After purchasing a classic 1920’s bungalow in the Zilker Neighborhood F:F was asked to ‘clean up’ the design of the previous remodel, and to design and build a separate pool house apartment and new pool and spa. 

The Design+Build project includes a pool house apartment at the back of the oversized lot to provide private accommodations for the family’s three grown children when visiting for extended periods of time.  The new 850 square foot apartment opens to the pool and yard through a series of oversized sliding doors.  Although the scale of the pool house apartment is relatively modest, design of the new structure includes a full kitchen, living space, full in suite bath, bedroom, and laundry.

Material palettes were selected to blend the existing house to the construction of the apartment to create a cohesive whole. Limestone walls that continue a line established by the carport wall and dining room walls in the existing house, bracket the structure.  Cedar clad overhangs that repeat the deep overhangs at the dining room and living room of the existing house and stucco predominate throughout.  Ground, polished concrete with select aggregate specified by F:F creates a maintenance free, terrazzo-like finish throughout the new pool house apartment.  A large rolling barn door with a chalk paint finish separates the sleeping area from the small living room and creates a playful and a relaxed feel to the newly composed spaces.  The apple green Caesar stone countertops nod back to the brightly painted entry door of the existing house, seen through the series of large glazed walls of both the main house and apartment sliding doors.  The new plunge pool and spa creates the focal center of the yard and is visible from both the main house and added apartment.  Access from the house to the apartment was designed as a series of large stepping stones that cross the shallow end of the pool, under which the water that spills from the spa travels into the pool.