photo by Kenichi Suzuki

This home is in a rural area. The client was wanting a home reminiscent of those built by the auto barons of Detroit decades before. The home focuses on a nature area enhanced and expanded as part of this property development. The water feature, with its surrounding woodland and wetland areas, supports wild life species and was a significant part of the focus for our design. We orientated all primary living areas to allow for sight lines to the water feature. This included developing an underground pool room where its only windows looked over the water while the room itself was depressed below grade, ensuring that it would not block the views from other areas of the home. The underground room for the pool was constructed of cast-in-place architectural grade concrete arches intended to become the decorative finish inside the room. An elevated exterior patio sits as an entertaining area above this room while the rear yard lawn conceals the remainder of its imposing size. A skylight through the grass is the only hint at what lies below. Great care was taken to locate the home on a small open space on the property overlooking the natural area and anticipated water feature. We nestled the home into the clearing between existing trees and along the edge of a natural slope which enhanced the design potential and functional options needed for the home. The style of the home not only fits the requirements of an owner with a desire for a very traditional mid-western estate house, but also its location amongst other rural estate lots. The development is in an area dotted with large homes amongst small orchards, small farms, and rolling woodlands. Materials for this home are a mixture of clay brick and limestone for the exterior walls. Both materials are readily available and sourced from the local area. We used locally sourced northern oak wood for the interior trim. The black cherry trees that were removed were utilized as hardwood flooring for the home we designed next door. Mechanical systems were carefully designed to obtain a high level of efficiency. The pool room has a separate, and rather unique, heating system. The heat recovered as part of the dehumidification and cooling process is re-directed to maintain the water temperature in the pool. This process allows what would have been wasted heat energy to be re-captured and utilized. We carefully designed this system as a negative pressure room to control both humidity and ensure that odors from the pool would not be detectable in the house. The underground character of the pool room also allowed it to be highly insulated and sealed for high energy efficiency. The disadvantage was a sacrifice on natural day lighting around the entire room. A commercial skylight, with reflective coatings, was added through the lawn-covered roof. The skylight added a lot of natural daylight and was a natural chase to recover warm humid air and supply new cooled and dehumidified air back into the enclosed space below. Landscaping was restored with primarily native plant and tree materials, which required little long term maintenance. The dedicated nature area is thriving with more wildlife than originally on site when the property was undeveloped. It is rare to be on site and to not see numerous wild turkey, white tail deer, waterfowl and small animals native to the area. This home provides a good example of how the needs of a luxury estate style home can nestle comfortably into an existing environment and ensure that the natural setting is not only maintained but protected for future generations.

Take a look at the latest home renovation that we had the pleasure of performing for a client in Trinity. This was a full master bathroom remodel, guest bathroom remodel, and a laundry room. The existing bathroom and laundry room were the typical early 2000’s era décor that you would expect in the area. The client came to us with a list of things that they wanted to accomplish in the various spaces. The master bathroom features new cabinetry with custom elements provided by Palm Harbor Cabinets. A free standing bathtub. New frameless glass shower. Custom tile that was provided by Pro Source Port Richey. New lighting and wainscoting finish off the look. In the master bathroom, we took the same steps and updated all of the tile, cabinetry, lighting, and trim as well. The laundry room was finished off with new cabinets, shelving, and custom tile work to give the space a dramatic feel.

Hide your laundry hamper, and TV. These custom cabinets are stunning and have hidden utility. Recessed panel, inset beaded with rich painted, glazed, dry brushed, rubbed through and distressed finish.

Beautiful detail and custom lighting create this spa-like setting. © Holly Lepere

The large guest bathroom resulted from combining two smaller spaces. This room services both guest bedrooms. As for the master bathroom, hand-cut glass mosaic tiles were used to create a mural inspired by tropical flora and fauna. An antique Chinese box is echoed by the vanity’s lacquered chair. A gold-leafed glass vessel ties in the deeper shades of the mosaic tiles.

This client requested to design with aging in place details Note walk-in curbless shower,, shower benches to sit and place toiletries. Hand held showers in two locations, one at bench and standing shower options. Grab bars are placed vertically to grab onto in shower. Blue Marble shower accentuates the vanity counter top marble. Under-mount sinks allow for easy counter top cleanup. Glass block incorporated rather than clear glass. AS aging occurs clear glass is hard to detect. Also water spray is not as noticeable. Travertine walls and floors.

Love this two-person hot tub with jets, waterfall faucet, hand-held, chronotherapy. It even has a radio. Photos taken by Kit Ehrman and/or Berkshire Hathaway agent.

As part of large building works Letta London had opportunity to work with client and interior designer on this beautiful master ensuite bathroom. Timeless marble onyx look porcelain tiles were picked and look fantastic in our opinion. Jacuzzi bath tub in very hard wearing and hygyenic finish inclduing mood lighting was sourced for our client inclduing easy to operate wall mounted taps. Walking shower with sliding option was chosen to keep the splashes withing the shower space. Large rain water shower was chosen and sliding shower also. Smart toilet which makes toilet experience so much more better and is great for heatlth too! Lastly amzing vanity sink unit was chosen including these very clever towel rail either side of the vanity sink. Reaching out to dry your hands was never easier.

Master bath with his and hers Shower and Jacuzzi Tub Combo. Reused The Vanity During the Remodel and Used same Mosaic tile throughout to Bring the Room together

Un baño con paredes de microcemento, picas de piedra y muebles de roble natural

Standing shower installation with backsplash, Walls and Ceiling Painted, New toilet and sink installed, Jacuzzi bathtub installation and New floor tiles

Opposite view of the tub deck. Oil rubbed bronze faucets and fixtures, throughout the bathroom, accentuate the theme. Oil rubbed bronze jet and drain trim was custom ordered for the tub also.

This vast open master bath is about 300 sq. in size. This color combination of Black, gold and light marble is a traditional color scheme that received a modern interpretation by us. The cabinets are original to the house and were refinished and re-glazed, a new absolute black granite counter top was placed and new vessel sinks and waterfall faucets were installed. the golden pendents lights matching the gold scheme of the bathroom. the black mosaic tile are used for the step to the tub, shower pan and the vertical and shampoo niche accent tiles have a combo of black glass and stone tile with a high gloss almost metallic finish. it boasts a large shower with frame-less glass and a great spa area with a drop-in Jacuzzi tub. the large windows bring a vast amount of natural light that allowed us to really take advantage of the black colors tile and tub. The floor tile (ceramic 24"x24 mimicking marble) are placed in a diamond pattern with black accents (4"x4" granite). and the matching staggered placed tile (18"x12") on the walls. Photograph:ancel sitton