This truly magnificent King City Project is the ultra-luxurious family home you’ve been dreaming of! This immaculate 5 bedroom residence has stunning curb appeal, with a beautifully designed white Cape Cod wood siding, professionally landscaped gardens, precisely positioned home on 3 acre lot and a private driveway leading up to the 4 car garage including workshop. This beautiful 8200 square foot Georgian style home is every homeowners dream plus a beautiful 5800 square foot walkout basement. The English inspired exterior cladding and landscaping has an endless array of attention and detail. The handpicked materials of the interior has endless exceptional unfinished oak hardwood throughout, varying 9” to 12” plaster crown mouldings throughout and see each room accented with upscale interior light fixtures. Spend the end of your hard worked days in our beautiful Conservatory walking out of the kitchen/family room, this open concept room his met with high ceilings and 60 linear feet of glass looking out onto 3 acres of land. Our exquisite Bloomsbury Kitchen designed kitchen is a hand painted work of art. Simple but stunning craftsmanship for this gourmet kitchen with a 10ft calacatta island and countertops. 2 apron sinks incorporated into counter and islands with 2-Georgian Bridge polished nickel faucets. Our 60” range will help every meal taste better than the last. 3 stainless steel fridges. The bright breakfast area is ideal for enjoying morning meals and conversation while overlooking the verdant backyard, or step out to the conservatory to savor your meals under the stars. All accented with Carrara backsplash. Also, on the main level is the expansive Master Suite with stunning views of the countryside, and a magnificent ensuite washroom, featuring built-in cabinetry, a makeup counter, an oversized glass shower, and a separate free standing tub. All is sitting on a beautifully layout of carrara floor tiles. All bedrooms have abundant walk-in closet space, large windows and full ensuites with heated floor in all tiled areas. Hardwood floors throughout have been such an important detail in this home. We take a lot of pride in the finish as well as the planning that went into designing the floors. We have a wide variety of French parque flooring, herringbone in main areas as well as chevron in our dining room and eating areas. Feel the texture on your feet as this oak hardwood comes to life with its beautiful stained finished. 75% of the home is a paneling heaven. The entire first floor leading up to the second floor has extensive recessed panels, archways and bead board from floor to ceiling to give it that country feel. Our main floor spiral staircase is nothing but luxury with its simple handrails and beautifully stained steps. Walk out onto two Garden Walkways, one off of the kitchen and the other off of the master bedroom hallway. BBQ area or just relaxing in front of a wood burning fireplace looking off of a porch with clean cut glass railings. Our wood burning fireplace can be seen in the basement, first floor and exterior of the garden walkway terrace. These fireplaces are cladded with Owen Sound limestone and having a herringbone designed box. To help enjoy these fireplaces, take full advantage of the two storey electronic dumbwaiter elevator for the firewood. Get work done in our 600 square foot office, that is surrounded by oak recessed paneling, custom crafted built ins and hand carved oak desk, all looking onto 3 acres of country side. Enjoy wine? See our beautifully designed wine cellar finished with marble border and pebble stone floor to give you that authentic feel of a real winery. This handcrafted room holds up to 3000 bottles of wine and is a beautiful feature every home should have. Wine enthusiasts will love the climatized wine room for displaying and preserving your extensive collection. This wine room has floor to ceiling glass looking onto the family room of the basement with a wood burning fireplace. After your long meal and couple glasses of wine, see our 1500 square foot gym with all the latest equipment and rubber floor and surrounded in floor to ceiling mirrors. Once you’re done with your workout, you have the option of using our traditional sauna, infrared sauna or taking a dip in the hot tub. Extras include a side entrance to the mudroom, two spacious cold rooms, a CVAC system throughout, 400 AMP Electrical service with generator for entire home, a security system, built-in speakers throughout and Control4 Home automation system that includes lighting, audio & video and so much more. A true pride of ownership and masterpiece built and managed by Dellfina Homes Inc.

Taking a cue from the past and re-inventing it for now, this oasis in Rancho Mirage exudes cool. Indoor/ outdoor resort style elegance perfectly suited for both relaxation and entertaining. Surfaces of plaster and limestone inside and out create the backbone of this home. Strong architectural lines, organic textures and brilliant light combine for an atmosphere of tranquility and luxury. Photography by: George Guttenberg

The back side of the Main House has large pocketing lift and slide steel doors to offer indoor/outdoor living spaces.

