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Szostak Design homes are defined by the caliber of their materials and the rigor of their detailing. 707 Watts Street is no exception.
The exterior deck is Ipe, one of the world’s densest hardwoods, naturally resistant to rot, insects, and UV. It weathers to a silver patina if you let it, or holds its rich chocolate tone with an annual oil. Either way, it’ll outlast the mortgage.
A flat roof on a modern home has to perform, and this one does. The entire roof is GAF’s HydroStop PremiumCoat system, a multi-layer liquid-applied membrane that cures into a single monolithic surface with no seams to fail. Beneath it: tapered insulation engineered for positive drainage to scuppers and roof drains, with crickets built at every low point to keep water moving. The roofing contractor backs the work with a five-year guarantee against flaws in workmanship, and the system carries a manufacturer warranty from GAF.
The entrance is an architectural event. An oversized cherry wood pivot door, nearly ten feet tall within an eight-by-twelve-foot assembly of fixed sidelights and a solid wood transom, swings on a concealed FritsJurgens System M pivot imported from the Netherlands. No visible hinges. The door self-closes with hydraulic precision, holds at ninety degrees when fully open, and is rated for over a million cycles. Security is a three-point motorized lock with a biometric fingerprint scanner and keypad. You don’t need keys. You just walk in.
Prime-grade White Oak runs through every main living space, engineered planks with a 4.5mm wear layer and a generous five-inch face. The grain is clean and even, warm without being yellow, and it takes afternoon light the way good oak should, quietly.
A glass-and-steel staircase threads through all four levels of the house, connecting the lower level to the rooftop terrace in one continuous vertical column of light. The railings are custom fabricated by Custom Steele of Durham: white powder-coated steel frames holding large panels of low-iron glass, the premium ultra-clear variety that reads as invisible rather than carrying the faint green cast of standard glazing. Marine-grade 316 stainless steel standoff hardware secures each panel. Outside, the porches and exterior stairs use a cable railing system with stainless steel cables on matching steel frames. Twenty-eight post assemblies in total. The effect is consistent and deliberate: every vantage point stays open, and daylight passes through uninterrupted from floor to floor.
Thirteen bespoke casework systems span the entire home: kitchen perimeter, a nine-foot island, butler’s pantry, a nearly nineteen-foot living room credenza, library built-ins, office desk with floor-to-ceiling shelving, hall media units, and a lower-level safe cabinet. Every piece is frameless, flat-panel construction, all built by a single cabinetmaker to a consistent standard. The island alone integrates the wine reserve, microwave drawer, open display shelving, and a seating overhang. Nothing is stock. Nothing is modular. It’s all one hand.
Four custom closet systems throughout the home, each configured to the room it serves. The primary walk-in has three fully outfitted walls with mixed hanging lengths, adjustable shelving at multiple depths, and dedicated zones for long garments, folded items, and accessories, all under nine-foot ceilings. The secondary bedroom closets follow the same logic with double-hang sections and integrated drawer units. Even the entry coat closet is built out rather than left as a bare rod and shelf. Every closet was designed, not defaulted.
Everything in this house talks to everything else. Lighting, climate, audio, security, shades, the garage. It all runs through a single Savant controller. Tap a keypad on the wall, open an app, or just ask. Lutron RadioRA 2 manages more than thirty dimmers and eighteen keypads across every room. Twenty-two Bowers & Wilkins ceiling speakers cover seven zones so music follows you through the house. The living room doubles as a proper home theater with an 11.2-channel surround system. Five commercial-grade wireless access points blanket every corner, inside and out. It’s not a collection of gadgets. It’s one system, professionally configured, and it works the way you’d expect a house at this level to work.
The kitchen is built for someone who actually cooks. A 36-inch Sub-Zero refrigerator/freezer with panel-ready doors that disappear into the cabinetry. A Fulgor Milano dual fuel range with six brass burners and a true European convection oven. A 30-inch Thermador steam and convection oven with seventeen heating modes, for the days when roasting isn’t enough. A Thermador microwave drawer tucked below the counter. A Bosch 800 Series dishwasher so quiet at 42 decibels you’ll check twice to see if it’s running. And a Perlick wine reserve built into the island, because the good bottles should always be within reach.
