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What to Look for in a Vacation Home

Travel Tips - Ross French - February 14, 2023

Vacation Home

Vacation rentals are more popular than ever, thanks to booking services like Airbnb and VRBO. These platforms make it possible for anyone to rent a vacation home anywhere. Continue Reading

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How to Design the Ideal Vacation Home

Travel Tips - Ross French - November 6, 2021

If you’ve traveled the globe, gorged yourself on the profundity of various sunsets and explored the vast array of cultures that define humankind, maybe now is the right time to start designing your ideal vacation home.

Even if it’s just a pipedream at first, it gives you an objective to aim for, and for the well-traveled, settling on the perfect location might not require a second thought.

Here are some tips to help those of you with wanderlust design the abode of a lifetime.

Focus on Your Interests First

What do you love most about your chosen vacation home destination? Is it the local culture, access to amenities, the food, the skyline or the forests? In this regard (and many others), location is extremely important.

Thinking about what excites you the most is a good place to start the design process, as it can inform the size, structure and style of your build.

For example, if you solely want the vacation house to be a place to stay while you spend your every waking hour on the beach or hiking along a mountain trail, you may not need to build the biggest home you can afford.

Putting your hobbies and interests at the centerfold of the design and tailoring your home to your needs can allow you to narrow down your options and help you realize your ideal vision.

Choosing the Materials

If you aim to build from scratch, it is worth thinking about the cost of raw materials sooner rather than later, as this can be part of what makes the process so expensive and time consuming.

There are many wonderful options for this, but if you wanted to keep your vacation home build on the smaller and more cost-effective side, it may be worth searching for drywall contractors near me, as this can be a superb option for anyone wishing to go for a safe and strong setup.

Thinking about the materials can help you develop a more accurate budget before you start the process. Starting your build, only to run out of money halfway through is likely not the most ideal situation to find yourself in.

Moreover, the style of building material you decide to stick with will probably have a large impact on the overall aesthetic of the house, so if you can, try and picture what the finished build will look like. Consulting an architect may be essential if you are struggling in this area.

Make it Unique

Unless you want to capture a little taste of home in a new location, opting to include some unique features can help your vacation property stand out and emanate a sense of distinctiveness.
Whether this is the inclusion of a fountain, brushed gold faucets or perhaps an entirely localized interior layout, introducing a touch of difference and even opulence can truly establish your vacation home as your own (and one you can’t wait to return to).

Space

It is worth thinking about building a guest bedroom for if your friends and family want to come and stay, or maybe not if you want to keep your design as the perfect hidden getaway for you and your significant other.

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5 Ways to Remember Your Travels When You Get Home

Travel Tips - Ross French - July 29, 2021

It can often feel as if your vacation never happened as soon as you land back in your home country, with your memories of your trip quickly fading. Then, to make sure that you can remember your travels vividly for years to come, here are five suggestions of what you can do to keep your travel memories alive.

5 Ways to Remember Your Travels When You Get Home

1. Buy Rare Antiques

Once you get home, you should consider searching for rare antiques from the country that you have traveled to or antiques in the style of the country that you love. Many people struggle to bring antiques back from abroad due to their size, weight, and fragility, especially if they are flying back home. However, many websites can allow you to shop for rare antiques and ensure that you can have these delivered straight to your home.

2. Create a Memory Box

If you want somewhere to store your travel memories so that they do not clutter your home, you should consider investing in a storage container or even a suitcase that you can transform into a memory box. This will help you to keep photos, souvenirs, and ticket stubs in one place and can allow you to revisit these items whenever you are feeling nostalgic for your trip.

3. Make a Photo Wall

However, if you want to be reminded of your vacation every single day of the year, you should consider creating a photo wall within your home. This collage of photos can look great in a living room or hallway and can ensure that memories of your vacation can put a smile on your face whenever you pass this wall. You might also consider pinning up a map of the world or the country that you visited and placing pins in the locations that you have been to.

4. Make the Best Recipes

The element that you remember from your vacation the most is not always the sights, though, and certain foods can send you straight back to the moment that you first tried them. Then, you should consider taking home recipe cards for your favorite foreign dishes when you go on vacation to ensure that you can replicate the best dishes that you tried when you are feeling down in the dumps or tired of the monotony of your everyday life.

5. Take Home a Perfume

Lastly, you should consider remembering your vacation when you get home by purchasing a perfume reminiscent of a scent that you loved when you were abroad. For instance, this could be a type of fruit that grows in your travel destination or a certain flower. Smells are known to trigger memories more than any other senses, and so buying a perfume that reminds you of your trip can help you to indulge in vacation memories whenever you want to. If you do not wear perfume, you should consider buying candles or room sprays with this same scent to really make the vacation memories last.

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