Why we love them? AJH Custom Homes recommend Leviton devices to its clients because they provide safe, stylish, and comprehensive lighting control and power source across all residential tasks.

There are over 23,700 electrical device related fires every year in the US. AJH relies on Leviton devices to ensure our customer’s homes are not included in this statistic. Leviton is a leader in load centers, the heart of your home’s electric supply. Their load centers can be paired with Arc and/or ground fault breakers as well as whole-home surge protection and smart breakers that connect via the My Leviton app. With Leviton’s system in place the AJH team can be confident our clients are safe and sound while also tailoring their control of the system.

Most customers don’t interact with their home’s load center much, but they certainly plug in to it daily. Whether to blend up cake batter, or charge a device, Leviton has devices for each need. A popular product line, Decora, gives customers a consistent and low profile product across all device uses from plugs to switches to low-volt charging ports in colors to fit any design. An especially nice product is the combination outlet and USB charging port. It makes a great addition in almost every room from the kitchen or home office to kid’s bedrooms. No more dead devices or ugly charging blocks!

Lighting control by Leviton is equally thoughtful. Their Decora line can be upgraded to include smart Wi-Fi enabled switches for lighting and device control from your phone. Additionally dimmer switches and timer switches let our customers regulate their lighting to fit the event, time of year or weather.

Check out their products to see why AJH Custom Homes trusts Leviton for its clients and the options they can provide your new home!

This article is for the grandparents among us, the so-called empty-nesters: Does that phrase still apply? Did it ever really apply? The idea was nice: the children are grown and have moved out, so it's time to 'down size' to a smaller home, smaller yard, smaller responsibilities, leaving more time for extra-curricular activities like travel. But that scenario doesn't always play out in real life. Children grow and leave, and marry and have families, and return to visit - hopefully often.

The down-sized house no longer accommodates not only the children and their spouses, but also their children and all the energy and paraphernalia they bring. Sometimes family considerations mean 'up-sizing' rather than downsizing. And with a new generation of children in the house, one of the most important features of the architectural design becomes the playroom.

The open floorplan so popular over the past couple of decades is wonderful for dynamic communication between the kitchen and living room, but that can be turned into chaos with just a few toddlers and small children running and playing through the area. Have you considered where the grandchildren can go and 'be themselves' while the adults talk?

That's, of course, the playroom and it should be a central consideration in your custom home design, even if you are downsizing. Maybe it's in the basement, maybe above the garage, or maybe a second living room upstairs or even an unused bedroom with a small, finished attic nook as a 'secret hideaway.' A special room with custom bunk beds can become a cherished memory for the grandchildren when they spend the night with their grandparents. Not only will the children have more fun among themselves, but the adults will preserve their sanity. The playroom was a marvelous invention indeed.

We at Designed for Downtown, LLC incorporate our clients' family dynamics - both current and future - into our renovation and custom home designs. Give us a call today to start the conversation about how to make your home both more child-friendly and more peaceful.

Remember the ‘china cabinet’? It was probably the only piece of furniture in the house with glass front doors, intended to show off grandma’s china dinnerware and crystal wineglasses. You usually found the china cabinet in the dining room because its contents were typically used only for special occasions, those rare events when the dining room table was actually used for … dining. The china cabinet was a display case, unlike the rest of the cabinetry, which were used to hide things, not display them.

Well, times have changed. Glass-front cabinets, breadbox cabinets and floating shelves are now common components of cabinetry design. Many people find open shelves to be more convenient than closed cabinets, and the selection of dinnerware now becomes a design decision tied in with the rest of the decor. Done correctly, keeping things out in the open can be very stylish.

Whether to use glass-front cabinets or floating shelves, therefore, becomes part of the overall cabinetry and finish design in the kitchen. Should the open shelves match the cabinets, or complement them with a different color or finish? Do you want plate grooves in the shelving to fully display your dinner plates, or will you stack them for ease of access? If you really want to highlight items on the open shelves or behind the glass-front doors, let’s add integral LED accent lighting or LED strip back-lighting.

The options are, as usual, almost limitless. But the design process requires thinking ahead and determining just what you plan on displaying on the shelves or behind the glass-front cabinet doors. This means more than just your day-to-day dishware; it also means considering your seasonal accents and decorations - the autumn gourds and Christmas nutcrackers that will take their place ‘out in the open.’ We at Designed for Downtown and our sister AJH companies help you think forward to how everything is going to look once the demolition and construction are finished.

Bosch 800 Series Dual Fuel Freestanding Range 30'' Black Stainless Steel

Why we love them? AJH Custom Homes appreciates in 2026 every dollar has to bring maximum value to the home building process. Bosch appliances do exactly that. With precision engineering, quality components and pricing that surprises, we can confidently specify a value-added appliance package from Bosch. These appliances combine streamlined controls with restaurant-grade cooking, baking, refrigeration, and cleaning.

Bosch 500 Series Gas Cooktop 30'' Stainless steel

Cooking, whether on the Bosch Induction line or their Gas line provides the cook both control and space. These cook tops are a great addition to the kitchen, they are designed to provide even heat distribution and a large range of heat control. From simmering to searing you can cook with confidence knowing these appliances do a great job breakfast, lunch, or dinner! And at the end of the day Bosch’s sealed burners and low profile electric cooktops make wiping the appliance down a simple process, with no open burner ports that never get truly cleaned or element liners to run through the dishwasher.

Bosch baking is similarly hot (but really it’s cool)! With enamel interior and ball bearing slides plus convection and rapid heat functions these appliances bring the value of restaurant-quality features while making sure our customers can afford their dream kitchen. AJH also appreciates that the power draw for Bosch ovens is well controlled which translates to energy-efficiency.  Not only do these ovens provide enhanced value but the labor behind the scenes is modest, protecting the all around bottom line for the homeowner!

Bosch Benchmark™ Single Wall Oven 30'' Stainless Steel

Bosch 500 Series French Door Bottom Mount Refrigerator

Bosch 800 Series Dishwasher 24'' Stainless Steel Anti-fingerprint

While never a show stealer, dishwashers by Bosch are the masterclass in quiet efficiency. AJH recommends their dishwashers to all our clients because of their low noise, moderate water usage, and excellent cleaning. And Bosch refrigeration is always a win, with french-door style, bottom freezer, and column refrigeration and column freezing our clients can equip their dream kitchen. Panel ready or stainless, the refrigerator will become part of their well appointed kitchen.

Check out how Bosch Home Appliances can be the value add for your kitchen here.