The primary bath makes a statement with large-format 24-by-48-inch polished porcelain in a white marble finish, floor to ceiling, uninterrupted. The three secondary baths echo the same palette in a matte satin finish at a smaller 12-by-24 scale, creating a clear hierarchy without breaking the material language. All bath floors are a dark charcoal porcelain that grounds each room and hides water beautifully. The kitchen backsplash is a Frost White honed marble mosaic (real stone, not porcelain) in an interlocking pattern that catches light differently throughout the day. Countertops are engineered quartz throughout: CaesarStone Pebble in the kitchen, Silestone Kensho across all four baths. Thresholds are Absolute Black granite. Every surface was selected to work as a family, not a collection.
The primary bath sets the tone: a Fantini Milano thermostatic shower with a sixteen-inch ceiling-mounted rain head in brushed stainless, an Italian undermount sink, and a wall-mounted Duravit toilet on a concealed in-wall carrier. A 65-inch linear drain runs the full width of the shower floor: no curb, no threshold, just a clean plane of tile. The powder room takes a different tack: a Duravit vanity in Stone Blue high-gloss lacquer with a matte black faucet. Each bathroom has its own character, but the material quality is consistent throughout.
All four bathrooms have custom frameless shower enclosures in 3/8-inch tempered glass with brushed stainless hardware. The primary bath enclosure rises nearly ten feet, a fixed panel and hinged door that read as a glass wall rather than a shower stall. The guest baths each have their own configuration: a corner enclosure in one, a sliding bypass on the tub deck in the other, and a corner return in the lower level bath. Ladder-style towel bars double as handles. The hardware finishes are coordinated to each bathroom’s palette: stainless in the primary and lower level, chrome and nickel in the guest baths.
The lower level was built with full acoustic separation from the floor above. Drum practice at midnight, a film at reference volume, a 5 a.m. workout. None of it reaches the primary suite. That kind of isolation doesn’t happen by accident; it’s engineered into the framing and insulation from the start.
Every window is a Reynaers system, a Belgian manufacturer that dominates high-end European architecture and is exceptionally rare in American homes. Three different profiles across twenty-seven positions: fixed and tilt-turn windows, expansive lift-and-slide doors, and a sliding system. The glass delivers triple-pane thermal performance in a slim double-pane assembly, and the hardware is Italian. These are the windows you see in architecture magazines shot in Copenhagen or Barcelona. Your neighbors have double-hung vinyl. You have Reynaers.
Three Bosch heat pump systems provide zoned comfort across the entire home: five-ton, three-ton, and two-ton units running at 18.5 SEER. Each zone has its own Savant thermostat, so you can keep the yoga studio cool while the living room stays warm, or let the lower level run independently when no one’s down there. A whole-house dehumidifier manages humidity year-round, which in a Durham summer is less a convenience than a necessity.
Picture this: you’re heading out for a Saturday afternoon walk through Trinity Park. One tap on the Savant app and the house shifts to “away” mode: shades draw, lights step down, the system arms itself. Two weeks in Italy? The house runs a schedule on its own, cycling lights and shades on a rhythm that looks lived-in from the street. Come home after dark and the path lights are already on, the entry glows warm, and your preferred evening scene (low ambient in the living room, pendants dimmed over the island, art lights on in the gallery) activates the moment you walk through the door. The fixtures themselves were chosen with that same intention. A custom fourteen-pendant art glass chandelier commands the dining room. Gallery-grade LED spots with 95 CRI color rendering light the artwork along the central corridor. Italian-made pendants float over the kitchen island. And the bathrooms get eight wall sconces in brushed aluminum that wash light evenly across every mirror. Fifteen distinct fixture types in all, every one of them on its own dimmer circuit.
The lawn is hybrid Bermudagrass maintained to a density and cut that belongs on a putting green, not a front yard. A custom privacy fence surrounds the property, eight to ten feet tall, built on a welded steel frame rather than the standard wood posts that sag and lean within a few seasons. The fence boards are the same wood species as the building’s siding, so the fence reads as an extension of the architecture rather than an afterthought. The steel frame carries a lifetime warranty. Drainage was designed with the same rigor as the house itself. Water moves off the roof, off the hardscape, and off the site through a system that also manages runoff from surrounding properties. The lower level stays dry regardless of what the weather does. That’s the whole point of the engineering.
Every material was selected with intention. Experience the quality firsthand.
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