The Dry Garden: the perfect fence

The iconic images of Los Angeles sold to the world typically involve palm trees, beaches and freeways. Those of us who live here, however, know that the true symbol of Southern California is probably a fence. Fences are everywhere. Chain link fences, wrought iron fences, barbed wire fences. Brick, cinderblock and river rock fences. There is so much redwood fencing that it’s a wonder there are any redwoods left.

Leaving aside how ironic it is that there should be outcry about a proposed fence for the home of the mayor of the city of fences, what is rarely considered in our highly framed world is what all this fencing does to plants. That impact is profound.

It’s so customary to fence backyards that pretty much only squirrels and beginner gardeners plant specimen trees on property lines, which in a fenceless world would be the most agreeable place to position them, leaving lovely puddles of light in the center of the yard. But unless it is an espaliered apple or some sort of biddable stone fruit, a tree next to a fence will soon be in trouble. Light and air will be restricted. If your neighbor doesn’t enjoy the shade or fallen leaves, the tree may soon have half a canopy. At the root zone, it might well get mulch and water on one side, and dog pee and weedkiller on the other.

Building a fence around a tree often involves driving post-holes and pouring concrete in a sensitive root zone. Planting a tree near a fence means a deformed habit as the tree struggles for light.
Fences-dangerous-to-trim-V And yet by fences is precisely where we plant most trees, except we call them hedges. Before creating your own line of crammed, regularly buzz-sawed trees, consider how much you love paying yard crews and the hearing the noise, what irrigation will do to the fence footing and whether or not you will have access to the other side for trimming. (The greenery at left looks pretty behind the swirling wrought iron, but it will be a pain — and a potential danger — to trim.)

Also consider building codes, which usually classify a hedge as the same as a fence. Hence, with the exception of corner properties, the height of the hedge next to a fence should probably not exceed the fence or be taller than 42 inches in a frontyard, 6 feet in the back.

A depressingly common sight in L.A. are abutting fences — say, chain link sandwiched against corrugated metal. If you don’t like a fence along your property, consider painting your side rather than layering the barriers. If it’s chain link, try black. A designer trick. Then plant something beautiful on it that requires little pruning and or supplemental irrigation, such as a bougainvillea. Before planting, test the idea with your neighbor. Bring a laptop over and shop together for flower colors.

Or why limit yourself to bougainvillea? It can be any vine you like. Just keep it relatively drought-tolerant because where you water often, you will get weeds. (If you garden around chain link, get a tetanus shot in the event of accidents.)

Tall, solid fences, be they redwood or cinderblock, can create microclimates, leaving cool zones on one side of the property and hot spots on another. So when deciding what to plant, consider that the thirstiest plants might appreciate partial shade. Succulents might do best in the sun trap. As you plant away from a solid fence, think about creating a thicket of native shrubs for birds or a small orchard for yourself.

A fenced yard is like a sheet of paper with sharply demarked edges. As with drawing on paper, the best way to design a garden is to start away from the edges. Use less lawn and more mixed beds.

Around the front of homes, where the legal height of the fence falls, its security value diminishes accordingly. Front fences are generally only good for keeping the dog in or marketers out, or simply to look folksy. Here, by all means, plant right next to a fence. Use it to support trailing roses. Echo some nice material or detail from your home. Put up a hitching post and see if a horse appears.

As charming as a white picket fence can be, it’s rare for a frontyard to look better with a fence than without it. The more frontyards flow in and out of one another, the more generous the impression, the more free-flowing the vista. As galling as this is for a water conservationist to admit, probably the most resistance to frontyard fences comes from people who don’t want to interrupt luxurious expanses of lawn. This is fine if the lawn is used, but if it’s pure ornament, you can find far less wasteful alternatives, including native grasses, succulents or prostrate cultivars of ceanothus or rosemary.

If it’s security you’re after, consider a front fence from paddle cactus. Thorns discourage trespassers. Once established, they need no irrigation. Nopales borders, common in the Southwest, produce ethereal yellow flowers. When they grow too high, you break off a paddle and make salad.

In fact, there’s an idea for the mayor’s house.

Emily Green

from latimesblogs.latimes.com

A cleanliness freak, are you?

