This one grand opened this past weekend.

I was inside before that happened.

Before the public, before the crowds, before anybody was posting about it. Just me, the sales team, and four houses nobody had walked yet.

And here’s what I can tell you. These homes are beautiful. Genuinely well crafted — the kind you feel in your hands, on the door pulls and the millwork, not the kind that only looks good in a photo. And they’re sitting on lots that made me stop and say it out loud on camera.

So keep reading. Then watch the tour, because there are a few things in these houses you’re going to want to see for yourself.

Here’s what we’re working with. Orchards by Shawood — Rainbow and Elkhorn, Northwest Las Vegas, right up against Centennial Hills. Four floor plans. All single story. 3,088 to 4,136 square feet. Priced from the $1.3 millions to just under $1.6 million. Built by Shawood, the luxury brand of Japanese homebuilder Sekisui House.

And the lots average twenty thousand square feet.

Say that number slowly. Twenty thousand square feet — and that’s the average. Not the premium lot.

Build that in Summerlin and you’re well over two million dollars.

This is your Vegas Confidential.

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The fast version

Community	Orchards by Shawood
Builder	Shawood / Sekisui House
Location	Rainbow & Elkhorn, Northwest Las Vegas
Nearest area	Centennial Hills
Floor plans	4 — Hiyori, Ibuki, Kagari, Towa
Size	3,088 – 4,136 sq ft
Stories	All single story
Bedrooms	4 in every plan
Bathrooms	3.5 – 4.5
Garages	3-car and 4-car, optional RV garage
Average lot	20,000 sq ft (about 0.46 acre)
Prices	$1,399,950 – $1,589,950
Status	Now open — models available to tour

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Where it is, and why the Northwest keeps surprising people

Rainbow and Elkhorn, immediately next to Centennial Hills.

Gilcrease Orchard is minutes away. So is Craig Ranch Regional Park, Aliante, and the VA Medical Center. And you’re right on the 215, which means the Strip, the airport, and downtown are a straight shot.

That’s the part people miss about the Northwest. You get the land out here, and you’re still twenty-something minutes from the entertainment you actually moved to Vegas for.

Nobody’s giving anything up.

What twenty thousand square feet actually looks like

That number doesn’t mean anything until you walk it.

I stood in one of these backyards and had to say it out loud on camera: that was the backyard. Not the lot. The backyard.

One of these plans has a pickleball court behind the house. In the yard. With room left over.

Who builds these, and why the floor plans have Japanese names

Shawood is the luxury brand of Sekisui House, one of the biggest homebuilders in Japan. They’re still fairly new to our valley, and they are making waves — because it turns out Japanese design works beautifully out here in the desert.

Here’s the tell. They don’t call these Plan One, Plan Two, Plan Three.

Every floor plan is named after a Japanese word for a way of living. Then they drew the house to support it.

• Hiyori — a peaceful day
• Ibuki — breath of life
• Kagari — evening glow
• Towa — eternity

That’s backwards from how this valley builds. And you can feel it in the rooms.

What every home here comes with

• Twelve-foot ceilings in the great room
• The ClearView ceiling — Shawood’s signature move, where the ceiling material runs from inside the house straight out over the patio, so your eye never stops
• Bellburn exterior — a ceramic finish inspired by Japanese pottery. Fire resistant, scratch resistant. Out here where stucco cracks and paint chalks out in six years, that matters a lot more than it sounds like it does
• Induction cooktop standard, gas available as an upgrade
• Tesla-ready panel for solar and EV
• Soft water loop already in the garage — if you’re moving here from out of state, Nevada has hard water, and you want this
• A prep kitchen in every single plan
• Single story, all four

Everything they do here is about how the house performs. Not how it photographs.

And on that single story point — single story designs have grown up. This is not your average one-level home. Nobody here was just trying to ditch the stairs. These were built around a lifestyle first, and the floor plan came second.

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Hiyori — 3,088 sq ft

4 bedrooms · 3.5 baths · 3-car garage · optional RV garage

A peaceful day.

This is the smallest plan in the community, and I want to be really direct about something: this is not the compromise plan.

Start with the RV garage. It’s optional, and I’ll tell you what my clients actually do with these, because it’s almost never an RV. Indoor gym. Workshop. I’ve had clients put in a pickleball court.

Come inside. Twelve-foot ceilings, that ClearView treatment running out over the patio, and a feature wall with an electric fireplace and LED under every shelf.

Then look at the island. And then look behind it — that’s the prep kitchen, and it’s the feature everybody asks me about. A full second space behind the main kitchen, so when you’re hosting, the mess lives back there and your guests never see it.

