What You Get: $1.5 Million Homes in Arizona, Georgia and Connecticut
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What you Get
$1.5 Million Homes in Arizona, Georgia and Connecticut
A modernist glass house in the Sonoran Desert, an 1899 townhouse in Savannah and a French Norman-style home in West Hartford.
What You Get for $1.5 Million
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Cave Creek, Ariz. | $1.5 Million
A modern glass house in the Sonoran Desert, with three bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms
Designed by Michael P. Johnson, this much-published 2007 building — known as the Ellsworth Residence, after its original owners — spans an arroyo at the edge of Tonto National Forest, about an hour north of Phoenix. Cave Creek, a town of around 5,600, is four and a half miles south.
Size: 3,072 square feet
Price per square foot: $488
Indoors: Mr. Johnson, who lives next door, has designed or overseen the property’s many improvements over the last decade, including new paint inside and out, an updated kitchen and master bathroom, and a retrofitted, motorized system that allows for remote operation of sunshades throughout the house.
A bronze bell designed by Paolo Soleri marks the entrance to the 80-foot-long glass house. Sliding doors take you into a stark white living room with Italian tile floors. To the immediate right is the kitchen, which has Miele appliances, including a convection oven, speed oven and induction cooktop. The dining room is behind the kitchen and includes a refinished American walnut table designed by Mr. Johnson, the architect.
On either side of the building is a master suite with a free-standing tub and a walk-in glass shower. An additional bedroom and full bathroom are in a 384-square foot guesthouse.
Outdoor space: The southern side of the building opens to a cantilevered metal deck with a custom sun trellis that incorporates lighting and speakers. Among the 4.72-acre property’s landscaping improvements are new plants, including a palo verde tree, Weber’s agave, golden barrel cactus, yucca rostrata and totem pole cactus. There is also a carport with room for two cars.
Taxes: $3,497
Contact: Johnathon De Young, Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty, 480-619-0780; flexmls.com

Savannah, Ga. | $1.45 Million
An 1899 brick townhouse with three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms and ground-floor commercial space
This house is in the heart of the historic district, a few blocks from Forsyth Park, in a neighborhood known for its design shops and studios. The owners, Robert and Janée Hadley, are designers who undertook a two-year renovation of the property, completed this year.
Size: 2,754 square feet
Price per square foot: $527
Indoors: Double doors open to a marble-tiled vestibule, followed by a stair hall with hardwood floors and a wall of exposed brick. To the right, two bright, high-ceilinged rooms separated by pocket doors serve as a studio-and-gallery space for the owners’ design business, Tandem Co., and could easily be converted into living quarters. The front room has a separate, side entrance from the street. Beyond the back room is a kitchen with an island custom-made from salvaged wood and a backsplash of hand-glazed tile.
Upstairs, a front-facing bedroom with a decorative brick fireplace was turned into a living room. Down the hall is a master suite, which includes a windowed walk-in closet and a bathroom with double sinks, a claw-foot soaking tub and a glass shower with decorative tile.
A floating staircase made with reclaimed wood from the renovation leads to the newly finished third floor. The skylighted former attic has two bedrooms, a bathroom and a climate-controlled storage unit. This level was designed with the idea of eventually putting in a roof deck.
Outdoor space: Doors from the kitchen and from an exterior side entrance lead to a restored outdoor patio with a new deck and pavers. A balcony off the second-floor hallway overlooks the street.
Taxes: $8,511
Contact: Staci Donegan, Celia Dunn Sotheby’s International Realty, 912-247-2052; sothebysrealty.com
West Hartford, Conn. | $1.495 Million
A French Norman-style house built in 1928, with five bedrooms, five full bathrooms and two half bathrooms
This house, which has had only three owners, is in an early 20th-century historic area. The design is attributed to Milton E. Hayman, the architect of many stately homes in the neighborhood, most of them built for affluent members of the nearby Hartford Golf Club. The West Hartford business district is about three miles southwest, and downtown Hartford is about four miles southeast.
Size: 6,602 square feet
Price per square foot: $226
Indoors: The current owners bought the house in 2011 and did a top-to-bottom renovation. They cleaned and preserved original features like the paneled wood front and vestibule doors, and the stone-tile floor in the wide, wood-trimmed foyer. Other features were put to new uses, including the closets next to the staircase, which were converted into a backlighted bar and wine-storage area.
To the left of the entrance is a living room with a gas fireplace, polished ceiling beams and two walls of mullioned windows. Beyond it is a sunroom with a gas fireplace and a bluestone floor.
To the right of the entrance, a Gothic archway (a recurring design element) leads to a paneled library with yet another gas fireplace, as well as a built-in bench below casement windows and an adjacent powder room.
Straight ahead is the formal dining room, which has a contemporary ceiling fixture with a feather motif. You can also reach the dining room by way of the kitchen (a generous square with a central marble-topped island) and butler’s pantry. On one side of the kitchen is a breakfast room with a corner banquette; a powder room is on the other side.
Upstairs, a reconfigured master suite includes a fireplace and a 150-square-foot dressing room, as well as a master bathroom surfaced in marble. The custom cabinetry extends to the bathtub surround.
French doors at the end of the second-floor hallway separate the master and two additional bedrooms from a private guest suite whose bathroom occupies the Norman chateaulike tower. Next to it is a small laundry room.
The third floor has two rooms used as offices by the current owners (one was specially ventilated so that cigars could be enjoyed there). There is also a bedroom, a full bathroom, a cedar closet and a mechanical room.
The walkout basement contains a 450-square-foot family room with a film projector, a mechanized drop-down screen, a wet bar and a fireplace. Also on this level are a bathroom, a kitchenette and a refrigerated wine room, as well as the three-car garage.
Outdoor space: A two-story veranda overlooking the gardens can be reached from the main floor and the lower level, where it opens to a large, landscaped brick patio with espaliered apple trees and a fountain. The lot is 0.7 acres.
Taxes: $33,490
Contact: Marla Byrnes, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, 860-212-4501; bhhsneproperties.com
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Published at Wed, 12 Dec 2018 15:39:57 +0000