Las Ventanas Homes is an Albuquerque custom home builder that designs innovative and eco-friendly houses. The company chose the name Las Ventanas, Spanish for windows, because, as owner Scott Ashcroft told us, “We live in New Mexico where we have over 300 days a year of sunshine and blue skies. You should have a home with amazing big windows, letting all that natural light in.”
Scott is a fourth-generation New Mexico designer/ builder whose great-grandfather came to the area in the 1930s. Scott started Las Ventanas Homes in 2009. Scott said, “I was building some homes mostly in Los Alamos prior to that, but during the economic downturn at that time, I decided to concentrate on the Albuquerque market...really to get rid of the inventory that we accumulated during the lean times. Now we build a lot of homes in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Los Ranchos, and Corrales. We focus more on higher end luxury custom homes. We have developed a niche in the Albuquerque area.”
Las Ventanas takes the lifestyle of the customer into consideration during the design process. Scott explains, “We design the home with the client, so these do not come from stock plans. We meet with the client, and we discuss how they're going to live in the home. What do they want to do with the home? What is their family like? How do they entertain?”
Scott has recently started a second part of his company that designs and builds casita guest houses. He explains, “The city of Albuquerque passed a zoning ordinance that allows for an accessory dwelling on your property, so we started Casitas by Los Santos to provide for that new market.”
Las Ventanas designs and builds homes with well-thought-out out eco-friendly features. Scott says, “We only use materials in the homes that are low VOC, meaning low volatile organic compounds. We then get great indoor air quality in our homes because we're not using materials that give off gas or bad chemicals. We use very high-efficiency heating and cooling systems. We typically use a tankless water heater in the home and then also incorporate water-saving features.”
Scott elaborates on design that is effective in the desert environment, “Every home we build, we use an ERV system. ERV stands for energy recovery ventilation, and what that means is we use a system that is changing the air inside the house to guarantee high-quality indoor air. It vents the dirty air out and brings fresh air in. It means your home is less dusty. People who have seasonal allergies find that their home becomes their nice little safe place because the air is so clean inside the house that it really helps minimize seasonal allergies.”
All Las Ventanas builds are New Mexico Green Build Certified Homes. This means that an independent third party has inspected and certified this rating. The certification takes into account energy efficiency, healthy indoor air, reduced water usage, preservation of natural resources, and improved durability with reduced maintenance. This rating assures lower utility bills and gives the homeowner a clear and quantitative measure of the home’s green features.
Scott sums up his design/build philosophy, “It’s all about the client experience for us. We’ve built multiple homes for several clients. I think that's something that is rare for a custom home builder to be able to say, and I think the reason that that's true for us is because for us, the client is absolutely the first and foremost focus when we move somebody into a house. We are confident that they are happy with their home and happy with the process that got them into that new home.”
Las Ventanas Homes is at 8330-A Washington Pl. NE. Their phone number is 505.362.6824 and their website is https://lasventanasnm.com/.
The client is absolutely the first and foremost focus when we move somebody into a house.
We live in New Mexico, where we have over 300 days a year of sunshine and blue skies. You should have a home with amazing big windows, letting all that natural light in.