• Hardwood flooring throughout
• Office with custom built-in wood shelving and paneling
• Gorgeous trim details throughout
• Granite countertops in kitchen with breakfast bar island
• Custom home design offers open living areas and built-in shelving around fireplace
• Oversized windows
• Custom finished paver patio with firepit and pergola on wooded homesite
• and MUCH MORE!

In May, we introduced three new home designs to the Meridian Collection in many Estridge new home neighborhoods. These 2-story homes all boast incredible architectural details and custom features, as they were designed by Greg Cradick, Estridge Custom Galleries Architect. 10’ ceilings throughout the main level, art and furniture niches, open designs, varied window sizing and distinctive window placement and much more combine with Estridge quality construction to create custom home designs with great investment value.

Distinctive architectural details make this home stand out from other new home construction. A sight line from the guest foyer through to the back door creates the illusion of even greater space, as does the close proximity of the two corner windows in the great room. Furniture niches, arches and distinctively sized windows provide design variation and smart placement of furniture. Great flexibility in this new home design also adds to the custom feel of this home - it provides opportunity for at least six bedrooms, as well as a large bonus room, master retreat area, and much more.

One of these new home designs, The Concord in Rock Bridge, is currently under construction and scheduled to be ready for move in September. As a home built for sale, this home offers custom design features such as building a main level guest suite as opposed to an office. As it is being constructed, the Concord available home in Zionsville offers:

3805 Hearthstone Drive, Zionsville 46077
Reserve at Rock Bridge in Zionsville
5 bedrooms, 4 baths

$414,500

• Finished lower level + large unfinished storage area
• 10’ Main level ceilings
• Elegant guest foyer with furniture niche
• Gorgeous gourmet kitchen with granite countertop, including kitchen island with overlooking sink, stainless steel appliances including double ovens
• Upper level loft
• Unfinished storage space on upper level
• Tray ceiling in master suite
• Jack and Jill Bath
• Much more!

View more photos of this home on MyEstridgeHome.com or visit the Rock Bridge model for a tour of this new Estridge home under construction in Zionsville.

Find Wood Wind golf tips, HOMExperience Home Décor Hint, Estridge Events, and much more in the Estridge Dot.Home June 2009 Newsletter. CLICK HERE to read.

June Wood Wind Golf Club Tip from the Pros: The driving range is the place for practice and swing thoughts.  When you play, let all your swing thoughts go and simply play golf. Golf is as much about not beating yourself as it is beating someone else or the course.

Read Full Newsletter Here.

Read May Newsletter.

Want to receive helpful hints from the Estridge family of companies in your inbox? CLICK HERE to sign up for the monthly newsletter.

HOMExperience by Estridge is excited to introduce


to Clay Terrace in Carmel.

Friday nights this summer, we will open its doors to Estridge homeowners, HOMExperience customers, Clay Terrace visitors and all guests to spotlight local artists and musicians. Guests will enjoy a FREE evening of browsing artwork, listening to live music, observing the featured artists while they work, and enjoying complimentary wine and cheese.

Friday Night ARTIST Spotlight at HOMExperience
Friday Evenings, 6pm to 8pm

Featured Artists:
June 19: Diane Lyon and John Reynolds
June 26: Pam Frazier and Jerry Points

  
 

Building on Matt Borushko’s 6 Tips for Buying a New Home Builder, we provided 4 additional tips that will help you confidently build your dream home.

1.)               Have Representation

2.)               Don’t Overbuild

3.)               Prioritize Your Choices

4.)               Choose Location Wisely

5.)               Financing

6.)               Have Proper Expectations

7.)              Understand how your current house fits or doesn’t fit your lifestyle.

8.)              Know your comfortable investment range, not only your pre-approval amount.

9.)              Identify components of a quality new home and new home neighborhood.

10.)         Feel comfortable.

Tip #7, understand how your current house fits or doesn’t fit your lifestyle, is provided in greater detail below.

With a new home, you have the unique opportunity to design it to truly fit your family’s lifestyle, as well as include the features and style you desire. Taking the time to think through what you like and don’t like in your current house is a crucial step in determining the right design for your new home.

What do you enjoy about your current house? Is there an outdoor living area that you will especially miss when you make your move? Does your family cozy up to a fireplace in the winter? Is there a person in your household who would benefit from a private bath? Are you looking for private space through a main level master suite?  These are features and spaces you will want to include in the design of your new home in Indianapolis.

Consider each room, the popular traffic flow, areas you wish you utilized more often and what keeps you from doing so. Are there features that would help to keep you organized that are missing, like a family foyer with storage cubes and coat hooks? If you were able to interact with your family while you were cooking, would you do more of it?

Take the time to do your research. Review floorplans online. Walk a variety of resale homes and new homes from Indianapolis builders to see how homeowners use the space in their home and consider what would be helpful in yours. Most likely, there are ways in which space is being utilized or designed that you haven’t seen, but would find helpful (for example, the PDA Pantry in many Estridge new home designs).

