The kitchen is the heart of your Cape Cod home, and even though it may be your Cape Escape cottage, it’s our job to ensure that your home design has access to the latest and greatest. Each year, the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) surveys its members to identify the latest design and specification trends in kitchen and bath design. This year, more than 300 NKBA member-designers participated in the 2013 NKBA Design Trends Survey, reporting the materials, product types, and styles that they specified in their kitchen and bath designs over the final three months of 2012. New products - like this touch-activated faucet - new ideas, great reading!

2013 Kitchen Design Trends

Join the REEF team live tomorrow, Saturday, on the radio for a discussion of the state of new home building on Cape Cod. Our team is a resource for building code changes, zoning issues, historic district and conservation issues. The new building codes have seriously impacted the cost of construction, and people have lots of questions. The folks at WXTK asked us to do their program tomorrow, so we'll be on at 10:15AM.

Just follow the link below,and click on Listen Live.

Cape Cod News Radio WXTK

Cape Cod in the winter? You may not know that the richness of life on Cape Cod and the Islands is celebrated with festivals all year long. We celebrate our clams, chowder and scallops, daffodils and strawberries, fine wines and culinary fare, extraordinary films and filmmakers, along with our seafaring heritage. February must be slow and quiet, right? Well it’s not as buys as July, but there’s plenty going on:

The Magnificent Splendor of Trees Exhibit, Cahoon Museum of American Art, Cotuit; Van Gogh Through the Weaver's Eyes: An Exhibit of Woven Art, Cultural Center of Cape Cod, South Yarmouth; Presidents’ Holiday Antiques Show and Sale, a quality antique show featuring over 30 dealers, including fine and country furniture, Americana, quilts, stoneware, and more; Gershwin, By George!, Highfield Hall, Falmouth; Broadway and Beyond! A Salute to the Oscars, Orleans.

Here’s a great Cape and Islands Event Calendar to help you plan your year. You’ll be plenty busy!

Cape Cod Event Calendar

Kitchen design is always evolving, which is why REEF spends so much time keeping abreast of new ideas and trends. Some hot topics of late: neutral finishes, warm touches, new interpretation of country style, nature and natural textures, gourmet cooking features and induction cooktops. Our new homes on Cape Cod always feature a wonderful, sometimes fabulous, kitchen. Here’s some insight into what’s trending for 2013.

Kitchen Design Trends for 2013

While 10% of Cape Cod is still without electrical power, we are picking ourselves up from a huge blizzard. Many of us were prepared, and some were not. Some of us got lucky and never experienced a power outage. Most of Cape Cod lost power for at least 24 hours. It certainly makes one grateful for things we generally take for granted, like electricity and heat! While the cleanup continues, here’s a list of 14 essential items to have on hand for the next big storm (blizzard or hurricane!).

14 Blizzard Essentials for your Cape Cod home

It’s the middle of winter, and weather dictates almost everything on a gardener's to-do list. Even though February marks the heart of winter, there’s still plenty to do to prepare for the spring thaw. It's not too late to provide cover for tender and early-flowering plants. Get back into the swing of perennials this month with shopping, clearing, ordering, dividing and possibly a bit of planting. Spend sunny February weekends doing building projects so you're all ready when spring kicks in, like creating a raised garden bed. Here’s some great information and a handy checklist to help get your garden ready for a beautiful season.

February checklist for your Cape Cod garden

Creating special spaces for our customers is one of the real joys here at REEF Builders. Lots of time and attention is paid to bathrooms. A Master or Guest Suite, or Cape Cod Cottage is not complete without comfortable, pleasant bathrooms. A bathroom renovation is an exciting task. But before jumping to choosing the latest tile or bathtub design, there are some less exciting things to consider so your project turns out just the way you dream it. Because renovating a bathroom can be overwhelming, time-consuming and costly, here is a simple 15-point checklist to make sure that your project stays on track and the renovation runs smoothly.

15 Point Checklist for your new Cape Cod Bathroom

Cape Cod is a charming place, in part because of its historic homes. Sometimes it takes a lot of courage to dive in to an historic project. REEF has done some great work for customers who want to maintain the charm and history of their home, while upgrading the systems and spaces for modern living. Here's a project undertaken by a couple who filled their home with bold colors and additional space.

Remodeling an Historic House

“The party’s in the kitchen.” It seems the kitchen is where we frequently end up with friends. It’s our favorite place, near the food, full of comfort, and relaxed. Collectively people spend much of their time in the kitchen, which is why we put so much effort into making sure it’s just right for our customers. We’re constantly looking for new ideas. Here’s a bunch of different treatments and ideas to get your creative juices flowing. Ideas like these are great to have on hand when you’re thinking about your new space. Frequently our customers will bring in lots of photos, articles and ideas, for us to include in their Cape Cod kitchen design. Enjoy! 

25Wonderful Kitchen Design Ideas

Using traditional lock and key deadbolts is so 2012. Now you can program and monitor your home security from…wherever! If you wake up in the morning and feel like espresso instead of your normal java, just tell the coffeemaker from your smartphone. You can control lighting, heat, security, surveillance cameras, and even your pet’s feeding station right from your phone. Here’s 10 very cool ways to use your phone to control, and hopefully simplify, your Cape Cod home.

Use a smartphone to control your home