Month: March 2012

Keep Pollen Where it Belongs – Outside

Tips for Battling the Yellow Stuff, While Still Being Able to Enjoy the Beauty of Spring

It’s that time of year again. While Spring may have sprung a little earlier than many expected – with temperatures reaching up into the 70’s and 80’s – with it comes an unwelcome guest, pollen. That fine yellow dusting that coats our cars, patio tables, and… well, EVERYTHING that exists outside our homes, is wreaking havoc on even the healthiest of souls. With record high pollen counts already listed in the history books for this year, we’re afraid it’s not going anywhere anytime soon – but there are a handful of fairly simple ways you can combat it and keep it where it belongs… outside.

1)      Fight the Urge to Let the Fresh Air In: It’s gorgeous. The birds are chirping, the flowers are blooming, and the weather is perfect with just a slight breeze in the air. The outdoors beckon and you long to let them in by opening a window here and there. Big mistake. Until the pollen counts have died down, you’ll want to crank on the A/C and peer out those closed windows for awhile. It’s a great excuse to clean them – from the inside.

lily anthers detail

2)      Make Sure to Mask Before You Mow: Bermuda lawns all over Atlanta are waking from their not-so-long winter slumber, and could likely benefit from a good scalping. Of course that means you’ll be kicking up lots of pollen as you make your way through the grass. Visit your local hardware or home improvement store and purchase multi-packs of sanding masks or particulate respirators – you’ll still be able to breathe, but won’t be taking in as much of the pollen. This is also a great trick for weeding and planting in those flower beds.

3)      Enter the De-pollination Chamber: Try your best to route your family – including the family dog – through the mud room, basement, or laundry room of the home. It’s important to have one designated space for everyone to remove their pollen laden shoes and towel off before entering the rest of the home. Give Fido a once over with a damp towel to remove any pollen that might be stuck to his fur and paws, too.

4)      Let the Sunshine in, While Keeping the Pollen Out: The addition of a sunroom allows you and your family to enjoy nature’s beauty, while avoiding nature’s nuisances – like mosquitoes, ants and – you guessed it – pollen. A sunroom can become a much-beloved extension of your current home – providing a four-season space where the outdoors plays an integral role. Outdoor living spaces and room additions are just two of our favorite projects at Highlight Homes – let us combine them for you for a one-of-a-kind room custom-designed to fit the distinctive needs and collective personality of your family.

5)      The End is (Almost) in Sight: The pollen won’t last forever, and when it’s gone – you may be ready to get outside and celebrate. Now could be the perfect time to let the Highlight Homes’ design/build team brave the ravages of pollen season, so you and your family can enjoy a brand new deck, outdoor kitchen, or pool with stone patio in just a matter of weeks. Think of all the grill-outs, pool parties, and neighborhood gatherings you could be hosting!

In the event that you would like to consult with the talented designers and builders at Highlight Homes about a new sunroom or outdoor living space project, we want you to know that our consultations are not only friendly and informative – but also hold no obligation on your part. We can discuss your project with you over the phone or face-to-face to help you determine the scope and budget you’ll need for the project. (FYI – Highlight Homes is proud to now accept credit cards for all of our home improvement projects!) Getting started is easy!  We invite you to call us at 678.873.9234, e-mail the team at info@highlighthomesga.com, or fill out our convenient online contact form.  To learn more about Highlight Homes, please visit us at www.highlighthomesga.com.

Image Credit:  LILY ANTHERS DETAIL © Alptraum | Dreamstime.com

Highlight Homes “Wines and Shines” at the 34th Annual Spring Atlanta Home Show

Don't miss the 34th Annual Spring Atlanta Home Show at the Cobb Galleria Centre from Friday, March 23 through Sunday, March 25!  Highlight Homes will be there, will you?
Don't miss the 34th Annual Spring Atlanta Home Show at the Cobb Galleria Centre from Friday, March 23 through Sunday, March 25! Highlight Homes will be there, will you?

Local Builder Constructs Pavilion Inside Cobb Galleria Centre for Charity Wine Tasting Event Portion of Georgia’s Largest Home Improvement Show

Award-winning Southern custom construction and home remodeling firm, Highlight Homes is proud and honored to take part in this year’s Spring Atlanta Home Show at the Cobb Galleria Centre on March 23 through 25. For 34 years, the Atlanta Home Show has appeared twice annually – presenting homeowners with a one-stop shopping experience and the opportunity to meet face-to-face with hundreds of companies offering the latest home remodeling products and services.

Rather than appear as an exhibitor, Highlight Homes wished to take on a more integral role in the 2012 Atlanta Home Show. When Highlight Homes’ Principal, Tony Pourhassan learned about the Wine & Design Experience and the charity it benefits, he didn’t hesitate to volunteer his company’s  skills, supplies, and time to this worthy cause. Housed inside a special pavilion constructed by Tony and the Highlight Homes’ team, a charity wine tasting event benefitting Hope Atlanta Programs of Traveler’s Aid will take place during the course of the Atlanta Home Show. For a $5 donation, guests will be able to sample a number of fine wines from many winegrowing regions around the world while helping an organization dedicated to the prevention and eradication of homelessness. The Wine & Design Experience can be found within the “Southern Style – Spotlight Savannah” special feature exhibit located at Booth # 147 and is sponsored by Buckhead Pizza Co.

