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Homes

Something old, new, prebuilt, blue

It fits in nicely in historic Auburndale, but it's brand new. And the modular house built by Country Living is, in fact, blue.

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published January 20, 2006

AUBURNDALE - From a distance, the pale blue house melds seamlessly with this Central Florida neighborhood of old homes, moss-swagged live oaks and a freshwater lake that sweetens the views like sugar cubes in iced tea.

With a wraparound front porch, Bahamian shutters, a metal roof and a distinctive Key West flair, the two-story house could have been built a century ago by Florida pioneers.

But the 2,500-square-foot home is brand new, built as Country Living magazine's House of the Year 2006. Even more surprising is that it is composed of five 50,000-pound pieces built in a factory in Orlando. Designed by Roberto Kritzer, architect for Genesis Homes of Michigan, the house looks nothing like modular homes of generations past.

And that's the point.

"It's the wave of the future," said Pamela Mullen Abrahams, the magazine's senior editor of architecture and home building, who traveled from New York to attend the house's grand opening during the 2006 International Builder's Show in Orlando. "The quality control is unbelievable."

Jack Easter, a Genesis sales and marketing representative, stood last week by the wraparound porch that links the front and side of the house and allows for shade and breezes during the hot months.

"It's the way to build houses today," he said, referring to the trend of building homes in factories rather than outdoors, where rain and harsh weather can jeopardize materials.

Staffers at Country Living, the top-selling home magazine at newsstands, chose Florida for its House of the Year because of its high readership in the South. They targeted Auburndale, a small historic town between Tampa and Orlando, because the builder bought a piece of lakefront property for the house at 310 W Lake Ave.

The house features 9-foot ceilings, a beamed living room ceiling, a screened outdoor living area and numerous details, including wainscoting, a two-sided fireplace and dark hardwood floors that ground the soft color scheme of crisp whites and cool blues (the walls are Polar Ice from Benjamin Moore). Upgrades were well-chosen and dramatic, including Venetian plaster, maple wall paneling and a metal stainless steel seamed roof.

"We deliberately chose a very soft palette, the color of the ocean, the sea, of beach glass," said Abrahams, a longtime fan of Florida who makes a point of visiting Key West with her husband as often as their schedules allow.

Last summer, Country Living editors even embarked on a Florida accessories expedition, scouring flea markets, yard sales and swap meets for the perfect decorative touches, including souvenir tourist plates and a vintage table they painted white and decorated with shells. (Do-it-yourself details are in the February edition of Country Living).

The look is country, yet crisp and clean with a dollop of modern design. It blends vintage finds with stylish and sophisticated furnishings, particularly in the master bedroom, where editors chose an upholstered sleigh bed with a subtle shell shape designed by respected furniture designer Mariette Himes Gomez.

Mixing old and new, blending inherited pieces of furniture with modern materials, is a "warm and friendly" approach to decorating, Abrahams said.

The kitchen showcases a mixture of textures and materials, pairing country-inspired white bead-board cabinets with stainless steel GE appliances and a thoroughly modern cement countertop that looks like gray slate. Editors mixed in vintage milk glass bowls, an old fruit juicer and a large antique glass storage jar, found on their junking expeditions around the state.

"We worked very hard on this house," Abrahams said. "We thought about every detail."

In fact, their extraordinary efforts were captured by A&E in an hourlong documentary that follows the building of the house from factory to accessory shopping. It airs at 4 p.m. Sunday and at 10 a.m. Jan. 28.

The house is for sale, listed at $589,000, which might be considered high for a small, Central Florida town but not for some out-of-state buyers.

"If I were moving to Florida and planning to live in this area, I would buy it," Abrahams said.

The house charms visitors at first blush, with its airy upstairs craft room. An open air screened room on the first floor is decked in lime-green bamboo furniture with bold blue and white washable Sunbrella fabric, which is also used in the kitchen on slipcovered traditional chairs and retro 1950s stools.

A first floor media room features two rattan chaise lounges and a flat screen TV. Another TV is in the living room, a rarity for Abrahams.

It's definitely a house of firsts, including its modular design, something Abrahams says makes it uniquely Florida.

"It's a comfortable house, a nice house," she says. "You can look outside the window and think, "This home has been here all along."'

For more information about the house, call Donna Keath with Century 21 at (863) 299-9988.

[Last modified January 19, 2006, 08:43:07]