'Dead Ringer' Fakes

By Katherine Salant

After seeing the latest and greatest at the National Association of Home Builders' annual convention in Atlanta last month, I can attest that the word "authentic" in the home building business has taken on new meaning. Once it described a material; after touring this year's show houses, I know that now it means a look.

Are the shingles on the house slate? Only the roofer who installed them will know. Ditto for the siding. The Timeless House, a 2002 show house jointly sponsored by This Old House Magazine and the Masco Corporation, a manufacturer of numerous building products, has roof shingles that look like slate, but are actually made of recycled plastic. The siding shingles on the same house look like cedar shakes; they're actually made of fiberous cement, a mixture of Portland cement, sand, and wood fibers. As these look-alike products become uncanny matches for the real thing, even builders will start scratching their heads and asking, "Is it real or is it Memorex?"

The confusion as to what is real and what is fake goes both ways-the genuine article can be mistaken for the look-alike. The New American Home, a 2002 show house sponsored by the National Council of the Housing Industry and Builder magazine, had Merbau hardwood floors. Not recognizing this exotic wood and thrown off by the unusually wide 8-inch planks, I assumed it was a new plastic laminate look until I was corrected by the project's interior designer, Jillian Pritchard.

And just to make things even more confusing, within the house, products have migrated. Plastic laminate was once exclusively used for kitchen and bathroom countertops. Then, tweaking the manufacturing process to produce a harder wear surface, plastic laminate has become a widely used flooring material, especially in kitchens. Now, tweaking things once again, Armstrong has produced a plastic laminate ceiling product that is a dead ringer for the beaded wood planking frequently found in the walls and ceilings of old summer cottages and screened porches (it was used in the Homelink show house also sponsored by Builder magazine).

Moving from the micro to the macro and taking in the whole house, what trends were evident in Atlanta this year? The most exciting looking house was Cambridge, Massachusetts, architect Jeremiah Eck's Timeless House. But the look was certainly not new. As one would expect of a house that is sponsored by This Old House, a magazine that celebrates the quirkiness, craftsmanship and character of old houses, this one features those perennial classic American favorites and Eck signatures-steeply gabled roof lines, wood windows subdivided into many small panes, and a second floor tucked in under the gable roof.

Eck is not one to show his cards right away and the exterior of this house from the street-side is quite modest, as is the entry foyer. But bright light beckons a visitor down the hallway to the back of the house and then you find yourself in what Eck calls "the Oh my God space." The large living dining room at the rear is an exercise in white-white walls, white exposed beams, and steep white cathedral ceilings with two long expanses of windows overlooking the back yard. To add some contrast, the window frames are painted black. Not only is the look unusual, so is the way you take it in. Against the white walls, the black frame of a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired clearstory window catches your eye; when you look up, you see the 20-foot high ceiling and become truly aware of the enormous volume of the room. The details are spare, but finely executed, like the tailoring of an expensive, made-to-order Italian suit. The detailing is also subtle; it doesn't show up well in a photograph, or at a press party held at night-to get the full effect, I had to make a return visit during the daylight hours.

Eck's five bedroom, five-and-a-half bath, 4,100-square-foot house (including the walk-out basement) is a pleasure to see, but its impact on the two hundred home builders who saw it may be limited because the spare, elegant detailing is all custom work and difficult to replicate. It is labor intensive, which greatly adds to the cost, and it requires highly skilled carpenters and other tradesmen to execute. In most markets, this highly skilled group is in short supply and high demand.

Even builders who are undaunted by the level of expertise required to build this house may want to alter the floor plan. Eck adapted it from another commission that was designed for the specific needs of specific clients rather than "the average homebuyer." The kitchen is separated from the main living/dining room, but as lifestyles become more and more informal, more and more people want to merge the dining area and the kitchen into one space.

The house is currently on the market for $995,000 (this includes the lot cost of $300,000).

Builder Magazine's 4,800-square-foot (including the walk-out basement), five bedroom, five bath Homelink show house is likely to have a much wider impact than Eck's because it is full of ideas that any builder could easily implement. The directive given to Memphis, Tennessee, architect Carson Looney by the editors of Builder was to design a house that could be built with "off-the-shelf components" and a floor plan with flexibility and rooms that would be used everyday of the year. Add to this Looney's careful observations of human foibles gained from 25 years of designing houses and there's lots for builders to chew on here.

Reckoning that clutter can overwhelm any household, Looney provided a series of spaces form the garage, where most owners enter their houses, to the kitchen to siphon it off. First, a mudroom with lots of hooks and a large bench for coats, boots and sports equipment. Next a laundry room where family members can take off unusually soiled clothes and not track mud from the soccer game through the house. And finally, a large 10-foot by 10-foot wide alcove where all the backpacks and briefcases can be dumped, bills can be sorted and junk mail pitched in the recycle bin. As shown, the alcove had two computer stations, one intended for household business and bill paying and outfitted with drawers and files for keeping household papers. When company comes, this probable eyesore can be closed off with pocket doors. Likewise, large pocket doors can close off the kitchen and dining room if need be; otherwise, the main living area is very open.

Seeking new uses for a formal dining room, Looney installed bookcases and cupboards in this one so that it can also serve as a homework station and a hobby work area. When company comes, this area can also be closed off with the pocket doors, or the owners can swoop up the hobby paraphernalia and stuff it in the cupboards. The kitchen has eating for four; for much of the year the owners can eat on the adjacent, screened-in back porch. In another departure from the typical tract house plan, this one has no entry foyer; you enter directly into the great room.

Another innovation here is Looney's layout for the master suite, which will be of particular interest to any couple in which one partner works odd hours. To minimize disturbance for the person who is sleeping, the suite has a second entry that opens onto a large, wider than average, walk-in closet that in turn leads to the bathroom and bedroom. Looney says this arrangement has been especially appealing to physicians and pilots.

The Homelink house was sold for $575,000 (the lost cost was $60,000). A slimmed down, less expensive version, $425,000 to $550,000 depending on whether it has a full basement or not, may appear in a subdivision near you as the builder is Morrison Homes, a firm which builds all over the country.

Website Info:
Plastic laminate ceiling:www.armstrong.com
Plastic roof shingles, Crowe Building Products: www.authentic-roof.com
Fiberous cement siding shingles: www.jameshardie.com
Merbau hardwood flooring: www.bruce.com