Radha Prathi

So, you have done up your home with the choicest of artifacts. Next, it is important to ensure that they don’t gather dust and mar the beauty of your home. Before cleaning them, however, make sure you use the right detergent and procedure for different types of artifacts, suggests Radha Prathi S

The humblest of households have utility and show pieces made from a variety of substances. Cleaning them and maintaining them can be an onerous task because each material requires a different type of care.

If one wants to have a home that is spic and span, cleaning it up oneself could be therapeutic both to our mind and body. The satisfaction of extending personal care to the things in our homes makes them an extension of our personality and gives us a sense of belonging and pride in our homes.

While plastics, crystal and glassware can be rinsed in soapy water and dried with a soft cloth to clean them, the same technique may fail when one cleans up other articles made of different materials. Though a variety of cleaners are available off the shelf in the market, it will be enough if you use one dish wash powder or detergent of a good quality to see you through the process with a little care and a few household material.

It is mandatory to remember that all things at home, no matter whether you use them or not need cleaning at least once in a year even if they appear clean.

If you adhere to this process annually you will find that they will retain their novelty and remain in a good condition for a long time to come. Choose one material at a time and collect all the items that you have so that the cleaning becomes an easier process.

If you possess a lot of brass and copperware, wet them and rub them over vigorously with tamarind or apply the juice of lemon even the juice of stale lemon would do just the same. Leave them aside for fifteen minutes and scrub them clean with dish wash powder.

Allow the articles to drip and dry initially, then wipe it clean with a dry cloth both on the exterior and the interior and leave it preferably in the sunlight for a while.

This process will deodorise the brass and copperware and leave them glowing. Knobs, padlocks, door handles, and lamps made of brass can be cleaned in the same way after detaching them.

Wooden toys, furniture and other showpieces which are painted or varnished could be washed in soapy water to get rid of the dust and grime and wiped over with a soft cloth immediately to prevent it from soaking. Once it is completely dry, you could apply a coat of varnish to help it acquire the necessary sheen. Statues made from paper mache can also be cleaned in a similar way.

Large and small terracotta items, if unpainted, can be soaked in plain cold water for eight to ten hours to not only clean but also strengthen them. The dirt collected in the crevices can be teased out with a tooth brush. Painted terracotta pieces can be washed under running water. There is no need to dry these pieces for they have a tendency to absorb some moisture and then dry slowly at their own pace.

Iron or wrought iron can also be washed with dish wash powder without causing scratches. If the article happens to be painted make sure that the paint does not chip. If it does chip, use sand paper to flake off the remainder of the paint and paint it afresh in a colour of your choice. In case of door hinges you could wipe them with soapy water and keep them clean.

White metal, chrome plated or other metals tend to lose their polished look if exposed to water, so wipe them clean with a soft cotton cloth and get them polished from a local jeweller when they lose luster. Cups and trophies could also be treated in a similar way.
Silverware and images can be washed with soap and water initially, then allow them to drip and dry and take ‘vibhuthi’ (sacred ash) in a soft cloth, then polish it vigorously. It will look as good as new. Silver lamps and jewellery can be polished in a similar way.
Paintings and wall hangings can be wiped clean by spraying soapy water on them. All wall hangings will have a hardboard or cardboard finish at the back.

It will stand you in good stead to spray an insecticide on the rear side to protect it from insects and also to discourage lizards from resting behind pictures.

If textile is a part of your artifact (like in a wall hanging or festoons), or the clothing of dolls, wash them only if you think that they will not run colour.

Otherwise replace them with new ones for it will be no fun to have faded crumpled material. Soft toys made of synthetic fur of good quality can be soaked warm in soap water for an hour or two depending on how dirty the toy is. Then place the dolls in clean pillow covers, tie up the opening of the pillow cover and wash them in the washing machine and allow them to dry completely in the sun before combing them again.

When you follow the right procedure to clean your priced stuff, it will not only keep you busy and happy but will also indirectly educate you on evaluating the quality of the piece you own and make you take the right decision when you buy the next souvenir for either yourself or as a bequest.

from deccanherald.com

Laurinburg native unveils age-old art

by Travis Anderson

Harley Norris, owner of Harley’s Tuxedos, fell in love with the French culture while he was still in grammar school.

