The Decision

Lot #28, Day
Originally uploaded by tropo

We have seen dozens of pieces of property. Some have been much larger, some of have been smaller. Many have been cheaper. I think my husband was most in love with the two acres also in MacDonald Highlands, just because it was such a huge piece of property. It was tucked in the back of some hills and had privacy in all directions, including the fact that it was one of only nine house to be built on that road. But once we saw the night view from Lot #28, even he was sold that this was the perfect piece of property to build on. The night view is simply spectacular, all of the Strip and most of the valley from Anthem to Lake Las Vegas.


Does this mean that this is the perfect piece of land? Rarely is a piece of land perfect. It might have a great view, but be really steep. It may be flat, but small. This lot has a road that curves around three sides of the property. I am worried that the house will not be as private as I would like it to be, even though the road will have very little traffic on it. The original piece of land was a steep, steep slope, but the road construction company filled in a pad across almost the entire piece of property. We will still have to do a lot of engineering to make the fill stable enough for a house. And the house cannot be more than one story above the pad height. That means that whatever we design will probably be two stories and spill down the hillside. Although we are really grateful to have a one story house now after the "house of stairs" that we owned in Burlingame, I think we can handle two stories, especially if we add an elevator or at least a dumbwaiter.

Now comes the really exciting part: actually designing the house. We are going to interview two construction companies on Monday and Tuesday. Later on there will be interviews with architects, kitchen designers, landscapers, and media consultants. We have talked about the functional areas we would like to see on this piece of land. Now to see if we can make all the parts fit.