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Houston Couple Replaces Starter Home With Forever Home - YouTube
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(happy instrumental music)
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- [Charles] The architecture of the house,
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it's light, it's airy,
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it's clean, it's very graceful.
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It's a physical representation
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of where we are in our lives today.
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Our careers are over, kids are grown.
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What's most important to Susan and I
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is spending time together
in a beautiful space
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that's very serene and so this
was a canvas to create that.
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(happy instrumental music)
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- In 1981 we purchased our
starter home on this lot
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and we called it our
once upon a time house
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because it was the start of our story.
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It's just a sweet little
neighborhood in Houston, Texas
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and I grew up here
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and learned how to ride
my bicycle and tricycle.
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My parents bought their home
six houses around the corner
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in 1955 and my dad's parents
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they lived on the next street over.
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(happy instrumental music)
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- Our original home was a series of rooms
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connected with narrow doors
and the windows were small
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and didn't let in much light.
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We tried to make the space
feel like it flowed together
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but with the structural
limitations of an older home
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we just couldn't get what we wanted
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and what we wanted was lots of light.
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Now going to the next chapter
of our lives this is it,
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this is our last house.
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We wanted a very contemporary design
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because our tastes have
changed and evolved
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in the 38 years we've been married.
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- We wanted high ceilings.
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We wanted one open living space.
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So we started off on the adventure
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of doing a last final remodel of our home.
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So I went to Houzz and under
Find a Pro I compiled a list
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of about five different architects
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and that's where I found RD Architecture.
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- They read our profile and they thought
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that we would be great
fit for their project
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because we had worked on a
series of ranch home remodels.
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We knew that they would
be great to work with
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when we showed up
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and there was a big plate of
homemade cookies on the table.
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- It was just a perfect match.
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- They were excellent listeners.
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Their first words were
we want to hear from you
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what your vision is for your new home.
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- Houzz was such an integral
part of the whole house design.
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Charles and I would put
together idea books,
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whether it was living area or bedroom
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so that they could see what
our style was in pictures
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what maybe I couldn't verbalize.
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- I think it helped
unleash their creativity
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in looking at these images and saying
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oh I see what they mean.
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- A really important concept
for Charles and Susan's house
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was to make sure it fit
into the neighborhood.
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So we had to make sure that
the roof line was lower
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so it would work with
the adjacent ranch homes
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but on the other hand
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they really wanted to have
space open to the roof.
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- [Susan] The demolition plan
was going to leave three walls
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on a 60 plus year old slab.
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- [Charles] It became evident early on
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that we were going to
have to take it down,
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even demolish the slab.
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- [Susan] We broke the
news to our daughters
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that their childhood home was coming down.
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- In my mind
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we weren't really tearing
down the original home
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because the new home
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had been designed around
the original house.
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The spaces were still there,
we were just building new walls
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so all the memories would still be intact.
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It would still feel like their house,
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the house that they raised their kids in.
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One of my favorite parts of this project
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is the surprise that when you walk in
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the space is open to the roof.
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There is no attic in this main living area
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so it's a high vaulted ceiling
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that gives you that wonderful open space.
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One of the tricks around
having this vaulted space
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that we have in here is that
there's some coordination
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that we need to take into account.
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Air conditioning still has
to run through the house,
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you still have insulation,
and light fixtures
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in the ceiling plane
which is also the roof.
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We also had a builder on board early on
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who helped us understand
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how to execute the special
details that we wanted.
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- We found Philip Tryon of Tryon Homes
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through RD Architecture.
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They said, "Phillip, Phillip
needs to build your home,"
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and he was a perfect match for us also.
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- What was special was just
their personal connection
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to the neighborhood, the community.
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You know, we always say for
us it's house versus home.
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There's lots of houses out
there but for us it's home.
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This was a very complex home to understand
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from a drawing point of view
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and also make sure that it would function
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and perform the way that it needed to.
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- One of the things that
we decided to do early on
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was to have a fully automated home,
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to make the house exactly
the way we want it
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from a lighting, from an audio standpoint.
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The lighting design is actually integrated
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into the automation system.
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And so when I walk out in the
morning I punch two buttons
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and in two seconds the shades come up,
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the lighting comes up to preset scenes,
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and the house is ready for the day.
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And at night it's the reverse.
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I go to the back and I say, "good night,"
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and every light in the house
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except the light in the
master bedroom turns off.
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- All of the lighting
that you see in this home
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is all True Native LED.
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These have individual
drivers that go to each bulb
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which produces a lot less electricity.
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The lighting is just a whole nother world.
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The blinds that you see
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that are integrated
into the window systems,
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the baseboards that you see
running through the home
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flush with the sheet rock, this was by far
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the most challenging
project I've done to date.
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This is a special one.
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- The house is divided into three suites.
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I call the front area the
public area, the living suite.
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That's where we live all
day and until we retire
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at the end of the evening.
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Then we have a guest
suite that is closed off
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with a barn door and there's two bedrooms
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and a guest bathroom.
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(jazzy instrumental music)
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We have master suite and
that closes off completely.
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In the master suite we
have our fitness room,
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that's technical the fourth bedroom.
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(jazzy instrumental music)
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And then is the master bedroom
and the master bathroom
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and the closet.
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In the living room we
wanted it to be a space
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where it would be multifunctional.
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Hence, we have it wide open.
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Our office area is right
as you walk in the door.
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Charles will tell you
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that it's the first time
he's had a corner office.
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We love it because I can
be in the kitchen baking
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and Charles can be at his computer
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and we still have visual
contact with one another.
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- [Kathleen] One of the
things that we focusd on
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is the scale of different spaces.
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In this great room we
have a big yellow beam
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that crosses through the space.
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It's very monumental.
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Then off of that we have hallways,
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we have a nook for the
special family piano.
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- [Susan] It's cozy
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even though we have a
large volume of space.
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- [Kathleen] And then
there's different elements
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that we use on the walls.
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There's this oversized fireplace,
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the big long linear element of the hearth,
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and then on the far wall
we have this ya know
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wonderful, artistic piece of granite.
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- The first thing that we
actually purchased for the home
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was the back splash on the
counter behind the oven
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and it's a piece of Italian granite.
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It's a big slab of granite
and it's an art piece.
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The oven is Charles' baby, so
he picked his favorite color
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which is real orange.
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- We challenged the architects
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to bring as much light as possible.
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- When I design
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I think of the house as
being a kind of sundial.
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So when I design I'm kind of imagining
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how the sun is going to come through
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and throw patterns on the floor
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or throw shadows on the wall.
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- The east side of the
house is really a sawtooth
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so that every guest room and every bedroom
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lined up on that side of the house
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has a beautiful corner window.
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Not only did we have a
clerestory feature out front
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to flood the house with light,
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we have a second clerestory feature
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in the back of the house
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that floods light through a
series of clerestory windows
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into the master bedroom.
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- What we decided to do
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was to put clerestory windows over the TV
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and also windows down low under the TV
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and the shadows and the light play
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that comes in in the
afternoon is just beautiful.
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(contemporary piano music)
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Part of being an architect,
a good residential architect
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is learning how to be a mind reader
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and fortunately with Houzz we
have such a leg up on that.
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- There were many pivotal moments
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from conception to the
reality of living in this home
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but perhaps none more important
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than finding Houzz as a resource.
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Without Houzz this house would not exist.
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The walls and roof are different
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but this is the space where
we raised our children.
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It's like the house grew up
from a child to an adult.
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- For years our starter home
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has become our new
happily ever after home.
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(uplifting music)
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