The pool and jacuzzi have a black pebble finish with handmade black tile water line and accent tile. An under the coping pool cover has also been installed for safety and water conservation.

Geremia Pools & Landscaping designed this modern poolscape with a water feature as a centerpiece of the layout. The custom built fire feature is placed near the spa. This outdoor experience includes a custom tile patio, with concrete slab decking around the pool and spa.

Custom gunite pool with black pebbletech finish and deck jets.

Situated on a three-acre Intracoastal lot with 350 feet of seawall, North Ocean Boulevard is a 9,550 square-foot luxury compound with six bedrooms, six full baths, formal living and dining rooms, gourmet kitchen, great room, library, home gym, covered loggia, summer kitchen, 75-foot lap pool, tennis court and a six-car garage. A gabled portico entry leads to the core of the home, which was the only portion of the original home, while the living and private areas were all new construction. Coffered ceilings, Carrera marble and Jerusalem Gold limestone contribute a decided elegance throughout, while sweeping water views are appreciated from virtually all areas of the home. The light-filled living room features one of two original fireplaces in the home which were refurbished and converted to natural gas. The West hallway travels to the dining room, library and home office, opening up to the family room, chef’s kitchen and breakfast area. This great room portrays polished Brazilian cherry hardwood floors and 10-foot French doors. The East wing contains the guest bedrooms and master suite which features a marble spa bathroom with a vast dual-steamer walk-in shower and pedestal tub The estate boasts a 75-foot lap pool which runs parallel to the Intracoastal and a cabana with summer kitchen and fireplace. A covered loggia is an alfresco entertaining space with architectural columns framing the waterfront vistas.

Aside from the larger concerns of temperature and humidity control in an indoor poolroom, the pool has a beach entry and an infinity edge flowing off into a concrete and tiled trough near the large commercial south facing windows. The waterfall appears to drain into the pond outside the glass tight to the building. All lines of site from the pool house and guest house cannot see the trough or bottom of the windows- the desired look envisioned by the owners. A 20,000-gallon surge tank was placed below the mechanical room to allow the pool level to drop below a weir wall at the spa allowing the spa water to be heated. | Photography: Landmark Photography

© Javier Guillen Photo

Western Pavers, Inc. has been in business for over twenty years. Western Pavers is the Pioneer of all local paver companies in Southern California. Western Pavers has been transforming customers' visions into a reality for decades. We pride ourselves in providing our customers with 100% satisfaction and creating beautiful outdoor living spaces. Western Pavers can provide beautiful designs and take you from conceptual to the completion of your outdoor living project. We are Western Outdoor Designs’ paver specialist department.

The Main Stay House exists as a straightforward proposal on an urban infill lot, paring down the components of a house to a minimal amount of planes and openings. The scheme is anchored by a modern entry sequence and a staircase volume, both clad in iron spot masonry externally and internally, creating thresholds between the respective realms of public, common and private, by minimal means. The masonry contrasts with an otherwise muted interior atmosphere of smooth, desaturated surfaces. The entry sequence is a twist upon the conventional domestic front door, front facade, and fence. The front masonry wall replaces the typical residential fence and frames an indirect access to the front door, functioning as a privacy barrier while revealing slices of the interior to the public street. The staircase bifurcates the layout to provide a clear division between the common and private zones of the house, while clearly reading as a mass from all outside view. Brick and glass become portals between common and private zones. The design consolidates the service core along the west façade, allowing the structure to fully open the living zone to the pool court and existing trees. This directly connects interior and exterior, as well as human and nature. Freedom to vary the program or functional use of the area is enabled and strongly encouraged. Photography: Twist Tours

A ridge skylight emphasizes daylight in this lap pool and spa complex. Custom concrete pavers and folding doors connect indoor and outdoor spaces.

We were contacted by a family named Pesek who lived near Memorial Drive on the West side of Houston. They lived in a stately home built in the late 1950’s. Many years back, they had contracted a local pool company to install an old lagoon-style pool, which they had since grown tired of. When they initially called us, they wanted to know if we could build them an outdoor room at the far end of the swimming pool. We scheduled a free consultation at a time convenient to them, and we drove out to their residence to take a look at the property. After a quick survey of the back yard, rear of the home, and the swimming pool, we determined that building an outdoor room as an addition to their existing landscaping design would not bring them the results they expected. The pool was visibly dated with an early “70’s” look, which not only clashed with the late 50’s style of home architecture, but guaranteed an even greater clash with any modern-style outdoor room we constructed. Luckily for the Peseks, we offered an even better landscaping plan than the one they had hoped for. We proposed the construction of a new outdoor room and an entirely new swimming pool. Both of these new structures would be built around the classical geometry of proportional right angles. This would allow a very modern design to compliment an older home, because basic geometric patterns are universal in many architectural designs used throughout history. In this case, both the swimming pool and the outdoor rooms were designed as interrelated quadrilateral forms with proportional right angles that created the illusion of lengthened distance and a sense of Classical elegance. This proved a perfect complement to a house that had originally been built as a symbolic emblem of a simpler, more rugged and absolute era. Though reminiscent of classical design and complimentary to the conservative design of the home, the interior of the outdoor room was ultra-modern in its array of comfort and convenience. The Peseks felt this would be a great place to hold birthday parties for their child. With this new outdoor room, the Peseks could take the party outside at any time of day or night, and at any time of year. We also built the structure to be fully functional as an outdoor kitchen as well as an outdoor entertainment area. There was a smoker, a refrigerator, an ice maker, and a water heater—all intended to eliminate any need to return to the house once the party began. Seating and entertainment systems were also added to provide state of the art fun for adults and children alike. We installed a flat-screen plasma TV, and we wired it for cable. The swimming pool was built between the outdoor room and the rear entrance to the house. We got rid of the old lagoon-pool design which geometrically clashed with the right angles of the house and outdoor room. We then had a completely new pool built, in the shape of a rectangle, with a rather innovative coping design. We showcased the pool with a coping that rose perpendicular to the ground out of the stone patio surface. This reinforced our blend of contemporary look with classical right angles. We saved the client an enormous amount of money on travertine by setting the coping so that it does not overhang with the tile. Because the ground between the house and the outdoor room gradually dropped in grade, we used the natural slope of the ground to create another perpendicular right angle at the end of the pool. Here, we installed a waterfall which spilled over into a heated spa. Although the spa was fed from within itself, it was built to look as though water was coming from within the pool. The ultimate result of all of this is a new sense of visual “ebb and flow,” so to speak. When Mr. Pesek sits in his couch facing his house, the earth appears to rise up first into an illuminated pool which leads the way up the steps to his home. When he sits in his spa facing the other direction, the earth rises up like a doorway to his outdoor room, where he can comfortably relax in the water while he watches TV. For more the 20 years Exterior Worlds has specialized in servicing many of Houston's fine neighborhoods.

One of our most popular styles this Infinity or Rimless Pool and Spa combination has full length steps and a deep end bench. Both inside and outside copings are Bluestone with a thermal finish. The pool is finished with a Forest Gray Slate tile band and a French Gray Marbledust.

Murray Fredericks