Page 21 - BusinessWest March 3, 2021

Brian Campedelli says customers are looking for more creativity in firepit design.
Rudd observed that many people choose to upgrade the house they have. By the same token, when people do purchase a home, they often come to see him, armed with plans.
“When people move, they improve. And when they don’t move, they improve,” he said with a laugh.
“From what I’ve seen, people are not afraid to buy a house with an existing pool. In fact, to many, it’s a selling point.”
Sprucing up a house isn’t complete until land- scaping provides the final touch. In addition to landscaping services, Graziano Gardens has a retail store for those who want to tackle backyard projects themselves. Graziano saw new faces in the garden center last year, resulting in what he termed a “mini-explosion.”
“We sold out of trowels, shovels, gloves, water- ing cans, things we’ve never sold out of before,” he said. Also hard to come by were grown items such as hanging baskets, vegetable plants, and even evergreen hedges. “It seems like people just wanted to fill in that spot.”
Dry, warm temperatures early last spring, combined with parents and kids cooped up in their homes, might have led to a shortage in pool
Backyard
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set when it comes to buying an inground pool as well, Schwein noted.
While Drewnowski sells inground and above- ground pools, installation is handled by its parent company, Juliano Pools of Vernon, Conn. As busy as Juliano was last year, many who wanted pools couldn’t get them, due to higher demand than normal combined with shortages of materials and labor. Schwein said 2021 is off to a good start because those who couldn’t purchase last year can do so this year.
“We have a spillover of people from last year and new people who have decided to buy a pool this year, so I’m positive that combination will mean another banner year,” he told BusinessWest.
For years, many believed that houses with inground pools would be tough to sell. The red- hot real-estate market since last spring seems to have made that concern a moot point. Many first-time homebuyers are also first-time pool owners who are calling Schwein for advice on how to maintain their inground asset.
“From what I’ve seen, people are not afraid to buy a house with an existing pool. In fact, to many, it’s a selling point,” he said. While a typical home inspection does not cover the condition of a swimming pool, Drewnowski has pool inspec- tors available to help prospective buyers under- stand what they are getting.
With less inventory in the housing market,
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