Fresh Air Designs

by Warren Grant

Its importance was magnified by COVID and the quest for safe social distancing, but our human embrace of outdoor living has been an innate part of daily history for millennia.

Frank Lloyd Wright summoned all inspiration at Fallingwater in Pennsylvania with his spacious, cantilevered concrete patios and organic connection to the home’s captivating waterfall flowing just below. And, well, Nebuchadnezzar II had a share of outdoor living space within his wondrous Hanging Gardens around 600 B.C.E. Good going Neb!

Not a new concept, but outdoor living has been creatively refined recently in the welcoming homes that grace myriad planned communities, colorful small towns, and big cities around the country, particularly in the South.

A home building company that takes the refinement of outdoor living earnestly is Meritus Signature Homes, headquartered in the South Carolina upstate town of Anderson, just a few exits west of Greenville off I-85. Meritus also has model homes for touring in Beaufort in the Carolina Lowcountry and at The Cliffs at Keowee Springs just north of Anderson.

Director of Business Development & Sales at Meritus, Jennifer Jeffries, describes that, “Outdoor living is integral to our design and building process. We consider it a vital extension of the home interior and central to family gathering and entertaining.”

Meritus takes a unique and integrated approach to design, sourcing, and building. The company has six affiliate companies: Meritus Landscapes, Cabinetry, Electric, Grading & Excavating, Home Services, and the Vine and Broad Design Center. They also have two interior designers and three architectural designers on staff ready to creatively and professionally advise on your options.

Says Jennifer, “When we look at our integrated approach to outdoor living, the client will find our grading and landscaping companies closely working with electric to locate and power for outdoor-path lighting, or compellingly position up-lighting on a signature oak, or hide an electrical switch to spark the gas fire pit. And then, you have the design center interfacing with cabinetry to plan an outdoor kitchen with abundant storage and perfectly built-in appliances. Just a few examples!”

Lake Tansi Village

is located on the magnifi cent Cumberland Plateau in Crossville, Tennessee. This retirement community is jam packed with a good balance of relaxing and exciting activities. Whether you prefer golfi ng, boating, swimming, or simply enjoying the good life – it’s all here at Lake Tansi.

Your experience with Meritus starts with the 3,000 sq. ft. design center in Anderson. You are given 10 complimentary hours with an interior designer who will help you choose everything from flooring and bathroom fixtures to exterior stonework and ceiling fans. Everything is chosen at the design center. The center even has an outdoor-living display to spark your imagination.

One feature that many homeowners are looking for is that seamless connection to the outdoors achieved through various glass door configurations, including bi-fold doors, slider doors, and cavity sliders that disappear into a recess in the flanking wall. All of them work on low-profile track systems that inhibit a trip hazard and can open up to over 30 feet wide.

Says Jennifer, “We even work with a company that has a motordriven system that can lift clear vinyl screens to keep out the chill on an outdoor porch when the temperatures drop. Just raise the screens, switch on your outdoor fireplace, and the whole porch gets a warm glow.”

One pair of delighted clients is Janice and Alex Wilkins. They recently moved into their Meritus home on Lady’s Island, just east of Beaufort, near where Alex was stationed three times as a Marine pilot at Parris Island. So, they know the area.

Says Janice, “We had firm house plans and two beautiful lots on which to build but needed a homebuilder. A realtor friend suggested we contact Meritus. Well, the caring way they thought, worked, and over-delivered was simply amazing. They even let us stay in their model home in Beaufort for two months while we moved from Virginia.”

“Our house plans called for a beautiful, wood-burning rock fireplace and wood beam mantle on one of the end walls of our screened outdoor porch. But the Meritus design team suggested we move the fireplace, and a full brick chimney, to the broad open middle of our 60-foot wide porch to make it the compelling visual centerpiece for the home. That inspired idea enhanced the entire relationship between indoors and outdoors for our family and guests.”

“Meritus Landscape also designed an outdoor kitchen, plus a beautiful curving lawn and flower beds wrapping around a fire pit in the backyard. They also constructed a small tin-roof structure for storing firewood and added a porch bed on the deck outside our owner’s bedroom as a no-cost surprise to us. We can’t possibly recommend them enough.”

Meritus currently builds homes in three states, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. www.meritushomes.com