{"id":1715,"date":"2014-04-25T15:07:29","date_gmt":"2014-04-25T21:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=1715"},"modified":"2015-02-10T08:23:25","modified_gmt":"2015-02-10T15:23:25","slug":"work-begins-on-monster-26000-square-foot-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2014\/04\/work-begins-on-monster-26000-square-foot-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Work begins on ‘monster’ 26,000-square-foot house"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Big<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Foundation plans for the 26,000-square-foot house included this drawing of the residence. The “172” apparently refers to an early certificate of survey on the property.<\/p><\/div>\n

Excavation work has begun on what apparently will be the biggest house in Billings. One informed observer said it will be the biggest in Yellowstone County.<\/p>\n

The 26,000-square-foot house \u2014 more than half an acre of living space under one roof \u2014 is going to be built just downslope of the city water tank a little northeast of the developed portion of the Ironwood Subdivision.<\/p>\n

Plans submitted to the city show\u00a0a huge, castle-like stone house with an eight-stall garage, a two-lane bowling alley, a gun room, a home theater, a sauna and an elevator.<\/p>\n

Jim Kisling, of Kisling Quality Builders, the general contractor on the house, said the owners don\u2019t want to be identified.<\/p>\n

The house is so large that plans for just the foundation were recently submitted to the Building Division of the city\u2019s Planning and Community Services Department.<\/p>\n

Kim Palmieri, manager of the division, said normally only large commercial projects submit foundation plans separately.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this one\u2019s so huge\u201d that the city accepted the foundation plan by itself. The price tag on just the foundation is $1.5 million. Palmieri said there might be a bigger house somewhere in the county outside city limits, but nothing larger has come through his office.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we could safely say it\u2019s the biggest one we\u2019ve seen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Howard Sumner, a real estate agent who keeps close tabs on the Billings-area housing market, didn\u2019t hesitate to say that this would be the biggest house in the county.<\/p>\n

He said he had heard rumors that someone was planning to build an $11 million house in Billings. At 26,000 square feet, the house in question \u201cwould definitely match that type of price point,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Other<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

There are plenty other big houses in the Ironwood Subdivision, like this one, but all of them will be dwarfed by the one going in on Canyonwoods Drive.<\/p><\/div>\n

And the $11 million price would be a minimum. Sumner said the final price could be considerably higher depending on building materials and special features.<\/p>\n

The plans submitted to the city do include floor plans, but Palmieri said those could change substantially, since only the foundation is under review.<\/p>\n

The plans show 10,900 feet on the basement level, 6,240 feet of living space on the ground floor and 9,186 feet on the second floor, for a total of 26,326 square feet.<\/p>\n

The ground floor is comparatively small because the basement stretches under, and the second floor over, the garage space, which is not counted as part of the residential floor plan.<\/p>\n

The architect on the project, Frank Nienaber of Studio 4 Architects, did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The address on the house is 5650 Canyonwoods Drive. That street runs through the Ironwood Subdivision, which is off Molt Road just east of Phipps Diamond X Park. An extension of Canyonwoods Drive goes up to the city water tank and the site of the new house, but there is a locked gate just past the last house in the subdivision.<\/p>\n

\"Excavation\"<\/a>

ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Excavation for the huge new house is underway just downslope of the city water tank, at left.<\/p><\/div>\n

Denise Smith, executive officer of the Home Builders Association of Billings, said she knew of the project but couldn\u2019t say anything specific because \u201cthe homeowners are very private.\u201d<\/p>\n

In general terms, she said that while builders are upbeat these days in the midst of a recovering housing market in Billings, houses being built today are generally smaller than in the recent past.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe McMansions we used to have in the Parade of Homes 15 or 20 years ago are not continuing,\u201d she said. Though some builders are putting up houses priced at $600,000 or $700,000, she said, most of the houses being built are in the $300,000 to $400,000 price range.<\/p>\n

Sumner said the house going up near Ironwood is not just big by Billings standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cNationally, that\u2019s a real monster,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s somebody who has substantial, substantial funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Excavation work has begun on what apparently will be the biggest house in Billings. One informed observer said it will be the biggest in Yellowstone County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[538,536,537,533,539,534,535],"class_list":["post-1715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-billings","tag-denise-smith","tag-home-builders-association","tag-howard-sumner","tag-jim-kisling","tag-kim-palmieri","tag-kisling-quality-builders","tag-parade-of-homes","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}