So it should be no surprise that the downtown Laurinburg merchant wanted a symbol adopted by a French king as his store’s logo.

The symbol, a wrought-iron fleur de lis, was unveiled during a reception Friday for Norris and the artist that created the work, Laurinburg native Ray Bowen. About 30 people attended the event at Main Street Brews.

“I was researching my family history a few years ago before opening my store, and found that we had a fleur de lis in our family crest,” Norris said. “It’s not just a symbol, but it also represents Christianity, and it’s nothing bad.”

The fleur de lis or “flower of the lily” is a stylized version of a flower in blossom. It represents an open flower with the upper center and drooping sides depicting the petals and the lower center is the stalk.

The symbol has become associated with monarchs, courageous warriors and the elite.

“It’s something you can display with pride,” said Norris who plans to place the logo near his cash register.

Norris approached Bowen about creating the piece during last year’s Scotland County Highland Games.

“I’ve known Harley(Norris) for about 30 years now, we went to school together,”Bowen said. “I was up here last October and Harley approached me with the idea for the fleur de lis and I knew instantly I wanted to do it. It’s a little different from what I’m used to doing, but it turned out great.”

Norris first got the idea when he was expanding his current shop on Main Street four years ago, he was looking for that something special to give the store “a kick.”

“I have watched Ray(Bowden) grow over the years from shy kid who never talked, to the outgoing person that he is today,” Norris said. “I couldn’t have picked a better person to make this beautiful piece for my store.”

Bowden, who graduated from Laurinburg High School in 1984, found that college wasn’t the right place for him, and found that his a fifth generation blacksmith, and has been following his passion since 1994.

“Anything involving metal I can do it,” said Bowden, who often wears a kilt. “I have made 10 foot-tall wrought iron gates, motorcycle parts, exhaust, anything with metal I can make it.”

“This craft of a blacksmith is very visceral, you get to work with your hands and it’s what I love to do,” Bowden said. “I can’t imagine not being able to do it.”

Bowden has since moved to Atlanta, GA where he operates his Invictus Forge company. He apprenticed at Reigneaux et Freres in St. Gaultier, France, and specializes in the classical French style.

from laurinburgexchange.com

In France’s Dordogne, a rental house offers ease of exploration
This is the road that leads to the village from the neighboring village of St-Pierre-de-Cole. The trees are planes, called platane in French

By Steven V. Roberts

The church bells ring pure and clear, every half-hour, day and night. They are the beating heart of the village of St. Jean de Cole, in the Dordogne region of southern France. But when Jim and Mary Oppel bought a house here, right near the church, they worried that the bells would keep their guests awake. Would the town fathers, they asked, consider silencing the bells between midnight and morning, in the interests of promoting tourism?

“Mais non!” came the swift reply.

“The older residents in the village attach enormous significance to having them ring 24 hours,” explains Jim. “That apparently confirms the continuity of life, so to have them not ring during the night would suggest death. Very French, this!”

Not to worry. My wife and I rented the Oppels’ house, Maison Rose, last August and quickly learned the rituals and routines of village life.

When you stay in hotels and move frequently, your days are full of getting lost and growing frazzled, waking up in strange beds and walking down strange streets. When you take a house for a week, ease replaces anxiety. You come to recognize the turnoffs and the traffic signs, the shop windows and the cafe waiters. And you welcome the sound of the bells.

Jim and Mary, both natives of Kentucky, moved to the Dordogne in 1994 and bought Maison Rose six years later. The original foundations date to the 11th or 12th century, about the time when a huge abbey was built across the square. The house was “modernized” 500 years later, and during the 20th century it served as the village school. After its last owner, a woman with a hundred cats, died in the early 1960s, it stayed vacant for decades.

So rebuilding was a huge job. The house lacked modern heating, wiring and plumbing. The ground floor had been used solely as a stockroom — for wine, food, even animals. Today, Maison Rose has every convenience (including a dishwasher with a cranky French personality), but what we really loved were the rich textures and the native materials, the colored tile and porous stone, the woven mats and weathered woods. A coffee table fashioned from an old door, bound in iron, graces the living room. Thick open beams march across the kitchen ceiling. Just out the back door, a pergola shades the garden, and a small fountain provides a soothing soundtrack for a simple supper of local bread, cheese and wine, shared at a wrought-iron table after a tiring day of touring.

