https://www.newcanaannewsonline.com/realestate/article/On-the-Market-12949145.php
On the Market / Stylish New Canaan home luxurious, relaxing
Updated 12:27 pm, Thursday, May 31, 2018
NEW CANAAN — The school year wraps up in about a month and some families are probably already planning their summer vacations, while the residents of the custom clapboard and stone colonial house at 499 Silvermine Road need only sit back, relax and enjoy the luxurious and casual attributes of their property.
There are 7,161 square feet of living space on four finished levels on a two-acre level property that includes a covered wrap-around front porch and a backyard worthy of giving up a summer vacation in a far-off place. It features a heated in-ground swimming pool, spa, cabana, terraced covered and open bluestone patios, an outdoor fireplace, fire pit, and built-in barbecue area, all of which are surrounded by beautiful landscaping; a park-like private oasis with flowering trees, shrubs and perennials. This is a resort destination without the need to pack or book plane and hotel reservations.
As originally built in 1988, this was a colonial that, in the skillful mind of architect John Mastera and skillful hands of Hobbs Luxury Builders, both of New Canaan, was transformed in 2007-08 into a masterful custom Queen Anne-style home. “The Queen Anne style represented the culmination of the picturesque, or romantic movement of the 19th century. Based on a premise of ‘decorative excess’ and variety, there was little attempt to stay true to any one particular style or historical detailing. Rather, the style displayed a combination of various forms and stylistic features borrowed from the earlier parts of the Victorian and Romantic eras,” according to the website architecturestyles.org.
The result is an elegant home with an attractive gabled roof and a modern-day turret that provides the light-filled, two-story gourmet kitchen with a rotunda housing the eat-in area.
Access to the house is gained via a private lane. A stone wall runs along the front of the house, and stone pillars topped with lanterns mark the entrance to the property, where a semicircular driveway accesses the front of the house and another driveway, this one completely circular, travels to one side, where there are two attached garages, one with three bays and the other with room for two more vehicles. Both driveways are bordered by Belgium block. Ample parking exists for many guests.
The patriotic among us will be glad to know there is a tall flagpole on the front lawn. Enter the house from the slate front porch by the door into the sophisticated two-story foyer or the door that accesses a more casual space. The entrance foyer has marble flooring and a gracefully curved staircase to the second floor. To the left is the formal living room and to the right is the formal dining room. Ornamented entablature adorns the entranceway from the foyer into each of these rooms.
In the dining room there are two built-in corner china cabinets with glass-front doors, a window seat and patterned hardwood floor. In the living room there is a fireplace with a decorative mantel, a walk-in bay window area and a wide entrance topped with an interior transom into the solarium. Between the solarium and family room there is a wine refrigerator. The family room features a fireplace, built-in bookshelves, a wet bar and three sets of French doors to the backyard and all its amenities.
The wide entrance from the family room to the kitchen has two steps up and is flanked by columns. In the kitchen features include a large center island/breakfast bar, a wet bar, granite counters, a decorative tile backsplash and high-end appliances including a Wolf six-burner range top.
In the eat-in area there is a banquette and a rounded wall of multiple double-hung windows. The kitchen also has sliding doors and a single door to the patios and pool.
On the second floor there is a large, two-story media room with built-in shelving, a decorative rectangular tray ceiling and loft area.
This wing of the house also has a full bath, an exercise room, an office with a stone fireplace and a tall domed ceiling, and a sitting area. A “hidden” circular staircase leads down to a bonus room, half bath and the cabana. The fact that the cabana has a wet bar — the third in this house, should indicate this is a great place for entertaining.
Also on the second floor is the spacious master bedroom suite, which features a walk-in closet and marble bath with a freestanding soaking tub, shower, bidet and a door to a large balcony. There are four more bedrooms on this level, two of them en suite. One bedroom has French doors to the balcony.
For information or to make an appointment to see the house, contact Marsha Charles of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage at 203-904-4663 or marsha.charles@cbmoves.com.
