Six versions of a single story
by RaeAnne Marsh

Single‑story houses surrounded by single‑story houses–this is the Canyon Series homes at Montana Tierra, where Pulte Homes avoids putting an imposing two‑story overlooking a neighbor’s backyard. (The two‑story series, the Vista models, occupies a different part of the Montana Tierra development.)

Six different models are available in the subdivision, which is located just west of Norterra Parkway a couple of miles north of Happy Valley Road in North Phoenix. Most models offer at least one elevation that features a front porch. Three of the models are show‑cased next to the sales office: the smallest one and the largest two.

Models range in size from 1,684 square feet to 2,282 square feet. The Escondido is at the small end of that range. It features three bedrooms and two baths, all of which are located on one side of the house in a linear pattern. Balancing the layout are the kitchen and great room, arranged in their own linear pattern falling between the front porch and patio. With wide windows to the porch and sliding glass doors to the patio, the rooms between enjoy the natural light the arrangement affords–and gain an added measure of spaciousness in the effect.

The dining area is a kitchen nook, looking out to the front porch. The kitchen work area includes an island, with ample room to navigate around it. That passing space is important, since it also provides the route to/from the garage–via the laundry room, which opens off the kitchen.

In this model, the front door is set deeply back, extending the porch alongside the kitchen. Inside, a spacious foyer leads to the great room, which also accesses the kitchen a few feet to the side.

Another foyer–at least in effect– lies at the other side of the great room, where a hallway leads in one direction to the two secondary bedrooms and the bathroom that serves them, and in another direction to the master suite.

The door to the master is recessed from the main traffic pattern–hence the effect of a foyer.

A cozy room, the bedroom’s rectangular shape affords it space for a sitting area. The connecting bath features a rarity in new homes in the Phoenix area: a door that allows light and sound to be segregated in the bathroom instead of spilling into the bedroom.

At the upper end of the square footage is the Monterrey model, a four‑bedroom, two‑bath home offering 2,103 square feet of living space. Here, too, the front door opens to a large foyer that leads to the great room. Living up to its name, the great room spans more than 19 feet across and 25 feet deep. At its further side, the great room opens to the covered patio, which is likewise deeper than it is wide.

The kitchen, which opens to  the great room over a bar‑height counter at the kitchen sink, is approximately the same size as that of the Escondido. Traffic flow is slightly more constricted, but this is due to a greater amount of kitchen cabinets around the room. An eating area, again, fills the front half of the room, with windows surrounding it on three sides.

Two hallways branch off the great room. One, near the front of the house, leads to the three secondary bedrooms and the bathroom. The bathroom, which features two  sinks, serves the bedrooms as well as the entertainment areas. The laundry room is located in this part of the house, convenient to the bedrooms and the garage, to which the laundry also connects.

A hallway at the rear of the great room accesses the master bedroom, and comfortably accommodates the double doors to the bedroom. One linen closet is located in the hallway by the other bedrooms, while a second one occupies the wall opposite the master’s double doors.

The largest house in the series is the Veracruz, modeled with a round Tudor tower over the front door but also available in two other, more angular, roof designs. At 2,282 square feet, the Veracruz offers both a living/dining room and a separate family room. Rather than a distinct foyer, the front door grants entrance to a corner of the living/dining room occupying the front of the house.

Straight ahead, through a deep doorway, lies the kitchen with its own eating area–along with walk‑in pantry–and, beyond that, the family room. Through a doorway to the side of the family room runs a central hallway from which all four bedrooms open–master (of course, with bath) at the rear of the house as well as the other three aligned along the home’s outer wall. The laundry room lies at the front of the hallway, in the walk‑through design that features a second door opening to the garage, and tucked next to it is the second bathroom.

All models feature a side door to the garage, affording convenient access to the space alongside the house. Standard placement of the fence and gate is set nearer the rear of the house, but Pulte offers homebuyers the option of placing that gate much further forward, so that the side garage door would fall within the fenced‑off side area.

Models are open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily (closed only on Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s), and the sales office can be reached by phone at (623) 516‑4983.