In an age when everyone wants the latest high-tech gizmos, Jeff Click has built a house as modern as its technology.
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The latest music and movie options, the view-from-anywhere security system and the automated temperature and lighting are managed through an integrated home control system, with much of it hidden in the home's smallest closet.
"What's really nice is if you are in the outdoor living room, you want to change your play list, you can use your iPhone and call Remote App and change the song or whatever music you might be listening to and you are good to go,” said Click, who owns Jeff Click Homes.
From the straight-lined European-style cabinets to the four elongated windows overlooking the backyard's fountain-fireplace, the home's style is "metropolitan modern.”
This, to Click, means 17412 White Hawk Drive is a mix of clean lines and many materials, including interior brick walls and funky metal lights.
Click said he thinks the uncluttered, modern approach meshes with the updated technology — which no longer requires a tangle of cords in the main living areas.
"I decided to bring a lot of the external elements in and bring a lot of the internal elements out. There's an urban feel with a little bit of a natural design element,” Click said. "It's a love-it or hate-it type house. I would rather incite passion than have yet another house that people forget.”
Nonetheless, the brick, one-story home blends in with the other more traditional houses in the Silverhawk neighborhood, near the intersection of NW 164 and Pennsylvania Avenue.
On the outside, one of the home's most distinctive elements is the driveway's 10-by-15-foot "rug” of brown concrete. Around it is a 6-inch-wide border of fescue grass. The green grass looks like it would surrender to sweltering heat in an hour or so — but that is not a concern here.
Click has installed soaker hose under the grass.
"When it was warmer, I watered it twice a day,” he said.
Watering the grass is timed according to seasonal demands through the home's integrated home control system, the "OmniPro II” by Home Automation Inc. in New Orleans.
The system can be accessed through the Internet or the touch-screen in the entry, which is lit by perforated stainless-steel pendants hanging from the ceiling.
Click said people often ask him if the home's control system can be accessed away from home. It can, through the Internet or by phone. But, Click said, the system is more efficient when the homeowner programs the system according to how he or she uses the house.
For instance, in this house, the accent lights in the half-bath become brighter when the door is closed. The lights in the master bedroom are not quite as bright in the middle of the night as they are in the early morning hours, which is "good relationship management,” Click said.
In all, the home, has 2,300 square feet, with three bedrooms and 2 ½ baths.
Building a home with a similar floor plan — but without all the extras — would cost about $234,000, Click said. The home will be part of the upcoming Parade of Homes, sponsored by the Central Oklahoma Home Builders Association. The event, which gives the public a chance to tour new homes, is Sept. 13-21 with new houses open free to the public from 1 to 7 p.m.
"I've found the Parade of Homes to be a great time for an everything-on-the-menu type of presentation,” said Click, who is the association's vice president.
It will probably be one of the few modern-style homes on the parade; building modern homes in Oklahoma is a "definite niche” market, he said.
Most of the people who buy his homes, which range from about $200,000 to $250,000, are younger than 35, said Click, who is 32.
However, Click said he is building a home in the Hidden Prairie addition in Edmond for an older couple with often-visiting grandchildren. Plans are for the home's media room to include a series of flat-screen television sets, probably five in all.
"I also have a strong influx of empty nesters who are looking to simplify, downsize and do it in style,” he said.
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Jeff Click shows his high-tech model home in the Silverhawk addition near NW 164 and Pennsylvania Avenue. BY CHRIS LANDSBERGER, THE OKLAHOMAN
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