Add Personality to Your Kitchen

Add an inspirational sign in lieu of the traditional backsplash. 

For many families, the kitchen is the most commonly used room in the entire house. It's where we spend the most time, besides our bedroom. Our kitchens have evolved over time in that they are no longer a closed off area from the rest of the house where it's only function is to make dinner.  The Kitchen has become an all-purpose, all-inclusive room. We begin the day there with a cup of coffee  catching up on daily news, make lunches, sort the mail, help our kids with homework, and with the rise of open concept floor plans, probably even eat dinner in the kitchen if space allows for a bar or small table.

Since the Kitchen is one of the rooms where we spend the most time, we think it should reflect your family's unique personality. We searched though Houzz.com and our collection of houses we built to find you some of the best ways to add personality to your kitchen.

* Take command of your command center: 

This command center is *perfect* for hiding everyday clutter behind closed cabinet doors.  

Create a charging station for your devices that you can stow away. 

* Accent with color. 

Add pops of your favorite color, like we did with red in our model home in Rolling Hills.

* Change it up: 

Renovating? Opt for a non-traditional island like this Kitchen's wood slab island.

* Coffee anyone?
 

Create a coffee bar with meaningful photos or special memories to enjoy as you sip.  

* Create a baker's corner: 

For the one who loves baking, this baker's nook in our model home at 12 Roger is perfect for you!

 * Make room for the bar cart:
 

This option doesn't require any renovation- just a corner for a bar cart!

 *Spice things up:

Green thumb? Create an area for herbs and spices you use regularly.

*Shed some accent light:

Add under-cabinet lighting like our model at 20 Maiden to accent your backsplash and highlight other features.

* Shut the barn door: 

Save space by switching out your standard pantry door with a sliding barn door. It also adds character!

What have you done in your home to add personality to your house? Tell us! 

Hodorowski Homes is the Capital Region’s premier home builder building single family homes in Schenectady, NY and its surrounding areas. Please visit www.hodorowskihomes.com for more information.

Warm Up By the Fireplace

This fireplace in a Churchill model has "Beach Walk" ledgestone and the Lexington mantel.

As the weather gets colder and colder, the appeal of curling up in front of the fireplace gets warmer and warmer. Hodorowski Homes has built countless houses over the years, each with it's own unique fireplace. We thought it would be fun to share with you some of the fireplaces we have completed in the past couple of years, and hopefully give you inspiration for your very own fireplace.

This Ashley home design has a custom cultured stone fireplace with "Shale" ledgestone & Manor House mantel.

This 2-story Great Room in the Country Manor design is cultured stone with a barn beam mantel.

 

This Country Manor home design selected City Collection 'Cream' tile with our Gettysburg mantel.

In this Saratoga B, the homeowner selected 'Tumbled Walnut Chocolate Brown' 4x4 travertine.

We love how this Abington homeowner stained their mantel to match their hardwood!

This beautiful corner fireplace has Philadelphia ledgestone and the Lexington mantel.

This McKinley design matched their island & fireplace with cultured stone. We love how this looks!

Carbon ledgestone was the selection for this gorgeous and rustic Broadway design.

This grand cultured stone fireplace sits in a Hoover model, with a floating barn beam mantel.

This Harrison home design opted to match their fireplace with their handrail & hardwood to tie them all together.

Which fireplace suits you the best? Tell us in the comments below!

Hodorowski Homes is the Capital Region’s premier home builder building single family homes in Schenectady, NY and its surrounding areas. Please visit www.hodorowskihomes.com for more information.

A Look Inside a Hodorowski Home- The Stanton Design

Allow us to introduce you to our newest Hodorowski homeowners. Muffie and Frank came to us looking to downsize from a two-story Colonial home to a ranch. The house they decided to build was our Stanton design; an open concept single story home in one of our communities here in the Capital Region. One of the many advantages of building with Hodorowski Homes is we allow our customers to change or tweak our design plans slightly to suit the needs of the individual homeowners. Muffie and Frank took advantage of this option and bumped out the house by a few feet, and added cathedral ceilings to the Family Room. They worked with new home consultant John Mesko and his team to create plan that suited them the best. Once the plans were finalized, they met with Maggie Fromm, Selections Coordinator at the Hodorowski Homes Design Center to select all the finishes for their home.  

"From the beginning, Muffie and Frank were an absolute pleasure to work with," says Maggie, "and on top of that, they have great taste in the Selections they chose for their home."

