Sun | Sep 14, 2025

Dream House | Polished, peaceful, and polystyrene: This house breaks the mould

Published:Sunday | June 8, 2025 | 12:10 AM
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Most of the wall is removed to fully open up the bedroom to the infinity pool deck.
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Most of the wall is removed to fully open up the bedroom to the infinity pool deck.
This is not your typical verandah, providing a smooth transition from inside to outside.
Contributed
This is not your typical verandah, providing a smooth transition from inside to outside.
The kitchen island countertop serves as a room divider and a dining counter.
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The kitchen island countertop serves as a room divider and a dining counter.
The open-air, walled-in garden wooden soaking tub brings maximum relief from stress.
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The open-air, walled-in garden wooden soaking tub brings maximum relief from stress.
With this house, appearances are deceiving!
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With this house, appearances are deceiving!
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Appearances can be deceiving! The visual simplicity of the exterior of this home stands in stark contrast to its contents. It is the best-kept secret in this exclusive neighbourhood — up until now, on the high wooden slopes, above the Half Moon Golf Course, 15 minutes outside of Montego Bay.

So, what unfolds behind the walls of this house, with its private entrance and courtyard portico, where there is more to the architecture than meets the eye? Well, for one, the only two comforting king-size bedded rooms have walls removed so as to fully open up to the infinity swimming pool with its glass-railed lounge deck, conveying the impression of sleeping right there on the outside.

Their good-looking, associated bathrooms elevate above the ordinary with individual his and her rainfall marble showers, double basins in floating marble vanities, with matching twin wall mirrors, and triple wall light fixtures. Both bathrooms extend supremely to discrete open-air, eight-foot-high walled-in outdoor gardens, disclosing a reviving rain shower, and a free-standing, wooden, circular soaking tub flown in from Bali, Indonesia, for maximum relief from stress and emotional pressure.

The deception continues unabated with a flawlessly sleek, high-gloss kitchen in white, and a living area, with the marble island, kitchen countertop serving as a room divider and dining counter. This section leads out to a complete opening (no walls) of sliding glass doors to a verandah. This is not your typical verandah, but rather, a covered, formally furnished space, providing a continuous, smooth transition from inside to outside. Advantageous views of the sea are inescapable from most positions, and a private beach avails itself for your pleasure.

Other highlights in this 1200-square-foot space include recessed ceiling lights, louvre windows in white, porcelain tiled floors, and walls glowing in beige-coloured tones, amplified with Jamaican portrait art pieces.

There is one more feature that supports the notion that hidden truths can defy initial impressions, and it is this feature that is the most surprising of all. The house is not made from block and steel, but instead, it is built, astoundingly, from polystyrene foam panels, sprayed with concrete over galvanised mesh. The foam house is 15 degrees cooler on the inside than block and steel buildings, is fire retardant, soundproof, energy efficient, and structurally sound. It is also resistant to catastrophic, category four hurricanes and severe, magnitude five earthquakes.

The idiom, “things are not always what they seem”, is indeed quite applicable here. The two-year-old house has been unmasked and exposed for what it truly is — a most surprising dream house!

Barry Rattray is a dream house designer and builder. Email feedback to barryrattray1@hotmail.com and lifestyle@gleanerjm.com.