The big boss of Microsoft does have a nice little pad down on the shores of Lake Washington .

Bill Gate's Place

Bill and Melinda Gates' $97 million house.

Bill Gate's Home - Wide angle

Much of the house is built underground into the hill, so the house looks smaller than it actually is.

Unfortunately the hidden section underground did not escape the taxman's view; Bill paid over a million dollars last year on property taxes.

Gate's Pool

A stream flows through the property.

The pool room is in the background.

House View from the Lake

The 1997 total assessed value of the house was $53,392,200 with the land value being $9,122,200.

House View from the Air

The house encompasses more than 66,000 square feet which is equal to 1.5 acres.

The major rooms include seven bedrooms, 24 bathrooms, six kitchens, and six fireplaces.

Swimming Pool

Other features include a swimming pool, a grand staircase, a theater, a library, a formal

dining room, a reception hall, conference facilities, offices, an exercise room, outdoor

sports courts, and of course loads of technology.

Construction Features

Frame

Primarily timber frame. Half a million board feet of lumber was used. Support beams were salvaged from a Weyerhaeuser mill on the Columbia River , refinished, and sanded to a satin glow. The timbers are joined with stainless-steel fittings, which have been flame-bronzed and anodized, for a rustic look. All connecting bolts (also stainless steel) point in the same direction.

Foundation

The hillside is in an earthquake zone, so the foundation sits on concrete piers and uses tiebacks and steel reinforcements several times stronger than the minimums set by the building code. Massive retaining walls, several feet thick in places, created a drainage problem, solved by collecting runoff in buried pipes that feed into the estuary.

Electronics

Miles of communication cable, largely fiber optic, run throughout the house, linking computer servers powered by the Windows NT operating system. In each room, touch-sensitive pads control lighting, music, and climate. Visitors will wear small electronic pins, which will let the computers know who and where they are. Lights and other settings will adjust automatically. Floors throughout the house (and the driveway) are heated.

Building officials from a dozen local municipalities toured Bill and Melinda Gates' house last month, below are the comments from one of the officials:(Old story)

* Currently 300 workers including 104 electricians.

* No visible electrical outlets anywhere. Gates does not like "clutter".

* Construction likely complete in September 1997, 3 months behind owner's schedule.

* 112 steps from the main floor to the main entry (or take the elevator).

* Wood columns from main floor to roof in entry area are over 70 feet long.

* Theme throughout main floor is high tech. lodge. Primary structure is all exposed similar to large logs in a lodge except the logs are PERFECTLY finished.

* All timbers used inside and out are finished the same - 3 inches have been removed from the exterior of the wood and then sanded

to a satin finish.

* All timbers are nearly perfect in that there are almost no knots.

* All connectors are structural grade stainless steel.

* All bolts throughout the house are stainless steel and oriented the same direction.

* All woodwork is flawless. Much of the woodwork is of various rare species from all over the world - imported especially for the Gates.

* Some of the interior passage doors weigh over 800 lbs, but are balanced for easy use.

* Acoustics are a concern throughout. Various woods and fabrics are being used. Acoustic panels in the ballroom move out of sight on

their own.

* Roofing is stainless steel.

* Floor is heated everywhere including the driveway and walks.

* Ventilation system also conditions the air for health and comfort.

* Security system (automated and personnel) is redundant. Hidden cameras everywhere including interior stone walls. Sensors in the

floor can track a person to within 6 inches. System is monitored at the Microsoft campus.

* Gates has a personal 4-car garage. House for the maintenance staff has its own 3-car garage. Nanny parks in the 6-car carport across

from the main entry. An additional 10 cars can be parked in a subterranean arched concrete building which through an electronic transformation becomes a basketball court.

* Nanny lives in plush quarters in the main residence near to the Gates' bedroom.

* Existing cedar tree was determined by Gates to be in the wrong location and moved 6 inches.

* Gates insisted on saving a 140-year-old maple adjacent to the driveway. The tree is monitored electronically 24 hours per day via

computer. If it seems dry, it gets just the right amount of water automatically delivered.

* There will be an 18-hole putting range.

* A salmon hatchery is being finished.

* If you wish, your music will follow you throughout the house - even at the bottom of the pool.

* Many doors are blended so well with the walls that it is hard to see them.

* Theatre (underground in a concrete shell) is most state-of-the -art theatre in the world according to specialty contractor.

* Entry gate senses when your car approaches and opens fully by the time you arrive.

* Antique cabinets from China have been brought in and built  into the walls with adjacent paneling built to match the cabinets exactly.

* 52 miles of communication cable in the building.

* Shower curtain next to the spa is a 4500 lb slab of granite.

* Melinda has 42 linear feet of clothes hanging space in her closet operated like a dry cleaner's rack.

* Master bathtub can be filled to the right temperature and depth by  Gates as he drives home from work.

* Only two guest bedrooms.

* There is a 28-foot high cantilevered retaining wall.

* Reinforcing steel in all concrete is four times the code minimum. No.18 steel wrapped with no. 5 ties was common for simple columns.

* There is a loading bay within the building.

* All work is virtually flawless.

* An interior designer disagreed with the layout of a portion of the  home. Demolition resulted and 160 cubic yards of cured,  cast-in-place concrete was removed.

* All building officials were suffering "sensory overload" shortly  after the 3-hour tour started.

Can you upload the pics

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