New American Home to be showcased

The one-story, 8,200-square-foot home, 9 Cloud Chaser Blvd. in Ascaya, was constructed by Sun West Custom Homes. It’s listed for $6.49 million.

The 2019 New American Home will be showcased at the National Association of Home Builders’ Show, which runs Feb. 19-21. Sun West submitted a proposal and was awarded the right to design and construct the home as a way to display the latest in design trends, product innovations, smart-home technology and green building techniques.

Sun West owner Dan Coletti built a contemporary-style home with five bedrooms and five baths. It has a vanishing-edge pool that comes to the edge of the home, indoor/outdoor fire features, Jacuzzi and outdoor heating area.

“When I started designing the New American Home for 2019, I knew that we wanted to be on the cutting edge of architecture to come,” Coletti said.

Coletti said that starts with the approach to the home where on the right there is a courtyard with a showroom garage for exotic cars that doubles as an air-conditioned man cave with a pool table. There’s an office on the left.

Homebuyers who buy custom homes at this level tend to have an affinity for exotic cars, and the 2019 New American Home has them covered, Coletti said.

“One of the features I love in this home is that you can be sitting in the study, looking across your own private courtyard and seeing your own classic car in the garage across the way,” Coletti said. “I view classic cars like artwork. I think somebody would love this home if they were into cars.”

The back corner of the house has what Coletti calls the ladies’ lounge as a place to relax and exercise.

There’s a wine bar and bathroom so anyone into a spa experience would enjoy that space, he said.

Another design feature is what Coletti called a “great-room-style house,” with no separation between the living area and family room. It’s even hard to tell where the home ends and the outdoors start with a multislide-door system, he said.

“When these doors are open in this house, you are in an outdoor kitchen, which is really kind of cool,” Coletti said. “The kitchen is the hub and where everyone likes to hang out. In this home, it’s a big bonus because of the view of the city. I have become very creative in making the indoors and outdoors blend together. In this particular home, we have a multislide-door system that actually goes right through the middle of the kitchen cabinets.”

What’s also unique about the home is that it has a lot of single-slope roofs that you don’t often see in Las Vegas, Coletti said. The benefit of that feature is it creates warmth in the kitchen where the roofline is lower. When it extends to the great room with higher ceilings, that gives a “feeling of volume” on that side of the house, he said.

“I also love how there’s so much glass in the front and back of the home and where you can see out of the front of the home to see the beautiful mountains and, of course, look at the back to see the beautiful Las Vegas Valley,” Coletti said.

The home’s flooring has square pieces of porcelain that measure 2 feet by 4 feet. They don’t have a polished look but appear organic, which is a depiction of the entire house, Coletti said. The ceilings are ponderosa pine.

Coletti said that it’s tough to get financing for such a project because he and banks don’t know what the final cost will be, so he financed it out of his own pocket. The final cost was kept down because vendors offer discounts to use their products and materials in the home, and they capitalize on that in promotional materials, he said. That’s not easy because of the need to incorporate 2019 products into a home built in 2018, he said.

The vendors offered the latest technology in efficiency when it comes to heating and cooling systems, plumbing fixtures, light fixtures, tile, insulation and windows, Coletti said. It has insulation above and below the roof deck, insulation for the perimeter foundation and independent air conditioning for each room. All that helped the home achieve Emerald level status, the highest rating of the National Green Building Standard.

There’s a lot of “neat” products such as a Thermador refrigerator door that opens with a touch and closes automatically. Kohler has a toilet seat that can lift automatically as you approach and play musical tunes.

“People are finding that very interesting and enjoyable,” Coletti said. “When designing this home, we took into consideration the products we were likely to use, and many of the manufacturers came forward and pulled out all the stops for us and gave us full information about their products and what is coming online for 2019. It’s been a lot of fun to work with suppliers and manufacturers.”

The National Home Builders Association reaches out to architectural firms ahead of their national conventions held throughout the country, including a rotation in Las Vegas. Thousands of people in the building and design industry are bused to the home to view the latest in architecture, products, materials, fixtures and technology in the homes. It will remain on display as a model for people to view in the months after the show.

“They want to be in it because it will be on the cutting edge of architectural and product development,” Coletti said. “It’s a green house that’s far beyond most homes,” Coletti said. “It’s the leading edge to come.”

As for the design, Coletti said the idea of the home being only one story was fitting because it’s situated high above the valley and has great views off the back of the property.

“One of the nice outdoor features is the deep covered patios which serve dual purposes,” Coletti said. “We are facing to the west and wanted shade on the rear of the home, not only for accents but energy efficiency.”

The pool spans almost the entire width of the back of the home. It’s considered a negative edge and disappearing pool with its black bottom, and it looks even more beautiful at night, Coletti said. There are heaters situated so when people are outside when it’s chilly, they can still feel comfortable, he said.

And the views make it worth being outside, he said.

“Many lots have good views, but this one in particular when you look off the back you see the golf course and beautiful homes below and the Las Vegas Strip,” Coletti said. “The master bedroom, wet bar, nook, kitchen, great room and secondary bedroom all have views to the valley behind it.

“When I came right away to the property, I knew that the master bedroom should be on the back left corner of this property because that is where the view is the best of this home. I even made the bed on the angle so you can take advantage of it a little more of the direction of the view.”

What does Coletti want as the takeaway of the home?

“I’m convinced when people come take a look at this home when it’s available at the show I believe they are going to go back home and say we saw this totally awesome home out in Las Vegas,” Coletti said. “It had great Strip views. The architectural theme was something we have never seen before, and we saw all of the types of products put into the home that really displayed itself well.”

Coletti said that from a design standpoint, he wants people to know that homes can be built with excellent energy efficiency even if when looking at the design, it’s not something appears at the forefront of someone’s mind.

“The home does that, and it achieves the goal of looking very contemporary,” Coletti said. “A lot can be learned from the fireplaces that is super energy efficient. They are intended to put out heat, but a lot of times in Vegas you want to see the fire feature but don’t want the heat. These fireplaces don’t give off heat but look really cool.”

The home can be purchased, but Sun West would lease back the home to keep until early summer to show as a model. Manufacturers of products in the home also want to show it off some more, he said.