HGTV's Green Home at Serenbe open through June 24
By SARAH FAY CAMPBELL
sarah@newnan.com
The HGTV Green Home is a clever, eco-friendly and luxurious show home in the Serenbe community in Chattahoochee Hills.
The house is open for tours through June 24.
Entries for the home giveaway can be submitted once per day on two separate websites, www.hgtv.com and www.hgtvremodels.com . Entries may also be submitted by regular mail.
The home is open for tours Tuesdays through Sundays, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tickets are $20, with proceeds benefitting the Serenbe Institute and the Chattahoochee Hills Charter School.
The 2,300-square-foot home is billed as a “modern family farmhouse with a design inspired by Southeastern culture and regional architecture.”
The “green” elements include a high-tech, zoned heating and air conditioning system that features motorized dampers within the duct work to ensure rooms are heated and cooled evenly. There are energy-efficient LED light fixtures, and even solar panels.
Many of the furnishings in the home are inspired by a green concept, with recycled and repurposed materials used throughout the home.
Environmentally-friendly techniques are also used to manage stormwater runoff from the site, with stone “bioswales.” All the rainwater from the house and the property goes through a series of French drains to a rain garden in the front yard.
And the majority of the landscaping is done with drought-tolerant native plants, with trees strategically placed to eventually provide shade to the outdoor areas. But the main focus of the home is the outdoors. It’s designed with several outdoor living spaces, many of which connect to multiple rooms on the main floor.
The focal point of the home is the large central deck that connects to the kitchen and is surrounded on three sides by the house. It features a grill behind a brick wall and a table. One side of the deck connects to the “Georgia Room,” an “outdoor room” that is furnished but not heated or cooled. It features a fireplace and sliding glass doors on either side that open to the two decks.
The kitchen features several sliding glass doors that can open to create a large open area between the kitchen and the outdoors for seamless entertaining.
There’s a cozy walled sitting area just outside the master bedroom — complete with a dog house.
And there’s another outdoor space just off the living room complete with a few outdoor couches.
Up the stairs from the rear of the home is a small, one-car garage with a covered area, accessed by a gravel drive behind the home.
Though the home is designed with an eye toward outdoor living, designers apparently didn’t take into account the realities of a Georgia summer.
None of the outdoor living spaces, other than the Georgia room, are covered or shaded, though trees will provide some shade once they’re mature. Unlike most of the other homes along the street, there is no traditional front porch.
And despite the copious sliding glass doors that are designed to provide seamless transitions between indoors and out, there are no screens to keep the insects where they belong.
Serenbe is located off Hutcheson Ferry Road and Atlanta-Newnan Road (Shell Road) just across the Coweta County line, in Chattahoochee Hills.
For more information about the HGTV Green Home,visit www.hgtv.com/green-home .
