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Luxurious Outdoor Living

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Luxurious Outdoor Living

This custom colonial sits in a newer development that boasts larger lot sizes and deep backyards, and the clients were able to add a heated swimming pool after their purchase. However, the home is serviced by a septic system, and the system and leak fields occupied a large portion of the backyard, making for an almost 50-yard trek between the pool and home.


By Meghan Haynes March 31, 2007
This article first appeared in the PR April 2007 issue of Pro Remodeler.

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Outdoor Living
Products List
Bringing the Heat

The homeowners decided to add the screened porch after the project commenced so the porch had to be carefully executed to ensure it related well with the swimming pool. 
After photos by Scott Bergmann Photography

This custom colonial sits in a newer development that boasts larger lot sizes and deep backyards, and the clients were able to add a heated swimming pool after their purchase. However, the home is serviced by a septic system, and the system and leak fields occupied a large portion of the backyard, making for an almost 50-yard trek between the pool and home.

Walking to the home for each fresh towel or a soda became impractical, so the owners decided a cabana would add multi-purpose functionality. The homeowner had used a do-it-yourself CAD program to offer the overall vision of the project based on a picture he'd seen in a magazine, which helped shape the aesthetics.

"While it was an unusual situation, I pulled good ideas for spatial requirements as they relate to the pool filter, pool heater and septic tank from those drawings, as well as a sense of what he wanted style-wise with the Roman columns," says Jim Sasko, founder and president of Saratoga Springs-based Teakwood Builders, the remodeler and architect for the project.

The site required specific configurations. "Our first priority was to make sure the cabana was high enough to drain with the proper slope and elevation, so we had to break sewer line. And in addition to meeting the code requirements for the setback distance, we had to reset the pool pavers to make sure they pitched away from the cabana," he says.

The final design produced a 900-square-foot cabana complete with a full bathroom; working kitchen and bar area; screened porch; and connected storage area in the rear. Low-voltage halogen lights surround the structure. Beveled cedar siding and high-quality finishes mirror the look and tone of the existing home.

The full-service kitchen opens to the outdoors and provides an outdoor eating area.

The five-month project cost $192,600.

"We ended up building a pool cabana that cost about the same as a home, so they really had to love it and be thoroughly invested in how they would use the space for their family," Sasko says.

"To me the best indicator of how well the space worked out was that the wife threw the husband a surprise 40th birthday party that was solely around the pool. There were about 100 people there, and the caterers and bartenders had everything they needed and were able to work in the cabana. It was nice to say after it was all said and done that it really worked. It did everything it was supposed to do."

 

 

Outdoor Living

REMODELER AND ARCHITECT: Teakwood Builders, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
PROJECT LOCATION: Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
AGE OF HOME: 4 years
SCOPE OF WORK: Creating an outdoor retreat to complement the home


Products List

Faucets: Kohler Sinks: Kohler Cabinets: Kraftmaid Ceramic Tile: American Olean Columns: HB&G Coutertops: Formica, Granite Doors: Simpson House Wrap: Tyvek (DuPont) Insulation: Owens Corning Kitchen Appliances: GE Appliances Lighting Fixtures: Juno, Kichler, Lightolier Locksets: Emtek Paints & Stains: Sherwin-Williams Roofing: CertainTeed Water Heaters: A.O. Smith Windows: Pella

Initially the homeowners were adamant about having a fireplace under the covered exterior and preferred to roll in a freestanding gas grill. Remodeler Jim Sasko disagreed with the idea and designed a grill top structure with a dry-stacked fieldstone surround to mimic the look of a fireplace.

Bringing the Heat

Working on an outdoor retreat in upstate New York during the winter months — the project commenced in November — comes with inherent challenges. To help reach the necessary temperature for the drywall, painting and pouring of the concrete floors, remodeler Jim Sasko of Teakwood Builders brought in an old gas furnace that was pulled from a prior project and built a tent to keep hot air in that space. "We sometimes had to clear a lot of snow before we could even work, and we had to make sure that the drywall didn't freeze overnight when we taped it," he says. When they started framing exterior walls and installing the roof tresses and shingles, they used a mason's plastic wrap around the perimeter to maintain the heat from the furnace. These weather-related issues added approximately 45 days to the total project time.

Teakwood crews also had to address how to service the volume of gas that was needed to run the appliances in the cabana and run the swimming pool. They had to install an industrial size gas line approximately 2 inches in diameter to the backyard. "It was a learning curve because we couldn't just run a one-inch line," Sasko adds, noting that, coupled with the inclement weather issues, some of the appliances have to be removed during the winter months.

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