Two drop zones. One at the entry, one at the garage. Most builders give you one, if they give you one at all.

Dedicated cleaning storage. A closet, designed, for the things you actually own. Nobody does this.

The primary suite has mountain views, a free-standing tub, and a bench in the shower. And then you open the closet — and your washer and dryer are right there, inside the primary.

You never carry laundry across the house again.

The fourth bedroom sits at the front with a powder bath, which means your office lives at the front of the house and every bedroom stays in the back.

Three thousand square feet. And I can’t find a wasted foot in it.

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Ibuki — 3,512 sq ft · $1,399,950

4 bedrooms · 3.5 baths · 3-car garage

Breath of life.

Glass paneling on both sides of the front door, framing the entry.

You come in under a ten-foot ceiling. And then it pops. Twelve feet in the great room — and you feel that change in your body before you notice it with your eyes. That’s deliberate.

Formal dining. The kitchen in this model has the gas upgrade, so this is what that looks like if you want it, with cabinets running all the way up.

A game room. A dedicated room. Not a corner of the great room with a TV on the wall — a room.

Now the primary, because this plan has something none of the others do.

Its own covered patio. Off the bedroom. You open that door in the morning and you’re outside.

Inside the suite: split closets, two of them, both real. And a beverage station right in the suite, because somebody at Shawood asked the question nobody else asks.

I’ll be honest about one thing. The prep kitchen here is smaller than the one in Hiyori. It’s a refrigerator, a counter, and a pantry. Still useful. Not the same thing.

Now. I heard there was something in this house. I heard one of these walls moves.

It does. There’s a full bar hidden behind a wall. In a bedroom.

And then there’s the backyard, which is the other real reason to buy this plan. Pool. Fire pit. Basketball court. Different zones for different things — and that’s only possible on a lot this size.

Plus the detached pool house. Casita, guest house, whatever you want to call it. Kitchenette, full bath, and a zero-threshold shower — no step, you walk straight in.

I have so many clients trying to solve this exact problem. Family that visits for three weeks. A parent moving closer. An adult kid landing back home for a year.

Everyone wants everyone nearby, and nobody wants to share a wall.

This is the answer. It’s just detached enough.

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Kagari — 3,698 sq ft · $1,449,950

4 bedrooms · 4.5 baths · 4-car garage

Evening glow.

Do the math with me on this one.

That’s fifty thousand dollars over Ibuki. For 186 more square feet, an extra garage bay, and an extra full bathroom.

That’s the best value in this community and I’ll say it out loud.

The four-car garage is two and two, with stack stone, a darker tone, and Bellburn again at the entry.

And then there’s this room. Two sets of sliders. Covered patio on both sides.

We were filming in triple digits so we didn’t open them — but picture this in October. You open both sides, you’ve got shade on the east and shade on the west, and this room becomes twice the size.

That’s the Japanese design working in the desert. Deep overhangs, controlled light, volume without cooking the room. Out here that’s not a style choice. It’s a survival strategy.

The kitchen: T-shaped island, six seats, carried into a casual dining space right off the end. Two-tone cabinets. A dedicated beverage fridge next to the full refrigerator. And the prep kitchen behind it has its own sink, dishwasher, and refrigerator.

Then you get to the laundry room. And there’s a built-in dog crate. Millwork. Somebody sat down and designed this for a dog.

Now the primary, and this is the feature of this plan.

A primary retreat — a separate sitting room attached to your bedroom whose entire job is that you get to sit down.

I’ll tell you what I’d do with it. Chair, ottoman, and nobody talks to me for an hour.

The bath opens up and loops around through the shower. Free-standing tub, dual vanities, and a closet big enough that I’d put a dresser in the middle of it like an island.

Then the other wing. Three bedrooms. Every single one en suite. Every single one with a walk-in closet. And a bonus room sitting between them.

Here’s why that matters, and it’s not about kids. It’s about the holidays.

Your family comes in. Everybody has their own bathroom. Everybody has their own door. And nobody is negotiating over a hallway bath at seven in the morning.

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Towa — 4,136 sq ft · $1,589,950

4 bedrooms · 4.5 baths · 4-car garage · optional RV garage with a suite above it

Eternity.

Before we even go inside.

This is the optional RV garage. There’s a door back here. And behind that door is a staircase.

Upstairs is a full apartment. Built-ins. Kitchenette with a refrigerator and microwave. Walk-in closet. Full shower. Windows with mountain views.

And I want to be clear, because I said every plan here is single story and I meant it. This is the only second level in the entire community — and it’s not in your house. It’s over a detached garage. Your living space is still one floor.

