Remember a time when life was filled with magic with one wondrous experience after the other?  It’s time to set sail on that adventure once again – and we’re ready to give you the key.  This 146 Santiago Drive address in the highly desirable Valencia at Abacoa master planned community is the perfect home for today—plenty of space without being overwhelming.

You’re going to love this Mediterranean style home from the moment you step across the romantic arched porch, all the while admiring the artistic details draped with bright bougainvillea.  Inside the home, high ceilings, plenty of curved Moorish style windows, and open balconies and loggias capture the tropical breezes.  This house is designed for real indoor-outdoor living!

During sunny days (and there are LOTS of them), sip your iced tea or lemonade within your covered brick lanai and take a dip in your perfectly private lap pool.  When it’s time to go indoors, gather together in the expansive Great Room to watch the evening news (including the latest northern weather disaster or Miami traffic jam) or play a fast-paced board game.

Want to step inside for a midday snack?  The Euro kitchen is beautifully appointed with plenty of cabinet space and sunny bay windows.   And before you step through the lanai again, you might even want to play a game of billiards with a room that’s perfect for your pool table or an arts and crafts display.

Then, after a fun-filled day, enjoy your well-deserved sleep in the enlarged master bedroom suite with his-and-her closets and an expansive master bath.  There’s lots of sleeping areas on the second level for your entire family – including those inevitable guests from up north – 5 bedrooms and 3.5 bedrooms in all.

This gorgeous home 3307 sqft is a steal for $735,000.  So grab it up now…and you can toast with your neighbors who probably paid far, far more for their own homes of quiet sophistication.

T.S. Eliot wrote that April is the cruelest month … but T.S. Eliot forgot what it was like to live in New England during a late March snowstorm.  March 21st was the official first day of spring, but those of you up north would never know it.

There really is no reason to spend another winter shivering in the sub-zero weather, scraping snow off your windshield, and dealing with all the wind chills and potholes, Next winter you can laugh at the threatening weather from your own sunny Abacoa® home in Jupiter, Florida.

Here you can get reacquainted with your old friend – THE SUN.  Or you can enjoy all the green areas, lakes, parks and pristine beaches, take advantage of the glorious shopping on Worth Avenue, or simply revel in the laid-back living and Mediterranean-style architecture that makes Jupiter one of the very best places to live and love life.

And what a perfect time to buy!  The Wall Street Journal just cited the Palm Beach area – including “over the moat” in Jupiter – as one of the 10 best places for a second home. Median prices have plunged 11 percent from their peak. It doesn’t get better than this!

Why not give yourself a break during the long hard winters?  When Bob Marley wrote about three little birds pitched by his doorstep, he sure wasn’t shivering through a Nor’easter in Boston or a blustery blizzard in Chicago.  Jupiter and Palm Beach Gardens are the kind of places where “everything’s gonna be all right” … especially with home prices near their all-time low.

Maybe you’ll fly north for the summer too. After all, it has a lot to offer. Just remember that when fall turns to winter, there’s a better way of life. The little birds fly south to their second homes. Why shouldn’t you?

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.

Admirals Cove offers a wide range of magnificent homes, from a bit more modest to outrageously divine! Each one a standout, worthy of consideration on its own particular merits. But great residences are just one reason to seek out Admirals’ Cove… one of Palm Beach County’s premier addresses. Most choose it for a lifestyle based around yachting, golf or tennis.

There you’ll find six miles of inland waterways, backyard docks, ocean access, a 72-slip marina, marina shop, and marina cafe. 45 Holes of championship golf—with the newly redesigned Von Hagge course with dramatic elevations, 27 holes of challenging play on the more traditional West Course, and an additional 18-hole course on the East. And, if you’re game, 12 Har-Tru tennis courts. But that’s just the beginning.

You’ll also find superb casual and formal dining in the two Clubhouses. 32 Guest suites at The Club’s Inn for family and friends of Members. A health and fitness center, beauty salon, Wachovia private banking center as well as a spa and two golf pro shops! Overall, it’s hard to find a finer place to live anywhere in South Florida!

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!

Hurricane season is upon us once again. And if you were the least bit unsure, all you have to do is take note of the sudden violent downpours that mark the beginning of summer, because with it come the big tropical storms. So Floridians are once again bracing for whatever Mother Nature has in store. Everyone is stockpiling food and water, replacing batteries, checking generators, keeping cash on hand. That’s pretty common procedure in South Florida this time of year, especially in the coastal areas.

What’s not common is the pronounced sense of relief so many buyers are expressing in the Jupiter & Palm Beach Gardens communities. These communities are built with underground utilities. And new homes here are built to strict codes that include impact glass to withstand strong winds. Thanks to this kind of forward thinking, several years ago when South Florida was badly hit, Jupiter had electricity back up and running within 2 hours…while Miami suffered without it for several weeks. In fact, many Miami natives came up here to stay, to weather the aftermath. They sought refuge in Jupiter where, oddly, life just carried on!

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.

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.

Clearly if John had Donne his homework, and visited this charming Divosta Abacoa neighborhood rimmed by lush green golf courses and lazy little lakes, he would have known just how beautiful that concept can be.

In The Island, well-established trees line the streets. Three, four and five bedroom homes are amply endowed with big welcoming front porches and portachaches. Houses on the outside back up to rather spectacular views of the golf course & lakes.  And even though the street names ring of Barbados and Bermuda…the architecture is far more Cape Cod than Caribbean. But don’t worry.  The net effect is pure charm.

It’s a family environment. Contiguous to the best of Abacoa, but slightly removed as its name implies. Quiet, lush and lovely. And the prices are surprising for all Divosta built in to these delightful homes. Finished in 2001 or thereabouts, still fresh enough to feel new, and incredibly well kept up…these houses will hold more than their value for many years to come. They’ll hold people who know you can live happily in an island of tranquility and still feel comfortably connected