St. Jean has often been called one of the most beautiful villages in France, and its tile roofs were once judged the finest in the country. There are special events — a May flower show in the square, summer concerts in the church — but what’s really special is the everyday look and feel of the place. The humpbacked bridge over the River Cole. Half-hidden lanes and half-timbered houses. Flowers climbing over walls and spilling over pots. An iron door knocker. A lace curtain. Sun on stone. Shadow on water. When you encounter outsiders strolling through the square, you’ll say to yourself (as we did): “We’re not tourists. We live here.”

Many visitors to Maison Rose like to see the countryside by bike (the house provides four of them) or canoe (easy to rent on the region’s many rivers). Since my wife, Cokie, and I had other priorities — lunch and culture, in that order — we took a series of day trips to surrounding towns.

French roads are well built and well marked, making driving easy. Grand houses, now abandoned, are scattered across the hillsides, tombstones marking the Dordogne’s feudal past. But the humble signs of modern life are even more beautiful: gray limestone barns, tawny hay bales, field after field of bright yellow sunflowers. If you do not like sunflowers, you are hopeless.

We spent a day with Christine Desdemaines-Hugon, one of the world’s leading experts on Paleolithic art, which flourished in the valley of the Vezere River about 14,000 years ago. The famous caves at Lascaux are closed to the public, but five other sites are open, and we started our tour at Cap Blanc, which is not a cave at all but an open-air shelter nestled into a cliff face.

Christine (who got us in before the official opening time) explained that Cro-Magnon people didn’t live in caves, which are too small and stuffy, and that the Cap Blanc site was actually a dwelling place. It is decorated with a stunning bas-relief frieze, 40 feet long, carved into the rock and featuring 14 animals, mainly bison and horses. The artists — working, of course, with the most primitive of tools — managed to produce realistic, overlapping images.

“How brilliant these Paleolithic artists were,” Christine writes in her book, “Stepping-Stones,” “inventing ways of representing perspective that were not explored again until the Renaissance, not even by the Greeks and Romans.” The small museum shows that artists were not the only ingenious Cro-Magnons. Hunters embedded sharp flint chips in their spear points, maximizing the damage inflicted on their targets.

to be continued

from washingtonpost.com

Diman students build fence

Diman Regional Technical Vocational High School Students are building a wrought-iron fence to replace an old, chain-link fence that separates the school’s parking lot from its athletic fields.

Students involved in all aspects of the production of the fence are seeing the project through from start to finish.

Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School senior Nic Tavares, left, and sophomore Russell Marum smooth out some rough edges on a section of the new athletic fields fence, which prominently displays the Diman Bengal.

from heraldnews.com

Rooming in a bed & breakfast inn in Olney very special, historical

By LARRY PHILLIPS

Joseph and Mary had to room in a manger, Ann Frank lived in an attic for years hiding from the Nazis, and I got to stay in a 300-year-old slaughterhouse in Olney, England, last week.

When looking for a room in Olney prior to my March 4 departure to England, my contact (and now friend) Tony Lamming had sent me about five places to check out. After looking at Web sites and sending some e-mails, I decided to book at the Colchester House, mainly because of its proximity to the starting line of the Pancake Day Race (about one block) and it had WiFi Internet access.

This is the scene looking down the garden path from the main house at Colchester House in Olney, England. The building at left is the old slaughterhouse that has been converted to three suites for boarders at the inn.

When I arrived, I was greeted at the front door by proprietor Judith Blenkinsop, a very pleasant lady with a mild manner. She showed me to my “suite,” which was in a building in the back garden. She gave me a key to the front street-side door of Colchester and a key to my suite.

Inside, there was a desk with chair to my immediate left with the bed to my right. A door immediately across the room was the entrance to the Lou (or bathroom). After walking around the bed, to the left was an alcove housing the kitchen area. It had a small refrigerator, a microwave oven, toaster, an electric kettle for boiling water and all manner of dishes and pots and pans.

