WILMINGTON, N.C. — A brand-new house on the coast will be hitting the market in just a few days, and it's sure to get national attention due to the listing price – free to one lucky winner.
What You Need To Know
The HGTV Smart Home 2022 will be given away to a random winner at the end of the summer
The house includes both smart technology features like voice command faucets and automatic skylights
Smart living also includes indoor-outdoor living and creative uses for space
HGTV unveiled its Smart Home 2022 in Wilmington as it gets ready to open up the drawing, which will give away the home, a new car and $100,000 to someone at the end of the summer.
Tiffany Brooks, the home's designer and Holly Overton, part of the building group that constructed the home, agreed that it was a whirlwind process that they can't believe is coming to a close.
“Building a house is like having a baby, and then having to give it away at the end,” Brooks said. “That's what I call these smart homes because one lucky winner does get it all.”
Brooks has been working with HGTV since 2013 when she won a design competition and a contract with the network, but Charter Building Group out of Wilmington was surprised and honored to be chosen as the local contractors to create this build.
“It was really fun and exciting, and it's kind of bittersweet that it's over,” Overton said. “It was a lot, but I will say this, they've done this before, they have a process and they were able to guide us through as much as we were able to guide them.”
The home's design plays off of the feeling of being on the coast with laid-back tones, an ocean hue and high ceilings that give an airy vibe. Brooks said she wanted her design to match the home's location, nestled just off the banks of the Cape Fear River.
The “smart” aspect comes into play everywhere you look, whether you recognize it as technology or not – in this home it shows up with things like a laundry chute in the master closet and a cleverly hidden pantry off the kitchen.
“I think smart living has taken a turn more toward lifestyle, especially with the pandemic, so that was a big focus with construction is smart living features,” Overton said. “Things that make your every day more comfortable and being home more exciting.”
Even though smart lifestyle doesn't revolve around expensive technology alone, this home has its fair share of that as well – featuring automated skylights that detect the weather, voice-controlled faucets, programmable plumbing in the master shower, solar tunnels throughout the home and mirrors that connect to the internet to show you news of the day and weather.
“Technology is forever changing so once we get ahold of a new piece of tech or a new clever idea ... we take it and we run with it, and sometimes we even build the whole house around it,” Brooks said. “Designing with tech you've gotta be a little more thoughtful, how can you make it pretty, how can you make it actually livable?”
Brooks says smart homes are the future for new construction and updating an existing home to have smart features can even be budget friendly.
“I'm telling you that smart is the way to go because it just makes your life that much easier,” Brooks said.
To learn more about the home, the build and the contest click here.