Photography: Peter A. Sellar / www.photoklik.com

In brief Location, location, location When looking for your perfect home where you can put down your grass roots and start a family there are many ‘must haves’ that we all have on our wish lists. The obvious contenders are price and location with many other niceties, like the number of bedrooms, layout and decor taking a back seat. As we all know, location can sell a home to those who strive to be in the right area, for transport links, local amenities and the all-important school catchment areas. Like many other families throughout the UK our clients chose their house for its excellent location. Just ten minutes from the centre of Stafford by car, our client’s house is in a popular and sought-after suburb of the town for couples and families alike. They have always loved the location of their house for its easy access to work, schools, leisure facilities and social connections, but they were becoming increasingly frustrated with the layout of the ground floor of their home. It’s inevitable that families will evolve and our needs from our properties will change too. Since the young family of four moved to their large four-bedroom detached house a few years ago, their property has been unable to meet their lifestyle needs and living patterns. Although their property has adequate bedroom space for them and their two children, the layout of the downstairs living area was not functional and it obstructed their everyday life, making entertaining and family gatherings difficult. Our First Meeting Upon our initial consultation with our clients it was clear from the outset why they sought to make changes to the layout of their house. The property had been extended to create extra space by the previous owners, but unfortunately the design and build hadn’t been executed well at all. The rooms and layout were awkward in size and shape and it didn’t allow the family to come together and enjoy their home. They had the floor space, but it was sectioned off into separate rooms, some without a purpose. The garden surrounds the house on all three sides and is of a good size in its entirety with different areas on each aspect. We could clearly see that the house itself didn’t address any particular aspect of the garden in any way. Moving to a new house wasn’t an option, the family were happy with the location and size of the property. What they wanted was a modern, functional, stylish space for everyday family life, with the flexibility to accommodate their large extended family when needed and to ultimately add value to their property. We were appointed by our clients to create a design solution to redesign the ground floor living area with a modern, light filled, open plan space that connects with the garden. It was clear from outset that our design intention was to break down the room barriers and to respond to the needs of the family, supporting their lifestyle now and for the future, bringing them together and creating a house they could call a home. Delivering a project on time and within our client’s budget are always a top priority for our team. The family decided to stay in their house during construction, therefore it was even more essential to minimise the level of disruption to their daily lifestyle with a young family living on site. The family needed help from our team at Croft Architecture to swiftly and successfully acquire Building Control Approval for their project to progress rapidly, ensuring project completion on time and to their determined budget. Our Approach Surveying the site The client’s home is located on the entrance to a quiet cul-de-sac on a mature, leafy, suburban housing estate. Their home nestles into its well-established site, with ample space between the neighbouring properties and has considerable garden space to the rear and both sides. During our initial visit we spent a long time with the family observing the existing layout, talking about how they currently live in the property, their annoyances with the house in its current form, how they would like to be able to live in their family home and how they aspired it to feel, look and live. We walked through the house and it was clear that the existing layout didn’t work downstairs. The house had been extended onto before they had bought the property and the space hadn’t been well thought through in terms of how it would be used effectively. The rooms directly to the left off the hallway, didn’t really have a proper function. The previously extended space had resulted in the house with too many rooms and subsequently this had led to a series of impractical spaces. The long and narrow extension was home to a small U-shaped kitchen at the front of the house, which led onto the dining area and then onto a small room at the back of the extension. For the size of the house the kitchen and dining room in a much smaller and narrower area, leaving larger living areas to the rear of property with copious amounts of dead space. The small kitchen was tucked away at the front of the property which made life difficult for our clients to observe their children playing safely in the garden whilst preparing food and carrying out work in the kitchen. On the opposite side of the property there was another old extension which had a step down into it. This living area had a tiled floor and large glazed windows on all sides which made it feel almost like a conservatory.This area was rarely used by the family as it had no real function, plus it was hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It had become an under utilised space. We walked around the property and it was clear that the house itself didn’t address their private garden space to any particular aspect in any way, meaning that the garden space was under used because of the poor connections. The family wanted a combined kitchen, dining, lounge space for daily life and also for entertaining their family. Design Approach The size of the property presented the opportunity to substantially reconfigure the family home to create a series of dynamic living spaces oriented towards the large, south-facing garden. Our team suggested removing the little kitchen from the front of the property and re positioning it within the unused glazed space at the back of the house. The glazed room had internal French doors with a step down into the space separating it from the lounge. We proposed to remove the French doors, level the floor and make it into one room with the existing lounge. To connect the new open plan kitchen and living space to the rear and side garden sliding and folding doors were the solution, extending the family’s usable living space by creating a seamless