It was quite cozy and immaculate.
While everything seemed fairly new, there was the olden-style head board and foot board on the bed, made of old wrought iron. The bathroom door was an old wooden plank door with a very old latch mechanism. From the inside, one had to lift a small lever that protruded from the latch, which in turn pushed the locking lever up, therefore opening the door.

One window above my work desk, looked back toward the main house, and the other looked south into the garden area where benches were stationed and numerous bird feeders were hanging, including feeders for hummingbirds.
When visiting with Judith’s husband, Peter, I asked him if the building I was staying in was an old barn or an out-building. He commenced to tell me it was a former slaughterhouse.

“The property was originally a butcher shop and behind here was the slaughterhouse and behind that were the pens where they kept the live beasts,” Peter said, adding they had sold off the back half of the property and built a covered car park behind the old slaughterhouse building.

“The main beam that runs through your suite with the large iron rods is where they would hang the beasts after they were slaughtered,” he added.
The rods were huge 1-inch bolts through the wooden beam with a large nut on one side and an eye-bolt end on the other side.
“Don’t be telling him that, Peter, he won’t be able to sleep good thinking about that,” Judith interrupted.

I assured them both it would not bother me, as I was an avid hunter and had butchered everything from squirrels and rabbits to deer and moose.
I asked Peter how old the property was.

“Next week, we’ll be celebrating its 300th birthday,” he said. “Our property deed lists that it was completed in March of 1711.”
Not as old as Joseph and Mary’s manger, but probably older than Ann Frank’s attic.

One couldn’t find a more delightful place to “room.”

from swdtimes.com

Tar ponds schooner has no significant historical value
Archaeologists have been examining the remnants of an old schooner in the Sydney tar ponds.

By MARY ELLEN MacINTYRE

So a derelict schooner beached on the shores of Muggah Creek never sailed the Caribbean.

No pirates ever trod its wooden decks, plotting the capture of treasure-laden chests while yo-ho-hoing and chugging from a bottle of rum.

It probably never even so much as carried a load of fish.

“It was designed mostly to be pulled as a barge and we suspect it was used to haul coal to the steel plant in the early part of the century,” said Laura de Boer, an archaeologist with Davis MacIntyre and Associates of Halifax.

While old photographs show it did have a mast at one time, the vessel never had an even remotely romantic purpose.

“So far, we determined it was probably built in the late 1800s or early 1900s, it was pure wooden construction with wrought iron and is simply called a schooner barge,” said de Boer. The vessel was probably abandoned and scuttled in the late 1930s.

Archeologists were at the site of the multimillion-dollar Sydney tar ponds cleanup last August to investigate and record what remains of the vessel. The archeology firm is retained by Sydney Tar Ponds Inc. to make sure nothing of importance is discarded, recycled or destroyed during the cleanup phase of the project.

“We determined (the schooner) has no significant historical value,” de Boer said.

The group worked at low tide and wore hazard suits and safety gear, as over 100 years of steel-making leaves behind a toxic brew of chemicals.

“Below the water line, the vessel is completely impregnated with coal tar,” de Boer said.

The firm has examined a number of bones pulled from the debris-filled tar ponds but so far they’ve all been from animals, she said.

“There are lots of abandoned shopping carts and tires in there.”

Sydney Tar Ponds Inc. workers process items larger than 20 centimetres at the on-site materials handling facility. Project director Donnie Burke said those items are cleaned and properly disposed of.

“The metal is cleaned and recycled and the concrete is chipped and put back into the ponds,” said Burke.

The massive cleanup project involves diverting creeks that used to run through the tar ponds while mixing the remaining material with concrete in order to contain an estimated 700,000 tonnes of contaminated material.

“We have now about 44 per cent of the total tar ponds completed in terms of solidification and stabilization,” Burke said.

“If it had been a ship of significant historical value, it would have been cleaned and restored . . . but at the end of the day, we’ll pull it up and treat it as any other debris in the ponds.

“It may be landfilled at an approved landfill site, or it could be chipped up and put back in the ponds.”

The archeologist will be at the site when the remaining debris is removed this spring.

“The stern end is under a part of the slag heap and the anchor chain is still on the vessel, but all the copper sheeting that would have been there was salvaged long ago,” de Boer said.

