Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

If you’ve got a big yard, a riding lawn mower is the only way to save time and energy when cutting it. You may already have one, but is it up to snuff on the latest technology? Today, you can get “zero-turn” residential riders that turn on a dime, so you don’t have to make wide sweeping arcs to get pointed in the other direction. They can pivot in a perfect circle and leave no shred of grass uncut.

The i1000 series from Cub Cadet features oddly shaped gears that allow its back wheels to spin independently. When you come to a fence or tree or dog lounging in the sun, this allows you to turn instantly. The front wheels steer as well, so they won’t wobble, and there’s no slippage on steep slopes. The i1000 mowers can also support attachments such as snow plows.

Prices start around $2600.

Cub Cadet

Looking for a way to perk up a wooden door? Decorative hardware can add a lot of personality.

This tulip hinge and hardware finial offers an idea of what can be created from iron or brass. It’s one of several designs available over at Kayne and Son Custom Hardware, a company that specializes in all sorts of high-end hardware. You can get realistic reproductions of period pieces or custom-designed hardware to match your fancy. Try designs that work on both hinges and latches, to create matching sets.

Kayne and Son

With summer and hot weather on its way, your grass might start looking a little yellow and dry. That means it’s time to get out the trusty lawn sprinkler. If you’re lucky enough to have an automated, underground system that has precisely placed nozzles capable of watering the whole yard, you probably don’t have much to worry about. For the rest of us, the hot weather means a new chore: heading outside multiple times in the evening to move the sprinkler from one part of the yard to the next. Too bad the sprinkler can’t move itself, right?

Well, if you get the Raintrain Traveling sprinkler, it actually can. That’s because this smart watering device comes with wheels.

The sprinkler travels the length of an attached 5/8th inch hose to water up to 13, 500 square feet of lawn. Some of the features include adjustable rotary spray arms, 2 speeds, and an auto shut-off ramp to stop sprinkler operation. It costs $80 online:

LR Nelson Raintrain Traveling Sprinkler

Sliding glass patio doors are so 20th Century. Why settle for the mundane when you can have a spectacular wall of movable glass? Telescoping patio doors are an impressive way to let more light and air in while maintaining easy accessibility to the backyard, patio, deck, etc. (Handy, too, when you need to move a baby grand piano in and out of the house…)

The doors pictured here are made by Weather Shield, a company that specializes in wood windows and doors. This door features four sliding center panels flanked by a fixed panel on each end. The panels are connected with coupling flanges that are hidden from view. When you open the doors, they “stack” to the side, so there’s no outward swing to take up space.

When you want to let the fresh air and breezes in, slide open the doors all the way (gives you a much wider exit than a typical sliding glass door), and when you just want a hint of a breeze, just open one panel a few inches.

http://www.weathershield.com