During his nine-season stint as Extreme Home Makeover’s leading man, Ty Pennington has designed and constructed more than 230 homes throughout the country, each mindfully created with the unique needs and lifestyles of the future families who would occupy them. Pennington has earned a reputation as a skilled craftsman with a heart, who, with the help of experienced teams of contractors, is able to provide architecturally stunning and structurally robust homes to families in need—and do it in just seven days.
When Pennington set out to design and construct his own dream home, the process of which is documented in a series of programs on NexGen Home TV, his goals were much the same as his Extreme projects: to have a home that’s safe, efficient, and comfortable, while also adding “smart” to the list of design objectives. Inside this 5,500-square-foot home would be a bevy of state-of-the-art technologies, including a whole-house music system, self-tinting windows, motorized window shades, a smart lighting system, and an enterprise-grade wireless networking system, among other cleverly integrated electronic components. Pennington also extended the production schedule considerably from that of his typical quick turnarounds on Extreme Home Makeover. “I’m sort of a perfectionist, so maybe that’s why it took so long (about one year), but it’s also been one of the coolest builds we’ve ever done,” he says. “We set out to create the healthiest, most energy efficient, and safest home environment, and it’s been an incredible journey.”
The journey began as all home construction projects do—with a dream and an architectural blueprint. In deference to the home that had originally occupied the property, Pennington designed his newly built abode to resemble the architecture of the sprawling 1950s ranch-style home—that had been owned by one of the first settlers in Palm Coast, Fla.,—but with a decidedly modern twist. To the shell of the coastal home, Pennington incorporated hurricane-resistant windows, solar panels, and a flood-resistant foundation. Inside, a network of high-speed cabling was installed to support the “nearly 50 different smart home products” planned for the residence, says Andreas Kuhlmann, vice president of NextGen Home TV and NextGen Home, whose team partnered with Palm West Home Builders to construct the smart home. “The idea was to build a home that would be futureproof and would showcase a wide range of products from several different manufacturers” and, of course, that would live up to its title as “The First to the Future” home.
It takes many skilled hands to design and build a home, especially one that’s smart, so after selecting everything from windows that automatically tint to block out the harsh Florida sunshine to invisible speakers that wouldn’t detract from Pennington’s home interior style, Kuhlmann and Pennington called on the local professional home systems integrators at Baxtec to install and tie the diverse range of products together under one underlying control system. “Some of the products chosen for the home I’d never installed before, so getting them to all work together was a bit of a challenge,” says Baxtec owner and president Mason Baxter. Thankfully, he was given the go-ahead to choose something familiar to him and his team as the overlying control system: the Total Control system from URC.
The Baxtec installation crew peppered the home with iPads and iPad minis, from which Pennington can easily manage multiple smart devices at once. Although there are several of them—six to be exact—they blend seamlessly into the walls of the house. Each tablet and mini fits into a specially designed, paintable mount from Wall Smart, which recesses into and sits flush with the wall surface.
From the Total Control app that’s displayed on the screens of these control devices—as well as on his smartphone—Pennington can operate more than 30 motorized Somfy window shades, an Eaton wireless lighting system that manages 120 lighting loads, a Snap AV video matrix that shuttles video from a central rack of A/V equipment to five flat-panel Samsung TVs, and a motorized Chief lift that lowers a Panasonic LED laser video projector from the ceiling. Tintable windows from SageGlass were also integrated, giving Pennington the ability to switch the panes from clear to sun-blocking dark at the touch of a button for greater energy efficiency. “They also are able to tint automatically based on the intensity of the sun,” Kuhlmann says.
The only system that stands on its own is a CT-8+ multi-room music system from CasaTunes. “A whole-house music system was an absolute must,” Pennington says, who made sure to include a music studio in his new home for his frequent jam sessions. Internet radio and iTunes can stream to speakers throughout the house and to the patio, and with a swipe of a finger on the CasaTunes mobile app, Pennington can direct different songs simultaneously to as many as eight independent listening areas
Although the house is blanketed with music, surprisingly, there’s not a speaker in sight. “The best A/V systems are the ones you don’t see,” Pennington claims. So for this project, speakers from Amina were selected for their ability to disappear into the walls. Once installed within the studs, the speakers can be covered with standard drywall, compound, and paint. For the patio, the Amina speakers were milled specifically to fit into the tight space available in an overhang. Two Triad subwoofers, which were installed in the attic and ported via a tube to the overhang, deliver bass to the outdoor area.
Pennington carried through with his mission of high-performing yet undetectable technology by having a Panasonic LED laser projector installed above the grooved Cyprus wood ceiling in the family room. The big reveal happens when a button is pressed on a URC handheld remote. On this command, a motorized lift from Chief quietly lowers the projector into a preset position. From here, Pennington uses a tablet, iPad mini, iPhone, or the URC remote to choose video from one of three Apple TVs, three cable boxes, or Sony Blu-ray Disc player—again, all hidden in an air-conditioned closet in one of the bedrooms.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Pennington project without a big surprise at the end. Although the family room is equipped with a video projector, the space is completely void of a projection screen. It’s not concealed, hidden, or tucked away anywhere; it simply doesn’t exist. Instead, Pennington uses the front wall as his movie viewing canvas. “It’s completely unconventional,” says Baxter. “But he was adamant that we design the room this way.”
Cutting-edge and convenient management of his home’s environment seems to appeal to Pennington both professionally and personally. “It’s cool to be part of a process where you’re using state-of-the-art materials and technologies to be able to live in a smart home,” he says. “It’s not every day you start a project and have it end up exactly the way you envisioned it, but this home does.” EH
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