Create a list of your new home design priorities (not only the style of the home) and reference these as you are shopping online or visiting a builder and reviewing home designs. Browse Estridge new home designs at www.estridge.com or visit Estridge model homes for ideas.

Matt Borushko of Keller Williams in Indianapolis, recently posted “Tips for Buying a New Home from a Builder" on his Matt Sells Indy Blog. He provides 6 tips to ensure that building your new home is everything you dreamed, and not a nightmare.

Matt’s 6 tips for buying an Indianapolis new home are:

1. Have Representation
2. Don’t Overbuild
3. Prioritize Your Choices
4. Choose Location Wisely
5. Financing
6. Have Proper Expectations

Read Matt's full article here.

As a new home builder in Indianapolis for over 40 years, we see that the more prepared our new homeowners are, the more smoothly the process of choosing a new home design, personalizing the home, construction and closing on the home are. There are 4 additional hints that help new home buyers choose and build the home of their dreams.

1. Understand how your current house fits or doesn’t fit your lifestyle.
2. Know your comfortable investment range, not only your pre-approval amount.
3. Identify components of a quality new home and new home neighborhood.
4. Feel comfortable.

New Estridge Ranch Home in Westfield, Indiana

1343 Somerville

Westfield, IN 46074

Price: $325,000
www.tourfactory.com/515624

Estridge Community: Centennial in Westfield – decorated model located off of Ditch Road, north of 146^th Street.

Learn more about the Irvington Collection of ranch homes at Centennial

View the 940 Irvington Collection home design

Featured Estridge Home Highlights:

• 2 bedrooms, 2 baths
• Finished lower level
• Lots of light with vaulted ceilings and oversized windows
• Gorgeous kitchen – designer staggered cabinets, black appliances, granite island
• Open great room features fireplace with custom crafted mantel
• Hardwood flooring throughout living space and master bedroom
• Luxurious master bath offers garden tub, ceramic tile and spacious walk-in closet
• Screened porch off breakfast nook
• Incredible neighborhood amenities: bark park, community garden, miles of walking trails, swimming pool, tennis and volleyball courts, sledding hill and much more!

View Photo Tour of this luxury new home

Learn more about Estridge

View all Indianapolis Real Estate by Estridge

• News from the Indianapolis Extreme Makeover project, led by Estridge
• New Estridge Home Designs
• Recipe from the Tuscan Romance Cooking Class at HOMExperience
• Summer Home Maintenance Hints
• Tips on How to Hang Artwork in your Home
• News from Wood Wind Golf Club
• Upcoming Estridge Events
• Much More!

View all Estridge New Homes for Sale on Estridge.com.

7847 Whiting Bay Drive
Brownsburg, IN 46112
$424,000
http://www.tourfactory.com/503305

Estridge Community: Reserve at Highland Green in Brownsburg – decorated model located off of SR267, 2 miles north of I-74.

Learn more about the Meridian Collection of ranch homes at Centennial

View the 760 Meridian Collection home design

Featured Estridge Home Highlights:

• Ranch Home with 10’ ceilings and open design
• 3 bedroom, 2.5 baths
• Lower level
• Gorgeous kitchen with granite countertops and stainless steel appliances
• Large breakfast bar island with kitchen sink overlooking hearth room
• Dual-sided fireplace
• Crown molding throughout living area
• 3-car side-load garage

View Photo Tour of this luxury new home

Learn more about Estridge

View all Indianapolis Real Estate by Estridge

We are proud to announce the introduction of three (3) new Meridian Collection home designs in Estridge neighborhoods, including one main level master home design. Enjoy unique architectural stylings and custom home design details throughout. Designed by Greg Cradick, Estridge Custom Galleries Senior Architect, these new luxury homes draw on our background as an Indiana custom home builder and feature open designs, elegance and floorplan flexibility.

To learn more about these new homes and view the full design and personalization opportunities, schedule an appointment with an Estridge New Home Consultant in Centennial at 146th Street, Lincolnshire, The Reserve at Rock Bridge, Manor at Anderson Hall or The Reserve at Highland Green.

Or visit Estridge.com to learn more about the NEW Meridian Collection homes.

The Tuscan Romance HOMExperience Cooking Class, Thursday April 30, not only allowed attendees a wonderful evening with delicious, rich food and wine, but also a variety of simple, colorful recipes that can easily be made at home. Chef Michelle Plummer provided instruction for all attendees and then put everyone to work created a meal of:

• Red Pepper Bruchetta with Feta Cheese
• Grilled Fontina Portabella Mushrooms
• Grilled Mini Antipasto Appetizers
• White Tie and Tails
• Sausage, Pepper and Tomato Risotto
• Tiramisu

View featured recipe: Sausage, Pepper & Tomato Risotto


View Photo Album on Facebook

Enjoy quarterly cooking classes at HOMExperience. Visit www.theHOMExperience.com for a cooking class schedule.

View photo galleries and recipes of past HOMExperience Cooking Classes.

