The front elevation is taking shape at Carolina Crossing — 7,144 beautiful square feet of custom modern luxury in Apex, NC.
From the framing to the exterior choices, from the sound system designed into the structure to the window strategy that treats natural light as an architectural material, this home is exceeding every expectation.
Today, we get to show you what all of that looks like from the outside as this home approaches its final form.
7,144 Perfect Square Feet
That number — 7,144 square feet — means a home large enough to breathe, to have a room for every way you live.
It means ceiling heights that command attention.
It means the kind of structural decisions that S & S makes, at the highest level of precision.
As Rob walked you through in our Glass & Light installment, this home carries wall after wall of luxury windows framed by openings most homes can’t structurally support.
At 7,144 square feet, we had the canvas to do it right — and the front elevation you’re seeing today is a work of art.
A second angle on the Carolina Crossing exterior — clean lines and considered proportions.
The Detail Everyone Is Asking About
Look closely at the exterior and you’ll notice something that sets this home apart from anything else going up in the Triangle right now: Shou Sugi Ban wood.
Shou Sugi Ban — the ancient Japanese technique of charring wood to preserve and harden it — is one of the most distinctive exterior cladding choices you can make. The process creates a deeply textured, carbon-rich surface that is naturally resistant to fire, insects, rot, and UV damage. It gets more beautiful with time, not less.
On a home this size, with a contemporary exterior palette that already speaks in bold, confident lines, the Shou Sugi Ban adds a layer of warmth and craft that no painted surface can replicate. It’s the kind of material decision that announces itself quietly — you have to be in front of it to understand what you’re looking at. And then you can’t stop looking.
It’s also a perfect example of what custom building at the S&S level actually means: not just choosing from a list of options, but selecting materials that are genuinely rare, genuinely beautiful, and genuinely right for you and your specific home.
Customization at This Scale Is a Different Animal
Every S&S home is custom. But a home of this size — and this level of finish — is where customization stops being about options and starts being about decisions. Real ones. Ones that affect how light moves through a room in December versus June. Ones that determine whether a home ages gracefully or fights the weather for thirty years.
Over the course of this build’s Customization Series, Rob has introduced you to the choices that define this home:
- The exterior — siding profiles, rooflines, material combinations that give this home its clean, contemporary identity. (Read that post →)
- The sound — a whole-home audio system designed into the structure itself, not retrofitted after the fact. (Read that post →)
- The glass and light — a window strategy that treats natural light as an architectural material. (Read that post →)
Seeing them all beginning to come together in the emerging elevation is one of the most satisfying parts of this process — and we’re not done yet.
The Story The Photos Tell
The clean lines taking shape in these photos aren’t accidents. They’re the result of careful planning around proportions, material transitions, and the relationship between the home and its lot. The contemporary exterior Rob walked you through — the roofline decisions, the material palette — is exactly what’s materializing now.
The Pella windows are in. The skylights are placed. The indoor-outdoor connection is taking form exactly as drawn. This home was designed for its owners down to the last detail, and the exterior is beginning to deliver on that promise in a way that’s hard to capture in words.
We can’t wait to show you what the next stage looks like.
This Level of Craft Is Available to You
This home is being built for a specific family, on their lot, to their exact specifications. But the process, the team, and the standard that’s producing it? Those are available to you.
If you have land in North Carolina — or you’re looking for it — S&S can build you a home that reflects exactly how you want to live. Not a floor plan pulled from a catalog. A home drawn for you, built for you, and finished to this standard.
We are building amazing homes right now. View Our listings → Explore the Carolina Crossing Community → Start Your Luxury Conversation With Us.
When you are ready to build, we’ve got your back.
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