Buying a new home is an exciting time full of decisions, creativity and achievements, but what happens after you get the keys to your new place? The decisions don’t stop! If your new construction home doesn’t have an outdoor living space, creating one might be one of your top priorities after buying a new home.
Build an Outdoor Oasis to Complete Your New Home
Next to energy efficiency, no other market trend is changing the landscape of new-home design than outdoor living. There are three main reasons to invest your time and energy into creating your outdoor living space.
1. Outdoor improvements maximize living and entertaining space without dramatically impacting overall costs.
Building an additional room to your home can be costly and labor-intensive. However, adding a functional and comfortable outdoor living space is like an additional room in your home without pouring a foundation and moving walls. Creating a backyard garden, patio, and firepit can be done at a fraction of the cost it takes to build an additional room and can be updated as time goes on. Having an outdoor living space gives you and your guests more options and space for everyday living or entertaining.
2. Adding an outdoor living space can increase your home’s value.
According to a survey on Realtor.com, “51 percent of buyers said that outdoor living space was the most attractive quality in a home.” Outdoor living spaces even trump open floor plans and curb appeal! If a majority of potential home buyers are looking for an outdoor living space, and you have one, it could be the feature that sets you apart from the competition if the time comes when you want to sell.
3. It’s your own private oasis, and it’s right in your backyard.
Adding an outdoor living area can be rewarding both personally and financially. To have the extra room for entertaining inside or outside is a blessing in itself.
We have great building materials you can use to create your own outdoor living space after buying a new home.
At Mutual Materials, we understand that outdoor living is a priority for many homeowners and we make it easy for you to order and understand what it takes to personalize your home. There are countless ways to design an outdoor living space, and we enjoy brainstorming with you. The top four outdoor living projects that we see new homeowners start are patios, fire pits (or fireplaces), retaining walls, and walkways.
- Patios are functional for outdoor entertaining, and often serve as the main hub of your backyard. Whether you want a modern finish to your patio (Architectural Slab Patios), or a timeless brick patio (Clay Pavers), our pavers can enable you to design and construct your ideal project.
- Fire pits and fireplaces provide a warm and inviting focal point to your yard and a place to create memories with loved ones. One of the great aspects of fire pits is that the entire project can often be finished in a weekend if you have the materials ready to go. Consider whether you might prefer a square fire pit, a round fire pit, and/or an outdoor fireplace. Additionally, you can also build a built-in seating area around your fire pit / fireplace using complementary or contrasting materials.
- Retaining walls are often found in areas of backyards that need extra support to prevent the earth from moving downhill. Aside from functionality, many people add retaining walls to their backyards for décor purposes.It’s common to see flowers and other various plants popping up from behind a retaining wall. Retaining walls can be used to frame and balance the garden spaces they support. You might also use retaining walls to add architectural interest to your yard. If you have a large space that needs a retaining wall (CornerStone Projects), or you simply want to add one for décor purposes (ManorStone Projects), there are multiple stone options to choose from.
- Walkways provide direction and structure to the backyard. If your fire pit is located in a separate area from your patio, add a walkway to get from one to the other. Not only is it decorative, it can help prevent damage to your lawn. We offer several walkway pavers to choose from, ranging in styles from European (Dominion Pavers) to Modern (Holland Pavers) to Timeless (Clay Pavers). However you choose to build your path, Mutual Materials can guide the way!
Don’t hesitate to reach out to our knowledgeable customer service staff if you want to talk over the outdoor living space options you are considering. We are here to help and ready to answer your questions about how you can integrate our products into your designs.