Area rugs make a perfect outdoor accent, like this one from Fab Habitat.

First of all you need to make sure your outdoor living space correlates to the style of your house, meaning do not use contemporary furnishings outside of a traditional Tudor home. Whether you chose furniture that is metal, wicker or wood is more an aesthetic decision; let your personal taste guide you on this. While outdoor furniture is meant to be kept outdoors, over time it may show signs of age such as the metal discoloring.

Just because the exterior of your home might be a neutral color does not mean that you need to choose this color palate for your outdoor furnishings. You can either look to colors that are in your garden and the flower beds or continue your interior color palate or some of it.

Fabrics are one way that color and pattern have been introduced into outdoor living spaces. Because of the water and humidity issues outdoors, always look for an outdoor fabric to cover your furniture. Today’s fabrics have become much softer to the touch while retaining their water repellant qualities. The variety of patterns that you have available for inside use has now entered the range of outdoor fabrics. Some fabric options actually work well whether they are used outside or inside.

Outdoor area rugs have exploded as a trend, with many options to choose from. In the past they were limited to utilitarian rubber matting and neutral sisal rugs. Today we have a wealth of colors, styles and patterns to choose from. And not all of them are always good choices such as the bright turquoise rug featuring a large white octopus with small dot suckers in turquoise. That is an area rug that you can easily tire of and may be best suited to a vacation home with a whimsical interior.

A geometric patterned area rug in a sunny lime and charcoal gray , from Fab Habitat.

The rug company Fab Habitat has outdoor rug selections that should please a variety of tastes. If your home has traditional interiors then the damask style Murano area rug, pictured above in a lime green and cream colorway, would be a good choice. Additionally if you live in a high rise with outdoor space, this area rug would give you the illusion of having greenery in the space. For those who like newer looks or have modern interiors, Fab Habitat’s Rheinserg (left) would be one to consider. Pictured is the geometric patterned area rug in a sunny lime and charcoal gray color palette.

If you have a limited budget for adding color and interest to your outdoor space, then a distinctive area rug would be your best choice.

The Antiquity Heights Apartments, nearing completion. (Christina Ritchie Rogers / DavidsonNews.net)

By CHRISTINA RITCHIE ROGERS
DavidsonNews.net

The much-anticipated Antiquity Heights Apartments, in the Antiquity neighborhood off N.C. 115 in Cornelius, should be ready for tenants by mid-June, according to Solstice Parters Manager Cathy Connors.

The apartments have been built as “workforce housing,” intended to provide an affordable option to middle-income individuals and families, with monthly rent ranging from $550 to $800 a month, depending on the size of the apartment. The units include:

• 10, 1-bedroom units, ranging in rent from $550 to $650 per month
• 64, 2-bedroom units, ranging in rent from $625 to $700 per month
• 20, 3-bedroom units, ranging in rent from $700 to $800 per month

“We were actually able to lower some of our prices from what we originally thought,” Ms. Connors said.

The units are not pet-friendly, unless requested and verified for reasonable accommodation for disabled. Planned indoor amenities include a community room, computer lab and exercise equipment area, and outdoor amenities include a picnic area with grills and a play area in the large lawn in front of the buildings.

Last week the apartment management company, GEM Management, received 24 applications, company representative Danny Ellis said. “There’s a tremendous amount of interest.”

“They’re beating down the doors, so that’s a good thing,” Ms. Connors said.

Over the next four weeks, crews will put finishing touches on the buildings, and will finish the landscaping and irrigation, she said. The certificates of occupancy are expected June 15.

Click here to view the developer’s site plan (PDF)

People seeking more information about Antiquity Heights can call GEM Management at 704-357-6000.

It’s tornado season.

I’ve spent most of my life in the north, where storm planning consisted of gathering provisions, gassing up the snow blower, and hunkering down until the worst was over. I always knew that we might be inconvenienced, but my family would be safe. As I sit in my Cornelius home with tornado watches in the air, I don’t have that sense of security. I’ve seen too many photos of concrete slabs wiped clean and homes made into match sticks.

Knowing that I needed more information, I got in touch with some experts, and what I learned made be feel better. So for this column, I want to share that information with you.

Tom Schmidlin (Kent State photo)

Professor Tom Schmidlin of Kent State University conducts studies on responses to tornadoes and the social aspects of tornadoes, such as the risk of death.  I asked him how concerned we should be with tornado season already underway. He started by putting the overall risk in perspective.

