Chicago Tribune
August 26th, 2006
By Allison E. Beatty

Your kitchen is on the cutting edge, the bathroom is a spa-like retreat and the flooring reflects your style. But what about the landscaping?

If your natural surroundings resemble paradise lost, it’s time to work from the ground up. By adding clusters of shade tress, curved perennial beds and a pond or waterfall, you can gracefully transform the look of your property. You will also stand out from the crowd in many new subdivisions.

“The return for your dollar is great,” said Drew Ferris, president of Northbrook-based Ferris Homes. “It softens the hard edges of architecture and really looks much more like a home when you’re walking up to the door.” With fall approaching, this is a good time to think about a landscaping plan and decide what to plant before winter sets in.

Cooler temperatures are ideal for many foundation plantings, perennials and bulbs. Also, many trees and shrubs fare better when planted during their dormant season. Landscaping packages available through most home builders vary based on the individual development and the price range. A standard landscaping package is designed to add some basic foundation tress and shrubs, with a few flower beds as accents.

High-end homes often come with more landscaping and the option of working with the builder or a local landscaper to enhance the plan. Jean LeBlanc did just that when buying a four-bedroom home at Liberty Grove in Libertyville. Those single-family homes, built by Ferris Homes, are priced from $640,000.

LeBlanc’s house backs up to a wetland and has a steep grade. To make the area outside of the walkout basement appealing and functional, she had large limestone slabs installed leading out into the yard. The slabs function as randomly placed steps, but also blend with the natural terrain. The steps are flanked by groups of plantings, including sedge, purple coneflowers and black-eyed Susans. “We wanted to echo with the whole sense of it being a prairie,” LeBlanc said.

It’s easy to add a personal touch. Concentrate on how you will use the yard. What parts of the house or yard do you want to highlight?

If the house has an elegant stone façade, strategically placed shrubs or flowerbeds can showcase those details. It the house has an old-fashioned front porch, then a large flowering tree can serve as the focal point. “Do they want just the front to look good, or are there areas with different uses to focus on?” asked Jeff Kegerris, a landscape architect with Airhart Construction. “Will there be play areas for kids and where should they go?”

When adding to a landscaping plan, it is wise to start with the foundation plantings – those large trees and shrubs that often are clustered in groups around the perimeter of the yard and near the house. This approach allows the larger plants to get started and helps set the tone for the yard. Other hard surfaces, such as a patio or deck, also should be planned well in advance. Before adding four or five flowerbeds, for example, make sure you leave room near the back of the house for a two-tier deck or a kidney-shaped patio.

These areas then become a natural spot for entertaining. In many instances, extra shrubs, flowers and lighting around a patio can give that area more distinction. Another way to enhance a home’s curb appeal is by focusing on the driveway, walkway and front area entrance, said Steve Welter, a landscape artist with Martin Design Partnership in Batavia. “If you widen that area with wider pavers and a curved sidewalk, you create a much more inviting entrance.”

When creating a plan for the yard, you should always take into account the size of the house and its architectural style. “The height of the home has a bearing on the type of materials you use,” said Terry Culver, a manager with Rocco Fiori & Sons, a landscaping company in Libertyville. When buying a large, two-story house, select a few trees that will grow to reach 10 to 20 feet or more. A Japanese maple, for example, produces interesting red and burgundy colored leaves and forms a graceful anchor for a yard. If space is limited, such as in a narrow side yard, look for smaller shrubs that grow up instead of out.

The plantings also should blend in with the lines of the house and its degree of formality. A home with an English Tudor style would have a more natural landscape, for example. A more formal house style might have sheered hedges in front instead of clumps of wild flowers. When trying to create an impact with landscaping, always keep your lifestyle in the forefront. A home’s landscaping should reflect the way you live and how you use the outdoors.

If you have young children, look for low-maintenance shrubs that will withstand stray basketballs and frisbees. If your lifestyle revolves around entertaining guests, then your landscaping plan might include a large bluestone patio with a sitting wall and separate dining and conversation areas. The patio could be connected to the yard by stone paths that meander through perennial gardens and past a pond.

Regardless of the setting, look for landscaping elements that will turn your home into a cozy retreat. Soothing sounds of water appeal to many buyers.

“There’s been a revolution in the pond and waterfall industry that has made it much easier to maintain,” said Steve Kooyenga, a senior landscape architect with Chalet Nursery in Wilmette. Ponds, waterfalls and fountains are available in an array of sizes, with many suited for small spaces.

“You really don’t need a lot of space,” Kooyenga said. “A 5-foot-by-5-foot area could be wide enough to have a waterfall that falls down over some gravel.” The cost to add a small built-in water feature typically is $5,000 to $10,000, although many nurseries sell portable fountains priced from $50 to $700.

Your yard can make a powerful statement about who you are and how you live. All it takes is a little creativity.

Daily Herald
July 30, 2005

BY DEBORAH DONOVAN Daily Herald Homes Writer

When you hear the words “maintenance-free living,” do you think of Sun City and other communities just for empty-nesters?

It’s time to think again, according to both buyers and developers. Young people, say under 30, are choosing the maintenance-free lifestyle, too.

Karin and Casey Cesnovar are newlyweds who decided Liberty Grove in Libertyville would be a good transition to the suburbs from Chicago apartments and condominiums.

“We’re used to the maintenance-free life,” said Casey Cesnovar.

The location is convenient to Karin Cesnovar’s job in human resources at Abbott Laboratories, and Casey Cesnovar’s territory as a salesman for TAP Pharmaceutical Products Inc.

“We want to start a family soon,” he said, “and we needed more space than we had in the city.

