Estate of the Day

Today's home was built in 1913 and commands an enviable view Narragansett Bay. Located in the Nayatt Point area of Barrington, Rhode Island, today's home has the gorgeous lines of another era. The entrance to the 3.64-acre estate is highlighted by antique cast iron gates with a circular drive leading to a porte-cochere entry. A simply graceful foyer includes a grand staircase with triple twisted balusters and paneled risers. All the old-fashioned details are in place including hand carved fireplaces, stained glass, built-in china cabinets and six paneled pocket doors. The breakfast loggia offers a sunny place to take your coffee with windows opening out onto bay views. Marble pillars frame the expansive brick terrace that lead to the sloping lawn and private beach. There are eight bedrooms and all principal bedrooms boast water views. The second floor master suite has his and hers baths/dressing rooms with stunning water views. The expansive slate roof was replaced in 2006. This home is listed at $6.295 million.

Estate of the Day

A home in Park City, Utah which was once listed at $24 million will try its luck at auction next week. The last asking price for this home on 56 acres was $21.5 million but it will likely go for far less than that. The 6,800-square-foot home has four bedrooms and is right off of the Payday run on Park City Mountain Resort. It has never been lived in.

The kitchen has four dishwashers and multiple Sub-Zero refrigerators. All of the walkways and driveways are heated. A report on local station Fox 13 says that this home was originally supposed to be a guest house for a much larger home. It went into Chapter 11 and then Chapter 7 and is now being sold through a court-ordered U.S. bankruptcy auction. It is being sold with all of its furniture.

The auction takes place on January 25 at the home. A $100,000 cashier's check is required to bid. It is predicted that the home could sell in the $10 to $15 million range. More info is available at the auction website.

Estate of the Day

Newsday's Rich Cribs column led me to today's property, a home for sale in Old Westbury, New York. The home was built in 2003 but the land was originally part of the Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney estate and the home itself reflects an earlier era. Features include high ceilings with thick molding and handpainted murals of scenic landscapes in the dining room. Flowered wallpaper, chintz, antique rugs and botanical prints on the walls also help give this new home a more classic feel. The seven-bedroom home is on 3.9 acres and backs up to the Old Westbury Country Club golf course. The gardens have an enclosed hot tub, pergola, fountainwall and outdoor kitchen. The home also includes a fully built out lower level which currently looks to be in use as a rehearsal space for musicians. This home is listed at $5.5 million.

Estate of the Day

Today's home in Dallas, Texas is one that we first heard about in 2007 when it was listed at $17.5 million but it has since had a deep discount. The home belongs to Phil Romano, a restaurateur who is behind several restaurant chains including Romano's Macaroni Grill. This eight bedroom home is on 4.69 acres.

In 2007 the Real Estalker reported that Romano purchased the 4.7 acre property in 2000 for $4,535,300. The home was built in 2001 and is one of the most riotously colorful luxury homes around. The bold style combines Italian, modern and Southwestern styles with plenty of art and custom decor. There is a large living room with a paneled grid ceiling and a large limestone fireplace. The den offers sweeping views of the grounds and an adjacent library has floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. The sun room with expansive walls of windows is connected to the main living areas by two galleries for art, all with hand painted wood ceilings. The formal dining room is barrel-vaulted with a tile ceiling and a view through glass walls to the wine room which is the size of a small retail store. The kitchen features commercial-grade appliances such as banks of Traulsen refrigerators and freezers, and a Vulcan oven and stove, combine with stainless steel cabinets, long stretches of stainless counters, and a massive walk-in pantry. A climate-controlled pavilion gives four different views of the grounds.

All the bedrooms are on the second floor of the home. The master wing has two bedrooms, den and exercise room. Most amazing is the two-story barrel vaulted master closet. This wing also has a family room with a hand-painted ceiling. The second bedroom, designed for a child has a loft space and vaulted ceiling. There are four guestrooms plus two additional bedrooms in the connected apartment, each with its own private bath. The apartment has a kitchen, sitting room and a third floor bonus room which is divided from the main bedrooms by an office and oversized art studio. The grounds have a private lake with fountains, waterfalls, tennis courts and a glass-tiled pool. This property is now listed at $12.5 million.

Estate of the Day

Today's estate, Fairholme is one of Newport, Rhode Island's treasures. The Tudor-style estate is on 4.3 acres of Newport's legendary Gilded Age coastline with 425 feet of ocean frontage. The five-bedroom main house is a Frank Furness-designed home built circa 1875. Fairholme was first created as a "summer cottage" for Fairman Rogers of Philadelphia, a wealthy arts patron and engineer. Twenty years later, the Drexel family purchased the property and updated it. After that it was bought by the the Count and Countess Alphonso Villa, followed by industrialist railroad magnate Robert Young, whose wife Anita was the sister of artist Georgia O'Keefe. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were close friends of the Youngs and were frequent guests at the estate during their tenure there, as was Jack Kennedy. More recently it belonged to publishing heir Gilbert Kahn. The compound also includes a six bedroom carriage house, three interconnected greenhouses, and a swimming pool with a pavilion and outdoor living area overlooking the Atlantic.