“The chance of a home being hit by a tornado is very small and the chance of EF-5 damage (the most deadly) at a home is very, very small,” he said.

A look at the data confirms what he says. Between 1991 and 2010, North Carolina averaged 31 tornadoes per year. In Davidson and Cornelius, the risk of earthquakes is higher than the risk of tornadoes, and both are much lower than the national average. See the chart for risk scores:

From www.americantowns.com

Even more comforting is the fact that most tornadoes are of low intensity. Using the scale developed by professor T. Theodore Fujita in 1971 and modified in 2007, the most deadly tornadoes – those ranked EF-3 through EF-5 – account for just 26 percent of the storms (and 67 percent of storm-related deaths). But, North Carolina is outside the core of high-risk states. On average, an EF-3 through EF-5 tornado will strike the state just once every two years. As Professor Schmidlin suggests, it may be many years before a tornado of any strength would strike anywhere close to our homes.

INTERIOR ROOM OR SEPARATE SHELTER?

I asked Professor Schmidlin if the conventional wisdom of sheltering in an interior room was still valid advice.

“The ideal answer is to build a safe room or a small underground tornado shelter, either under the slab or outdoors near the home,” he said. “If a person feels unsafe in their home, they could identify a sturdier building nearby that will be open and available as a shelter. This would not include retail stores, gas stations, or convenience stores, but some government buildings are probably stronger than a house.”

I asked Cornelius officials about opening government buildings as storm shelters, but they said they don’t want people on the roads in the face of a tornado, and would prefer they seek shelter at home. They did agree that a study of the options was necessary, however.

Ernst Kiesling (Texas Tech photo)

With well-constructed storm shelters heading the FEMA storm protection options, I contacted Ernst Kiesling, Professor of Civil Engineering at Texas Tech University and Executive Director of the National Storm Shelter Association. His response was clear: build a shelter.

“There are well established standards (ICC 500) and guidelines (FEMA 320 and 361) for storm shelters that offer a very high degree of protection from the most extreme windstorms,” Professor Kiesling said.  “The design criteria and the designs in these publications lead to the peace of mind of knowing that a safe place is available. Most other strategies leave uneasiness as to the severity of the storm and many, many ‘what if’ questions.”

A storm shelter (StormSolutions photo)

Professor Kiesling is right. A sturdy timber and metal shelter can be built in a home for about $2,500. A commercial shelter with plywood and Kevlar starts at about $6,000. There are photos of a DuPont Kevlar shelter standing in the wreckage of Joplin and it is clearly impressive protection.

But here’s another point to consider: even though tornadoes are scary, few people will die in one. Your odds of a tornado death are 1 in 60,000. Dying in an air crash has odds of 1 in 20,000. Falling down kills 1 in 246. Perhaps it’s better to spend $2,000 to fall-proof your home than on a storm shelter.

Many of us simply do not have the space to build a shelter either in  or under our home or in the back yard. We need a practical, cost-effective answer to the sheltering question.

Professor Schmidlin offered this advice:

“I think the best advice is still the standard—get into a small, interior room without windows, wear a helmet, cover up with blankets. Wear sturdy shoes, take work gloves, and keep your phone with you.”

When pressed, storm shelter expert Professor Kiesling gave similar advice.

“I would suggest taking refuge in the most central part of the lowest level of the house. Put as many walls between you and the outdoors as possible. A small room such as a closet, under a stairway, pantry or bathroom has more inherent stiffness and strength due to the higher concentration of structural members. Stay away from windows and the fall radius of chimneys, most of which are not reinforced. If heavy furniture is available, get under it.”

FEMA—The Federal Emergency Management Agency—concurs in this advice and adds the following tips for homeowners:

• Most injuries come from flying debris so protect the head.
• Do not open windows. The storm may take them out anyway, but keep the envelop closed as long as you can.
• Leave a mobile home or vehicle for better shelter. If none is available, lie flat in a depression or ditch, not under an overpass or bridge.
• Since half of all tornado injuries occur after the storm has passed, watch for nails and sharp debris, unstable structures, broken gas lines and exposed electrical lines.

There is much more information available on-line. If you want to build a shelter or just have better information to deal with the storm, see the following sources.

