The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Stylish home large, luxurious, relaxing
NEW CANAAN — The school year wraps up this month and families are anticipating summer vacations, while the residents of the custom clapboard and stone colonial house at 499 Silvermine Road need only sit back, relax and enjoy the luxurious and casual attributes of their property.
There are 7,161 square feet of living space on four finished levels on a two-acre property that includes a covered, wrap-around front porch and a backyard with a heated in-ground swimming pool, spa, cabana, terraced covered and open bluestone patios, an outdoor fireplace, fire pit, and built-in barbecue area, all of which are surrounded by beautiful landscaping; a park-like private oasis with flowering trees, shrubs and perennials.
As built in 1988, this was a colonial that, in the skillful mind of New Canaan architect John Mastera and skillful hands of Hobbs Luxury Builders, was transformed in 2007-08 into a masterful custom Queen Anne-style home. The result is an elegant home with a gabled roof and a modern-day turret that provides the lightfilled, two-story gourmet kitchen with a rotunda housing the eat-in area.
Access to the house is gained via a private lane. A stone wall runs along the front of the house, and stone pillars topped with lanterns mark the entrance to the property, where a semicircular driveway accesses the front of the house and another driveway, this one completely circular, travels to one side, where there are two attached garages, one with three bays and the other with room for two more vehicles. Both driveways are bordered by Belgium block.
Enter the house from the slate front porch by the door into the sophisticated two-story foyer or the door that accesses a more casual space. The entrance foyer has marble flooring and a gracefully curved staircase to the second floor. To the left is the formal living room and to the right is the formal dining room. Ornamented entablature adorns the entranceway from the foyer into each of these rooms.
The dining room has two builtin, corner china cabinets with glass-front doors, a window seat and patterned hardwood floor. The living room contains a fireplace with a decorative mantel, a walk-in bay window area and a wide entrance topped with an interior transom into the solarium. Between the solarium and family room is a wine refrigerator. The family room features a fireplace, built-in bookshelves, a wet bar and three sets of French doors to the backyard and all its amenities.
The wide entrance from the family room to the kitchen has two steps up and is flanked by columns. Kitchen features include a large center island/breakfast bar, a wet bar, granite counters, a decorative tile backsplash and highend appliances including a Wolf six-burner range top.
The eat-in area has is a banquette and a rounded wall of multiple double-hung windows. The kitchen has sliding doors and a single door to the patios and pool.
On the second floor is a large, two-story media room with builtin shelving, a decorative rectangular tray ceiling and loft.
This wing of the house has a full bath, an exercise room, an office with a stone fireplace and a tall domed ceiling, and a sitting area. A hidden circular staircase leads down to a bonus room, half bath and the cabana with the home’s third wet bar.
A spacious master bedroom suite, which features a walk-in closet and marble bath with a freestanding soaking tub, shower, bidet and a door to a large balcony is on the second floor. Four other bedrooms are on this level, two en suite.