The Fun Times Guide > Home Building/Remodeling > hardscape

Pierced Brick Walls: A Classic Screen Alternative

Pierced brick walls are a great alternative to traditional screens, such as lattice or some type of natural hedge. Homeowners also use them strictly as walls around the borders of their property rather than screens . Brick walls are definitely more durable and they lend permanence to your landscape. A well-planned landscape with complimentary hardscapes combine to make an attractive garden. Pierced brick provides privacy and air flow while providing only a hint of what's in your garden by … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Home & Garden, Outdoors / Landscaping Tagged With: , , , ,

Build An Outdoor Privacy Screen

A man's home is his castle. If the lack of privacy in the backyard of your "castle" makes you feel like you are living in a fishbowl, then it's time you made some plans to provide some aesthetically-pleasing privacy screening for your humble abode. The best way to do that is with an outdoor privacy screen structure of one type or another. I've got some free privacy screen plans and some cool ideas to help you in your decision-making process. Before you begin making plans for your … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Home & Garden, Outdoors / Landscaping Tagged With: , , ,

How To Improve The Look Of A Concrete Retaining Wall

It's time for another installment of 'Dumb Homebuilding Ideas". Are you ready? This time I'm featuring an eyesore...I meant to say...a bare concrete retaining wall.  What is so especially dumb about concrete retaining walls? Nothing at all...unless the builder installs it squarely at the forefront of your property and doesn't bother to apply a stacked stone facade or apply a nice, thick coat of stucco to snaz it up so it doesn't have an institutional look to it.   … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Home & Garden, Maintenance & Decor Tagged With: , , ,

3 Great Reasons To Have Concrete Landscape Curbing Installed

I've begun to notice that more and more homeowners are putting the finishing touch on their landscapes by having concrete landscape curbing professionally installed. As you might imagine, I never see it installed in new homes...only homes that have mature or somewhat mature landscapes. If you choose to have landscape curbing installed, it's a sign that you are fairly sure that you are happy with your landscaping end result and ready to end this chapter. Although...are you really ever sure that … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Home & Garden, Outdoors / Landscaping Tagged With: , ,

Home Garden Tours Are A Great Place To Gather Landscape Ideas

If you enjoy home garden tours, this is the post for you. We attended the Sandy Springs Society Seventh Annual Garden Tour at the beginning of this month that featured 5 extraordinary private home gardens. All proceeds were to benefit the Sandy Springs Society, a philanthropic organization, so it was a win-win for everyone involved. Homeowners got to show off the results of all of their hard work, patrons were allowed to gawk in amazement while gathering landscaping ideas and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Home & Garden, Outdoors / Landscaping Tagged With: , ,

Customize Your New Driveway By Incorporating Embedded River Pebbles

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 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Home & Garden, Home Styles & Trends Tagged With: , , ,

Handmade Bricks Offer Instant Character As Landscape Edging

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 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Home & Garden, Outdoors / Landscaping Tagged With: , , ,

Got Mock Rocks?

Here's a creative, as well as attractive, method to conceal a well cap. They're called mock rocks. In the landscape industry they're used to camouflage undesirable exposed well caps, pumps, septic tank access lids, pipes, meters and sewer caps. The mock rock, plants and mulch are a total aesthetic turnaround on this property from when the well was drilled a few months ago. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Home & Garden, Outdoors / Landscaping Tagged With: , , ,