>> Baklava Recipe and Mediterranean Cooking Class Photos
>> Lobster Corn Dogs Recipe and Simple Sensations Cooking Class Photos

>> Guest Chef: Adobo Grill Cooking Class Photos

>> Seafood Spectacular Cooking Class Photos

>> Cedar Plan Salmon Recipe and Grilling Sensations Cooking Class Photos

Featured Recipe: Sausage, Pepper and Tomato Risotto Recipe
By Michelle Plummer 
 

1      each Italian sausage link -- skinned and broken into pieces

1/2   cup peppers -- assorted yellow and orange

1/4   cup red onion -- chopped

1       each garlic clove -- minced

4       each sun-dried tomato halves -- minced

2       tablespoons butter

2       tablespoons olive oil

1/2    cup Arborio rice

2       cups chicken broth -- heated

1/3    cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese -- grated

1/3    cup wine

Heat chicken broth.

In large sauté pan that is heated, place sausage and cook until no longer pink and is broken into small pieces. Remove from skillet. To be used later.

Melt butter in large sauté pan over medium heat. Add onions, garlic, peppers and tomatoes. Sauté for 5 minutes until golden and tender; add wine to deglaze skillet.

Add rice and stir well for 3-4 minutes. Add sausage. Add 1/2 cup broth; stirring to keep rice from sticking. Add 1/2 cup more broth until absorbed and continue until all liquid is used. Rice should be al dente and somewhat runny and soupy. If not, at this point add additional warm liquid.

When rice is cooked: add 2 tablespoons butter and Parmigiano-Reggiano. Season with salt and a liberal amount of black pepper. Stir again let liquid be absorbed. Serve as entree or side dish. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Serves 2-4 side dish size.

Enjoy!
 

Determining the proper placement for your artwork can be as difficult as finding the perfect pieces to hang. Ensure that your artwork compliments your home décor and furnishings, not only in style, but in arrangement as well.

Below is artful advice for hanging artwork from the HOMExperience Design Team.

Height & Placement

1. Hang artwork so that the center point of the picture or grouping is at about eye level for an average person.
2. A grouping of pictures should be thought of as one unit.  Test an arrangement of pictures by laying everything out, playing with combinations until you find one that works.
3. Popular art shelves are a great way to add interest and take up very little space. Artwork can be hung on the wall over the shelf as well as set onto the shelf with other decorative objects.
4. Artwork should be no wider than the piece of furniture over which it hangs
5. One large painting makes a statement and keeps things simple. It can also call attention to the focal point of the room which is often the fireplace.
6. Avoid hanging matching pictures in a perfect line whenever you'd like to emphasize a casual atmosphere. This works to create a dynamic diagonal line and stays away from a formal symmetrical look.

Size

1. Choose smaller pictures for narrow walls and larger pieces for big wall spaces.
2. Symmetry adds balance and formality to an arrangement and is generally pleasing and calming to the observer.
3. Do something unexpected by hanging pictures in an asymmetrical arrangement. This eye-catching grouping is a casual, fun look for informal settings.
4. Strong horizontal lines in artwork, or in the way artwork is framed or hung, tend to be calming and provide the illusion of width in a narrow room.
5. Strong vertical lines in a picture, in a frame, or in the arrangement on the wall add to the feeling of height in a room.
6. Strong diagonal lines, either within a picture itself or in a line of pictures arranged on the wall, add excitement to the composition.

Style

1. Illuminating artwork gives it importance within a room and adds drama.
2. Vibrant colors bring excitement to a room while neutral colors are calming.
3. Landscape art is one good way to visually open up a smaller space. The view of a distant horizon acts as a window in a small or windowless space.
4. Exercise your creativity when framing. A simple framing technique is when you tailor the frame to the size and shape of the object being framed. You can also mount some flat objects between two pieces of glass that allow the wall color to act as the mat.

Most Important

1. Always utilize picture hooks rated for the weight of the artwork or object, and attach heavy pictures to hooks that have been installed into wall studs or with specialized drywall hangers. Nothing ruins the effect of a carefully planned arrangement of art faster than if the pictures are pulling away from the wall.

HOMExperience February Home Décor Hint

- from the Estridge Interiors Team of Tom Korecki and Jill Mullen

Add a splash of color to your furnishings  

With the recent declaration of Mimosa as the trend color of the year, many wonder where it is appropriate to be trendy in home décor and furnishings.

Here are some simple things to keep in mind:

• Trendy items by definition won’t be popular forever, so don’t invest too much. While a yellow sofa might be “the” thing to have this year, what will you do with it next year? Instead, add lower cost yellow pillows and a throw to a relatively neutral sofa. Then next year if chartreuse is the big thing you’ll be able to inexpensively change out these accessories. Hang on to your yellow purchases, however, because it is true that “what goes around comes around.”
• Create a focal point in your room using the trend color. For your dining room table, incorporate a yellow centerpiece vase or candlesticks. In the kitchen, a large yellow bowl filled with seasonal fruit will catch the eye as will as a few well placed yellow accessories on the counter and above the cabinets. In your master bedroom, try a yellow duvet cover and shams for drama. Change out the towels in your bathroom and add a bright yellow everlasting floral arrangement.

View past HOMExperience home décor hints.

Learn about Estridge Interiors at HOMExperience.