Mansion will make you go ooh-la-la
When Yiannis Monovoukas bought the Frenchstyle mansion at 190 Pond Road near Wellesley College a couple years ago, he was planning on a modest renovation. After all, the white stucco home was only about 20 years old, and it already made a palatial showing: Its pointed, conetopped tower rises in front of its elaborate roof with several pyramidal peaks, triangular dormers and gently flared eaves.
“We thought it was an impressive style ... it's unique to New England to see a French chateaux,” said Monovoukas, who's now selling the place for just under $5 million.
But as the work started, the Greek native became more enamored by the craftsmanship of the home and its dramatic architecture.
“I said, `God, with a house like this ... we're going all the way. This is a unique house,' ” Monovoukas said this week while standing against the castle-like entrance of the grand manse.
After about a year and $1.5 million in work later, the home is complete and the result is stunning.
Despite being built in 1996, the house feels timeless, like it could be brand-new or 100 years old. The outside has characteristics of a French eclectic home, with some chateauesque and medieval architectural elements, while the inside is open and bright and milky white, yet ornately decorated.
It's also unlike those more cheaply built millennium mansions that litter so many monied Massachusetts towns. No, everything here is majestic. Marble is everywhere — in the two-story open foyer, in the kitchen (even the backsplash) and all over the bathrooms. And the details — the arched entryways, the moldings, the wall panels and coffered ceilings — are rich.
But that doesn't mean the home didn't require some serious renovations, removing the more tacky designs of the 1990s.
“This was not a restoration, but a transformation,” Monovoukas said, waving his arms and pointing his fingers excitedly in the kitchen and living areas.
The rooms had been separated by walls, green marble had decorated the kitchen and a bar was set up near the living area. Monovoukas had it all opened up.
While four of the bedrooms are on the second floor, one big bedroom shares the first floor along with the wood-paneled library, sunroom study and other common rooms and halls. Each bedroom has its own bath, and there are eight bathrooms in all. But the star of the second floor is the master bedroom, which is more of a compound than a suite: The L-shaped room is massive, with two huge walk-in closets, a fireplace and an elaborately tiled gray marble bathroom that seems to go on forever.
The basement is finished, although more plainly than the rest of the place, but that's OK because what modern family can possibly occupy all the nearly 7,500 square feet? Outside, handsome stone patios extend from the front and back of the home, making them ideal for summer parties on the threeacre wooded estate.
For more information, call Julie Harrison of Gibson Sotheby's International at 617-549-4207.
HOT PROPERTY Adam Smith