This beautiful contemporary on 11.5 acres in the town of Stanford is presently listed for $950,000. This is an exceptional offering since the house is just 90 miles from mid-town Manhattan and 0.3 miles from the Taconic Parkway. Instead of the usual posting of the details about the property I thought it would be a great idea to have the person who not only owns the property but who also designed it tell you what went into this project.
This house was designed by noted architect Peter Bice who has worked on all types of projects throughout the US and abroad.
The meetings I have had with Mr. Bice drove home the point as to how passionate he was about this project and his work in general.
He told me he went with a Barn style contemporary because he was inspired by the many barns in the area and loves the fact that this property ajoined state protected land.
So here is Mr. Bice describing his house.
BICE
The house on Prospect Hill Road was designed for me to be used to work out of and entertain with during a large project for HUD in Dutchess County, New York. That project was cancelled, eliminating the need for this house.
The house is not a "spec" house.
The area in which one could build a house, out of the 11+ acres, was restricted to about 25'X120', because of the stringent setbacks from federal and state preserves, which surround the 11+ acres, )an additional 35 acres of preserves).
The house was constructed of engineered lumber and beams and was insulated to the maximum. High energy windows and doors with low e glass and argon gas were used for further maximum energy efficiency.
The house is 3680 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, a home office, a butler's pantry, a wine closet, a "great room", ie. living, dining, kitchen area, utility/mud room, and 2 galleries, the first 96' long on the first floor and the second 64' long on the second floor.
The bedrooms each have built in headboards, that contain the wiring for in the wall flat screen tv's, cd players, computers, phone, electric, cable etc. These headboard hide all wiring for these devices.
The baths each have dual shower heads in wide open shower areas, without curtains, glass partitions/doors etc. and each has windows facing the woods.
The home office has 32' of custom, hard rock maple cabinets, each wired within so that all copiers, scanners, fax machines, computers, etc. can be kept inside the cabinets. There is extensive in the wall wiring for computer screens, sound etc.
The butler's pantry is fully equipped with a large storage refrigerator, large microwave oven, dishwasher for food preparation and service during a party so that the public kitchen area is left undisturbed. This allows a party serviced and cleaned up without interfering with the party itself. There is also a washer and dryer with maximum capacity in this butler's pantry.
In both the home office and the butler's pantry, the counters are 31" wide, not the conventional 24".
The "great room" is the heart of the house. The ceilings are 20' high. There are speakers in the walls and ceilings, part of a 23 speaker installation throughout the house, all controlled from a master center in one of the kitchen cabinets.
The lighting throughout the house consists of museum quality spot lights. There is landscape lighting that lights the woods in the evening.
This is a house of sound and light and art, a place to work from and entertain with.
The details throughout are unique and meticulously installed.
Jennifer Fivelsdal - keller Williams Realty - 845-758-6842 or jfivelsdal@hvc.rr.com
