Yes, it’s true. I live in Valencia at Abacoa. But even if I didn’t, I’d want to. Abacoa is a pretty remarkable planned community by anyone’s standards. And Valencia is by far its crown jewel. Sure, green parks, little bridges, a delightful lake, community clubhouse and pool add to its charm. But what I love about this particular little enclave is it’s gated community feel and value without the yoke of an equity membership!

Valencia is the architectural product of four top builders…Frankel-Paone, Issa, The Spear Group and Delcrest.  Each brings different floor plans, perspectives and personal touches to its Mediterranean style. It’s a neighborhood designed with winding streets, rear-entry garages, Corinthian columns, charming front porches and lush landscaping. No cookie cutter community…it warrants those higher (high $600’s to $2 million) price tags.  And Valencia residents make sure those values are well maintained!

So if you’re in the market for something that offers just the right measure of exclusivity, take a close look at Valencia at Abacoa…where every house, every street will surprise and impress you.

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.

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.

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!

I have no trouble making waves now and again. That’s our right and privilege. But it always amazes me how people respond and what they respond to.

I recently developed a marketing piece aimed at people who live in Miami. It was short, but not sweet. It referenced all the problems everyone recognizes…the traffic congestion, crime rates, inadequate schools and unplanned urban sprawl. In short, it told the truth. It’s why this long-time Miami resident finally moved up and became a Jupiter Realtor/resident. Why so many people are moving north of the Broward County line. To the small-town ease and big city amenities of the Jupiter/Palm Beach Gardens area.

One response I got was particularly interesting. The woman called me four times. I think she had to work up the courage of her indignation. A self-appointed spokesperson for the Miami area, she was determined to let me know I had no right to malign her fair city. She didn’t deny what I said about it. But her anger was off the charts.

Now I ask you, is my opinion of Miami worth all that fuss.

Maybe, just maybe, if she’d come with me to the Green Market in downtown Abacoa on Saturday morning, she’d get it. That’s when a number of local organic farmers truck in the fruits of their labor. And if you haven’t been, you need to go.

Talk about fostering a real sense of community in the old-fashioned go-to-market kind of way! Everyone turns out for healthier produce, a chance to chat and mingle, to support local growers and enjoy fresh picked tastes no grocery store can offer.

There’s an info-byte for you. Emotional, physical and economic health all one tasty bit of green grocering. Who knew?

Anyone who knows Jupiter knows it’s a wonderful place to raise kids. Pretty much anywhere you go you see happy, active kids fully involved in and enjoying life… biking, skating, playing baseball, swimming, skate-boarding. So much so, I thought I’d seen it all. Then I ran across the Veggie Kids on my Saturday morning pilgrimage to the Abacoa Green Market!

 

The three oldest kids in the remarkable Shirley family— Renee 12, Josiah 10, and Katie 6 — grow and sell their own homegrown, remarkably oversized produce under the guidance of their father, Steve, an agronomist. The 7,000-square-foot garden they tend is on the family’s Jupiter Farms property. Not only do the kids produce seasonal produce (October till June)… tomatoes, eggplant, beans, squash, radishes, carrots, onions, potatoes, corn, broccoli, cauliflower and GIGANTIC cabbages… fresher and more luscious than any this blogger has yet seen. But they now also have fresh eggs year-round from 22 free-range chickens and a website filled with all sorts of smart saleables. These kids are single-handedly reviving the concept of cottage industry!

Clearly, at their house, kids rule. But don’t take my word for it. Visit their website at www.veggiekidsfarm.com and discover one more reason why buying a Jupiter home is ideal for any family who really wants to put down roots!

   

Tuscany is all about family

Picture it…a long table heaped with food, bottles of wine and la familia. That’s Under the Tuscan Sun. Under the Florida sun the picture is a bit different, but the net effect is the same.

Emphasis on family. A fneighborhood filled with Mediterranean-style homes, built safe and soundproof by DiVosta. Ranging in price from $275,000 or thereabouts (depending on today’s market) to about $650,000 … from townhouses to 5-bedroom single family in a variety of sizes and shapes.

Fresh wide streets lined with trees, front porches, bike lanes, friendly neighbors. Dads throwing baseballs, kids playing catch, mom’s walking dogs. Families headed toward the park, the clubhouse, the pool, the ice cream parlor in downtown Abacoa.

Now if all that sounds a bit more Pollyanna than Anna Maria, so be it. But the prevailing, overarching, unmistakable theme is still the same. When you talk about Tuscany, you talk about family. No better place to raise one than Tuscany at Abacoa in Jupiter, FL.

Many, most homes today are designed with front-entry garages. And I personally hate them! They detract from the beauty of a home, dominating the visual scene.

More than just an architectural eyesore, front-entry garages create the opportunity for all sorts of unpleasant views. How often have you looked into an open garage to see car repairs in progress, unpacked moving boxes stacked to the rafters, piles of trash, garbage cans, messy do-it-yourself projects in process, or bags of dog food and piles of old clothes scattered about. Hardly appealing to the neighbors.

We all live with a certain degree of clutter and messiness.  But with the right garage orientation you can dramatically limit its public exposure!

Valenica at Abacoa front elevation without garage views!

Homes have private alleys with rear-entry garages!