Which honestly makes it better. Long-term guest. An adult child home for a year. A studio. It’s yours and it’s not underfoot.

Now the main house. Twelve-foot ceilings and one enormous open space. The ClearView here is wrapped in wood, running from inside out over the patio. Two sliders.

Dual kitchen islands. Two of them. Plus the upgraded six-burner range with the griddle.

And over here — a wine room. Temperature controlled. You can feel that it’s cooler in there than out here. And you can build it out however your collection actually looks.

The prep kitchen in this plan has an ice maker, a second sink, a second dishwasher, a second refrigerator, and a pantry. This is a working kitchen behind the kitchen.

The primary bath might be my favorite in the whole community. It opens up and loops you through the shower and back around. Free-standing tub. Dual vanities. Beautiful closet.

But here’s what I actually want to talk about in this plan.

There’s a library, with sliders straight out to a covered patio. And down at the front of the home, behind French doors, a study.

Two rooms. Two separate rooms. Both of them for something other than sleeping.

Every builder in this valley would have merged those into one flex room and put it in the brochure. Your office would be in your guest room. Your books would be in your office. And every time somebody came to town, you’d be moving furniture.

Here, you stop negotiating with your own house.

The bedrooms down the hall are each en suite with a walk-in closet, and they offer a Toto upgrade on the bathrooms, which is about as high-end as bathroom fixtures get.

Outside: covered patio, fire pit, and this lot wraps. Come look at this.

That’s a pickleball court. In the backyard.

Twenty thousand square feet. That’s what it buys you.

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All four, side by side

Plan	Sq Ft	Beds	Baths	Garage	Price
Hiyori	3,088	4	3.5	3-car + optional RV	—
Ibuki	3,512	4	3.5	3-car	$1,399,950
Kagari	3,698	4	4.5	4-car	$1,449,950
Towa	4,136	4	4.5	4-car + optional RV	$1,589,950

All single story. All on lots you cannot buy on the west side at this price.

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Questions I’m already getting about Orchards

Where exactly is it?
Rainbow and Elkhorn in Northwest Las Vegas, next to Centennial Hills, right on the 215.

Who’s the builder?
Shawood, the luxury brand of Sekisui House, a major Japanese homebuilder. Still new to this market, and worth paying attention to.

Are these really all single story?
Yes. The only second level in the community is the optional suite above Towa’s detached RV garage — and that’s a separate building from your house.

How big are the lots, really?
Twenty thousand square feet on average, about 0.46 acre. That’s the average, not the premium.

Which plans get the RV garage?
It’s an option on Hiyori and Towa. On Towa, that’s the one with the full apartment above it.

Is there a casita or guest house?
Ibuki has the detached pool house — kitchenette, full bath, zero-threshold shower. Towa has the suite over the RV garage. If you’ve got a multigenerational situation, those two plans are your conversation.

What’s a prep kitchen and do I actually need one?
It’s a second working kitchen behind the main one. Every plan here has one, though they vary in size. And yes — it’s the single most requested feature I hear from buyers right now, because it’s the difference between hosting and hiding.

Can I go see it this weekend?
Yes. Orchards grand opened this past weekend, so the models are open now. If you’d rather walk it with somebody who’s already been through all four and knows what to look at, reach out and I’ll go with you.

Is it age restricted? What are the HOA dues?
Ask the sales office directly, and while you’re there, ask whether the community carries an SID or LID assessment — those are billed separately from your HOA and your taxes, and buyers moving here from out of state get blindsided by them constantly.

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What stayed with me

Every one of these houses started with a word about how you want to live, and the floor plan came second. That’s backwards from how this valley builds. And you can feel it in the rooms.

Single story designs have grown up.

You didn’t settle for this. You just found it before everybody else did.

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Ready to see it?

The models are open now. But there’s a difference between walking a model home and walking it with someone who’s already been through all four, knows which options hold their value, and can tell you what the builder will and won’t move on.

I’m Jennifer Graff with The New Home Experts at Simply Vegas. New construction is what I do: which builder is negotiating, what’s actually included versus what they’ll charge you for, and which floor plan holds up five years in.

And here’s why that’s worth something to you. Before I ever represented a buyer, I sold new construction from the other side of the desk — for D.R. Horton, for Lennar, for MGM Resorts International at CityCenter, and at One Queensridge Place. I know what’s in that contract, because I used to write them.

If you’re thinking about Orchards, let’s talk before you sit down in that sales office.

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More on new construction in Las Vegas: Northwest Las Vegas new homes · Single story floor plans · Multigenerational and casita floor plans · Homes with RV garages · Centennial Hills communities