It is that time of year- time for the Parade of Homes! This year Landmark Fine Homes has 8 Homes featured in the Parade.

Now is the perfect time to buy a new home. Overall, living in the right home can help your family feel comfortable, safe, and happy while providing opportunities for personal growth and connections with the community. It can be a place where your family can thrive and create lasting memories together.

Please stop by one of our Parade Homes this weekend, find the perfect completed home, or talk to us about custom home building. While you are there, be sure and ask about our Parade of Homes Incentives!

Every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas we host our annual "Thanksmas Party" to  give our employees, trade partners and families we have built for the opportunity to give back to The Salvation Army of Cleveland County.  This organization is very dear to our hearts.  Santa always comes to make sure everyone has been good and we get the opportunity to have our pictures taken with the Big Man!

Our team also takes a day and Rings the Bell!  This is such a staple of the holiday season as much as the BC Clark jingle!  If you have never volunteerd, you are missing out!  It is such a great way to spread some holiday cheer.  When they say, every penny counts, it truly does! We had fun this year and tried to put a really LARGE check into the kettle.  Needless to say, it didn't work!  Click on the picture and you can check out the video we did!

Our focus on giving back and The Salvation Army is not limited to Christmas Time.  We had the opportunity to build The Judy McKown Children's Activity center that opened last year.  This beautiful building gives families a safe warm place to go to and be mentored by those in our community.

If  you are looking for somewhere to give- check out The Salvation Army!

Are you ready?

Winter is right around the corner as temperatures continue to drop!  Now is the time to take care of a few maintenance issues around your home to make sure you are ready!

• Be sure and disconnect all outside hoses.  If you forget the outside water faucet can freeze and burst pipes inside the walls.
• If this is the first time to you have turned on your heater you may experience a burning smell.  This is completely normal.  There might also be some smoke that could set off your smoke detector.  The smoke will usually clear away quickly.  Opening a door or window will usually help.
• A good rule of thumb is to change out your batteries on your smoke alarm at the same time you change your clocks.  It is not too late!  Make sure those batteries are good.

What are other things you do around your house as the temperatures drop?

When the thermostat outside is over 90 degrees, most garden plants, lawns, flowers, and veggies can tend to shut down. What is a homeowner to do? Here are some tips we have found that help make our yards in Carrington Lakes, Valencia, The Ranches, and Belleau Wood look their best!

• Choose Plants Wisely:  Some plants are more heat tolerant than others!
• Water: Resist the urge to over water or soak your plants until they're soggy.  You should only give your lawn and garden a inch at a time.  If it is hot and dry water more often but do not increase the amount.
• Garden Pests- Spider mites are a problem in hot weather.  Make sure you keep the leaves of your plants wet to discourage them!
• Weeds- No matter how hot is gets, weeds are always a problem!  Sorry, you will need to keep weeding your flower beds and lawn.
• Containers- Remember to keep watering them!  You can always move them to shadier locations as the temperature rises.
• Mulch- Add more mulch if needed.  It is a great product to keep the soil cooler and helps to hold the moisture. Choose well composted mulches in hot weather rather than fresh manure or grass clippings.

After you have worked in the yard don't forget to take care of yourself!  Find a swimming pool and relax.  I can tell you our pools at Valencia and Carrington Lakes continue to be a popular place no matter how hot it gets!

Have you ever walked into someone’s home or business and wondered what were they thinking when they decorated their bookshelves?  A well-decorated shelf is like the perfect icing on the perfect cake.  These are some things we like to consider when decorating our bookshelves:

• Set your shelves at different heights so it doesn’t look too uniform.  Remove a shelf entirely if needed.
• Use several pieces of greenery, but be sure not to overuse the greenery (always try and place the greenery on different shelves.  If you have a bookshelf with corresponding sides then try not to use greenery on both shelves that are at the same level or on a shelf that is above or below the shelf that has greenery already.
• Use family pictures in frames.  5X7 and 8X10 work the best.
• Use books.  I love using old looking leather-bound books the best.  I have found these at garage sales and library sales.  It is a good idea to not put them all on one shelf.  Place them in groups of 3-5 in all different varieties.  Stand them on their ends, lay them down etc.
• Use fabric if you can.  Choose one with a complimenting color to your décor and scrunch it up under some books or a picture.  This adds a perfect pop of color.
• Don’t be afraid to lay things on their sides.  You can do this with metal and wooden candle holders, decorative boxes or chests and baskets. This is what we did at one of our model homes in Carrington Lakes.
•  If you want a warm and cozy feeling then use warm tones when choosing your décor.  If you want a clean look, then use the cool tones with straight edges.  Mixing the two can look nice too, but I would be careful when doing so.

There is very little to gain by waiting.  A 5% increase in the cost of your new home and a half-point increase in your mortgage rate will increase your monthly mortgage payment 11.5%.  This will sadly force some to buy less than their family had wanted.

Why wait for a lower rate?  Interest rates are at historic lows.  As a borrower it is important to remember that rates are unpredictable and influended by the global economy.  One major event can cause rates to increase overnight.

There is a lot more to lose than there is to gain!  Mortgage fees are increasing.  Construction costs are escalating every month.  There is that uncertainty and risk with interest rates that no one can predict with certainty.

The longer you wait to purchase a new home, the greater the chance you won't be able to finance what your family expected.

So the question is, "Why are you waiting to buy a new home?"

The best advice we can give when choosing your exterior home surfaces and colors is to step out of the “plain” box and into the “pizzazz” box!  Landmark encourages using various textures on the exterior of your home.  Our favorite products are brick, stone, cedar, siding, iron, copper and stucco.

The following homeowner’s did an excellent job of choosing their homes exterior colors and textures in the Norman and Edmond area.  Who wouldn’t want to live in one of these Landmark Fine Homes!

Our second piece of advice is to drive around and take pictures of what you like.  Look at magazines and websites.  You don’t have to create a masterpiece from scratch when homebuilding.  Pull together the ideas other’s have used and make it your own.  

Most of all, keep it fun when choosing your exterior products!  Don’t stress out.  Building your dream home should be one of the most exciting times in your life!  Landmark Fine Homes has an excellent design team and we love helping make your home have pizzazz!