in a week, or possibly ever. Just work toward a better level of organization over time, and you may be surprised at the results.

Organizing your New Home – Unpacking Strategies

19123362_SSo now that you’ve moved into your new Fulton home, you can unpack easily because every box is labeled and you have an inventory of everything. On top of that, you have been planning where everything will go in your new home. All you have to do is open the boxes with the Swiss Army Knife you always carry in your pocket and put everything away – right?

If, instead, you only have about half the boxes labeled, you’re not sure what’s in most of them and they’re all in the wrong rooms because the movers didn’t pay attention to the few labels you did have, perhaps you could use a bit of unpacking advice. Here are some tips for creating order out of box-laden chaos.

Unpack the obvious: Did you label your kitchen boxes? Start putting things in order there. Grab kitchen boxes from all over the house and bring them along, unpacking as you go. The nice thing about unpacking the kitchen is all the cabinets and drawers just waiting for your stuff. Don’t worry about getting everything perfect – you’ll probably move a few things around until you’re settled.

Get rid of empty boxes A.S.A.P.: Nothing defeats the purpose of unpacking quite as much as having empty boxes and loose packing materials hanging around the house. Break them down and toss in recycling, give them to someone you know who will be moving soon, or put them on the back patio for the moment. Just get them out of your way.

Tackle one box at a time: You’ll be tempted to jump from box to box just to find out what’s in them, but the only thing worse than a lot of boxes around are a lot of open boxes around. Empty one box; get rid of it, and then move on to the next. When you have to stop, all the other boxes are still sealed.

Set unpacking priorities: Is it impossible to sleep with all those boxes in the bedroom? Start there. Are you tired of walking around those boxes by the garage door every time you leave the house? Move them or empty them. You can’t finish all the unpacking at once, so start with the most irritating areas.

Above all, realize your limitations. It would be nice to be completely unpacked over a weekend, but remember that it took you a lot longer than a couple of days to pack everything, so give yourself a break. Set realistic goals, and then when you reach them take the time to relax and enjoy the areas of your lovely new home that are unpacked and settled. After all, you always have tomorrow.

Helping the Teacher Teach your Child – Grammar

10611940_SFor most students, grammar in school is tedious and confusing. But good grammar has a significant impact on your child’s potential for success in the future. Bad grammar is like cursing: you don’t notice it when it’s not there, but it’s painfully obvious when it is.

While you don’t want to have to diagram a sentence with your child, you have an invaluable chance to make sure your child speaks properly. Don’t expect teachers to manage this on their own. You can make a big difference. If your child is having some problems in this area, here are some ideas to encourage good grammar.

Correct grammar mistakes immediately and without judgment. Bad grammar is a combination of ignorance and habit. Over time, your reminders will sink in, but it’s important to make your tone reminding rather than critical. It’s hard for a child, or anyone, to face corrective feedback, so keep your tone light. Also, don’t correct in front of friends or anyone other than immediate family. The goal is learning, not humiliation.

After a while, ask for the correct grammar, don’t give it. At first, it’s your job to provide the correct response, but over time your child will know the answer, so have them say it out loud. It will strengthen the lesson.

Explain why correct grammar is so important. Even the best ideas can get lost if the speaker distracts with bad grammar. It also damages credibility and is seen as evidence of lack of intelligence. It can also hold people back from opportunities they deserve. In school, good grammar can make the difference between good grades and mediocre ones.

Keep a grammar handbook handy. Strunk & White’s Elements of Style is a short classic that has virtually everything you need to check for proper grammar. It is available for less than $5.00 at any bookstore. Or you may want to browse the grammar books and help your child choose one that is appealing or understandable. You can also access grammar information online.

Written and spoken words can have power, or can compromise a person’s goals. Good grammar is more than a set of seemingly arbitrary rules; it provides a basic step in building strong communication skills.