NEW CANAAN — The beginning of the new year brings with it lots of resolutions to get into shape. The neighborhood in which the classic Connecticut colonial house at 90 Braeburn Drive is located will help with that resolution. This is a great walking neighborhood, not very well traveled except by other residents of this and neighboring streets.
The 3,063-square-foot beige clapboard house with dark green shutters is set well back from the road on a level property of just over two acres. Its position gives it a generous amount of privacy without losing sense of being part of a neighborhood.
In addition to walking in the neighborhood, the owners of the house have an opportunity to hike in the nearby Silvermine-Fowler Preserve, a six-acre nature sanctuary named for longtime local residents Jim and Betsey Fowler, who are proponents of preserving open space and wildlife. Jim Fowler came into prominence as the host of the long-running, Emmy Award-winning, weekly television program, “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.” The sanctuary, which opened to the public in October, provides access to the neighboring New Canaan Land Trust’s 41-acre Hicks Meadows-Kelley Uplands Audubon Sanctuary.
This is a special location. In addition to the protected natural open spaces, the home is within walking distance of the Silvermine Art Center and Silvermine Market, just under a mile away. It is about equidistant to the centers of three towns — New Canaan, Norwalk and Wilton.
Along the front of the property, far from the house, is a trickling stream. There is a wide-open level front lawn bordered by a grove of tall trees. From the driveway there is a paving stone path to the covered and columned front entrance. There is also a second, covered casual entrance to the mudroom.
The house was built in 1963, but has since undergone updates, the most recent in the kitchen. From the foyer the formal dining room is to the right, and it has wainscoting on the lower walls. The spacious formal living room, to the left, has a fireplace and a sliding door to the large, two-tiered paving stone patio and backyard. The patio runs the entire length of the back of the house and continues to one side. From the living room a set of French doors leads into a sun room, which has sliding doors to the same patio.
In the breakfast room, which is open to the kitchen, there is a bump-out bay with a sliding door to the patio and yard. The kitchen features a fireplace, a built-in desk area, a center island, granite counters, floor-to-ceiling pantry cabinets, double stainless sinks, double wall ovens and a Jenn-Air five-burner range top. The mudroom has a door to the casual front entrance and rear door to the patio and yard. It has a built-in bench with cubbies and storage above and below, a laundry closet, a half bath, bead board on the lower walls, and a built-in corkboard for family messages.
There are four bedrooms on the second floor, plus a bonus room over the attached two-car garage. The versatile bonus room could be a game or play room, an art studio or an office. It has a wall of built-in bookshelves, lower shelving and two window seats. Off the bonus room is another room that could serve as a fifth or guest bedroom, if necessary. It has under-eaves storage closets. Between these two rooms, which are partially open one to the other, there is a projector.
The walk-out lower level has a recreation room, a sitting area or an office, a gym and plenty of storage areas.
For information or an appointment to see the house, contact Kelly DeFrancesco and April Kaynor of William Raveis Real Estate; DeFrancesco is at 203-667-4074. Visit the website at Apriland
Kelly.raveis.com.