Watkins residence
Concrete walls & ceiling in safe room are engineered to withstand 250 MPH winds.
Master closet doubles as a concrete and steel reinforced safe room.
Safe room armored door has 3 deadbolts for protection against tornados and intruders.
Master closet doubles as a safe room.
Kitchen has a solatube over the island to bath the granite in natural light. Learn more at Emerald Coast Skylights
Kitchen open to great room makes the living area feel more spacious.
Great room has a solatube to add natural light. Learn more at Emerald Coast Skylights
Great room has 12′ sliding glass doors and bamboo flooring.
Pocket office between kitchen and dining room in place of butler’s pantry.
Pocket office between kitchen and dining room in place of butler’s pantry. Solatube provides natural light in what otherwise would be a dark space. Learn more at Emerald Coast Skylights
Faux finished columns in the dining room.
Faux finished fiberglass doors in the foyer
Man cave with wet bar could also serve as in law or guest suite.
Chicago brick paver accent wall.
Bright and spacious home gym.
Converging pocket doors open up to home gym.
Loui’s man cave.
Walk in shower with flush threshold and no door allows easy access with minimal maintenance. High horizontal windows bring in natural light while maintaining privacy.
Master bath
14″ solatube in the Watkins residence master bath. Learn more at Emerald Coast Skylights
High horizontal windows bring in natural light while preserving wall space and privacy.
Bedroom 3
Bathroom 2
Bedroom 2 with double doors off the great room can be used as a study, living room, or guest bedroom.
Chris sets the stacked stone on the front wall.
The home tested at .98 air changes per hour at 50 pascals of vacuum (negative pressure). 7.0 is considered high efficiency by current national standards. By that standard 1.0 would be considered ultra high efficiency. This home will be very comfortable with even temperature distribution and low cost to heat and cool.
Victor operates our door fan test at the framing stage. The door fan creates a vacuum by blowing air out of the house. A 50 pascal vacuum simulates a 20 mph wind on all 4 sides and top. We’re measuring the amount of air changes per hour to determine the air tightness of the thermal envelope. With the door fan we can find air leaks and seal them up before moving on to drywall installation. This is the only to way to ensure an air tight thermal envelope. The exterior walls are foam insulated and the interior walls have fiberglass sound batt insulation.
Robert and his sons, Chris and Michael, test the size and proportions of the tapered front porch columns. 18″ bases tapering to 15″ capitals will be just right for these columns. Columns will have doric detail trim top and bottom. Pedestals will be stone veneer.
Chris holds up a corbel cutout to test the design shape. The corbels will be 4″ wide.
We use the green Zip system wall sheathing to create an air tight and highly moisture resistant thermal envelope. Notice that all joints are sealed with zip tape which helps create an air tight and highly energy efficient thermal envelope. This system works much better than typical house wrap over OSB wall sheathing which is useless after thousands of siding nails have shredded it.
Brandon’s crew bracing the walls plumb.
Pouring the ceiling on the safe room which serves as the master walk in closet. No need to evacuate with this safe room. It is engineered to withstand 250 MPH winds.
Jose notching out the block for the hold down straps.
Jose, Havier, and Sam place the concrete with Julio in the background on the bull float.
Julio on the bull float, making sure the slab is smooth and level.