Dream Come True

Beautiful architecture and interiors have long been the hallmarks of Southwest Florida homes (and the inspiration for designers from all over the country). Each year Home & Condo's Dream Home introduces visitors to the new direction of luxury living, often offering a different twist to the already extraordinary.

Negative-edge pools, a novelty a few years ago, are commonplace now. But a negative-edge bathtub? Zero-corner sliding glass doors that disappear into the wall and open two sides of a room to the great outdoors. Sure, see it all the time. But in the bathroom? A beautiful garden viewed from an elevated, jetted tub in the master bath. Been there, done that. But a full-fledged, three-tiered rock waterfall accented with bromeliads and orchids and brought into the room by those pocketing glass doors?

Now that's absolutely dreamy-and all that and more can be found in the 2004 Dream Home at The Estates at TwinEagles in Naples. Built by McGarvey Custom Homes, with interiors by Barbara Ellis of Robb & Stucky, the annual Dream Home project is always a valuable resource and inspiration for new home design. And these new-to-the-market design and architectural features in the 2004 home are just the beginning.

Space-saving plasma TVs, now a mainstay in upscale Southwest Florida homes, are hidden behind two-way mirrors in the Dream Home's master bedroom and bathroom. A 450-gallon saltwater aquarium is mounted into the wall of the sunken wet bar, which serves family room and dining room. Even the color palette is a little different, its earthy tones accented with ice, glass and metallics in a theme of nature-dragonflies, geckos, koi and the Everglades photography of the late Oscar Thompson.

Partners say that more than 54,000 hours went into building and finishing the 10,000-plus-square-foot, $5.95 million home. And that doesn't include the six months Ellis and her assistant, Maryanne Hubbell, racked up creating hand-beaded glass floral arrangements throughout the home; the tricky prospect of hanging the master bath's delicate wallpaper with crushed glass rectangles; or making the hundred of yards of draperies and window treatments and imported glass finials.

The house literally became a canvas with faux finish, an upholstered basket-weave wall, marble, stone, wood and bamboo applied to ceiling, walls and floors. Wood-framed, hammered copper panels in the media room/safe room took three weeks to create. Guestrooms aren't afterthoughts, but well-conceived retreats, including a three-room Asian-inspired guesthouse, the kiwi-colored cabana and the koi-themed day room.

The Dream Home partners-representatives of Home & Condo's publishers Gulfshore Media, McGarvey, Robb & Stucky, The Bonita Bay Group, residential designer R.G. Designs and Architectural Land Design-have come to expect the jaw-dropping reaction that overtakes visitors to the home. They've affectionately called it the "wow factor," a phenomenon that intensifies throughout the house. "It's fun to watch people walk into the master bathroom," says Dan Gerner, McGarvey's executive vice president. "Their eyes get wide and their mouths just open. Then I know we did what we were trying to do."

Many of the home's features, like the master bathroom with its negative-edge tub, pocketing sliding glass doors and three-tiered fountain, are obvious wows. But the reaction sets in where visitors might least expect: opening one of the beautiful custom wood closet doors in one of the master bedroom's walk-in closets to see a stackable washer and dryer and a Personal Valet laundry cleaning kit, for example. Visitors even gasp at the laundry room, with its water views, desk and one of the home's 11 TVs.

Beautifully furnished outdoor areas with furniture and accessories that look as if they belong inside help blur the boundaries between indoor and outdoor spaces. Glass enhances the effect in the Dream Home-a window bed wall in the master bath overlooking a butterfly garden and fountain and two sets of 90-degree doors that open three sides of the family room to outdoor space. Deciding if you're inside or out means looking up to see if there's a roof overhead. Sleeping and bathing seem to occur outside. "We want people to walk in here and wonder, 'Is it inside or is it outside?'" says Gerner.

Outdoor spaces surround the four-bedroom, six-bath home with water, enhanced by a large lake to the side and back. Besides the two water features displayed in the bathroom and the pool and collecting pond viewed from the living room, the home has a koi pond and meditation garden and a special place that combines fire and water-a bench with a waterfall and fire pit.

INFORMATION

The Dream Home is located in The Estates at TwinEagles on Immokalee Road, seven miles east of I-75 in north Naples. The 2004 Dream Home is open Feb. 21 to April 4, 2004, Tuesday through Sundays, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Visitors can save $2 off the regular $15 admission price by purchasing advance tickets at the Naples Philharmonic storefront in Coastland Center.

Group tour packages include lunch at The Club at TwinEagles and can be booked through Claudia Polzin at (239) 597-0670 or cpolzin@naplesphilcenter.org.

For additional information, call (239) 352-8000 or visit www.DreamHome2004.com on the Web.