What sticks out the most about their home initially is the unique color they chose for the siding. They went with the Ridgeview line in the color "Countryside Green" or "L.L. Bean Green" as Muffie refers to it as. Moving on to the interiors, they added many upgrades to like a Kitchen island with a built in wine rack, ledgestone fireplace, Masonite interior doors and a granite vanity in the Master Bathroom.

Muffie and Frank were gracious enough to invite us into their home after they moved in, and gave us a tour of their beautiful space. Below are some photos of their very unique Stanton design, and if you would like to see more of Muffie and Frank's home, check then out on our Pinterest page!

View of the Foyer and Dining Room

The Family Room and Foyer from the view of the Kitchen

The Kitchen and Family Room from the view of the Dining Room

The Study

Master Suite

         

^ Master Bathroom

       

^ View of the Guest Bedroom and the Main Bathroom off the Guest.

The Kitchen

Muffie & Frank live with their 3 dogs Corky, Luke and Tommy.

Hodorowski Homes is the Capital Region’s premier home builder building single family homes in Schenectady, NY and its surrounding areas. Please visit www.hodorowskihomes.com for more information.

Mother’s Day Ideas to do at Home

Mother’s Day is this weekend and there a million and one ways that you can celebrate and honor your mother. Our favorite way of celebrating Mother’s Day is at home close to the family. Here are a few simple ideas that will show mom your love, without breaking the bank.

Make Mom breakfast: Nothing beats waking up to a freshly cooked breakfast with her favorite hot beverage already made, especially if she is the one always making it for everyone else. Here are some fun and easy breakfast ideas that you can make for mom- both sweet and savory!

Handmade gifts from the heart: A great way to say "I love you" to Mom is giving her a handmade gift, especially one with sentimental value. The Huffington Post has 10 adorable easy and inexpensive DIY gift ideas that Mom will be sure to love.

At home spa: Bring the spa into her home with fresh soft towels, relaxing lotion and a handmade body scrub like one of these. Moms are always busy putting other people's needs above their own, so this is a great way for her to pamper herself.

Help with spring cleaning: On her special day, offer to help Mom with some of the chores around her house. Picking up fallen branches, pulling weeds in her garden, cleaning the gutters and washing her windows are just a few ideas of how you can help out Mom.

Whatever you do for Mom this year, she is sure to love and appreciate it, especially if it is from the heart. 

Hodorowski Homes is the Capital Region’s premier home builder building single family homes in Schenectady, NY and its surrounding areas. Please visit www.hodorowskihomes.com for more information.

How to Style Your Fireplace At Home

Here in upstate New York where Hodorowski Homes is located, old man winter has certainly made his appearance and with temperatures lately in the single digits, he doesn’t appear to be leaving anytime soon. With the weather being as cold as it is here, there’s little motivation to go outside. One of the ways we like to beat the cold temperatures is to cozy up inside with a hot cup in front of the fireplace. Since our fireplaces get the most use and attention during the winter, it’s the best time of year to update and re-style the surround and hearth. Here are our top three DIY suggestions for updating and styling your fireplace from the simplest to the most in depth. 

Paint the red brick white: A lot of older construction houses were built with that all too familiar red brick fireplace. If your home has a brick fireplace, the easiest way to modernize your family room is to paint over the brick in white paint. A great example of transforming a room with a simple coat of paint on a brick fireplace is what this homeowner and blogger did. She gives step by step instructions, and great tips on types of paint and tools to use. We love how the paint transforms her living room! 

Photo credit: Project Home: Fireplace Makeover

Update your mantel: If your home has a white mantel, and you’re looking to do a mini makeover, a great way to add length and depth to your fireplace is extending it with wood planks and finishing it all with a darker gray paint. This blogger and homeowner really nailed it with this DIY fireplace makeover. Head over to her blog to get the step by step guide on how to do it!

Photo credit: Wood Plank Mantel Makeover

Add built-ins: The last suggestion for updating and styling your fireplace comes from one of our Hodorowski Homes custom homeowners. We are so happy to share with you Laura Tarlo’s newly updated shiplap style fireplace with custom built-ins which she features on her website. Of course we are a bit biased because we built her house, but really how could you not love what she did?  You have to head over to her blog to see this beautiful transformation.  Laura takes you through the process, which includes hiring a master carpenter, giving practical tips as well as sharing her Pinterest inspirational board for her vision. The final outcome turned out beautiful. For more interior design tips, check out Laura’s blog. 

Photo Credit: The Unique Nest

Photo Credit: The Unique Nest

Photo Credit: The Unique Nest

Hodorowski Homes is the Capital Region’s premier homebuilder building single family homes in Schenectady, NY and its surrounding areas.  Please visit www.hodorowskihomes.com for more information.