Finally, things are moving forward.
Got the plans finalized except for a few minor details, mostly outside lighting that the designer forgot to include. I had the final plans done at least three times, so this should be the last time. This last time I added three feet to the depth of the front patio because after I marked it out on the pad, it looked small. That caused the roof beams to be bumped up from 2x10's 24" OC, to 2x12's 24" OC. 17' was the max without going up to 2x14's 16" OC, which would have doubled the material cost for that part of the roof. Front patio is 70' wide, 17' deep, so it's half the depth of the residence part of the building. I really like the way it looks on the plans, and marked out on the pad. Also changed the patio from having vaulted trussed ceilings matching the inside of the house to a more conventional patio with a giant timber truss. Raised the ceiling height of the patio to about 19'.
The front patio is the focal point of the house. It's what anyone will see as they turn onto the road 3/4 of a mile away. It will also be my main hang out spot besides the shop. It's all about outdoor living. The fireplace is going to be solid glass on the house side, and have glass doors on the patio side. It will keep smoke out of the house, and it can be fed and cleaned from outside. It will also take care of a security issue I was having with the double-sided fireplace. Flat screen TV's will go above the mantle, inside and outside. Shop is 45x55',16' ceilings, south patio (sun side) is 10' wide, north is 6' wide with a 10x10' hangout area outside the shop work area, which will double as a shaded shooting area for the rifle range.
I added a strong room off the master walk in closet behind the shower. The bathroom was huge with a lot of space not being used, and I wanted a room to store stuff, and put my safes. It's designed to slow someone down long enough for myself, the neighbors or law enforcement to get over there and do whatever they gotta do. There are only five other houses on the road, and everyone looks out for each other's property. The residence portion is designed to be open, look a lot bigger than it is, and take full advantage of the view. You can look through the house to outside from almost every room. Master has 8' wide opening with barn doors, office opening is 6' wide, great room is 25' wide, 35' deep. The only room with a real door on it is the guest room. Wanted anyone staying there to have a little privacy. Shop bathroom will double as a dog wash with a drain in the floor. The shop size is actually a compromise based solely on budget. I can always add on to it at a later date when it fills up. It will already have a 36' RV, a boat, my trail rig, Silverado, so it's less than half full as designed.
Floor plan (potato pics of printed plans)
Elevations
There is no formal entry, I think they are a waste of space. The gate 1,000' down the driveway will be the formal entry. I'll put in a temporary ranch gate and build a real gate at a later date. Something to match the house or the skyline behind the house. Need to fence about half the 47 acres to keep the range cattle and wild horses out, leave the other side of the big wash for them to still access to the mountains and valley below. I don't mind them, just don't want them hanging out on my patio. Gate will have a gabion wall on both sides for about 25', then turn into good old barb wire cattle fence.
Got the pad finished and compaction tested. Ground is so hard I ended up marking out the house with steel spikes because I couldn't drive wood stakes into the ground before they broke up. They had a D6X dozer, 950 loader, big excavator, grader and two water trucks out there for two weeks. It was fun to be involved with the entire process, and watch the equipment do the dance. I was out there every day with the dirt work guys so we could get the driveways in the right places, and the pad the way it needs to be. I would tell them what I wanted, and they would tell me if it was doable, or come up with a better idea to make it work. Pad is a little over an acre of flat, useable area. Footprint of the house/shop is roughly 70' wide by 97' deep, including the patios. Not a small building, so needed as much space as I could practically get. There will be about 65' behind the house. At the shop doors there will be about 70' on the south side (two door side) and 40' on the north side. 40' in front of the house, which tapers down to 30' because I wanted a curved front on the pad. Plenty of room for an eventual pool and more outdoor area. Pad narrows towards the front, which helps with the view (back of pad is 180' wide, front is 140' wide). The driveways split at a turnaround below the pad, which doubles as an auxiliary parking area, and you could easily drive a big rig up onto the pad, up one driveway, around the back of the shop and down the other driveway. Driveways are wide and smooth, and line up perfectly with the shop doors on both sides. Couple great spots for RV parking for my friends to stay.
Pics of pad and dirt work
This cut was a lot of work. About 3' down they started hitting large rocks. They said usually there would be a layer of big rocks, but this just kept going. Pulled out about a dozen that were over 4' in diameter, two were over 6'. They used them for fill in the southeast corner because that side was a lot lower and I don't plan on ever building anything there. They were using the ex to smooth out the grade because I wanted it to be softer angled. Worked loose the biggest rock of all, at least 6' diameter. They only needed to go down about a foot, so had to fill in the big ass hole. The last several big rocks they pushed over the north side onto a flat area I will be able to access after a little more dirt work with the backhoe. I was thinking of getting some of them and placing them in the turnaround for a rockcrawler garden.
They also fixed the road, which was my gift to the neighborhood for disturbing their peace and quiet. This part of the road is the easement along the bottom of my property line.
Anyway, you can put in at Cottonwood Cove, NV, but you'd have to go over the bridge/dam to get there via 95, and the best parts of the canyon are from Willow beach on up, below that it's more just Lake Mojave.