If you wanted to build the ultimate family home, where would you begin? Builders in Las Vegas had that challenge in the months leading up to the 2004 International Builders Show. What they unveiled was the result of many ideas taken from focus groups with parents and children aged eight to 16.
One child, Aaron, envisions an ideal house that includes a spare room for guests and a stairway leading to a submarine base. Sara wants a secret room that her parents don’t know about and an underground pathway to the backyard.
While not every idea made it into the finished 5,300-square-foot home, Aaron’s guest suite and a version of Sara’s hideaway are there. The architects say they got the best ideas from the children, probably because they tend to think more outside the residential box.
“Around every corner, inside and out, we’ve created a home that addresses how families live, work, play, rest and entertain,” says Boyce Thompson, editorial director for Builder magazine, one of the home’s sponsors.
Here are some of the features that builder Pardee Homes included in this year’s version of the Ultimate Family Home, a four-bedroom, tri-level, Spanish-style dwelling built in a Las Vegas master-planned community:
- a main-level guest suite with an adjacent office-study that can be converted to a master suite so parents can age in place;
- a home management center adjacent to the kitchen providing a dedicated space for homework and family Internet access within sight and earshot of adults, as well as energy-use monitoring and family scheduling technology;
- an air-conditioned garage bay outfitted as a workshop and closed off by sliding glass partitions for family hobbies and crafts; and a game room loft equipped with both nostalgic board games and the latest interactive video entertainment.
The Ultimate Family Home has several spaces for family time and private pursuits. For example, there is a gathering area that encompasses the kitchen, an adjacent kid’s kitchen area, family media room, eating nook and the management center mentioned earlier. There’s also an open-air pavilion and fantasy pool area, complete with plasma-screen television and outdoor kitchen facilities to serve as a covered outdoor entertainment space for adults and, more likely, teenagers.
The ideal home includes a “beverage center” set into the kitchen island that provides quick and convenient access to refreshments. A locker room — also referred to as the mud room —is just inside the garage and has a dedicated dog house, individual cubby holes for outdoor gear and a family message board. A laundry room and powder room are nearby.
This is a house every techno-geek would love. It’s a networked home wired for every conceivable technology homeowners desire. There’s wiring for gaming, music and movies. At the front door, there’s a web-enabled touchscreen keypad that controls lights, garage doors and security.
When price is no object, it’s a lot easier to design the ultimate house. That’s one reason this home features the ultimate in energy efficiency. Photovoltaic cells generate enough electricity to serve the home’s needs and have energy to spare. Just the solar power alone added $50,000 to the price.
The home includes many other energy-saving or environmentally friendly features. It has fluorescent lighting throughout, low-voltage halogen accent lighting, energy-efficient appliances, high-performance windows, a solar water heater with tankless water heater backup, formaldehyde-free insulation and maximum thermal insulation.
Other energy-related features include a radiant roof barrier, reflective roof tile color, wood from managed forests, decks from recycled wood and plastic, high efficiency heating and cooling, an electronic air filter, drought-tolerant landscaping, artificial turf in lieu of natural grass (remember this was Las Vegas), carpet made from recycled soda bottles and flow-restricted bath fixtures.
Speaking of the price, how much would you expect to pay for the Ultimate Family Home? At the time this was written, Pardee Homes had not put a price on it, but reporters were told that $3 million in materials had gone into it.