SPECIAL PROMOTIONAL: Outdoor Living–Feeling at home when you are out of the house

Creating spaces outside your home

Ground Affects Landscaping

For Ground Affects Landscaping, achieving great customer relations is not just a goal. It is the catalyst that holds a project together.

“I think that is what makes us stand out from other companies,” says president and owner Tom Ball. “What is most important is to listen to each client and form a partnership. Through this partnership we’re able to navigate each challenge that arises and create a landscape that is functional, aesthetic and fulfilling to both of us.”

Tom Ball and his wife, Tanya Ball, started Ground Affects Landscaping in 1996 with simple goals in mind: to build top-quality custom landscapes and achieve complete customer satisfaction.

“In the end, what matters is to get them to want to be back in their yard and to enjoy it anytime of the day and night,” Tom Ball says.

Ground Affects Landscaping won Unilock’s Award of Excellence for Best Outdoor Living Space and has been a finalist for the last five years. The company has won both a gold and a silver award in the Excellence of Hardscaping Design Competition from the Wisconsin Masonry Alliance. Ball is the past president of the Wisconsin Landscape Contractors Association - Metro Milwaukee chapter and has served as a director of the Wisconsin Landscape Contractors Association state board. He is also a member of the National Federation of Independent Business, the Metropolitan Builders Association and the National Association of the Remodeling Industry.

These connections keep Ground Affects on the cutting edge in terms of equipment, technology and advanced techniques, says Ball, but the commitment to lengthy, open dialogue with clients is still what matters most.

“We get pretty in depth,” Ball says. “Communication is very, very important.
We don’t just draw the design and walk away. We are there from the very beginning all the way through to the end. We design
it and then install our own plan.”

The Bruce Company

For The Bruce Company, “outdoor living” is about creating relaxing, tranquil and usable spaces outside of your traditional home.

“It’s really an expansion of your sanctuary, right in your own backyard, from full-on complete kitchens to quaint fire pits and everything in between,” says Tom Raemisch, The Bruce Company’s director of sales and marketing. “Our Garden Center associates and landscape designers work with clients to capture their personality and bring spaces to life to create a retreat from the stress of our busy world.”

Almost 70 years ago, Lee Bruce started The Bruce Company by surrounding himself with talented people and giving them the freedom and materials to create the right landscapes for clients. And because The Bruce Company has worked in so many different facets of landscaping in so many places throughout southern Wisconsin, its clients are able to see the company’s work firsthand. There is no substitute for seeing and interacting with a landscape to help generate new ideas for your own property.

Bruce also believed the first and best thing a designer can do when meeting with a new client is listen. By listening and providing feedback, The Bruce Company’s designers help guide clients toward fully envisioning their brand-new spaces. Then the creative designers and experienced installers bring the vision to life.

“The Bruce Company’s longevity, creativity and eye for quality have given the company a great name in the community, but we know that to stay at the top of our game we need to deliver for our customers every time,” Raemisch says. UW Credit Union

If you are looking to update your home’s outdoor living potential, UW Credit Union offers financing options to help pay for projects such as landscaping, adding a deck or doing basic outdoor maintenance.

“Home equity products, lines and loans are generally the best option, but a personal loan or credit card may also work, depending on your budget and project,” says Josh Fetting, UW Credit Union’s consumer lending sales manager.

One conundrum many consumers encounter when starting home improvements is the uncertainty around how much a project will ultimately cost and how to pay for it. UW Credit Union’s experienced lenders can talk through plans to make sure you are utilizing the most cost-effective financing and preventing the need to accumulate high-cost debt due to unexpected expenses.

Fetting says that after purchasing a home, opening a home equity line of credit also known as HELOC, is a great way to get quick access to the equity and can help you get started on small or large projects. HELOCs are usually less expensive sources of financing, beating most personal loan and credit card rates. UW Credit Union also offers introductory rates for the first year of a HELOC. Once the project has been completed, you can leave the balance at the variable rate or lock it into a fixed-rate option.

“As a credit union, we are focused on our members, not on corporate shareholders,” Fetting says. “This means that we meet our members where they are in their lives. We offer financial services for every stage of life, from youth savings accounts to mortgages to home improvements to retirement planning.”
FLOOR360

The FLOOR360 approach to design and unique product selection can help not only customize the look of your home’s inside and outside, but also unite the style and look of both living areas. With custom capabilities, the company has the freedom to individualize every design to suit your tastes, preferences, usage and lifestyle.

