So you're thinking of updating your bathroom with one of those fancy whirlpool tubs or rain-forest shower heads, or maybe a high-style vessel sink on the vanity. Well, designers of the 2009 NextGen "First to the Future" house in Sin City have two words for you: How passe.

The 5,200-square-foot Mediterranean-style contemporary, which was on display at January's International Builders Show, makes good use of both trends. It's just that its Kohler Fountainhead bath also boasts the new "VibrAcoustic" technology, a multisensory feature that integrates water, light and vibration with music to relax the bather.

The walk-in shower is outfitted with a DTV II custom showering system that, at the touch of a button, allows users to play music, release a blast of steam, change the temperature of the water or flood the shower with colored light.

The twin vanities? Their crowning touch is not sleek vessels but state-of-the-art, 26-inch televisions above them that vanish into mirrors when they're not turned on. (There are even bigger SEURA LCD television mirrors in the bedroom and VIP suite off the great room.)

Who said personal hygiene had to be boring? Other innovations that make this five-bedroom national demonstration house greener, stronger and smarter than everything else on the block include a Hybrid Heat dual fuel system from Carrier, which heats and cools with a heat pump; "stick and peel" solar panels on the roof that generate electricity for use throughout the house; and a non-combustible, stone-coated steel roofing system from Decra that can withstand winds up to 120 mph. Built with insulated concrete forms, it also has doors that open with the swipe of a finger and windows and garage doors that will never, ever rot, warp or splinter. In all, the house is 95 percent more efficient than your average home.

The home's more visual elements are equally leading-edge. The feathery tan walls in the two-story great room might look like faux-finished concrete, but they're actually finished with a new material called PlasterMax-IND by GigaCrete, a leader in green-building-materials technology. It's a mineral-based hydraulic cement made with recycled waste materials. Sprayed over ordinary drywall and then troweled smooth, it's lighter than conventional concrete and won't shrink or crack; it's also bullet- and blast-resistant. And talk about good looks.

"It sort of shimmers when you look at it at an angle," said Mike Reen, Western regional sales manager.

In the kitchen, where a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration All Hazards Weather Radio Network provides critical weather and emergency information 2 4/7, the house wows with Veratazzo's colorful eco-counter tops, which are made with aggregate and recycled glass. Or maybe your eye will be drawn to the wall-mounted Karbon kitchen faucet by Kohler.

Its five pivoting joints allow users to put water exactly where it's needed, inside or outside the sink. Funkier still is the trough-like Crevasse rinsing sink, which slopes 33 inches into a garbage disposal.

To turn it on, you only need to run the water, freeing up your hands for other chores.

The NextGen house also showcases parquet Walker Zanger porcelain floor tiles that look exactly like leather (you have to touch to make sure), a winding staircase with stainless-steel cable rails from Feeney Architectural Products that ends in a curved balcony overlooking the great room and a morning kitchen off the master with an Electrolux coffee bar.

Maybe that's not so cutting-edge for a new generation, but you have to admit it's still enviable. If you're going to watch TV while you brush your teeth or soak in the tub, you might as well enjoy a cup of espresso while you're taking your shower.

For more about the 2009 NextGen demonstration home, visit nextgenhome.com.