You come across the house at 320 Murcia Drive. This 6-bedroom, 4.5 bath, 3600 square foot home sits on a surprisingly oversized lot across the street from the clubhouse and a park.

Inside it’s not just a fabulous, cream-colored dream of a house. It’s pristine … mint-condition … immaculate …perfection.  From the crown moldings to the recessed double tray ceiling in the formal dining room to the wrought iron spindles up the staircase to the Chicago pavers that deck out the most completely private pool out back … this house has style.

And the kind of extras you rarely come across. Well equipped with plenty of extras. Deep walk-in/storage. White wood plantation shutters in the huge family room and kitchen. French doors that lead from the living and family rooms onto the pool deck and covered lanai. A separate guest suite downstairs…a Jack and Jill two-bedroom/1 bath connecting suite upstairs. A two-car garage with one side so deep, it’s a tandem space … for two cars or one plus loads of storage. Then there’s the master suite with a walk-in closet nearly large enough to qualify as a room all its own. 

Yes, just when you thought you’d seen it all, you come across a perfect jewel. A small estate home perfectly located, ideally situated and waiting, just waiting for someone like you.

In a neighborhood known for remarkable homes, 120 Santiago Drive just naturally stands out. Built in 2004, this 3-bedroom plus den, 3000-plus square foot home is an artist’s palette of natural textures and tones. 

That’s because the owner personally flew to Indonesia to hand-select every piece of carved wood trim, every solid wood door, every wood inlay. Different shades of mahogany and teak are juxtaposed against marble, tile, granite, and river rock throughout. Why, the his-and-hers master bath alone is a visual marvel … complete with Jacuzzi tub and walk-in shower.

Now, factor in a huge master suite and an office/den on the first floor, a vast kitchen (complete with butler’s pantry and gas stove) that opens onto a truly great room, which opens onto a very private pool and a maintenance-free yard… and you begin to understand.

No detail here has been overlooked. The pool even has a swim current for laps. And the two bedrooms and bath upstairs are delightfully designed to feel more like an airy loft than a second story.

The unique personality of this home …  its mixture of seductive textures, space and light … makes it one-of-a-kind and not to be missed.  At $695,000 it’s sure to disappear quickly. So make it a point to see it before it’s sold!

Every once in a great while you walk into a house that feels, well, quite perfect. You could move in without changing nary a thing. Even the wallpaper is charming, delightful, completely unexpected.  That’s 148 Santiago Drive, in Valencia at Abacoa.

It sits unobtrusively on a very quiet street.  The playground and community pool are near by … but you’d never know it. On paper this home appears quite mundane… one story, 2800+ square feet, 3 bedrooms with an office/den, and three full baths. But, surprise! You leave ordinary at the door.

Inside the foyer is a formal living room to the left, with plenty of room for a baby grand. To the right, a spacious office and a full guest bath complete with a huge shower, of all things.

Pad quietly down the hall a bit and you come to a formal dining room with a double tray ceiling with subtly painted clouds and a trompe-l’oeil window scene on the wall.

Go a few feet further and find yourself in a vast open country kitchen with a family room that looks out on a brick lanai with a perfectly private lap pool and Jacuzzi waterfall.

Just beyond are two very ample bedrooms separated by a large Jack & Jill bath.  And then there’s the magnificent master suite with two large walk-in closets and double bath complete with a steam/shower.

And everywhere, every detail is tastefully, artfully attended to by a decorator who clearly knew her stuff. So much so that the overarching feeling is quiet sophistication, and serenity…now.  Seinfeld aside, that’s no joke! Not at $699,000 in a neighborhood surrounded by million dollar homes.

What constitutes “home” is a very personal thing … quite different for everyone. Home might be a place your grandparents lavished you with love …  or where you grew up under your parents’ watchful eyes … or where you first lived as a grown-up. For everyone, the idea of “home” is quite different … and rarely consciously expressed.

You walk into an open house and you can appreciate all the amenities … the coffered ceilings, granite counter-tops, wood floors, huge master suite, double shower. And they attract the rational you. But it’s the sun streaming through the French doors, or the view of a park, or an inherent sense of sophistication that makes it feel “just right.”

Home is either evocative of a place you felt comfortable and loved. Or  representative of how you want to see yourself. You know it when you see it … but you can’t always say why. And it’s that intangible something that makes you say ‘wow.”  It makes you fall in love enough to buy.

A Realtor^® can and should dress up a home, present it in its best light, market its best features. But in most cases it’s more about the Realtor^® taking the time to understand the buyer and match him or her up with the right property than it is about the property itself.

Bottom line … it’s often psychology that makes the sale … not the “sell.”

In Valencia at Abacoa … a Jupiter, FL neighborhood usually known for style, luxury and sophistication …  it’s rather unexpected to come across a house that actually feels like family.

One with all the trappings its million-dollar price tag implies. Yet, something priceless as well.

A feeling of family.

126 Segovia is as large as the life it affords.

Large as a grand foyer. A 30-foot cupola amid a huge square staircase. A vast family room with windows so high, they fill it with light. An immense private yard that can hold a brick lanai, gated swimming pool with fountain, and grass playground … backed up to a natural preserve. A chandelier large enough to dominate and define a formal dining room.  A master suite the size of an apartment … complete with foyer, two large walk-in closets, an enormous shower and soaking Jacuzzi tub, and doors that open onto the pool.

Designed with thoughtful details…

An artful use of shadow-boxing and wainscoting, warm bamboo floors, built-ins in every closet, a double porte cochere to keep off the rain drops, an extended garage with built-ins and tool table, a double stove (convection/microwave) with warming drawer, an extra wide fridge, an oversize laundry room, a bench step in the pool to keep little ones safe, even a hot and cold outdoor shower… these are the details that make this estate house so deliciously comfortable.

