Summer or winter, rain or shine, a day spent at this outdoor living space will be a day long remembered. Homeowners Bill and Anne’s new residence is part of a community in Murrysville befittingly named Serenity Pointe. With the number of restaurants and businesses on the rise, the area is quickly becoming a hot spot for Pittsburghers. “Murrysville is a small town with a strong sense of community,” says Bill. “It’s a bit more of a country-urban type of suburb.”
The whole process began evolving a few years back when the couple was considering a move to Phoenix. They had been in Pittsburgh all of their lives and wanted to try something different. “We did our research and learned that outdoor living spaces in Phoenix are given much greater importance than their indoor spaces,” says Anne.
Instead of moving out there, they decided to bring Arizona to Murrysville and built a home with a fire pit, hot tub and swimming pool. They enlisted the help of Suncrest Homes, Inc. to help them create their home and back yard. “This beautiful custom Craftsman style home is everything this generation could possibly want,” says Colleen Ruefle-Haley, vice president of Suncrest Homes. “The outdoor space was designed to maximize the full potential of the lot size and the end result is stunning.”
In keeping with a maintenance free sanctuary, the heated pool is salt water. “We add the salt, and there’s a converter that changes the salt to chlorine so that we never have to add it again in the summertime,” explains Bill. With chemicals working automatically, and a robot roaming the pool to keep it clean, the couple can spend their spare time enjoying the amenities.
With dusk comes lighting, and there is no shortage of it. “We have landscape lighting throughout and spot lights on the larger trees and shrubs,” says Bill. “It’s also been engineered within the flower beds, the pool, the waterfall and the hot tub.” With the flick of a switch, everything is regulated and maintained. A state of the art computerized system controls mood lighting and can also activate a watering system for potted flowers and plants.
Every day the pots are automatically irrigated with a specified amount of water. A remote control is kept inside the home to allow Bill and Anne to warm up the pool or hot tub before stepping in. The couple uses both their waterfall and hot tub year ‘round. “This year when it was freezing cold outside, we made our way out there and spent hours in the tub,” says Anne. “We had all of the lights on and stayed warm and toasty while watching the snow fall around us.”
Much of the outdoor space was designed around their father and son Sheltie dogs, Gabe and Indi. Gabe is an AKC Grand Champion who competed at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. His son, Indi, is an AKC Champion who is currently pursuing his Grand Championship. There is plenty of room for the duo to run, play Frisbee, and stay conditioned. The owners designed a pea gravel path so that their dogs will be able to age in place, and navigate the yard in their later years. “Our builder said that this is the first time they ever had to build a house around dogs,” laughs Anne. “Inside the house we have a professional dog grooming room where we can also display Gabe and Indi’s trophies and ribbons.”
In the summertime, Bill and Anne have a revolving door for barbeques and pool parties. The entire outdoor living space affords privacy and overlooks a densely wooded backdrop. “After our neighborhood block party, we had 50 people back here comfortably,” says Bill. “We are always hosting impromptu get-togethers where neighbors will just drop by with a bottle of wine and then hang out at the pool.”
Editor’s Note: This house won first place in two Housing Excellence Awards from the Builder’s Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh in 2014.