The townhouse has three bedrooms and an office.

“We love the fact that it was landscaped,” he said. “It’s beautiful. People come work on it once or twice a week, and they do a phenomenal job of keeping it green.”

These city folk weren’t ready for yardwork and snow shoveling, he said.

Andrew Ferris, president of Ferris Homes, said he had expected the buyers at Liberty Grove would be empty-nesters, but instead it’s been a demographic mix. Buyers range from people in their 20s to one woman who he thinks is 80.

Younger people like the space in the townhouses, especially if they are working at home, he said.

Not many couples with children are purchasing the townhouses, said Ferris, but the lifestyle - with all exterior maintenance handled by the home association for a fee - appeals to divorced parents.

“People realize ‘I don’t have to worry about my yard and there are other things I can do rather than shovel snow,’” Ferris said.

Maintenance fees generally cost about $200 a month and up.

The community also has single-family homes, said Ferris, and these have attracted some younger families. He thinks there might be a future for upscale family-style homes with maintenance provided.

“I think this is definitely something that would attract people in the middle to upper price range,” he said.

“We see a lot of people asking who they can get to do handyman services, little things like putting on a screen door and adding a light switch or a ceiling fan.”

Only three townhouses remain at Liberty Grove, where prices start at $379,000. The single-family homes are in the mid-$600,000 range.

The townhouses are 1,900 to 2,300 square feet and the single-family homes are 2,500 square feet and larger.

Chicago Tribune, 2004

In a former field turned home site, the answer might be quite a bit.

Northbrook-based Ferris Homes is putting the emphasis on trees for its Liberty Grove development in Libertyville. The project, planned for 18 houses and 30 townhouses on the suburb’s northern edge, is being built in and around a natural stand of timber.

The company is using a tree motif in brochures handed to prospective buyers and is touting the proximity, across busy Milwaukee Avenue, also called Illinois Highway 21, of Independence Grove nature preserve with 1,100 leafy acres and a 115-acre lake.

The development has two models–one with a familiar, sensible floor plan which has been tweaked in some very pleasing ways, and the other with a more dramatic, but for my money, less satisfying layout.

Let’s start with the drama. The Spruce townhouse model has 2,433 square-feet on three levels with three bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths. Base-priced at $420,900, it is about in the middle of the six available townhouse plans in terms of square footage. An end unit, the Spruce has a multi-sided corner and lattice trim for a Victorian or Queen Anne aura–think Newport circa 1890s.

The interior floor plan is all modern, however. The lower level, where most residents will enter from the two-car garage at the rear of the building, has an oversized closet which can be the shaft for a residential elevator if desired as well as a laundry room.

This floor has stairs to the main floor and a basement area with a 22- by 27-foot room for storage.
The front door is at the side of the building, not the front facade. Visitors enter a small foyer opening to the kitchen straight ahead, the family living area to the right and a dining area and hall to the powder room and master suite to the left.

The living/kitchen/dining is one large room toward the back overlooking trees. A balcony, big enough for a cafe table with two chairs, is to the left of the great room.

Though the food preparation area is nicely configured, this is a kitchen without much storage. A closet next to the foyer could serve that purpose, but it is the space for the elevator, if installed, and is shown with a stackable washer and dryer.

The piece de resistance of the model is the master suite at the front of the building. Down a short hall and past a powder room and a large walk-in closet, the master suite includes a 17-by-15-foot bedroom with windows on four of the seven walls.

To the right is the master bath, a comfortable room with two sinks and dressing counter in one room and separate rooms for shower and toilet.

The master bath is well-planned. One person can shower in privacy while another uses the sink and mirror.

The bedroom is more problematic. While I love the flood of natural light, I don’t imagine you could lie in bed and stay for long hours after sunrise. The bedroom is at the front of the house in full view of the neighbors.

More to my liking is the similar, more private, bedroom on the floor above, also with a private bath and a huge walk-in closet. At the back of this floor is the third bedroom, about 16 by 12 feet, shown as a den, with a cozy 9-by-6-foot balcony sheltered enough so the view can be enjoyed with some privacy.

This is a townhouse with plenty of room and plenty of space in the bedrooms. So much drama and square footage are devoted to private rooms, however, they overshadow the family area.

In contrast, the Aspen model has a floor plan that, to me, achieves the open feeling needed for larger gatherings, yet with spaces that are cozy enough to be comfortable for two people.

I like this house in spite of the two-car front-loading garage. Visitors should note that this model is liberally upgraded so it costs, as shown, about $740,000 compared to the $633,900 base price.
The 2,492 square foot home is nestled next to the grove of trees at the center of the development. It has a small sheltered porch on the front.

Visitors step into a central foyer with doors to the study and great room at the left and the kitchen straight ahead. To the right of the foyer is the stairway to the second floor, stairs to the full basement and a hallway to the master bedroom suite.

The second floor has a loft room at the top of the stairs and two bedrooms, both about 13 by 12 feet, that share a Jack ‘n Jill bath.

The study, great room and dining room are not overly large by today’s standards. The so-called great room with a fireplace is about 14 by 21 feet and the dining room is about 12 by 12 1/2 feet.

The kitchen is large enough for a table and chairs.. Both the dining room and the kitchen have a door to a patio behind the house, expanding the entertaining space.

The hallway to the right of the foyer leads past the laundry room, which serves as a mud and transition room between the garage and the house, and to the master suite.

The bedroom at the back of the house has windows on two sides and a door that opens to the patio where, if I were the homeowner, I would sip my morning coffee and gaze at the trees.

(Copyright 2004 by the Chicago Tribune)