“We’re very excited that Tony is doing this for us,” explains Show Director Michael Schoppenhorst. “He came highly recommended, and everything I’ve seen from him is outstanding. Hope Atlanta is such an important cause – particularly here in a city where the average age of a homeless person is eight-years-old. Tony’s pavilion and the visitors of the Wine & Design Experience will help us raise money while sharing a space that shows off some incredible design work over the course of the three-day show.”

In addition to over 350 companies represented – spotlighting everything from kitchen appliances and flooring for the interior of the home to landscaping, roofing and windows for the exterior of the home – the Atlanta Home Show 2012 will also feature exciting and educational sessions with HGTV’s Kitchen Cousins on the Home Show Stage, an appearance by HGTV’s Carter Oosterhouse, the See-Through House Exhibit, the Home for All Ages Exhibit, and much more. There will be new product launches and great home design ideas, as well.

Tickets to the nearly sold out show are just $10 for Adults. Children 12 & Under and Seniors 65+ (with ID) are free!  Military personnel and first responders receive a Buy One, Get One Free ticket offer with ID. Multi-day passes are $15. Tickets are available at the Show box office at the Cobb Galleria Centre.

34th Annual Atlanta Home Show Dates and Times are as follows:

Friday, March 23 from 10am-6pm
Saturday, March 24 from 10am-6pm
Sunday, March 25 from 12-6pm

Cobb Galleria Centre is located at Two Galleria Parkway, across from Cumberland Mall at the intersection of Cobb Parkway/US Hwy 21 and I-285. For more information about the Atlanta Spring Home Show, call 770.798.1997. To learn more about Highlight Homes, visit www.highlighthomesga.com. If you’d like to schedule a no-obligation consultation for home remodeling services, call Highlight Homes at 678.873.9234.

If You Can’t Stand the Heat, Renovate Your Kitchen

BEFORE
BEFORE

We’ve all been there. That heat that builds just behind your eyes from embarrassment, sending a rush of red through your cheeks. Guests are on the way, and suddenly you don’t feel as though your home is “up to snuff”.  No matter how thoroughly you clean it or how low you dim the lights, it’s still just an ugly, cramped, outdated kitchen. It’s no wonder that kitchen renovations lead the pack of most popular remodeling projects among homeowners. It is – after all – the heart of the home.

Kitchen remodels are also not bad investments when considering the future – a time when you might actually consider putting your home back on the market. In 2011, even with the housing market in a major slump across the nation, homeowners in the South who were selling homes where kitchen renovations had been completed saw a very nice recoup of the remodeling cost at the closing table. For minor kitchen renovations starting at a little over $21,000, homeowners saw an average of 72.1% of their cost recouped, whereas major kitchen renovation of more than $58,000 witnessed a 65.7% recoup*.

At Highlight Homes, we know from a personal standpoint that kitchen renovations are among the most popular projects we take on for our clients.  As a matter of fact, we are currently hard at work on one right now. Not only do we love helping families transform one of the most important rooms of their home, we’ve been recognized by publications like Remodel Atlanta Magazine and Atlanta Home Improvement Magazine for our work. Most recently, we were awarded a Gold OBIE Award from the Greater Atlanta Home Builder’s Association and The Atlanta Sales and Marketing Council for Best Kitchen Remodel under $75,000.

AFTER
AFTER

If you’ve been considering having your kitchen remodeled by a team of professionals, we hope you’ll consider the talented design-build team at Highlight Homes. Who knows?  YOUR KITCHEN could be the next one featured in the pages of an interior design magazine or be the focus of our next award-winning project!  To get started with a no-obligation consultation, call us today at 678-873-9234, e-mail us info@highlighthomesga.com, or fill out our quick and helpful online contact form.  To learn more about Highlight Homes, please visit us online at www.highlighthomesga.com and check out our online portfolio!

Source: Remodeling Magazine’s Cost vs. Value Report 2011-2012 – South Atlantic Region

Time to Plant… Ideas

In the weeks leading up to Spring, it's the ideal time to begin planting ideas for that big home remodel you've been dreaming about. Then sit back, relax, and watch them GROW!
In the weeks leading up to Spring, it's the ideal time to begin planting ideas for that big home remodel you've been dreaming about. Then sit back, relax, and watch them GROW!

