36 LIVING-MAGAZINE.COM JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2011

HOME & GARDEN

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2011 LIVING-MAGAZINE.COM 37

Ali and Guhaina Sharaf and

their four children, Mohamad,

Dena, Salma and Jude, are not

strangers to the Ellis County

area. For the past 17 years,

they’ve lived in Ovilla. But on

the fi rst day of fall 2010, they

moved into a new Tuscan-

style house off of Ovilla Road.

“We wanted to stay in Ovilla.

We really like the city—it’s qui-

et, nice and safe and we really

like the neighbors,” Guhaina

said.

“Jim Johnson built the fi rst

home we lived in 17 years

ago,” Ali said. “We enjoyed

that house and felt he did a

great job.”

Since they enjoyed his work

so much, they hired him to

build their new home. The

Sharafs feel there’s a lot of tal-

ent in Ellis County and wanted

to stick with local builders and

sub-contractors. Once Jim

Johnson started working on

the home, it took two years to

build, including all of the out-

side amenities. He said that

considering all of the extras

the house has, like a lake, pa-

vilion, water well and resort-

like landscaping, the process

would usually take much lon-

ger.

“The Sharafs made quick

decisions and we all worked

very well together as a team,”

Jim said. “This helped in keep-

ing the construction process

moving.”

Though the process

moved quickly, it was

not without a few mi-

nor diffi culties here and

there. For Jim, one of

the biggest challenges

was coordinating more

than 50 workers on

site during some days.

They also imported a

lot of limestone from

Syria that was installed

in the courtyard, on the

exterior and inside the

home.

“Designing, measuring,

ordering, waiting for

months on this lime-

stone and then adapt-

ing the pieces that did

not fi t exactly right was

a bit of a challenge,” Jim said.

They built the house on the

land the Sharafs have owned

for 12 years, which used to be

the old Ovilla campground

from 1904 to 1958. A few

years ago, a neighbor brought

by a plate with a picture of

what the campground looked

like. They’ve kept many of the

trees on the property, most of

which have been growing for

more than 100 years.

For the Sharafs, one of the

main challenges was deciding

exactly where on the land to

build the home. Their previ-

ous house sat on the prop-

erty right where the Sharafs

wanted to build. They had

to decide whether to keep

the old house and use it as a

guest house or tear it down

and build the new one.

Another challenge the Sharafs

faced was deciding on a style

of the house.

“We wanted a Tuscan style; we

were in Italy two years before

we built the house and drove

through Tuscany and saw a lot

of houses there,” Ali said. “We

liked the style but at the same

time, our background is from

Syria and we liked the old Da-

mascus style of houses. We

wondered, “how can we mar-

ry the two to where they can

hug each other in harmony?”

HOME OF THE YEAR 2011

GUHAINA & ALI

SALMA, JUDE, MOHAMAD, DENA

BY KATE MCCLENDON

PHOTOS BY KEVIN HAISLIP • WWW.HAISLIPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

38 LIVING-MAGAZINE.COM JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2011

And then we came up with the Mediter-

ranean style.”

Since the Mediterranean style encom-

passes a few other styles, including Ro-

man, they used that to infl uence the rest

of the decisions throughout the house by

mixing old and new pieces and styles to

make something unique and comfortable.

While they worked to design the layout of

the house, the Sharafs had a few things in

mind. Since they have four children rang-

ing in ages from 4 months to 16 years,

they wanted each child to have their own

bedroom. Guhaina’s mother also stays

with the family for four to fi ve months each

year, so they wanted to have a space for

her where she would be comfortable.

Ali also wanted a game room that was

separated from the house, but Guhaina

came up with the idea to attach the game

room to the house rather than have a sep-

arate building. This created a courtyard in

the middle of the house that Guhaina fi lled

with a Damascus look by importing stone

from a city near Syria.

Jim coordinated a team of architects, de-

sign fi rms, landscaping architects and en-

gineers and made sure everything came

together perfectly for the Sharafs.

The layout of the house is ideal for en-

tertaining, as it is open throughout most

of the fi rst fl oor, with a courtyard in the

front and large, motorized sliding doors

along the back leading out to a huge pa-

tio, pool area and luscious backyard. The

family hosted an event for Governor Rick

Perry two weeks before the November

elections, which marked Perry’s fi rst trip

to Ovilla. He commented that the back-

yard reminded him of the south of France,

which was a great compliment to Ali.

The kitchen, breakfast area and living

area are where family and guests tend to

gather, and it’s no surprise considering

Guhaina’s excellent cooking skills. She

cooks three meals a day, every day, mix-

ing American, Mediterranean and Syrian

styles together.

“Guhaina is a great cook; she’s phenom-

enal,” Ali said. But Ali is not without his

own specialty. “I added the pizza oven,” he

said. “That’s my part of the cooking.” Us-

ing a recipe from an Italian friend’s grand-

mother, Ali makes Napoli-style pizza from

scratch in the built-in brick pizza oven.

The family has a garden outside the home

where they grow organic herbs, cucum-

bers, zucchini, lettuce, tomato, eggplant,

cabbage and more. Often, if they make

salad for dinner, they’ll go into the garden

to collect the fresh ingredients.

