Custom Home 101: Building your dream

For years, you and your spouse have dreamed of building a custom home that will reflect your lifestyle choices, personalities, desires, hobbies, possessions and interests inside one all-enveloping, spirit-amplifying habitat.

However, once that journey begins, many couples find that their relationship will be tested as never before. For those bold souls willing to take on a life-changing adventure, first take stock of all your resources, study every related aspect of the project, and make sure you have a solid team of supporters to help you realize your dreams.

The Ascaya development in Henderson is gaining momentum once again after construction was stopped in 2009 during the recession.

The venture was started in 1990 by Henry Cheng of Hong Kong, a prominent real estate developer, whose family owns the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., the Carlyle Hotel in New York City, and the former Bank of America building in San Francisco.

Ascaya encompasses 670 acres inside a 1-mile by 1.5-mile real estate partition that has been carved out along the McCullough Range near McDonald Ranch on Roma Hills Drive, extending vertically to 3,000 feet high at its peak. The terraced property is visible from Horizon Ridge Parkway and is adjacent to the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area.

Large boulders were blasted from the mountain to shape the terrain but the dirt was retained and meticulously hand-placed to form picturesque rock ledges that climb like stairs up to the leveled foundation pads. Five years of construction efforts from 2004 to 2009 sculpted the foundations until one of the worst recessions in history halted the project.

Florence Shapiro and Ivan Sher are the owners of Shapiro and Sher, a Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices affiliate. They will be representing the owner of the property in the sale of the land that has been ready-made for custom estate homes. All lots include water, electricity and natural gas plumbing. All homes will have a view of the Strip.

Darin Marques, Ascaya sales manager, estimates that 300 estate homes will be built on the property, with some lots being combined by landowners to form even larger domains.

“Lot sizes can vary from half an acre up to 6 acres,” Marques said. “The inside living space must occupy a minimum of 4,500 total square feet. However, the maximum living space will depend on the lot size and the building envelope.”

Ascaya is expected to take 10 years to complete, after final land sales and custom home build outs. The first phase is near the northwest entrance with choice panoramic views of the Strip.

The Ascaya sales office offers inspirational experiences for visitors, including examples of desert contemporary architecture and artistic interior designs. Several living spaces are bathed in sunlight that passes through skylights and walls of glass. Potential owners can contemplate the scenic terraces in front of them while shaping a vision of their future home.

A three-dimensional scale model of the Ascaya terraces has its own viewing room. Another conference room is equipped with an architectural drafting desk, concept drawing and display area, bookshelves with volumes of references on desert contemporary design styles and a spacious central meeting area to consult with your team of architects, homebuilders, subcontractors, interior designers and financial institutions. Or stroll outside through a desert-landscaped patio to collect your thoughts.

To help new landowners realize their dream homes, Shapiro and Sher sponsor a Custom Home 101 workshop that allows potential buyers to informally talk with teams of architects, homebuilders and mortgage bankers.

The workshops are staged once a month at the Ascaya sales office, and a different homebuilding team is featured during each session. Potential landowners are encouraged to come back and meet with multiple teams to get different viewpoints and as much insight into the custom estate homebuilding experience as possible.

Ascaya does not endorse any particular architect, homebuilder or financial manager, but offers the workshops as a service to clients.

During March, the Custom Home 101 workshop presentations featured a mortgage banker, architect and building contractor team.

“Before even getting started on a custom home project that requires outside financing it is necessary to become prequalified for construction loans,” said Joel Goot, vice president and mortgage banker at All Western Mortgage.

There are several categories of loans for custom home financing. As the banking industry has recovered from a deep recession, more types of loans are now becoming available to landowners and custom homebuilders.

A skilled financial adviser with experience in the home mortgage and banking industry can help landowners navigate these opportunities and better understand the funding instruments available.

Once available financial resources have been tallied, the prospective landowner can compile a preliminary project budget.

C. J. Hoogland of Hoogland Architecture Ltd. started his presentation by showing some beautiful, hand-drafted concept drawings, as well as full-color renderings of a proposed desert-contemporary home on one of the lots. The shapes and forms of the images were intended to give the landowner a visual starting point.

Hoogland talked about the practical role of an architect in the custom homebuilding process.

“From concept sketches to bubble diagrams to schematics, these visual images of living spaces and ‘spaces between spaces’ are gradually pulled together into a package of about 40-50 sheets, that can be presented to local city planners and regulators to start the construction permit process.”

Once initial construction permits have been approved, the role of the architect shifts to representing the wishes of the landowner to the homebuilders and subcontractors, then executing the design.

Steve and Jane McCaffery, owners of Premier Building Group, talked about their shared experiences in the homebuilding industry over the last 30 years; he as a framing contractor and she as an interior designer. After marrying, they started their homebuilding business and have constructed 17 custom homes in Southern Nevada after moving here from Southern California.

They emphasized the need to engage the homebuilding team with the architect and prospective landowner early in the process so that the homebuilder could also get a feel for the owner’s goals and give feedback about the practical cost of construction and related budget issues.

The homebuilding team will also work with individual subcontractors to see that their workmanship aligns with the landowner’s goals and ensure that the work is completed on time and within the budget.

Steve McCaffery manages the overall structure of a building project while Jane McCaffery focuses on materials and internal design execution, including shopping for the right materials and furnishings envisioned by the owner.

Martin Gillen is a sales manager at Premier Building Group who is experienced at leveraging the latest in electronic appliances and environmental control technologies.

Fittingly, the first custom estate home at Ascaya is being built by a Las Vegas native. John Miller eschews golf courses and contrived water features. An appreciation for the natural beauty of his surroundings is what drew him to Ascaya.

“Growing up in Las Vegas, I watched people planting pine trees and olive trees to change the natural desert environment. At Ascaya, I wanted to get above that and live surrounded by rocks and creosote bushes. I really appreciate the beauty of the mountains here, especially the Spring Mountain and Sheep Mountain ranges.”

Miller has enjoyed a creative career in banking that took him to three states. He also is the co-founder of a winery in Sonoma, Calif., called Cast Wines. The boutique winery in the Dry Creek Valley produces about 4,000 bottles of wine a year using Old World techniques that are shared through a tasting room and shop.

Miller will be employing Blue Heron Design Build to realize his dream of a rustic desert-contemporary home. Blue Heron’s business model combines the skills of an architect with the skills of a homebuilder under the same roof, putting together a team that can work together from the very beginning of the project and, when encountering problems, make adjustments to stay true to the original concepts and vision of the landowner.

Miller and Blue Heron co-founder Tyler Jones were classmates in grade and high school. They share a vision about desert-contemporary homes and lifestyles that include energy efficiency, natural materials and an architectural style that blends outdoor space with indoor space.

The home at Ascaya will be built on 0.78 acres of land and encompass 7,000 square feet of living space. They are striving to build a net-zero energy home that will minimize the amount of resources its occupants consume everyday while also generating enough electricity from photovoltaic solar panels to offset demand. Miller is planning to live in the home and raise his family there.

Custom Home 101 workshop presentations are scheduled at the Ascaya sales office once a month. The next workshop will be from 1 to 2:30 p.m. April 19.

To register, call 702-978-5800 or visit the project website at www.ascaya.com.