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NICOLE FACCIUTTO: I'm Nicole Facciutto and today we are
back in Fort Lee, New Jersey, where the Backer family is in
the middle of making their townhouse a more eco-friendly
place to live.
With hammers and a lot of heave-ho, it's out with the
old wasteful fixtures and in with the new.
On this episode, we're going to see everything they've done
to ensure that their house is smarter, more efficient, and
of course, built green.
When we first met the Backers, they were a family that was
literally flushing hundreds of dollars down the
toilet every year.
So with the help of interior designer Kylie Egge and some
amazing bathroom products from Kohler, they've designed a new
master bathroom.
They're swapping out all of their old toilets and
replacing them with new dual flush water-conserving models.
And when we left off, demolition
had just been completed.
Jenn, this looks so beautiful.
You must be so excited.
KYLIE EGGE: Hi.
NICOLE FACCIUTTO: Hey.
KYLIE EGGE: Hi.
NICOLE FACCIUTTO: How's it going up there?
KYLIE EGGE: It's going so good.
JENN BACKER: It is?
KYLIE EGGE: It's going so good.
Your old bathroom is officially gone.
JENN BACKER: Yay.
KYLIE EGGE: All the marble, all the mirrors, gone.
JENN BACKER: Thank goodness.
NICOLE FACCIUTTO: Wow.
That's amazing.
JENN BACKER: I'm so excited.
When do I get to see it?
NICOLE FACCIUTTO: I know.
You're on pins and needles here, right?
KYLIE EGGE: Not yet, but really soon.
Don't worry about a thing.
NICOLE FACCIUTTO: Well, I want to take a peak.
JENN BACKER: OK, you go look.
NICOLE FACCIUTTO: So I'll let you know, OK?
JENN BACKER: They just put the vanity in and now they're
installing the new Kohler faucet.
And it's a fabulous new design and it's
going to be water efficient.
So I'm so excited to go see it.
We have a dual flush toilet, which I never even heard of
until now and I'm so excited to see how that works--
a new showerhead, thank God.
Our old showerhead was horrific.
I can't wait to see how these fixtures look in the bathroom.
NICOLE FACCIUTTO: Now I'm going to tour the Backers'
home with designer Kylie and find out how her design has
helped them lower their environmental impact while
maintaining a beautiful aesthetic.
KYLIE EGGE: The tub is actually one of my favorite
parts of the room.
It's really sort of the focal point, the first
thing that you see.
This is Kohler's Escale tub, and it's framed perfectly in
this bay window.
Pairing with the great sculptural aspect of the
Escale tub, we have the Escale toilet.
NICOLE FACCIUTTO: Ooh.
KYLIE EGGE: The Escale toilet has a really cool dual flush
option, so it's a great water-conserving element, and
probably the most important that we added into the space.
NICOLE FACCIUTTO: Cool.
KYLIE EGGE: So you have two flush options.
The first uses 1.6 gallons of water.
The second only uses 0.8, which is exactly half.
This is in comparison to the Backers' old toilet, which
used 3.5 every time they flushed.
NICOLE FACCIUTTO: Oh my goodness.
So they're really saving a lot of water.
KYLIE EGGE: A lot.
ROB ZIMMERMAN: In a typical home in the United States,
over 25% of the water is used for flushing toilets.
High efficiency toilets use 20% less water than a standard
toilet does today.
So every time you flush, you're going to be using 20%
less water.
NICOLE FACCIUTTO: Of course, saving water and money only
started with water-conserving toilets.
A higher efficiency showerhead will also help keep the
Backers from taking a bath on their water bills.
KYLIE EGGE: Here, we are able to introduce yet another
water-conserving element, with Kohler's Purist faucet.
It uses 1.75 gallons per minute, which is about 30%
less than a standard showerhead.
ROB ZIMMERMAN: What The Purist showerhead does is it spreads
the water out in the head and that as it comes out through
each spray nozzle is a much finer, consistent spray.
It feels really luxurious on you, even though you're using
30% less water.
KYLIE EGGE: So take a look at this great,
great Ann Sacks tile.
NICOLE FACCIUTTO: It's absolutely gorgeous.
KYLIE EGGE: So in order to give Jenn that tailored but
neutral and classic kind of look to the overall space, we
wanted to pick some natural stone that had a
lot of color variation.
So this is Ann Sacks Athens gray.
So it has this great smoky taupe color with
the chocolate accents.
NICOLE FACCIUTTO: I love the way it works
against the glass tile.
KYLIE EGGE: This is also an Ann Sacks tile.
This is a matte glass Lucian tile.
And I cannot wait for you to check out this vanity.
This is Kohler's traverse vanity.
So we paired the traverse with this really, really beautiful
faucet called Stillness, also from Kohler.
It's a water-conserving element that
has an aerator inside.
NICOLE FACCIUTTO: And it's in the faucet, the aerator?
KYLIE EGGE: Yeah.
It fits right inside.
And what an aerator does is actually limits the flow
that's coming out of the faucet so you're not using
unnecessary water.
NICOLE FACCIUTTO: Wow.
But you still have the same pressure.
KYLIE EGGE: You still have the same pressure, but it's only
using 1.5 gallons per minute.
NICOLE FACCIUTTO: Now on "Built Green," we're ready to
reveal all the work that's been done and get the Backers
on the road to conserving water, living well, and going
green in style.
JENN BACKER: Oh my gosh.
This is incredible.
GREGG BACKER: Wow.
Look at the tub.
JENN BACKER: This whole thing-- everything, wow.
This is better than I could have imagined.
Look at this.
NICOLE FACCIUTTO: Welcome to your new bathroom.
JENN BACKER: Oh my gosh.
It's beautiful.
NICOLE FACCIUTTO: Isn't it amazing?
JENN BACKER: It's amazing.
NICOLE FACCIUTTO: From the marble, that old marble tile
you had and the mirrors--
I mean, what a transformation.
Kylie, you did an amazing job.
KYLIE EGGE: Thank you.
NICOLE FACCIUTTO: All the green elements in this
bathroom and the water conservation features.
Well, the two of you have a bathroom
that is just stunning.
And thank you, Kylie and Kohler, for, really, a
bathroom that is truly built green.
JENN BACKER: It's amazing.
I love it.
GREGG BACKER: You love it?
All right!
JENN BACKER: Thanks.
GREGG BACKER: Great job.
ERIKA STORM WASSER: Love home and design?
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