A Few Photos from The Shops of Merchants Walk Groundbreaking

Here are just a few photos from the groundbreaking that took place yesterday off of Bob Wallace which is to be The Shops at Merchants Walk. Speakers at the event included Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle and South Region president of Whole Foods, Omar Gaye. Both gave wonderful speeches. Omar Gaye spoke about this being the third Whole Foods in Alabama and one that was demanded by the local population. Mayor Battle spoke of this being only a continuation of the vision of the Memorial Parkway revitalization.

Beginning of the Event in which everyone is just beginning to take their seats.

Shovels ready to be passed out.

Groundbreaking with Mayor Battle (center), and Omar Gaye (center left of Mayor in white shirt)

The Wrap Up 

Huntsville Metro Area Homes

Construction, Renovation, and More

Seems like everywhere you look around Huntsville there's construction and renovation. Over the weekend we took several shots of such activity at Twickenham Square.

Here you can see the new Publix. Beautiful on the inside, with parking across the street in a parking garage. Smaller than regular Publix, but still has a wide variety of products.

Just a few feet down the street you see The Artisan Apartments.

Huntsville made ConventionSouth's magazine's top 16 cities for their 2014 best Southern Hospitalitiy Cities.

Huntsville Metro Area Homes

Get in the Groove or Go with the Grain, a Quick Brief on Different Flooring

In a past post, it was colors. Today its about flooring. Everyone at one point or another has thought about updating, changing, or redoing their flooring. And...everyone has their niche of what they have fallen in love with. Today we're going to fly through several of them and hopefully give you something to think about when you choose your next flooring option.  With advances in technology some of these flooring types have actually blurred. Remember with your flooring, make it something you'll like, something that will match your home, and something you can take care of.

First up on the list, the omnipresent Hardwoods
Natural and durable, hardwoods come in a multitude of colors and types and blend into almost any home. Maple, Pine, Cherry, Ash, Hickory, and Oak just to name a few varieties. More reclaimed woods have been coming onto the market in recent years. They can be refinished many times over giving that sharp quality look.

Manufactured/Engineered woods
For all intents and purposes, these are still considered wood flooring. The top layers are wood backed by other mixed construction layers. These are usually glued or snapped into place. Some have made the snapping process so easy that you can do it yourself.  Do it yourself wood floors, who would have thought of that years ago.  Still though better to let the professional do it in case any mishaps occur. This flooring can be finished once or twice at most, but not recommended if you don't know the surface wood layer's depth.

Bamboo
This has been increasing in popularity and even be seen here in the Tennessee Valley already. Not a hardwood, but it is more accurately in the same classification as grass. These planks are glued together are are durable. Also the setting of the grain will each result in a different look.

Laminate
Low maintenance, the plastic coated photograph of wood layered on plywood or fiber backing can be a low cost alternative to hardwoods that can still show off a nice clean look with a great sheen.

Linoleum
Usually coming as sheets for easy glue down with materials that include linseed oil and cork, linoleum is often seen in wet areas. Can have a protective coating for stain resistance. Due to the lowering costs of other types of flooring, we have seen a decline in linoleum areas in homes we have shown.

Ceramic Tile
Ceramic tile, the do it all substance which can blend in easily from wet areas to outdoor mosaics to terracotta rooftops. Made from shale and clay baked in a kiln for a certain time period. Although since it can come in style from simple blank tiles to complicated mosaic forms the cost of this varies greatly. A few varieties include glazed, quarried, porcelain, terracotta, and glossy.

Stone
That natural, earthen, and literally rock hard substance which can really give you that fantastic first impression when entering a home. Most popular include granite, limestone, marble, slate, travertine, and sandstone. Also makes an excellent finishing touch for wet areas.

Vinyl
Resilient. Durable. Low maintenance. Less expensive than other flooring, vinyl has come a long way from being the plain sheet glue down. Now it can be textured to mimic wood or stone. Most vinyl seen today will reside in wet areas.

Just quick info on each. For more information on costs, installation, and any other questions please feel free to contact your local flooring companies.

A few local companies include: James Carpets, Kemps Flooring, Carpet One, Flooring America, Haley's Flooring, One on One, and Rock Bottom Carpets. If you know of any more companies that people can contact be sure to leave a comment below for people to see.

Today's Tidbit: Always contact a professional for any type of floor work, repairs or upgrades. Also sometimes, your flooring may be just fine and just need a good cleaning or finishing with appropriate products. Talk to the professional floor experts and get their opinion, it never hurts to ask.

Huntsville Metro Area Homes

What's Huntsville planning and its vision?

More often than not we see stagnation in the local media where not much is discussed on future planning and a vision of what needs to be done to make sure the city and local surrounding areas are on the right course.

For a while now, we have been dissecting and processing information from two valuable sites from the city. One is an overall broad vision and one is user input thoughts on what to do or improve.  Each one is worth reading through and filtering out the information you have the most interest. Be careful as you can go on information overload in some places due to the large documents the city has put out. The sites are Big Picture Huntsville and Imagine Huntsville.

Information in Big Picture Huntsville is segmented and is pretty easy to keep reading along as it flows very well. As always though, these are visions and plans, always subject to change as we have seen in the past so don't take anything as concrete. Just suggestions on what could possibly be done and making the road map as the city moves along.

Huntsville Metro Area Homes