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Houzz Tour: A Texas Home Gets a Healthy, Fresh Start
Mold eradication was just the beginning for this Austin family's home on a creek bed — toxins of all kinds now don't make it past the door
Houzz Editorial Staff; writer, musician, father and husband.
Houzz Editorial Staff; writer, musician, father and husband. More »
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Personal health is sometimes directly affected by the health of your home. Potential hazards lurk in paint, fibers, electronics — you name it. No one knows this more than environmental health professor Jules Elkins, who — along with her political science professor husband, Zach, and their three boys — set out to create the cleanest, most toxin-free sanctuary in Austin, Texas, possible. They did this by avoiding products with stain-resistant chemicals, flame retardants or any other potential health threat — an approach that turned their house into a one-of-a-kind breath of fresh air.
After a lot of chopping away and bulldozing — the previous home was moldy, dilapidated and overgrown with bamboo — the two-story, three-bedroom house that Furman & Keil Architects and Dunnam Tita Architecture + Interiors designed began to take shape. The catch was a multipage “healthy house contract,” according to Elkins, that laid out material restrictions for Pilgrim Building Company to adhere to, right down to what kind of wiring could be used. This was to ensure that everything that entered the house didn't turn out to be a Trojan horse of leaching chemical compounds.
As for the design itself, the outdoors-loving homeowners wanted the layout to spill into the big, leafy lot — they kept a lot of the bamboo. And what better way to celebrate the outdoors than with a screened-in sleeping porch with a queen-size bed? “There’s always an argument of who gets to sleep out there,” Elkins says. “Kids, grown-ups, sometimes the whole family. It’s really great.”
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Jules and Zach Elkins, and their 3 boys
Location: Austin, Texas
Size: 3,600 square feet; 3 bedrooms
That's interesting: The kitchen cabinetmaker's mother, a United Nations chief officer of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, assisted the homeowners in finding a sustainable, nontoxic finish.
After a lot of chopping away and bulldozing — the previous home was moldy, dilapidated and overgrown with bamboo — the two-story, three-bedroom house that Furman & Keil Architects and Dunnam Tita Architecture + Interiors designed began to take shape. The catch was a multipage “healthy house contract,” according to Elkins, that laid out material restrictions for Pilgrim Building Company to adhere to, right down to what kind of wiring could be used. This was to ensure that everything that entered the house didn't turn out to be a Trojan horse of leaching chemical compounds.
As for the design itself, the outdoors-loving homeowners wanted the layout to spill into the big, leafy lot — they kept a lot of the bamboo. And what better way to celebrate the outdoors than with a screened-in sleeping porch with a queen-size bed? “There’s always an argument of who gets to sleep out there,” Elkins says. “Kids, grown-ups, sometimes the whole family. It’s really great.”
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Jules and Zach Elkins, and their 3 boys
Location: Austin, Texas
Size: 3,600 square feet; 3 bedrooms
That's interesting: The kitchen cabinetmaker's mother, a United Nations chief officer of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, assisted the homeowners in finding a sustainable, nontoxic finish.
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| The couple wanted the dining room to have more function than just as a place where they gather for meals. They added bookshelves and a white-oak bench to create a reading area and library, which holds Elkins’ late father’s extensive book collection. “He read the most incredible things, from physics to Chinese philosophy,” she says. LED lights, like the glass-covered ones hanging over the dining table, are used throughout the house for energy efficiency. Chairs: Wishbone, Urbanspace Interiors; artwork: Angela Fife, Wally Workman Gallery; table: De La Espada, Urbanspace Interiors |
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| The living room, which juts out from a slope, was designed with corner windows that go to the floor to give the impression of hovering over the creek bed below. “It’s an absolutely fabulous view,” Elkins says. “There are monster herds of deer that move and graze through the space below. Just amazing. Of course, 6-foot snakes, coyotes, scorpions and a 2-foot-tall owl live back there as well. Texas wildlife is not for the faint of heart.” Sofa: B&B Italia; lamp, brown chair: Scott+Cooner; rug: Fibert Multi by Rex Ray, David Alan Rugs |
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In the master bedroom, eye-popping colors and high windows brighten the space.
Missoni bedspread, rug, Matthew Hilton bed for De LaEspada: Urbanspace Interiors; artwork: Christopher St. Leger
Missoni bedspread, rug, Matthew Hilton bed for De LaEspada: Urbanspace Interiors; artwork: Christopher St. Leger
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| A large fireproof door was added to completely shut off the upstairs from the downstairs. “It’s also the world’s most secure baby gate,” Elkins says. |
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| Most wall decals are made from vinyl, Elkins notes, “which is forbidden in a healthy house.” She found these BPA-free cloth decals made with a nontoxic adhesive through Wee Décor. Rug, bed: Pottery Barn Kids |
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| When it comes to kids' furniture, Elkins loves Pottery Barn Kids. “It’s so cheerful,” she says. Plus, the company sells all-wool rugs made without stain-resistant chemicals, keeping in line with the couple’s clean-house vibe. The bed was a floor model that was already a couple of years old when the Elkinses bought it. “The thing with volatile organic compounds,” she says, “[is] they’re really high at first, then drop off real quickly.” Bed, rug: Pottery Barn Kids; hanging chair: Haba |
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The wood featured throughout the interior space is all white oak. In the kitchen, the couple wanted a wider plank cut to highlight the unique grain. The couple worked with cabinetmaker Chris Honea of Honea Woodworking to find a finish that was durable, sustainable and nontoxic.
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Bathroom views capitalize on the rolling Texas Hill Country during the day, and at night: cell phone towers. “It’s a haunting view,” Elkins says.
Chair: Wishbone, Urbanspace Interiors
Chair: Wishbone, Urbanspace Interiors
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| The screened-in porch is one of the Elkinses favorite spots in the house. They put the fireplace out here to keep the unhealthy chemicals from burning wood out of the clean-air interior. “You feel like you’re in the middle of a bamboo forest out there,” Elkins says. |
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| The exterior wood slats on the open-air garage are garapa wood, or as Elkins refers to it, “ch-ipe,” since it’s a less costly version of the tropical wood ipe. The garage is separated from the main house by an exterior wall, so car emissions don’t mix with the house’s clean air supply. Most of the electronic components for the home are kept in this space as well, to keep the flame retardants in the components out. |
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Elkins used to be a competitive snow skier, and her husband a semipro baseball player; combine that with the fact that the couple has three small boys, and it means the Elkinses spend a lot of time outside. So much, in fact, that they installed a drinking fountain on this exterior limestone wall.
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| Ironically, the Elkinses' story began at a highly unhealthy place: an overgrown, 30-year-old bamboo forest with “an old, disgusting black-mold house and dilapidated, weird outbuildings,” Elkins says. The property was so sketchy, the homeowners had the soil tested for methamphetamine before construction began. Now the house spills into the leafy, green lot. |
Ideabook updated on Feb. 12, 2013.
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Since you're not going to be re-wiring the television or the ceiling fans or your computers or the oven and fridge with eco-friendly wire or forego fire-retardant finishes in the couch or plywood in your children's bedroom, it hardly seems logical to make a stink about any random electronic component.
Sometimes I don't understand the choices people make, honestly.
I see a child walking barefoot in one of the pictures! He could step on something! Call Child Services!
Sometimes I don't understand the choices people can AFFORD to make.