indoor-outdoor flow. There was already a patio area there and it made sense for the kitchen to move to the rear of the house to be close to the patio for easy outside dining. It was therefore logical to retain the existing living space in it's current location next to the new kitchen, maintaining the natural flow of the house for the family after eating and entertaining in the kitchen. When making decisions regarding the kitchen design, we worked closely with the family. They thoroughly enjoy spending time cooking and entertaining with their large extended family. To assist with their culinary preparations our clients had aspired to have an induction hob within their new kitchen. As they were working through the design with us, they weren’t sure about an induction hob because of different cooking methods required for certain meals that they like to produce. They particularly like making chapatis which require a round pan and a gas hob. We didn’t see this as a problem and suggested having a single gas burner for purely this purpose whilst still installing an induction hob. They decided to go ahead with our idea, choosing a single gas burner and an induction hob, and it looks great! The existing lounge space had a corner aspect at the rear property that protruded into the garden. Positioned next to the kitchen and dining space it seemed logical to us for the living area to also open out onto the patio, thus connecting the garden to the house on a wider aspect. To enhance the connection between the garden and the living room we thought that a corner door would work extremely well to really open up this space. The clients really liked the design concept to create a feature of the corner with glazed sliding doors that would completely open the house up to the garden. They were excited about the prospect of the allowing huge amounts of natural light into their home and the flexible access it would provide to the garden. Once the new kitchen, dining and living space had been concluded, we then had to consider what the previous kitchen and dining area was going to be used for within the small, long side extension. We talked with our clients about a few possible uses. We noticed that the family have a piano and few other musical instruments. It made sense for this space to become a quiet part of the house for them to escape to, play music, read and generally relax in a snug area. To shorten the length of the new music room and make an additional feature in the newly created open plan kitchen, dining and living area, we reclaimed some of the space from the back of the side extension and opened it up to the main open-plan space, thus creating another new snug. We added an additional design feature within the snug by creating a timber window seat. Not only does it provide extra seating, but it’s also created a snug within a snug, a haven for reading, napping and gazing out into the garden. As part of their brief our clients also wanted a to incorporate a log burner into their newly remodelled home. To connect the new music room and snug to the living space we proposed to position a two-way log burner where the existing gas fire was located. By retaining a fire in the original location it would minimise the disruption and work required to install the wood burner. However, the theory didn’t turn into reality and the new fire resulted in being quite a task to get it to work. When the contractor began to strip back the existing fireplace, they discovered that fitting the pipe within the building was going to be more challenging than they anticipated because of the poorly constructed extension. It was difficult to execute but it was ultimately achieved. What lies beneath? It’s not until you uncover the fabric of the building that you fully understand what’s going on underneath. When the contractor exposed the structure of the house, we found out that the property had been poorly constructed, and they uncovered a lot of poor workmanship from the original builders. As the build progressed the inner skin of the extended structure was exposed, we found that it wasn’t actually strong enough and we needed to make it safe in order to proceed. Going forwards we ensured that the structure was safe, and all issues were identified and immediately rectified. The previous extensions to the house also presented further challenges as the build progressed. We found that the floors between rooms were not level. We wanted to create the appearance of one space rather than lots of chopped up areas. To do so we needed to alter the floor and ceilings to ensure that they were flush right through the new open plan living space. Also, after removing the internal French doors, the down-stand beam where the doors had previously been were subsequently left prominent down from the ceiling. The design required careful planning and attention to detail to achieve the best looking finished results for the client. For us, in principle our clients’ scheme at the outset was quite a simple project but when the strip out commenced there was actually a more going on underneath that needed attention before the project could start to take shape. A lot of things needed to be considered to make it work structurally and properly for the family. When the carpet was initially lifted, we found a parquet floor underneath. The family and our team were extremely excited at the prospect of having a traditional parquet floor that could be sanded down and made good. However, when ‘all’ of the carpet was removed only half of the living room had been covered in parquet flooring and the other half was actually a solid concrete floor. Unfortunately, we couldn’t proceed with the flooring and our clients chose another floor finish. Making connections Our team at Croft Architecture have created a new, sleek, spacious family ‘hub’ that’s light with clean lines. The open plan space unites the family of four whilst providing the ability to gather the wider family and seamlessly connecting their home with the garden through the new full length sliding doors. Although they now have plenty of space to gather with the family, they also have areas of seclusion to spread out and escape to when needed. A strong working relationship between our team, the client and Building Control enabled us to gain the necessary permissions promptly. We enjoyed working with the project team and we’re extremely pleased to successfully deliver the completed project. Although it wasn't in accordance with our client’s timescales with the discovery of hidden structural challenges, we spent the time carefully resolving the issues to unsure that our clients home was not only safe, but also looks great and functions perfectly.