The 20,000+ square foot main house has a Gothic tripartite entrance porch. Inside, silk covered walls, molded plasterwork and limestone fireplace blend together in the entrance hall. The great hall has leaded glass windows and doors and leads to a receiving room with a marble fireplace, a paneled library with a carved wood fireplace, an oceanfront salon and a barrel-vaulted Horace Trumbauer ballroom. A colonnaded terrace runs parallel to the salon, overlooking a soft green lawn that runs toward the ocean. The entertaining options including a dining room with ocean views, a waterfront kitchen and butler's pantry. The service wing is located beyond the dining room and two additional floors of staff living and sleeping rooms are located directly above.

The second floor is divided into two oceanfront master suites, both with stone terraces, bedrooms, sitting rooms, offices, baths, fireplaces, dressing rooms, and custom designed closets. Three additional luxury bedroom suites and two smaller bedrooms are situated on the third floor. An elevator serves all three floors and the basement level. A natural gas powered generator is capable of running all systems in the main house as well as providing power to the 3 bedroom carriage house apartment.

The infinity edge swimming pool and pool house pavilion are sheltered from breezes within a brick enclosure. On the shore side, retractable glass walls offer a view while two heated marble cabanas, a covered lounging area, and an extensive sound system add to the ambiance.

Three heated greenhouses provide flowers, plants and topiaries, including Fairholme's signature pink geraniums. The 4000+ square foot carriage house contains a three bedroom apartment, a one bedroom apartment, two staff suites, an office, a gym, several storage garages and a main parking garage that can accommodate five cars. It is listed at $18 million with Lila Delman.

Estate of the Day

When not serving as a hideout for much-maligned Wikileaks frontman Julian Assange, stately Ellingham Hall (above) in the UK's bucolic Norfolk is available for sportsmen to hunt gamebirds in a classic English country house setting. The 10-bedroom Georgian mansion sited on 650 acres has been a prime shooting ground for four generations of the aristocratic Smith family's ownership. The Ellingham estate offers shooting days in season of between 150 – 200 birds at about $40 per bird, or about $6,000 – $8,000 per day. "Whether you like snap shooting over tall trees, partridges bursting over hedges, or high pheasants flying back to woods, we have something to please all," the estate's listing on the Guns on Pegs site notes. "We work very hard to deliver a smoothly-run but relaxed and friendly shoot. The shoot makes a very good day for eight guns but nine can be accommodated for teams." Ellingham provides refreshments and lunch, and participants are encouraged to bring their own Purdeys and Range Rovers; shooting at Assange is strictly prohibited. 

Estate of the Day

Today's home is a little bit trapped in its decade of origin. This 1980s contemporary on 4.68 acres in Ann Arbor, Michigan has a boardwalk path to 369' of Huron River frontage. The angular home was designed to showcase its views and has multiple decks and patios. The five-bedroom homes most striking feature is its indoor pool area. It has windows, skylights and lots of natural woodwork. While the kitchen has been updated with new appliances and granite countertops, it looks like other rooms are still back in the 1980s. The home is surrounded by landscaping by award-winning gardener John Cullen of Celtic Gardens. This home is listed at $2.95 million.

Estate of the Day

There's no denying it's been a tough couple of years for luxury real estate but how have our estate of the day properties fared this year? I decided to break it down, month by month to see what is still on the market. Today we are looking at June which saw one of the year's most expensive properties, Colorado's Flying Dog Ranch which is now also one of the year's biggest price drops. Once listed at $56 million, it now sits at $46.2 million. One property that didn't have a price cut is the Frick Estate in Alpine, New Jersey which is still at $68 million. The elaborate Villa Collina in Knoxville, Tennessee also had a huge price cut, from $21 million to $12.5 million. More after the jump.

Estate of the Day

Today's home in Pensacola, Florida is all about the view. The waterfront home is perched on the Scenic Highway bluffs with views over Escambia Bay. A new 350-foot dock and a large 42'x42' boathouse offer room for your aquatic toys. The dock boasts 4' deep water year around. The home has two very large balconies giving you views of marine life at play as pelicans, seagulls and occasional osprey dive and even the occasional dolphin can be spotted. The home has a great room with over 20' high ceilings, fireplace, gourmet kitchen with granite countertops and top of the line appliances, formaldining room, polished travertine floors and a balcony that stretches the entire width of the house.

