By Garabedian Properties |
December 18, 2025
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When you’ve spent 30-plus years building luxury homes across North Texas, you see firsthand how the bathroom — once a simple space — has now transformed into one of the most experience-driven rooms in the home. Spa-level features are no longer reserved for five-star resorts. They’re showing up in new builds, renovations, and even backyard wellness spaces.
In Episode 4 of Uniqueness… “Built-In”, Mike sits down with two industry veterans shaping that transformation: Amy Burns, our longtime Kohler representative, and Kristen Martin of Ferguson Home, one of our trusted showroom partners. Between all three, they bring nearly 100 years of combined experience in luxury plumbing, fixtures, and home wellness.
Wellness is this year’s industry buzzword, but Kohler has been building toward it for decades. Their headquarters, the village of Kohler, Wisconsin — which is also a person — is home not only to their manufacturing roots, but also to The American Club, an award-winning resort and spa where many of their innovations are first conceptualized. The brand views home wellness the way we view custom homes: purposeful, personal, and built to last.
Traditional saunas require carpentry, framing, insulation, and a dedicated mechanical setup. Kohler flipped the script by creating a freestanding sauna system — essentially a pre-engineered, modular unit that can be placed indoors or outdoors.
Think of it as a beautifully crafted wellness appliance that:
Mike compared it to Legos (Amy insisted it’s closer to Lincoln Logs), but either way — installation is significantly easier than conventional sauna construction.
The next big feature?
Cold plunges.
And Kohler’s version — called Remedy — is designed for homeowners who want the benefits without the ice-filled metal tub athletes sit in on Instagram.
Amy explains that Remedy:
The unit requires circulation space on each side for proper cooling, but otherwise installs like any well-designed home appliance — making it far more attainable than past cold-plunge setups.
Showers have gone from one handle on the wall to fully programmable, multi-function systems. Kohler’s Anthem+ digital showering lets Owners control:
All of it is connected to the Kohler Connect app, which means you can warm the shower from bed before your feet ever hit the floor.
For large showers and wet rooms — which many of our Owners prefer — digital controls simplify what used to be a wall full of valves, knobs, and labels. Now it’s a clean panel with intuitive icons.
A steam shower isn’t complicated, but it does require planning.
Amy broke down the essentials:
For our builds, this is why we coordinate with the architect and designer early. Once a shower is framed, changing the ceiling height or vapor barrier approach isn’t ideal.
A growing trend — especially for Owners with color-treated hair or sensitive skin. These remove minerals that harden the water and reduce the lifespan of hair treatments.
Ferguson recommends whole-house filtration for drinking, bathing, and steam systems. In our region, straight filtration tanks (not salt-based softeners) are most common. Units last 8+ years and self-purge nightly.
Kohler’s new Leap toilet brings luxury features into an affordable price point. Bidet seats also serve an important aging-in-place role — especially for Owners with arthritis or limited mobility.
For anyone building a new home, both Amy and Kristen echoed the same advice:
Add an outlet near the toilet.
It’s inexpensive during framing and frustrating to retrofit later.
Kristen’s closing wisdom:
Make an appointment — don’t browse in a panic.
Ferguson Home consultants are experts; they review blueprints, fixture counts, water pressure, drain capacity, and compatibility. Trying to make plumbing selections in one fell swoop rarely works. A dedicated, guided appointment protects budgets and avoids surprises during installation.
(And if you walk in without an appointment, there’s still a candy bowl. Mike can confirm.)
This episode captures a shift we’re seeing across the luxury homebuilding landscape: wellness is becoming architecture.
Homeowners want heat therapy, cold therapy, filtration, steam, and smarter systems — and brands like Kohler and Ferguson Home are leading that evolution.
For anyone designing a home today, now is the time to think long-term:
These conversations are easier early in design, and our team is always ready to walk you through them.
If you have questions about incorporating wellness features into your custom home, reach out:
📲 Call Us Anytime At: 817.748.2669
📧 Email Us At: Info@GarabedianProperties.com
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