His Castle Will Be His Home Plans For Possible Multifamily Dwelling Call For 13 Fireplaces Scattered Among The 25,000 Square Feet

It’s amazing what comes in a house for $6 million these days.

A monolith being built along the Spokane River has amenities more typical of Hollywood than North Idaho.

Ron Puryear, a Spokane Valley Amway executive who is building the estate, won’t discuss his new digs, according to a project manager. But records filed with city building officials provide a glimpse - inside and out - of a 25,000-square-foot mansion in the making.

The grounds at Parkwood Place will boast tennis courts, a golf chipping green and a figure-eight swimming pool crossed by bridge and entered via water slide.

The three-story home will include living quarters big enough for several families. Planned amenities include 13 fireplaces, nearly a dozen bathrooms, several kitchens, a theater with tiered seating, a library, an exercise room, a music room, twin sets of spiral staircases, a game room and sauna.

Plans for a basement racquetball court with viewing booth have been scrapped.

Still on the drawing board, however, is an office bookcase that hides a secret passage to the third-floor observatory.

Building officials in Post Falls are so impressed by the project that photographs will be taken of each construction phase.

“It’s more a monument than a house,” says building inspector Wayne Hammond, pointing to blueprints at City Hall.

Although Puryear pegged the house’s price at $6 million, Hammond said his valuation, based only on building codes for square footage, came in at $2 million.

Why the difference?

“When you add in the amenities …,” Hammond says, “well, we’re talking a lot of extras.”

Visitors to the stucco and stone home will walk past a fountain. They’ll enjoy a panoramic view of the Spokane River while strolling on 2,600 square feet of deck with a tempered glass rail. A 1,300-squarefoot gazebo with its own bathroom is in the works.

A garage and caretaker’s quarters are planned for a separate building.

Family and visitors’ children will romp in a basement playroom, watch fish in a 12-foot-long aquarium and defend a medieval castle near the swimming pool.

The house is rising from atop a steep embankment just east of Black Bay. Retaining walls built with landscaping bricks already are in place.

Last fall, before the home design was complete, a family member said the house would be used by three families. Efforts to reach Jim Puryear, Ron Puryear’s son and business manager, were unsuccessful.