The master suite includes a see-through fireplace, a custom designed master bathroom and closets, generous laundry and separate storage room plus a library/office or another bedroom with in suite bathroom overlooking the landscaped and very private front yard. Two more stories are reached through the interior staircase or via the commercial sized glass elevator where large windows reveal the Bay views as you travel between floors. The second level is taken up by a very large bedroom, huge sitting area and luxurious bathroom a private guest suite. The third story has another very large balcony running along the entire width of the home and two large bedrooms facing the bay with in-suite bathrooms. A second guest kitchen is easily accessed from both bedrooms; and that provides accesses to the gardens and multi-level decks with an outside hot tub and showers under the house.

Back on the ground floor there is a fenced in yard and another gated entrance and driveway to a large parking deck about 35 feet above sea level which is accessed via a private, paved road along the Bay. There is comprehensive hurricane and security protection at the touch of a switch and every window and door has roll down insulated hurricane shutters. This home is listed at $3.7 million.

Estate of the Day

There's no denying it's been a tough couple of years for luxury real estate but how have our estate of the day properties fared this year? I decided to break it down, month by month to see what is still on the market. Today we are looking at May which brings us my favorite property in Vermont, Above the Clouds, which is still on the market at $16 million. This is also the month we first saw 49 Margin Street, an enviable waterfront commercial complex still on the market for $55 million and, for double that price, Cave Cay in the Bahamas still sitting pretty at $110 million. The Amityville Horror House sold but The Chimneys, a classic New York estate, still is on the market for $20 million.

Estate of the Day

There's no denying it's been a tough couple of years for luxury real estate but how have our estate of the day properties fared this year? I decided to break it down, month by month to see what is still on the market. Today we are looking at April, a month that saw us heading to London, Tuscany and British Columbia among the usual stops of Beverly Hills, Greenwich and other wealthy U.S. communities.

We checked out Charleston's most expensive home and probably one of the top listings in South Carolina. Sword Gate House, shown above, which is still holding firm at $23 million as is a Coeur d'Alene, Idaho home listed at $17 million. And whether you interested in an art gallery of a house in San Francisco, a Tuscan villa or Hamptons classic, we've got some decent price reductions in this batch.

Estate of the Day

Saratoga Springs is famous for horse racing and it's hard to find an equestrian property in the area more ready for horses than Stone Bridge Farms. The estate is a thoroughbred breeding and training facility. The property is three parcels together, a total of more than 425 acres near Saratoga Springs.

There are two parcels currently being utilized for the broodmare operation that measure approximately 335 acres total. That property contains two 12-stall broodmare barns with modern foaling facilities, a 24-stall yearling barn, round barn, mega-dome arena, 27 paddocks, run-in sheds, including two large sheds with four stalls each, and two residences. A 92-acre parcel includes the Georgian Neo-classical main residence and the Cape style guest house. It's also home to the only year-round operating synthetic track on the east coast, an indoor riding arena, 2 enclosed eurosizers, 47 stalls, 31 paddocks of which 17 are covered. The entire property is priced at $13.5 million, with the 92-acre parcel available separately for $7 million.

Estate of the Day

There's no denying it's been a tough couple of years for luxury real estate but how have our estate of the day properties fared this year? I decided to break it down, month by month to see what is still on the market. Today we are looking at March.

One of the most expensive homes, the Lake Bluff, Illinois home Landsdowne, built for the heirs of the Rand McNally map empire, remains on the market at $15.465 million. It was a month for penthouses and several of them are still on the market. You can pick up a Palms Place Las Vegas penthouse for $4 million, one of the most luxurious penthouses in Coral Gables, Florida has had a couple million pared off its price and a stunning Tribeca penthouse has held firm at $28 million. The complete breakdown is after the jump.

Estate of the Day

Sales began today on The Ascent, a new 49-unit resort condominium project at the base of Beaver Creek Ski Resort in Avon, Colorado. The first sales offering includes some 25 units initially with two-, three- and four bedroom residences up for sale. 

Units have upscale appliances and finishes with knotty alder cabinetry wood flooring, granite countertops, GE Profile stainless appliances, GE stack washers and dryers, Jacuzzi tubs, gas fireplaces, high-speed Internet wiring, ceramic bathroom flooring, and a designer's palette of muted paint colors and premium finishes throughout. Property amenities are designed for vacationers with a fitness area with lockers and a steam room; indoor pool; indoor and outdoor hot tubs; and outdoor fireplace and deck; sports lounge; youth game room; reading lounge with a fireplace; ski lockers with boot warmers and a ski season shuttle to Beaver Creek and Vail.Prices start at $349,000 for a two-bedroom on the second floor and zoom up to $1.099 million for a four-bedroom penthouse, prices that are approximately 50-67% of the 2008 pricing.