CDC Emergency Preparedness and Response—Tornado page at http://emergency.cdc.gov/disasters/tornadoes/prepared.asp

Texas Tech Wind Science and Engineering Research Center (WiSE) http://www.depts.ttu.edu/weweb/

FEMA Tornado Preparedness at http://www.ready.gov/tornadoes

Tornado Protection: Selecting Refuge Area in Buildings. FEMA P-431. Design details for engineers and architects for tornado protection, http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=1563

Build A Safe Room

• Taking Shelter from the Storm: Building a Safe Room Inside Your House. FEMA L-233. Brochure providing details about obtaining information about how to build a wind-safe room to withstand tornado, hurricane and other high winds.
• Taking Shelter from the Storm: Building a Safe Room Inside Your House. FEMA L-320. Manual with detailed information about how to build a wind-safe room to withstand tornado, hurricane and other high winds.

DuPont Storm Room with Kevlar at http://www.stormsolutions.us/stormrooms.html

Teal Michel photo

While one solution would be to avoid using glass top tables, they can work in a room with a lot of windows in one of the following ways: The first way is making sure that you have proportionally scaled patterned area rugs underfoot. A patterned area rug rather than a monochromatic rug will work because your eye is drawn to the pattern which eliminates any reflections from the glass. Do make sure that your area rug is directly under the glass table and any adjacent furniture seating area.

Another solution involves adding accessories on top of a glass surface such as a cocktail table or foyer console. By layering a variety of decorative accessories you will in effect minimize the amount of visible glass or reflective surface. Types of accessories that you could consider are large coffee table books, a few decorative elements such as small statues, figurines or ceramic vessels and potted house plants in decorative caches or pots.

The picture shows a home with a wealth of glass windows that run along the rear exterior. In that case, I did not include any glass tables because their grand piano also had a high glass sheen finish. Adding any another reflective surface would have detracted from the overall look of the room. Adding decorative panels to the windows worked to minimize the reflection coming from them while adding a softening element to the room.

When you decorate a room, keep in mind that your goal should be to limit the quantity of reflective surfaces whether they come from windows, glass table tops or other surfaces.

Teal Michel ASID, is a licensed full-service interior design firm specializing in residential interior design and renovation-remodeling design throughout the Carolinas. Teal has won awards from ASID for interior spaces and furniture design and from the Home Builder’s Association of Charlotte Excellence in Remodeling for remodel design and interior renovation. She has participated in HGTV’s “Designer’s Challenge” and her work has been featured in several books. www.tealmichelasid.com.

If you picked House A, you understand the importance of design to home security.

Criminals look for targets of opportunity. They go for the weakest and most vulnerable looking people. They target houses where they are least likely to be seen and can get in and out with little delay. Design makes the difference. Good design principles increase property values and discourage crime.

There’s a house behind these shrubs. Can you find the crook? (Chip Dawson photo)

CPTED—Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design—spells out the concepts that make your property more secure. It has four basic tenets:

• Natural Surveillance. Criminals do not want to be seen. If they can hide behind huge shrubbery, dark spots or in secluded doorways, they are in their element.
• Natural Access Control. Well-defined walkways and entries tell visitors where they belong and make trespassers obvious to others.
• Territorial Reinforcement. Signs of ownership such as landscaping and porches clearly stake out what is private.
• Maintenance. Signals to everyone that the property is cared for and that someone is likely looking out for the area.

Cornelius Police Sgt. George Brinzey refers to these ideas as target hardening. They make it difficult to commit a crime.

“If you can delay entry to a home for just 4 to 5 minutes,” he said, “a crime can be prevented in 80 percent of cases.” He went on to point out that Cornelius is a very safe town. The range of crime is similar to that in the rest of Mecklenburg County, but in much lower numbers.

It is important to understand that CPTED—and target hardening—are not responses to crime; They are prevention methods. Crime may never strike your home or that of your neighbors, but to increase your chances of remaining crime-free, here are some specific suggestions:

Remove the hiding places around your home.

Cut back high shrubbery to thigh-high. Make sure your home can be easily seen from the street. If you have an option, make sure entry doors are also visible from the street.

“Who’s at the door?” Knowing who’s knocking is a basic rule of crime prevention. (Chip Dawson photo)

Install good lighting.

Install post lighting along the driveway and lighting around the porch and entry doors. Put lights on a motion detector if you don’t want them burning all night.

Can visitors easily find your front door?

I’ve had situations where I’ve walked most of the way around a home I was visiting trying to find the entrance. If walkways, landscaping and lighting all direct visitors to your entry point, they will also flag anybody who might be snooping in other areas.