One of FLOOR360’s interior designers or design consultants will start by determining your color and texture preferences. You may choose to add an outdoor area rug with a pop of color that’s adjusted to fit your porch or three-season room. At that time, you may consider how the area rug complements your kitchen floor or backsplash so you can coordinate the spaces. FLOOR360 offers custom area rugs for outdoor and indoor use in an array of styles, shapes and sizes, with custom finishes, such as backing and binding options.

“Designing your outside living areas gives a polished and complete feeling to your home,” says Angela Skalitzky, FLOOR360’s vice president for retail sales and design. “Your choices can show off your personal style in the material and color choices you make and set the tone for what your guests will see and feel as they move inside to outside and room to room.”

FLOOR360 has a full team of talented, friendly, patient and knowledgeable designers and design consultants who will help you from start to finish. When selecting outdoor rugs, carpet or tile for areas that are exposed to sunlight or extreme swings in temperature, it is important to have a designer help you choose the best product for form and function.

Interiors by JW

No matter how nice the weather is and how much time we spend outdoors, we all have to go back inside eventually. If for no other reason, we will spend time in the kitchen seasoning the steaks before putting them on the grill, tossing the summer salad, and adding lemon and sugar to the iced tea.

Interiors by JW does more than just interiors, and it brings its interior design expertise to all of the additions, porches and patios it creates. The company understands how to marry your home’s exterior and interior designs according to your taste and your family’s lifestyle.

Jennings & Woldt Remodeling Inc. has expanded its business offerings to include a new design studio, Interiors by JW, in Sun Prairie. For more than 20 years, Jennings & Woldt’s designers have worked hand-in-hand with homeowners, offering highly personalized service from start to finish. No matter what your dream aesthetic — minimal, industrial, coastal, boho, farmhouse chic — the designers have the skill and experience to completely transform any room in the home, bringing your vision to life.Kitchen Tune-Up Madison

Tracey Conner, the owner of Kitchen Tune-Up Madison, helps clients make informed decisions about refacing their kitchen’s cabinets, and assists in completing projects with new countertops, flooring, backsplashes and overall design.

Conner works with clients to create the kitchen that is right for their personalities and their lives, all 12 months of the year. She asks a lot of questions and gets clients to think about how they use their kitchens and how they want to feel when they’re in them.

“I want people to enjoy their decks and backyards, but I am passionate about helping our clients across Madison and the surrounding communities make the kitchen their favorite room inside their home,” Conner says.

Conner says making a change in your home should be an enjoyable and hassle-free experience. Kitchen Tune-Up refacing can be completed in as little as three to five days, without losing the use of your kitchen: No demo, no displacement and no mess.

“Refacing your kitchen is a big job, and where to place your trust when planning a home remodeling project is a big decision,” Conner says. “I earn my clients’ trust by communicating with them – and being honest with them.”

Ganser Company

In business since 1939, there is almost nothing Ganser Company Remodeling & Exteriors hasn’t seen. No project is too small, too large or too difficult. Whether it’s remodeling, roofing, siding, windows and doors, or gutters and overhangs, Ganser Company has the answer for improving your home’s exterior.

With this longevity and such a strong reputation, Ganser Company evolves and innovates as it provides first-rate products, services and designs. The company believes this sense of history lends its clients peace of mind about maintaining a home’s architectural and historical integrity.

“We have been growing along with this community for four generations,” says Ganser Company vice president of sales and marketing Stacey Haberman. “Our loyal, long-time customers count on us to always deliver top quality and to always be ahead of the curve.”

In 2018, Ganser Company won an Infinity from Marvin Platinum Retailer Commitment to Excellence award. Infinity Windows from Marvin are exclusive to Ganser Company, and they are seven times stronger than the vinyl windows most other companies sell and install. Made from Ultrex, they are the only windows made for the Wisconsin climate. For means of comparison, think of the plastic chairs many of us stack on our patios or arrange around fire pits. Vinyl windows break down the same way those plastic chairs do. Infinity Windows don’t warp, crack or fade over time, Haberman says.

“We know how important people’s homes are to them in the communities we work in, and it is a privilege to be invited in and trusted,” Haberman says. —

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