When asked if she would be surprised to see a treasure chest fall out, de Boer laughed.

“We hear there may be other ships in there, so you can always hope.”

from thechronicleherald.ca

Call girls, wives check into Marc Jacob’s ‘Hotel Vuitton’

by Gersende Rambourg and Robert MacPherson

Marc Jacobs spends a lot of time on the road, so what better theme for his fall-winter collection for Louis Vuitton on Wednesday than the goings-on inside a grand old hotel?

To the sound of elevators arriving, uniformed bellboys opened wrought-iron doors for models stepping out in tongue-and-cheek outfits inspired by, among other things, porn films from the 1940s.

“I spend a good part of my life in hotels and I like watching their secret lives, especially the ballet between call girls, mistresses and wives,” said Jacobs, 47, on the final day of Paris fashion week.

“It’s interesting to see what the women wear the day after,” added the native New Yorker who joined Louis Vuitton as creative director in 1997. “We know very well that fashion is role-playing. We can invent our own characters.”

Chambermaids were well represented, distinguished by dainty white collars on, for instance, a jacket and cropped pants with leather insets. More ladylike guests stepped out in demure coat-dresses with oversized buttons.

Then there was a transparent raincoat with the Louis Vuitton logo, worn with little crystal handcuffs. “It was sweet,” said Jacobs, cigarette in hand.

The last to check out of Hotel Vuitton was the British supermodel Kate Moss, looking leggy in a rubberised lace jacket with — often seen this season — clipped Mongolian fur sleeves.

Most looks emerged with a Louis Vuitton bag of one kind or another, as well as bellboy hats with the iconic “LV” lego that is such a money-spinner for the brand’s French corporate parent, LVMH Moet Hennessey Louis Vuitton.

from AFP

Woodway Farm is sold. 100 years ago From the Archives

March 6, 1986: The South End Planning Task Force unveiled a broad plan for the South End, one task force members said would revitalize the neighborhood without displacing thousands of working-class people. But members failed to reach a conclusion about the future of the Northeast Utilities site along the waterfront. The property was a possible site for luxury condominiums.

Among the recommendations were rezoning the Yale & Towne site for mixed use to encourage redevelopment of the complex as an industrial center and establishing an “industrial incubator,” a facility offering inexpensive rents where new light manufacturing firms could get started.

The members admitted some of their recommendations were “dreams.” that might never come to pass.

March 7, 1961: A 4-year-old girl was saved from drowning by a Boy Scout who reacted promptly when he saw only her arm visible above the water of a pond on Riverbank Road.

Richard Penfield, 12, said he was riding his bike along the road when he saw Terry West feeding some tame ducks near the pond.

“I went down the road for five minutes,” Richard said, “and when I came back I noticed her arm sticking out of the water. I jumped off my bicycle and ran into the water. It was over my waist.”

Terry did not appear to be breathing. Richard said he applied “about nine strokes of artificial respiration and the water just came pouring out.”

Richard sent two small children who had come along to get Mrs. West. Mrs. West thanked Richard and took her daughter home, where she made a full recovery.

March 6, 1911: A late dispatch from Washington announced that Stamford’s new federal building would be erected on property offered for the purpose by Walton Ferguson at the corner of Atlantic and a proposed new street. The property had frontage of 140 feet on Atlantic Street and 150 feet on the new street. The price for the property was $35,000.

It was believed that this site, which would be a post office, was chosen over another that was more centrally located because it was in the “delivery zone” from the railroad station.

March 7, 1911: Negotiations were consummated in New York whereby the model dairy known as Woodway Farm between Springdale and Talmadge Hill was exchanged for income property in New York. The new owner of Woodway was the Simmons Realty and Construction Company, which also owned Rock Rimmon Dairy in the north end of town. The Simmons group would continue to produce high grade milk at Woodway under the supervision of Wm. Wilson, a practical dairyman.

March 7, 1911: Mrs. Charles Merritt entered a complaint at police headquarters against Ralph W. Sedlymayer, a chauffeur. She charged that Sedlymayer drove a car past her while she was walking over Summer Street and so scattered muddy water over her dress it was ruined. She claimed that she held up her hand to warn Sedlymayer to slacken speed.