The Experts at Highlight Homes Provide Tips and Suggestions for Preparing for that Big Spring Remodel

With Spring in our midst, it’s the ideal time to begin planting – ideas, that is.  You may know you want a change, but aren’t entirely sure where to begin. That’s where the experts at Highlight Homes come in. We recommend homeowners who are considering anything from a minor renovation to a major overhaul follow these simple steps to prepare for their first meeting with a renovation professional:

  1. All great renovations begin with an idea. Oftentimes, the best ideas come from the homeowners themselves. You’re tapped in to what your needs and wants are. A professional can help enhance your idea and shape solutions that you may not have realized were possible, but it all begins with you.
  2. Host a family meeting to discuss the space in question. Whether it is a basement that is woefully underused because you keep putting off having it finished, a backyard that has been neglected, a room that is outdated and cramped, or a room that is greatly needed but doesn’t exist yet – each family member likely has a great solution in mind. Write them all down – the answer may be found somewhere in between.  If your family members wish to make sketches of their ideas, that’s great, too.
  3. Once you’ve narrowed down what space you wish to tackle and how you would like to envision its future use, begin combing through coffee table books and magazines for images that really speak to you. Bookcases that frame a door could help add personality to a room, while aiding in storage issues at the same time. A tiki hut-themed outdoor kitchen may jump off the page at you as you envision countless backyard cookouts under the stars. A theater room with stadium seating could make your basement THE hangout of choice for your teenager and his/her friends. Cut out and/or copy any pictures that you really connect with and start a special idea scrapbook.
  4. Develop a budget for your renovation project. You may not know for sure how much the renovation of your dreams will cost until you begin to gather quotes from a number of professional renovation companies, but you DO have an idea of how much you can afford to pay. If you’re thinking about a major overhaul of an outdated home, this may require a visit to the loan officer at your bank. Some contractors and renovators offer their own financing or payment plans, and some even accept credit cards (pssssst… Highlight Homes recently instituted their own credit card payment program!)

Once you have all of those things in place, you’re ready to begin researching reputable renovation companies. Be sure that they are licensed, accredited, registered and insured. Check with professional groups like the Better Business Bureau to make sure there have been no complaints lodged against them. Most importantly, make certain you have a good rapport with the construction supervisor when you meet for your initial consultation since he will likely be your go-to person throughout the project. If you meet several companies and receive a range of quotes, try to avoid going with the lowest estimate just to save money. Reputation and rapport are every bit as important as cost savings – your home is one of the biggest investments you will ever make in your lifetime, and not really a place where you want to cut corners.

Highlight Homes welcomes the chance to take those ideas you’ve planted and help them bloom into something you never even dreamed was possible. We invite you to call or e-mail us to schedule an initial consultation so we can begin shaping up your design and estimate in order to get you on our busy Spring calendar before it fills up. The Highlight Homes design-build team can be reached by calling 678-873-9234, e-mailing info@highlighthomesga.com, or filling out our quick and helpful online contact form.  We look forward to hearing your ideas!

Highlight Homes Takes “Charge”

Image Credit: Yury Shirokov - Dreamstime
Image Credit: Yury Shirokov - Dreamstime

Atlanta Renovation Company Establishes Credit Card Payments and Installment Plans

As the nation’s economy struggles to right itself, small businesses everywhere are seeking out new solutions to help their customers continue to conduct “business as usual”. Highlight Homes is among those businesses.

“Our biggest obstacle of late is that several of our clients have been ready to roll forward on a renovation project, but have had difficulty securing a traditional loan through a bank due to more stringent lending  guidelines,” explains Highlight Homes’ Principal, Tony Pourhassan. “We hope our new credit card payment and installment plans will help alleviate that issue for many. It’s been a request we’ve received on multiple occasions and – like any good business owner – I want to meet the demand.”

Highlight Homes has always been customer-centered – designing beautiful renovations to fit each client’s distinctive tastes and unique needs, but they have been primarily a cash or check business to date. Through their new payment options, they can now design a payment system to fit their client’s budgetary needs – either through one credit card payment* or a series of payment installments.

“More and more homeowners are making the choice to stay put in their current homes and remodel, as opposed to putting their homes on the market and taking a loss in today’s volatile housing market,” says Pourhassan. “But families grow and change over time – whether we’re talking about the actual size of the family or a shift in their tastes. Some may have bought a home with small children in mind, but now they’re looking at teenagers who want more room to spread out. Others may have become empty nesters and they wish to reclaim their spaces. No matter the motivation, we welcome the chance to help them transform their home to fit their family’s current needs and wishes.”

Highlight Homes offers more than 25 years experience in custom building and home renovation. This Georgia-based company serves all of Metro Atlanta and surrounding areas including Buckhead, Sandy Springs, Roswell, Alpharetta, Newnan, Peachtree City, and beyond. The design-build firm specializes in kitchen and bath remodels, deck and patio installations, window and door replacement, room additions, basement finishing, and so much more. To schedule a no-obligation consultation with Tony and his team, call 678-873-9234, e-mail info@highlighthomesga.com, or fill out Highlight Homes’ convenient online contact form.

* Credit card transactions are subject to a nominal convenience charge of 2.25%. Tax will only be charged on the cost of materials, services are tax-free.

Image Credit:  CREDIT CARD  © Yury Shirokov | Dreamstime.com