Another feature in the dream kitchen is

the commercial-grade vent-a-hood.

HOME & GARDEN

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2011 LIVING-MAGAZINE.COM 39

Since the house is open and the kitchen is

in the center, the smell of what’s cooking

tends to go throughout the entire house.

With the vent-a-hood, no one can smell

what’s going on in the kitchen.

To tie the interior of the house to the exte-

rior and the property, Ali wanted to bring

the inside out and the outside in.

“I’m a civil engineer and builder and I do

a lot of commercial building,” Ali said. “I

like to build outside-of-the-box stores and

I enjoy the different materials that can cre-

ate a look. I do it in an artistic way so it all

works in harmony between brick, stone,

marble and stucco.”

They continued the theme of mixing styles

into the furniture and artwork inside the

house. Some pieces are local and some

are foreign. The breakfast area table was

designed by Guhaina and custom made

locally. It’s made up of three different ta-

bles that fi t together and can seat three to

four people at each one. So for larger par-

ties, you can put two tables together for 12

people or all three tables together for 16.

“We planned to have a breakfast area that

was warmer since we use it more than the

formal dining room,” Guhaina said.

Though they may use the breakfast area

more often, both Guhaina and Ali said

the dining table was their favorite piece

of furniture in the house. Ali has a friend

in Venice who owns a furniture company,

which is where they found the table. It is

one solid piece that measures 20 feet by

fi ve and a half feet and can seat 24 peo-

ple. Guhaina was happy when they fi nally

found it since she had been looking for a

dining table in Dallas for almost a year and

hadn’t found anything that was perfect.

Their favorite piece of artwork in the

home came from their landscape archi-

tect, David Baldwin, who is also an artist.

He surprised the family with a painting of

a fl ower and, if you look really closely, you

can see the family’s names incorporated

into the background.

While the family had help with some of the

interior design and decorating aspects,

Guhaina contributed a lot to the look and

feel of the house. With her artistic eye,

she picked out most of the colors and the

marble in the house. She was also able to

blend modern furniture with some pieces

from Damascus.

“She is very artistic,” Ali said. “I trust her

taste; she knows how to pick colors.”

Guhaina loved choosing the colors and

wanted everything to look just right. They

had to change the color in the dining

room fi ve times to achieve the perfect col-

or. They also wanted to keep all the colors

throughout the house soft and warm to

40 LIVING-MAGAZINE.COM JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2011

create a homey and comfortable atmosphere.

The family’s travels have had the most infl uence on their de-

sign style—they’ve visited more than 40 countries. As they

visit different places, Guhaina says they collect ideas along

the way. They’ll see a window somewhere and think, “we

want that one day in our home.”

In the two years it took to build and the three months the

family has lived in the home, they’ve been very appreciative

of the local team that put the house together, the neighbors

and the beauty of the area.

“Ellis County, and Ovilla in particular, present an opportunity

for those who would like to discover living in this beautiful

county,” Ali said. “When people come to visit me from dif-

ferent parts of the country, they are amazed because of how

beautiful it is. Because there is a special magic in this quiet,

beautiful city and the people are above and beyond. They’re

friendly, good neighbors.”

BUILDING INNOVATIONSJim and the Sharafs wanted to incorporate many of the latest

innovations available for residential construction. They made

the house a “smart home” by installing touch screens through-

out the house that can control music, cameras, gate opera-

tion, lights, the intercom system and more.

“A smart phone or an iPad can be used to control the home

systems from anywhere in the world,” Jim said, which can keep

the house safe and protected even when the family is away.

As a certifi ed green professional and a graduate master

builder, Jim wanted to keep the house as “green” as possible

and the Sharafs were on board. They recycled the lumber and

used it as mulch, incorporated several water management

systems and dug a water well to help fi ll the lake, which is then

used for irrigating the landscaping and grass. They also in-

stalled tankless water heaters that don’t turn on until there is a

demand for hot water.

Inside the house, the HVAC system has variable speed air

conditioners and furnaces to control temperature, humidity

and fresh air exchange. Instead of a vented crawl space, the

home’s crawl space is sealed, which keeps out hot, humid air,

eliminating condensation, musty smells, mildew and mold.

“The attic is also a fully encapsulated attic,” Jim said. “The in-

sulation has been moved from the ceilings of the rooms up

to the rafters. This means that we do not have a “hot attic.”

The attic temperature stays around 75 to 80 degrees year-

round. The ductwork in the attic and in the crawl space is now

located in totally conditioned area which makes it much more

effi cient. We used spray foam insulation in the crawl space,

walls and rafters so that the home is fully encapsulated with

foam insulation. This along with the house wrap means that

most, or all, of the air leaks are sealed and provides for a very

high R-value envelope.”

Also, the air inside the home is exchanged every two hours

to bring in fresh air and get rid of stale air. With some tight

homes, fresh air is not circulated into the home and the stale

air inside the house can become polluted and harmful to the

homeowners. The air exchange is done in an energy-effi cient

way with the use of ERVs.

Other “green” innovations include high-effi ciency appliances,

a durable tile roof, high-effi cient wood windows with smart

glass and wiring that is ready in case the Sharafs want to

incorporate a solar-powered system. The home tested well

above the energy star rating.

HOME & GARDEN