Sedlymayer called at the Merritt house and offered to pay the expense of cleaning the gown. His offer was declined and he was dismissed abruptly by Mr. Merritt.

from stamfordadvocate.com

Lap of luxury in $1.4M home
Spacious floor plan misses nothing

By Kathy McCormick

It’s like stepping back in time — albeit to a time of luxury and impressive architecture.

The estate community of Dressage in Silverado, developed by Qualico Communities, has hearkened back to the glamour days of the mid 1950s and ’60s.

And the exclusive builders, Jayman MasterBuilt and Broadview Homes, have responded with homes to match.

The Neuhaus is a 2,657-square-foot, two-storey house by Jayman MasterBuilt that has an additional 914 square feet developed on the lower level, along with a full outdoor backyard living space.

Extra-large lots — anywhere from 0.13 to 0.2 hectares — make the difference.

It allows builders to make use of the backyard space to put up to a triple-car garage on the homes, which can also be a more modest size if buyers so desire.

The Neuhaus, for instance, has provisions for a triple-car garage, as well as an entrance to the oversized double garage from the front and the back.

The backyard has a supersized, double-level deck, a swimming pool, a hot tub and room to roam.

It has a black wrought-iron fence around it, with stone pillars anchoring the corners.

From the street, the home has unique angles, flat roof lines and stacked, rectangular-shaped windows on several sides.

Inside, the double doors lead to a spacious foyer, where wide-plank ash hardwood carries throughout the main floor.

The stairs to the upper level are directly ahead, with iron spindles topped with dark-stained wooden rails.

The home office is to the right, accessed though double french doors with patterned glass.

The high ceilings throughout are highlighted with unique lights in every room — and the home office is no exception.

The glass chandelier has a definite modern twist.

To the left of the entrance and down two steps, the short hall leads to the half bath where, again, a unique chandelier is a focal point of the room.

A pocket door leads to the generous garage entrance, which has built-in shelves/lockers with cupboard doors stacked toward the ceiling.

Going forward from the foyer, the whole back of the home is open, with the kitchen and nook on the right and the great room on the left.

Large, boxed windows are stacked up and across almost the entire back of the home, visually expanding living space to the great outdoor area.

Double french doors between the great room and kitchen lead to the outside space.

The great room has a central fireplace that has rock to the ceiling.

The kitchen is made for entertaining with a gigantic rectangular island with a flush eating bar all along the outside edge.

The counter on the island is a spectacular dark brown, caramel and beige swirl of granite with metallic accents throughout.

Pendant lights highlight the area along the eating bar.

The other countertops are a cream-coloured Caesarstone, with cupboards in a dark-stained oak and a backsplash of narrow, rectangular tiles in a combination of cream, grey and brown.

These continue to the ceiling under the modern, stainless-steel hood fan.

Other appliances are built-in Jenn-Air, including a five-burner gas stove top, stacked warming drawer, oven and microwave, wine fridge, a large fridge and a flat-screen TV over top.

The adjoining nook is generous with the table large enough to seat 10 comfortably. Two skylights above the table add to the bright, warm atmosphere.

Upstairs, the large laundry room is at the top of the steps, and it has Caesarstone counters on two levels.

The master is next door, another unique chandelier that sets it off and again, banks of windows tall and wide to let in the light.

The generous room has a large-size bed and furniture, and there’s plenty of extra space.

The ensuite has a big oval air-jet tub built in with tiles and attached to the glass shower.

On the other side, a long vanity has room for two porcelain vessel sinks with cupboards to the ceiling in between.

A separate linen closet is in this area, as well as another in the hallway, so storage space is at the maximum.

The walk-in closet is large with hangers and shelves in a U-shape.

The two extra bedrooms and the main bathroom are down the hall to the right.

Downstairs, the wide-open area has a built-in space along one wall for the electronics, including an oversized flat-screen television.

The area has steps outside to access the backyard, so the door has been built in with larger windows beside it along the back wall.

A large wetbar with two wine fridges and a dishwasher fill the rest of the room.

Behind the bar is another good-sized bedroom and a full bathroom.

from calgaryherald.com