And one thing more.

A feeling of solidity, stability, warmth that seems built into its very foundation. A sense that this will always be home to happy little voices and busy little feet, dinner parties and birthday parties. A house built for years of growing up and together.

A home in search of a family.

Whoever said your home is your castle must surely have had this home in mind. With features reminiscent of a castle in Segovia, Spain … this 4400 square foot estate home at 155 Segovia Way is truly a world apart. And every bit that private.

Built with pride by Issa Homes … it’s set on one of the few truly oversized lots, and seems to tower above the rest in style and scale. And a tower it has … that stately curved section that distinguishes any true castle. Also a charming gated courtyard, a delightful front view of lake and fountain, a tropical landscape barrier enclosing a large green yard and perfect pool.

Inside, one large room flows into another casually, seamlessly, flawlessly. The rounded castle foyer with the domed ceiling leads the way… to a marvelous office with a built-in library, a large formal dining room with an intricate ceiling, a huge breakfast area that’s anything but a nook, a wide open family room/kitchen with an island large enough to warrant a name.

So it goes. Through 5 bedrooms and baths … including a separate guest suite over the garage. A sound system Abbey Road would covet …piped within and without, controllable from anywhere. And if all of that isn’t regal enough …well then step into the Butler’s pantry. Grab a bottle of wine from the enormous collection chilling in the cooler. And let’s discuss the royal pleasures of this home over a dry chardonnay.

Most people define a treasure as a small, undiscovered jewel that surprises and delights. The 3-story Jupiter Townhome I just saw at 4119 Parkside fits that description to a T. Built in the classic style of a metropolitan East Coast townhouse, this one combines traditional design with Florida creature comforts.

Enter on the level of a spacious den, with a half bath and easy access to the enclosed 2-car garage.

Step up a flight to a great room with a great open kitchen (complete with corian counters, oak floors, tumbled marble tiles) open onto the living room. Just out of sight … a separate dining room, laundry closet, and half bath.

Step up again to the 3^rd floor with its huge master suite with a high recessed ceiling, stunning fan, and light pouring in the skylight window.  Two more bedrooms and two full baths complete the picture.

In all, 2200 square feet of well designed, private space tucked away on a quiet street next to a community park, in close proximity to the Antigua Clubhouse and pool.

At $245,000 this little gem is perfect for two … or as a vacation retreat, which is what it’s current owners had in mind. Lucky for you, they rarely appeared.  So, though delightfully furnished, it has barely been used. Kind of like finding a small, low-mileage, BMW convertible at a ridiculous used car price!

It’s called the Grand Vizcaya.

It’s the largest model of all the homes sold in Valencia at Abacoa. Designed by Frankel Paone, it’s far more than grand. It’s grandeur with a capital EUR! European in style. Palatial in scope. And this one has a marvelous address.

Because 118 Valencia resides on a large corner lot with no home behind, and just a wide green royal palm lined median in front.

5 Bedrooms, 4.5 baths, 3 car garage & unending space!

As if this 4483 square foot home isn’t spacious enough, cathedral and recessed ceilings exponentially increase that feeling of light and air. As does the openness of kitchen leading onto family room leading out to patio & glorious freeform pool … all enclosed with a high privacy wall.

There are 4 bedrooms, three with adjacent baths, a large balcony and new wood floors upstairs. A massive living room (with a REAL wood-burning fireplace and huge window), formal dining room, breakfast nook/kitchen/family room downstairs … along with a master suite that leads directly to the pool through French doors, for a French dip.

As with most Italian-inspired palazzos, living is art.

Priced at $1,295,000, this home offers every feature you seek in an estate home… beginning with its stately exterior. And there’s more … far more. But we’re not giving anything else away. This one needs to be seen, needs to be felt, to be truly appreciated.

 

A depressed market is always a mixed blessing. It sometimes makes the impossible possible. Take the house I just saw at 138 Cypress Cove, in the Jupiter gated community of Stonebriar. This 1994 contemporary 5-bedoom, 3 ½-bath home is really quite perfect.

Perfectly maintained and immaculate. Perfectly situated on an end lot with all kinds of room for a private pool. Perfectly designed with air, light space…archways, cutouts, vaulted ceilings and lots of nooks. Perfectly accessible to A-rated schools, churches and temples well within walking distance. Perfectly active … with a canal for kayaking and canoeing, a community pool and tennis courts to exercise and socialize. And perfectly placed along winding, tree-lined Maplewood, across from multi-million dollar homes in the Loxahatchee Club. (That alone makes it a standout!).

Yet this particular American dream is now available for only $389,000…with remarkably low HOA dues ($389 a quarter). Sound impossible. I thought so, too. I thought at this price…has to be a catch. But guess what…there isn’t. That house is a dream. Possibly perfect for one of you.

If you moved into 196 Barbados Drive, in The Island at Abacoa, you’d be happy just sitting on the big porch swing with bare toes, looking out at the lovely tree-lined drive. And you’d never get wet coming in from the car, with that portacache alongside.

Of course, you’d be equally happy lazing about in the huge screened-in backyard…big enough to add a pool, but incredibly charming as is. Looking out on a quiet lake with the view of golf beyond.

But if you did decide to wander indoors, you’d never be at a loss. Every detail of this charming 3 bedroom, 1900+ square foot, single level, Cape Cod-style home is crafty, comfy, stylishly smart. From the ample laundry room filled with light to the cozy den, to the master suite with a walk-in closet large enough to store a Sex & the City wardrobe for the whole cast!  But what’s really great about the floor plan is the great room, with living space flowing into living space gracefully, purposefully. And the fact that both the living room and master bedroom open onto that glorious lake view.

 Just listed at $495.000…this one is all charm wrapped in solid value. See it before it sells!