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JANUARY | PAGE 25 | 2015 from Marble Falls, as does the mixture of light- and dark-green gravel used in the front yard in lieu of a conventional lawn. Before studying architecture at the University of Houston, Lantz was a student of interior design. A love of the inherent colors and textures of materials informed her use of gold and silver sinker cypress paneling for interior partitions and translucent gold- toned mica for lay-in ceiling panels. She sourced as many of the materials and products as possible from within the United States, which is why journalist Mimi Swartz coined the nickname "(Almost) All-American Home" in an article published in the New York Times Magazine in 2012 while the house was still under construction. Why "Almost"? Lantz admits she did incorporate a small percentage of items that were either not produced in the States or were far less expensive than their domestically made counterparts — but not without extensive research and giving first priority to local design. She was also attentive to details that visitors don't normally see. She pitched her roof to give it just the right slant for mounting south-facing, thin-film glass photovoltaic arrays, which generate 15 percent of the house's daily electricity. She installed evacuated solar tubes incorporating a glycol-filled closed loop that heats all the water used in the house. The house also has a water-collection system to catch rainwater, which is stored in a 1,400-gallon in-ground cistern and used to irrigate a 650-square-foot garden of edible plants. The basement contains — in addition to the media room and spectacular glass-walled wine storage — the house's "brain room," as Lantz calls it: a mechanical space where complex electrical and environmental systems, such as the small-duct, high-velocity air- conditioning system, are monitored and regulated. Yet much of what makes the house both special and sustainable involves common-sense design decisions, such as orientation and day lighting. She pushed the house close to the back of the lot so that the shallow backyard functions as a light court, protected visually from neighboring houses by the fence along the rear property line. Lantz's house faces south, toward the street. By recessing it so deeply on the lot, she prevented it from overshadowing its next-door neighbor (one of the original Ranch Estate houses) while opening the house to a street-facing garden with a compact lap pool and a courtyard with raised planting beds where she and Farkas grow edible plants. The ground-floor walls are mostly glass on both the north (rear) and south (front) faces, yet almost solid on the narrower east The zig-zag ceiling in the living room, which conceals music speakers, creates a shift in natural light and also dampens sound. The custom bronze-tone mica panels in the ceiling grid by Chicago Metallic are lit with LED tape and allow access to mechanical. In the master bedroom, the room divider is made from reclaimed old-growth sinker cypress sourced from the Florida Everglades; it's more than 100 years old. The powder-room walls are clad on with mirror and Designer White Corian made in Buffalo, New York. The sink is also made of Corian by Kos. Tom Dixon Etch Web copper fixture. Floor-mounted faucet by Zuchetti.