The master suite overlooks a central courtyard. The house is characterized by its expansive cantilevers and bold finishes.

Diesel's House started with a very simple brief for a "U-shaped" house to provide privacy from neighbouring houses, bring the outdoors in, and have the informality, quirkiness and fun of a 1960's beach house. By wrapping the house around a courtyard on three sides and having a covered deck to the north, all rooms open onto a private outdoor green space. Views expand across the courtyard to the back yard and sky making spaces feel very generous. The house captures sea breezes in Summer and the sun in Winter; the occupants are comfortably connected to the time of day, the seasons and their environment. Passive solar design, natural ventilation supplemented by ceiling fans, solar energy and rainwater capture, and reuse of building materials all act to reduce environmental footprint. Diesel's house demonstrates that a suburban house in a subtropical climate does not have to be "heavy" on the environment.

Diesel's House started with a very simple brief for a "U-shaped" house to provide privacy from neighbouring houses, bring the outdoors in, and have the informality, quirkiness and fun of a 1960's beach house. By wrapping the house around a courtyard on three sides and having a covered deck to the north, all rooms open onto a private outdoor green space. Views expand across the courtyard to the back yard and sky making spaces feel very generous. The house captures sea breezes in Summer and the sun in Winter; the occupants are comfortably connected to the time of day, the seasons and their environment. Passive solar design, natural ventilation supplemented by ceiling fans, solar energy and rainwater capture, and reuse of building materials all act to reduce environmental footprint. Diesel's house demonstrates that a suburban house in a subtropical climate does not have to be "heavy" on the environment.

View of south elevation with U shaped courtyard and spa

center court yard, shingle style home

View of south elevation with U shaped courtyard and spa

This stunning showhome in South West Edmonton is sure to impress. The rooftop patio with u-shaped island and spectacular view. Open concept home with high ceilings, home office space. Huge kitchen will be loved by all cooks. Pantry is hidden by secret doors. Linear fireplace with tile accent walls. Several decks. Walk out basement with impressive bar, gym, theatre room, large bedroom with walk in closet and terrific bathroom with double oversized tile shower.

Diesel's House started with a very simple brief for a "U-shaped" house to provide privacy from neighbouring houses, bring the outdoors in, and have the informality, quirkiness and fun of a 1960's beach house. By wrapping the house around a courtyard on three sides and having a covered deck to the north, all rooms open onto a private outdoor green space. Views expand across the courtyard to the back yard and sky making spaces feel very generous. The house captures sea breezes in Summer and the sun in Winter; the occupants are comfortably connected to the time of day, the seasons and their environment. Passive solar design, natural ventilation supplemented by ceiling fans, solar energy and rainwater capture, and reuse of building materials all act to reduce environmental footprint. Diesel's house demonstrates that a suburban house in a subtropical climate does not have to be "heavy" on the environment.

This stunning showhome in South West Edmonton is sure to impress. The rooftop patio with u-shaped island and spectacular view. Open concept home with high ceilings, home office space. Huge kitchen will be loved by all cooks. Pantry is hidden by secret doors. Linear fireplace with tile accent walls. Several decks. Walk out basement with impressive bar, gym, theatre room, large bedroom with walk in closet and terrific bathroom with double oversized tile shower.