Consider a fence

Fences are great for defining the public-private boundaries. No need for barbed wire, chain link and sharp pickets. Fences direct people to where they are welcome on your property. A crook might jump a fence, but suspicious neighbors will be tipped off.

Clean, attractive fences say “this is private.” (Chip Dawson photo)

Fix the ‘broken window’

The maintenance element of CPTED has given rise to the “broken windows” concept. Basically, it says that if you let a window stay broken, leave trash or dog poop in a yard, neglect to fix a busted mailbox or leave kids toys strewn about, those are all precursors to crime. Fix the “broken window” and crooks will know that someone is paying attention.

Leave doors closed and locked

One of Sgt. Brinzey’s “hot buttons” is doors left open. Most property crimes, whether in homes or vehicles, are committed when someone opens an unlocked door. Unlocked doors cut that 4- to 5-minute delay in entry down to seconds! Once in, a crook can rummage for some time, looking for the best stuff with no one the wiser to his presence.

Even more vulnerable are the garages, full of goods, that can sit with the doors wide open all weekend. Sgt. Brinzey refers to many garages as “22 by 22 storage lockers.” The result, of course, is that a crook can walk by, check out the goods, grab what he wants and be gone. In the meantime, the vehicle that can no longer be parked in the garage sits on the street, another attractive target for a curious bad guy on foot, on a bike or in a car.

Request a security audit

To better secure your home, request a free security audit from the Cornelius Police Department. An officer will survey your home and property, make suggestions and give you a written report. In many cases, says Sgt. Brinzey, you can get a reduction in your property insurance premium by sending the report to your insurance company. To schedule an audit, call (704) 892-1363.

Report suspicious activity

Finally, call 9-1-1 any time you have concerns or suspicions about crime or the potential for criminal activity, Sgt. Brinzey said. Your call could make all the difference.

A September 2011 aerial photo by Cam Finley is marked by the developer with key landmarks and information.

By CHIP DAWSON
DavidsonNews.net

Barbara and Buddy Ferrell stand on the site of their future home. (Photo by Carrie Settle, Cunnane Group)

What courage! Setting off into the unknown to make a new life. Wilderness all about and the only shelter still to be built.

Meet Buddy and Barbara Ferrell, the first residents of Antiquity. In 2007, the Ferrells, who already lived in Mecklenburg County, read about Antiquity in the Huntersville Herald and decided to take a drive. They came down South Street from the north, crossed the covered bridge – which impressed them, they said – and decided to buy what was then a field with a “for sale” sign sitting in it. When they closed on their new Cunnane Group home on March 10, 2008, they beat the next resident by just seven days.

Today, four years after the Ferrells moved in and five years after the project was approved, the couple has been joined by 207 other households on the 130-acre site. Originally planned for 1,000 units and with Town of Cornelius approval for 702 combined single-family and multi-family properties, the current full build-out target is 413 for-purchase residential units plus 94 apartments — roughly half the original plan.

A single family street scape down Chapel Way. (Chip Dawson photo)

The apartments will be ready for occupancy in April and 20 single and multi-family homes are currently being built, meaning 63 percent of the residential properties are completed or in progress.

To keep up with changing residential trends, other options are being planned on the site. The commercial and business core of the site will have condominiums above first-floor shops, stores and offices. According to Cameron Finley, a partner in Antiquity developer Venture Properties, the bulk of the commercial properties will have three floors of living space, but they will not be linked to the businesses below as is the case with traditional live-work arrangements.

Cam Finley, standing in the nearly completed South Street neighborhood, will play a leading role in the future of Antiquity. (Chip Dawson photo)

Finley is working hard on the commercial development, but admits that plans have been strongly affected by the economy. The plan now is to build in phases, probably starting with a unit of shops anchored on each end by a restaurant of 8,000 to 10,000 square feet. In his view, the income and demographics of the area are “great,” he said. He’s also working on a grocery store, but is not yet ready to offer a name.

On the residential side, Finley also tossed out the idea for a senior independent living center, but that appears to be sometime in the future.

Home builders seem happy with Antiquity. One-third of the Town of Cornelius building permits issued in the past two years have gone to them. Agents in Antiquity models report lots of recent interest, but most buyers are waiting for homes they already own to sell. Never-the-less, homes keep building and new residents keep moving in.