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.

Konichiwa!
A copper rain chain connected to the downspout by the front porch really caught my eye on my latest visit to the English cottage-style home near Marietta, GA. I had never seen one before but, apparently, they are of Japanese origin and are known as kusari-doi in Japan. They've been around for hundreds of years and have been utilized for their architectural and functional qualities.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised to find yet another unique feature on this extraordinary home being built.

An exposed beam ceiling consisting of hand-hewn, solid white oak timbers gives a tremendous amount of character to the breakfast room that's under construction in this English cottage style home located in The Retreat at Kennesaw Mountain. It is yet another feature that is not seen in homebuilding these days. There were absolutely no nails used to put this ceiling together, with the exception of the end units being attached to the framing of the home itself. It is a mortise and tenon assembly. Isaac Tate was the carpenter that put this mortise and tenon masterpiece together.

Read on if  you would like to see more photos of the mortise and tenon joint exposed beam ceiling.

Landscape lighting has the ability to mold your mood if used properly throughout the landscape. Landscape lighting, to me, lets your guests know that they are welcome and leads them to your front door. The landscape lighting at The Retreat at Kennesaw Mountain goes above and beyond this ideal. The ENTIRE neighborhood is lit with landscape bullet floods secured amongst the arbor umbrella to set the mood from high above and the neighborhood entrance lighting is optimized for security and beauty. It's mood light that's just right. It was well planned and works to perfection.

Read on for a few helpful links for your landscape lighting project and lots more images of a professional installation at The Retreat at Kennesaw Mountain...

When I first saw the framing for the groin ceiling in the vestibule just off the foyer I was curious about the final result. The construction isn't quite finished on the groin vault ceiling but it is coming along nicely. A groin vault isn't an easy choice for a ceiling but I've come to expect the unexpected at this English cottage-style home at The Retreat.

There's Nothing New About Groin Vault Ceilings

"Vaulted construction, using barrel and groin vaults, and sometimes domes, to distribute the weight of the ceiling and roof, is an ancient form of building, once used extensively by the Romans."

The above is a quote from:
Office of the Curator website - U.S. Dept. of the Treasury

Reclaimed antique terra cotta roof tiles from Europe have been masterfully installed on this English cottage-style home. It's just one unique feature and/or material after another for this English cottage-style home. I stated in my introductory post that the materials being used to construct it would BLOW...YOU...AWAY! Well...I don't think it has disappointed.

General contractor, Rhett Bonner, and builder/developer of The Retreat, Jerry Bonner, closely guard their materials sources so I was unable to get a vendor name from which he obtained the antique reclaimed terra cotta roof tiles from but he did tell me how his supplier does it. Basically, his source buys reclaimed roof tiles from all over France (and probably most of Europe), ships them over in a container via ocean freight and voilà! They just happen to have gotten their hands on antique terracotta roof tiles. A rare find, indeed!

pssst...I'm not 100% certain but I think one of his sources may be Origines: Architectural Antiques in Paris.

Seamless copper gutters were the latest addition to this English cottage style home on a recent visit to The Retreat. Rhett Bonner, builder, gave the highlights of the components of the copper gutter system. Basically, they have installed half-round seamless copper gutters with hand-cast copper hangers, downspout bands and brackets; a very rare find in the gutter business. The entire copper gutter system should last the life of the home, with proper upkeep, and will turn a beautiful verdigris patina over time. The hand-cast copper brackets are attached to the open cornice overhangs in old world craftsmanship style. A little research tells me that the gutters themselves will set you back about $13 - $18 per lineal foot installed, not including the hardware to hang them.

I want to initially focus on the Isokern fireplaces and chimney systems of this English Cottage style home because that is what really caught my attention and was one of the features that immediately signaled that this was no "run of the mill" home. Isokern fireplaces and chimney systems are made of volcanic pumice mined near the Arctic Circle from the Hekla Volcano in Iceland. Isokern fireplaces are NOT kits like I'm used to seeing in almost every home we visit. I was intrigued by the feel of the material and the masonry methods involved in the installation process. The insulating properties are superior to practically anything available. Click on the links below to find out more about Isokern, where the raw materials come from and how they mine it. The herringbone firebrick design on these fireplaces really set them apart from the majority of firebrick that is seen in kits.

If you've ever wanted to get a front row seat to see the quality of craftsmanship that goes into building a truly unique English cottage-style home, then here's a great opportunity. This will be an ongoing blog series until completion of the home itself. I came across this home after the initial bare-bones construction phase but there's still a lot left to do. I'll start off the series by giving a little background on how I came about this extraordinary home.