Estate of the Day

Today's home in the tony Boston suburb of Brookline, Massachusetts is an older home that has been renovated into a fantastically luxurious family abode. The six-bedroom home has marble floors, crown moldings and large carved fireplaces. The master bedroom has his & hers closets, a private balcony and a master bathroom with a spa tub. The gourmet kitchen has gleaming granite counters, custom cabinetry and top-of-the-line appliances. The well-laid out kitchen even includes space for cookbooks. The home also has a spacious media room, home gym and large carriage house. It is listed at $7.25 million.

Estate of the Day

Today's home, Villa Lewaro in Irvington, New York is a National Historic Landmark. The home, also known as the Anne E. Poth Home, was the home of Madam C. J. Walker from 1918 to 1919, believed to be the first female, and first African-American, self-made millionaire (she made her money selling shampoo and other hair care). The mansion is an Italianate villa house designed for Walker by Vertner Tandy, the first registered African-American architect and was constructed during 1916-1918 at an estimated cost of $250,000, a fortune at the time. The name Villa Lewaro was coined by a visitor, Enrico Caruso, from the first two letters of each word in Lelia Walker Robinson, the name of her daughter, who later went by the name of A'Lelia Walker.

The home was used as a conference center on race relations issues. Walker died there in 1919 and it was inherited by her daughter A'Lelia Walker who owned it until she died in 1931. It then became the Anne E. Poth Home for Convalescent and Aged Members of the Companions of the Forest in America. The home is on more than three acres. The 30-room mansion has eight bedrooms and elaborate details including the original bronze chandelier, stained glass windows, intricate moldings and coffered ceilings. The renovated kitchen provides access to the outdoors. The property includes a large renovated carriage house and a reflecting pool. It is listed at $6.8 million. 

Estate of the Day

Prolific author Tom Clancy bought three penthouse condominiums at the Ritz-Carlton Residences in Baltimore around this time last year. Now the Baltimore Sun is reporting that Clancy has picked up three more units at the waterfront complex. His first deal was for three combined penthouse units which equaled nearly 12,000 square feet of space with four bedrooms, six balconies, a home theater and three semi-private elevators. He bought the additional properties this fall for almost $2.2 million, far less than the $12.6 million he paid last year. The luxury project has struggled to find buyers and lowered prices over the summer. Now Clancy has a total of over 17,000 square feet at his disposal. He owns the entire penthouse level of one of the complex's six buildings. Prices in the complex range from $500,000 to $4 million and other buyers are also buying a couple of units and turning them into one larger space.

Today's home is a Georgian Colonial that was built on the the East Side of Providence, Rhode Island back in 1928. The home offer city living with a gracious style. Particularly delightful is the oversized living room which is open to a sunroom with delicately arched windows. Other rooms include a formal dining room, family room with a wood burning fireplace, wet bar, custom built-ins and two seating areas.The kitchen has granite counters and a large breakfast room. There are a total of seven bedrooms with a master suite that has a vaulted ceiling, atrium doors to a terrace, a marble bath with whirlpool and steam shower, dressing area, and his and hers walk in closets. The home is on a 23,766 square foot lot with two adjacent buildable lots available for purchase at $500,000 each with the purchase of the home. The home is listed at $2.995 million.

Estate of the Day

Today's estate is for the modern cowboy or pioneer ready for a rustically luxe life on 160 acres of prime Sawtooth Valley ranch land. The land is surrounded by Forest Service land and has 360 degree views of the Sawtooth and White Cloud Mountains. The estate includes two custom residences with a total of 8,000 square feet of space. Both homes are on the bank of the Salmon River. One home features a long deck which includes a bubbling hot tub with mountain views. The home interiors feature field stone fireplaces, log walls and tile and hardwood floors. This ranch is listed at $8 million.

Estate of the Day

Clean and contemporary can work well in the spare landscapes of the west. Case in point is this modern home on 15 acres in Indian Springs, Wyoming. The four-bedroom home uses contemporary elements of steel, concrete, crisply detailed wood siding and intersecting rooflines. The home is comprised of three distinct structures. The use of local earth tones and copper-clad projections add texture and shadow to the exterior. The interior uses a more refined version of stone, wood and metal elements. The main-level structure houses living room, dining room and kitchen and has angular custom bronze and mica chandeliers. A Bulthaup kitchen opens to dining, living and terraces. The home features intimate spaces tucked within larger rooms. A two-story library leads into four bedrooms, with views to surrounding mountains. There is a large deck off master bedroom. The Indian Springs community has a private clubhouse, pool, tennis courts and horse stables. This home is listed at $7.65 million.