Inside Adobe Walls property

Located in Arroyo Seco a few miles north of Taos, this property holds a 3,037-square-foot adobe main residence, four casitas totaling 3,878 square feet, and a studio apartment above the two-car garage. The main building was developed over a 50-year period by Nan Lipsett, a Taos resident, artist, adobe builder, and woodworker who created many of the hand-carved doors, beams, and lintels. The property was purchased 14 years ago from the Nature Conservancy and then restored, adding radiant heating, granite countertops in the kitchen, and other updates and improvements.

With its rounded doorways, viga and beam ceilings, gallery lighting, uneven walls with wonderful straw-plaster finish, and clay tile floors, the house is beautiful, earthy and elegant. The upstairs bedroom has a fireplace— one of five in the house, all rebuilt by Carmen Velarde — and a walkin cedar closet. In the bathroom is a tiled tub surround and translucent blue countertops. The second bedroom downstairs features a steam room and a bath and tiled shower.

The kitchen is equipped with stainless-steel appliances and sinks, and there are tile-mosaic backsplashes, and wooden cabinets.

The sprawling property is replete with gardens, ponds, waterfalls, walkways through clean gravel expanses, and a year-round stream, all shaded by mature trees for a parklike setting. Landscaping includes plums, lilacs, and sagebrush. The main patio has a fireplace, a stainless-steel grill, door and window lintels decoratively carved by Lipsett, rope-carved posts, and an old wisteria.

Realtor Kate Prusack said a buyer could use this as a family compound or vacation rentals, a gallery, an investment property, or it would be perfect as a retreat, with all the water features and the charming tea house, which has a hot tub inside. The largest of the four casitas is an adobe of 1,311 square feet; it has brick floors, two fireplaces, and three patios.

There are two wells on this property of almost 3 acres, which affords great views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Located at 11 State Road 230, just off the road up to Taos Ski Valley, it is listed by Kate Prusack, Santa Fe Properties, for $1,799,000.