Courtesy photo (Click picture to see larger image) The Newport's kitchen ceiling rises to the second‑floor height above an embracing arm of decorative ledge. The Canyons offers a multitude of exteriors by RaeAnne Marsh  The number of models is finally catching up to the housing boom, as Hacienda Builders opens its models in the already half sold‑out community of The Canyons at Anthem. Three of The Canyons’ four available floor plans–and of its 19 available elevations–are showcased. Part of the award‑winning master‑planned community of Anthem, The Canyons is located on the west side of the freeway just a couple of miles north of Anthem Way.

Anthem’s extensive community amenities, which include Big Splash Water Park and the 43,000‑square‑foot Community Center, are easily accessed by way of the freeway overpass. The Canyons’ homes range in size from 1,736 square feet to 2,552 square feet, all with the EPA’s Energy Star Certification for energy efficient products and materials.

Options to customize–extra bedroom instead of a den, adding a fireplace–are de rigueur in new homes, but these floor plans are substantially different from each other even in their standard form.

The 1,907‑square‑foot Corsica model is shown with one of two elevations that feature an extended porch across the front of the house. The windows looking out on the porch are from one of the three guest or children’s bedrooms aligned in a row on one side of the house. A split plan, the home’s master bedroom lies in the rear on the opposite side of the house.

The front door opens to a deep foyer that leads to the dining room beyond a double‑wide doorway. On one side of the foyer, a door opens to a den, an optional use of space that in a standard floor plan would be a half‑car space of extra depth within the configuration of the garage. Window cutouts line the opposite wall of the foyer, but it’s not the out‑of‑doors they face –it’s the row of three bedrooms. The indoor‑outdoor sensation this creates allows light to reach the interior hallway from which the bedrooms open. And just inside the doorway to this wing is a full bath that conveniently serves both the bedrooms and the living areas of the house.

The dining room feeds directly into the great room and around a corner to the kitchen with its own eating area–which can be expanded into a nook when the bay window option is added to the floor plan. A vaulted ceiling sets this part of the house apart from the rest, which features a flat eight‑foot ceiling.

The Cypress model–a slightly larger 4‑bedroom, 2‑bath house at 2,012 square feet–also offers five elevations that include an extensive front porch. Its front door opens to the formal living/dining room, with crown molding around the ceiling edge as a standard feature.

An arched doorway straight ahead leads to the great room, with the kitchen and eating area taking up approximately half the space and the family room the other half. A doorway from the family room leads to an “L” shaped hallway where the master’s double doors take up most of the short leg and doors to the other three bedrooms are clustered around the end of the longer leg. The home’s second bathroom is situated in this cluster; and not only is it a full bath but it features a three‑sink vanity. The hallway ends at the door of the laundry room, which has the through‑way to the two‑and‑a‑half‑car‑wide garage.

Models at The Canyons include one two‑story home: the Newport. This is the only home with only four elevations; the others offer five each. It sports a full three‑car garage, and its 2,552‑square‑foot floor plan can accommodate the four‑bedroom, two‑and‑a‑half‑bath standard up to six bedrooms and three full baths.

The Newport’s living/dining room rises the full two stories, with large windows stacked in pairs on the front and side walls, making a grand impression as you enter at the front door directly into the living room. Beyond the dining room lies the kitchen, two‑stories tall as well, and accessed through a ceiling‑high portal in the wall separating the two rooms. A ledge‑style shelf rims the kitchen on three sides, and the “U” thus defined holds the kitchen island in the

center. The “U’s” open end faces the kitchen eating area and, over a low “pony” wall (or through the upgrade iron rail), the 550‑square‑foot family room three steps lower. Windows in the rear wall of the family room look out on the standard covered patio. Between the two windows of the side wall, home buyers may elect to upgrade the flat wall to a media wall or fireplace or combination of the two.

A hallway from the family room leads to the garage, first passing the powder and laundry rooms or, as in the modeled home, an extra bedroom or den, three‑quarter bath and laundry area. (A third option for this floor plan is to shorten the family room and put two bedrooms on the side wall with a full bath between them.)

Stairs to the second floor ascend from the living/dining room to a large open area. Master and three smaller bedrooms, plus a single‑sink full bath, ring the second floor, with an option to trade one bedroom for a loft that can overlook the living/dining room below.

Noteworthy features common to Hacienda’s Canyons at Anthem homes include a pantry in the kitchen and, in the master bath, both a soaking tub and a shower stall with more elbowroom than the telephone‑booth‑sized shower found in many new homes of comparable square footage. Optional bay windows in the kitchen eating area and in the master bedroom add a few extra square feet and a greater sense of spaciousness.

The Canyons at Anthem models, on Emily off of 45th Drive a couple of miles north of Anthem Way, are open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day except Wednesday, when it is open from noon to 6 p.m. Representatives Christy Lorenz and Lauren Reeter may be reached at the sales office at (623) 465‑7104.