The home from the west (on the hilltop).

This is the entry to the property.

There is a 15' gate for cars and a 3' gate for foot traffic. Both gates are remotely controlled.

Notice the door bell to the right of the gate.

This door bell has a speaker, microphone and a camera inside and is used to communicate with the house.

The door bell actually rings on the telephones throughout the home. If someone presses the doorbell you will hear 3 short rings inside the home. You pick up the telephone handset and answer the call as if it was a normal telephone call. If you choose to allow entry then you would press 7 on the telephone keypad and the gate will automatically unlatch itself allowing entry. If you are watching television you can change to channel 84 and you will be able to see the person while you are talking to them.

The owner claims "I have never built or remodeled a home without making it a fun and comfortable place to be. With the Cultural Center across the way, I thought it would be fitting to associate the home with the arts. I chose to call this home "Casa de la Musica". The House of Music."

You will notice the Main Entry Gate has sheet music within its design. Are you wondering what the music is? A clue : "What was the most popular tune of the Kingsmen?" Curious? Here are the first 11 notes.

This is the backside of the Main Entry Gate.

The gate opener (Apollo Model 1550ETL) has two remote controls similar to a garage door opener. When you are in your car you can open the gate with the remote control device. If you are on foot you don't need an opener as you can assign an entry code for yourself and use the keypad to the right of the Main Entry Gate.

The gate is programmable and can do just about anything you want. Soft close; soft open. Stay open; automatically shut after opened. Time delays, etc., etc.

This wall is to the left when you drive onto the property.

Recently there were vines planted that stay green the entire year. The vines will probably cover the entire wall by April of 2008. Also there are flowers planted in front that will cascade down the wall in a month or so. The planter has water installed which operates off of the automatic watering system.

There is also 110V power here for the additional lights being installed for the parking area as well as a low voltage system for landscape lighting.

The south side of the home is opposite the wall in the picture above.

There is a Utility Shed built to the left of the Guest Kitchen which comfortably houses the propane tanks, water heaters, and garbage cans.

This is looking along the left (west) side of the home from the Utility Shed.

The first two arches are in the private portal of the Guest Suite. The second arch is the Master Bathroom. The remaining arches are in the Portal outside of the Master Bedroom and Salon.

This is the entry area to the home.

The door to the left is a private entrance into the Guest Suite. The set of double doors goes into the Entry Courtyard of the main house. The Guest Suite also has two other entrances, one which goes into the Entry Courtyard, and the other goes into the Entryway of the Main House. The wall lamps were made by a local artist.

Since we are here I will mention there is a hose bib to the left of the Main Entry that is plumbed to Conditioned Water. This can to be used for washing your cars. There is also unconditioned water to the right of the door for washing down the entry area, etc.

This is a small planter to the right of the Main Entry to the home. The owner is growing some exotic cactus which he managed to bring in from Arizona.

Can you see a small green lid under the hose faucet in this picture? There have been occasions where some homes in Alamos have had to buy water due to shortages. With this in mind, the owner had a pipe installed from this planter to the water storage under the left Portal. If water was ever delivered, then the truck would discharge water here rather than running a hose through the home to the storage.

This is the Garden Area on the east side of the home.

There are three terraced planters along the side of the home and three large terraced planters to the right for planting flowers or vegetables. The wall planters and the three large planters are all on the automatic watering system.

The bush to the left is a Key Lime which is a Mexican food staple and the one to the right is a Meyer Lemon. You can not find lemons here so we suspect the owner thought it would be good to have his own source of lemons on the property.

There is an outside electrical outlet installed in the brickwork to the left of the Key Lime bush.

This is the entry to the basement.

This leads to the area below the east and north Portals. We would like to mention this door is wired into the main house Burglar Alarm System.

To the right of the door, under the terraced planter, there is a large recessed area which can be used for the storage of hoses, etc. There is also a hose bib installed in the recess.

This is entering the basement area.

You can see the walls, floor and ceiling is cement. There is fluorescent lighting installed throughout this space. The basement continues to the left in front of you.

This area is 462 square feet of dry, secured storage. The ceiling is a spacious 7' 4".

This is the Water Softener System. Click here to see the many advantages of conditioned water. This equipment removes harmful calcium and magnesium down to 10 microns.

The Alamos area has very high calcium and magnesium content in the water. This equipment was installed to keep the pipes and house fixtures from corroding. Normally housekeepers in Alamos use a highly toxic Muriatic Acid solution to keep toilets and sinks clean. This is not necessary in this home.

You can see a tube in the wall to the right. The tube goes outside and provides ventilation to the basement. There is another vent tube on the wall to the east which supplies cross ventilating.

To the left of this equipment is a 5,000 gallon water storage which is under the west Portal.

In the center you can see three canisters attached to the wall. This is the Water Purification Equipment. It is made by Hydrotech . This unit has three sumps. The first sump augments the water conditioner (shown above) by removing sediment down to 5 microns; the second sump has a 10 micron Carbon Block Filter which enhances the taste; and the third sump purifies the water with an Ultraviolet Lamp. This UV20 Series Unit services the entire home with a water flow of up to 8 gallons per minute.

You can drink the water out of any faucet within this home with confidence, as it is comparable to bottled water.

This is the motor and pump for the Portal Misting System above. This system provides outside air conditioning on two of the three Portals.

It is installed here so the motor is not heard on the Portals when it is running.