In a previous post, we explored the benefits of using thermal mass inside a home to address the unique challenges of Bryan and College Station's hot and humid climate. This time, let's dive deeper into how specific design choices—like fireplaces, rock walls, and additional indoor elements—can enhance your home's efficiency and beauty throughout the
Living in Bryan and College Station's hot, humid climate brings unique design and construction challenges. One such challenge is the traditional use of thermal mass walls, which, while beautiful, don’t work as well in our local environment. However, with a few adjustments, we can still take advantage of this design approach. What is
The charm of Austin stone on a home is undeniable. Many neighborhoods in Bryan and College Station require a significant percentage of brick or other masonry products on home exteriors. While this look is aesthetically pleasing, it may not be the best choice for our climate, especially if you're interested in green building or
Five reasons why it is a good idea to hire a general contractor for remodeling your home.
College Station, TX, Stearns Design Build, a local residential remodeling company, has announced that they are now offering furniture grade cabinets to the general public. For some time, Stearns Design Build has built high-quality custom cabinet for their remodeling clients. In a desire to better control quality in cabinetry Stearns Design Build started building
As a general practice, we do not include yard work in our maintenance list but this is one that impacts the health and durability of your house. Tree branches rubbing or falling on the house can do a tree-mendous amount of damage. Vines growing on the house can also do damage. It is a good idea to do this chore early in February before spring starts to set in but once the worst of winter has passed.
Like many building products in existence, choosing the right siding for your home is never as easy as Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Each siding material comes with its own set of features and benefits, both from a sustainability point of view, price, climate appropriateness, and aesthetics. Sadly there is no category wide certification program to use as an overall guide. The first decision for choosing a siding material should come down to what is most suitable and allowable in your market or area of residence. Here is a list of commonly used siding for green-built homes.
I recently had the pleasure of meeting Naomi Sacks, who runs the Therapeutic Landscape Network. She is currently working on a PhD in Architecture here at TAMU. But her accomplishments exceed that of many who have long had such academic di...stinction. Her book, Therapeutic Landscapes: An Evidence-Based Approach to Designing Healing Gardens and Restorative Outdoor Spaces, is available on Amazon. Though Naomi's focus is on landscape design in institutional settings, I look forward to learning as much as I can about her approach and applying it to the residential setting.
To the extent that we seek “green” or sustainable solutions, it is not enough to consider the resources that we use in building, we must consider our relationship to all resources. We must design homes that put us into relationship with life’s resources so that we can become aware of our part of a process of dynamic balance.
It is easy to get caught up in all of the new building materials and technologies that are available and lose sight of the important fundamentals such as properly siting a house. There are few things that will make more difference in terms of energy use than this. The predominant paradigm in what some refer
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College Station Custom Home Builders
2151 Harvey Mitchell Pkwy S #219
College Station, TX 77840
Phone: 979-696-0524
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