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When the weather heats up and you want to spend all your time outside, a rousing game of bocce is one of the coolest lawn games you can incorporate into the design of your yard. Also known as Italian lawn bowling, bocce dates back centuries—and it’s a breeze to learn how to play. Plus, throwing a bocce ball requires only one hand, leaving the other free for a seasonal cocktail.

Building a bocce court

If your summer calendar is an endless loop of backyard barbecues and festive get-togethers (Memorial Day, Father’s Day, Fourth of July, to name a few), a bocce court will provide hours of fun for adults and kids. Here’s how to build one.

1. Measure the area for the court

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A 77-year-old man has lived in the same building for years. He says in a lawsuit that a neighbor and his landlord are jointly using dubious tactics to push him out.

Recent residential sales in New York City and the region.

Parents took their children to open houses during the pandemic when they had no other options. They still do, because some say it is an experience to be shared.

It depends, so do your research first.

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If you’ve ever looked over real estate listings and came across an ad for a “luxury home,” you might have thought, “Wow, this one must be special!” But what exactly defines a luxury home, anyway? Is it determined by price, location, square footage, or some magic combination of all of the above?

Well, for starters, “luxury” isn’t strictly about how much cash you blow on the purchase. It’s much more subjective, and a moving target based on what a particular area’s high-end buyers have come to expect.

“It isn’t simply a price per square foot metric,” says The Agency’s Daniel Stevenson, who specializes in selling luxury listings. “Many times luxury is simply in the eye of the very covetous neighbor.”

While it’s hard to pin down an exact definition that encapsulates this air of affluence, luxury homes do tend to have certain features in common. So whether you’re looking to buy a posh place or wondering if you can describe your current digs in such opulent terms, here are some general qualities you can expect to find in a luxury home.

Realtor.com

A desert-modern domicile known as the “Dialogue House” has talked its way onto the market. The buzzy abode is asking for $2,195,000.

“Perched on an elevated hillside, this is one of the higher houses, so it has particularly great views,” says Scott Jarson of az architecture, listing agent for this modern mansion in Phoenix. Located at the base of Echo Mountain, the home features giant walls of glass with spectacular views of the surrounding mountain preserve.

The home was built in 2001 and designed by Wendell Burnette Architects, known for the luxury Utah resort Amangiri. It has three bedrooms and three baths.

“In the design sphere, it’s well-known,” Jarson says.

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A California room is an outdoor space that boasts indoor amenities—similar to a porch but more posh. California rooms are an increasingly popular feature in homes today, particularly in warmer climates. So if you spot this term while perusing real estate listings, it’s helpful to know what it is—and whether it’s right for you.

What to know about a California room

Technically a California room isn’t a room at all. Builders tend to define rooms as structures with four walls. Instead Melissa Hazlett, vice president of marketing and sales for Baldwin & Sons, a homebuilding company based in Newport Beach, CA, likes to call a California room “one part porch and one part room.”

Although California rooms are technically classified as outdoor spaces—and thus aren’t factored into a home’s square footage—they do have protection from the elements. For instance, California rooms have a roof to keep out rain and sun. Yet unlike sunrooms or solariums, which are enclosed on all sides with windows, California rooms are open to the outdoors on one or more sides.

Also setting a California room apart from the sunroom is the fact that these “rooms” don’t have to be attached to a house, says Kathryn Bishop, a Realtor® with Keller Williams Realty in Studio City, CA. The California room can be built freestanding in the backyard, with electric lighting added for evening use and often a fireplace to add a touch of ambiance.