Don't just go with a bland poured concrete driveway. Shake things up a bit! There are so many options for poured concrete these days that you would be doing yourself a disservice by not investigating the myriad of different looks you can get with readily available additives, materials and techniques. Think of your driveway as a huge, blank canvas just waiting for a little bit of an artistic touch to help transform your house into a home.

Here's a great idea that I picked up from the English cottage that I frequented last year...(r u ready) a sealed, washed river pebble-embedded poured concrete driveway. It turned out beautifully so have a look.

If you are in the midst of a sea of ideas trying to figure out what you really want as a unique border in your new or revamped landscape plan to set your yard apart from the crowd, how about incorporating a brick edging configured in a sailor curb course.

Even better...bring some color into the mix by using several different colors of brick for interest.

I invite you to see the results that you can achieve incorporating character-rich, authentic handmade brick in the photos I've taken on-site at the English cottage home that I've written about here on numerous occasions.

This is brick edging done right!

So...how much does it cost to drill a water well on your property?

That is the question I posed to Jerry Bonner, homeowner of an English cottage he built for he and his wife last year. The home is incredible and the landscaping they installed is on par with the home.

I made a return visit to the English cottage that I've featured in recent months and was greeted by homeowner and custom homebuilder Jerry Bonner, of Bonner Custom Homes. With Jerry's permission, I was allowed to tour his home and snap a few photos of the finished product. It was truly an honor!

One feature inside his house that caught my eye (among many) were the stained cork flooring tiles he had installed in the basement. It's no ordinary basement but I'll save that for upcoming posts.

Natural cork flooring tiles are fast becoming the hottest trend in today's homebuilding market for good reason.

Here's why...

The English cottage series of articles that I've posted over the past few months is my tribute to the many great features, premium materials used, architectural details and tremendous planning that Bonner Custom Homes put into play to bring all of the components of this beautiful home together.

Here are even more reasons why you need not miss out on some great ideas from a true modern English Tudor classic...

It's time to publish some more of my pictures of a beautiful, new English cottage built here in America. I'll mainly focus on the windows and doors for this post.

Extraordinary attention to English cottage architectural details and landscaping was the driving force behind The Bonner's new home. Some of these details are not always apparent. You need to look carefully and realize that you will not find homes of this caliber very often. The builder definitely kicked things up a notch for this fine homebuilding project!

My pictures probably don't do it justice but at least I tried. Judge for yourself.