It's baseball season, so a baseball analogy seems fitting. We seem to have rounded third and are heading for home. And while it has been great to see all of the advanced technologies and sustainable products that comprise the Sunset Green Home's "infrastructure," watching the finishes come together makes us feel like the house is really almost done.
Sunset Green Home's Pool House with Beacon Wall Mount Light from Teka Illumination
From where I'm sitting in the nearly finished pool house, I can see four different light fixtures from Tech Lighting. They're all energy efficiency LED fixtures that emit really beautiful light. The Admiral Simple Wall Sconce is drop dead gorgeous and is an elegant interpretation of a nautical bulkhead light - perfect for a coastal home. Tech Lighting's Envison LED spotlights blend into the ceiling on which they're mounted - which is exactly what we wanted. The ceiling is sloped and we were looking for a way to light up the wet bar without using low hanging pendant fixtures.
We have also had the chance to try out the features of our new ENERGY STAR qualified Big Ass Haiku fan. The pool house is not air conditioned. But the Haiku, with its SenseME technology, still managed to keep us cool.
And the exterior is illuminated by Teka Illumination's Beacon Wall Mount LED fixture, which looks great now and will develop a beautiful patina over time.
We were looking to keep the walls fresh and simple - so we painted everything in the pool house with Sherwin-Williams Snowbound (SW-7004), a cool white that we've had a chance to see in sunny and rainy weather...and it looks great regardless of the light conditions. But, more importantly, we chose to use Sherwin-Williams Harmony paint, a formulation with no VOCs (volatile organic compounds) - which helps us maintain healthy indoor air quality.
The floors are tiled with a stone-look porcelain tile from Daltile (City View Seaside Boardwalk). We love that on hot days the tile will still feel cool underfoot...and its strength and durability means we don't have to worry about sandy feet damaging the floors.
We have also begun to use our water-saving bathroom fixtures, which so far seem to be delivering great performance with lower environmental impact. The pool house has the only working bathroom right now, so we've had a chance to put the Duravit dual flush DuraStyle toilet to work. We like the dual flush feature for its water-saving properties. With an average water use of less than 1.1 gallons per flush, we are earning the maximum possible LEED points with this attractive modern fixture. And we are equally happy with the Duravit Vero sanitary ceramic vanity top, which looks great and is extremely easy to clean. The Hansgrohe hand held and regular shower heads, with water saving flow rates of 2.0 gallons per minute, look great and work well too.
So what remains to be done in the pool house before we can declare victory? A comfy sofa and chairs from Kravet have been ordered, as have solar shades, wood blinds and decorative window treatments from The Shade Store. A unique etched glass shower surround by Cardinal Shower Enclosures will be delivered next week and will provide privacy in what we envision as a bath that will have more of a "locker room" feeling (cubbies and changing area, separate WC, Samsung stackable laundry machines, etc.). We're still waiting for cabinetry to be installed - the pool house wet bar will feature sustainable Shinnoki wood veneer cabinets and counter tops in Caesarstone's Raw Concrete, a new color that was launched this year. But while we wait for the cabinets to arrive (before July 1st, we're told), we've already plugged in and have started to use our compact ENERGY STAR qualified 24" Bosch refrigerator!
We're just a couple of weeks away from completing the pool house. Check back for more photos of the finished look!