The neighborhoods off the Oxford corridor are sought after for their proximity to both Oxford and Easton, the Talbot Country Club with the many waterfront lots along Trippe and Peachblossom Creeks. This 2.5 acre premier lot overlooks the 17th green of the Talbot County Country Club with eastern views of Peachblossom Creek and western views of protected wetlands. It is a great family house with lawns offering broad vistas whose perimeters are protected by invisible fencing to protect children and pets at play and an in-ground pool for family fun surrounded by mature landscaping for privacy.
The traditional architectural style has a five-bay center story and a half wing with the entry door centered between two pairs of large 12/12 windows. One-story wings step down on each side and one wing connects to a hyphen leading to the three bay garage. The latter wing contains a double garage with the remainder of the space a spacious mud room and laundry. The exterior entry makes it easy for clean up after an afternoon in the pool, a round of golf, or gardening. The massing and the light lap siding, black shutters, gray toned architectural roofing shingles with the accent of the red door offers great curb appeal. The rear elevation opens up to the landscape with walls of windows in the sunroom and family room/ sunroom, sliding doors from the primary suite and double units of windows spaced along the shed dormer across the center bay of the house. The rear deck is accessed from both the sunroom and the main floor primary bedroom.
Brick circular steps lead up to the front door that opens into a spacious foyer between a bedroom/office and the living-dining rooms that span the full depth of the house. French doors lead to the library/office and another door opens opposite a bath across a short hall that connects the rear family room to the laundry, mud room and garage.
From the foyer, a wide cased opening offers a vista to the living room’s side interior elevation of a large window, wood burning fireplace, an arched recessed alcove for books, family photographs and collectibles and the door to the primary suite. Sunlight streams in from windows at both the front and side corner of the room.
The primary suite’s spacious bedroom has sunlight from both the large side window and sliding doors to the deck overlooking the pool and landscape. I admired the stylish primary bath with its dark gray cabinetry and the tower cabinet that separated the dual lavatories inset into the white marble countertop with veins of gray. The full mirrors are detailed with dark gray crown molding and the porcelain tile floor, subway tiled shower and the sleek Plantation shutter window covering create an elegant bath.
The door to the primary bedroom is centered on a hall between the front living room, foyer and library/office and the rear dining room, breakfast room and kitchen to the family room. Sliding doors from both the dining room and breakfast room lead to the sunroom with the kitchen windows overlooking the sunroom. The dining room has an entire wall of built-in wall cabinetry for a butler’s pantry with space between the base and upper cabinets that becomes a sideboard for serving with lighting above on the underside of the upper cabinets. Double doors from the breakfast room open to sunroom and the landscape beyond creating a charming area for breakfast or any informal meal. Since the sunroom also has a dining area opposite the breakfast area, serving holiday meals to overflow guests is easy and everyone is part of the conversation.
The kitchen has a “U” shaped arrangement opposite an interior wall of cabinets containing double ovens and a microwave above a counter. At each end are shallow depth cabinets with a mix of open shelving and upper and lower closed cabinets. The color palette of wood floors, white “Plain and Fancy” cabinets, dark granite countertops and stainless steel high-end appliances appealed to this cook very much. I could easily picture how I would arrange my collection of colorful Italian ceramics as accents on the counters or open shelves.
Off the kitchen is the family room with a pitched ceiling from its being located in the one-story garage wing. The focal point of the room is the chimney that projects into the room and rises to the underside of the ceiling clad in white planks. High quarter circle windows leave room below for tall bookcases or other furniture arrangements like the pair of chests with matching sunburst framed mirrors that gracefully flank the fireplace here.
French doors with full height sidelights and full length transoms open up this room to the adjacent family room/sunroom with its sloped ceiling of white wood planks and wood floors. Seating is arranged around the large TV at one end of the room. This charming room is a prelude to the larger sunroom with both seating and dining areas for large family gatherings or entertaining. The continuous wall of wrap-around long windows make this room transparent and offers views of the landscape.
I envied the large mudroom and laundry with its own exterior door and the bright accent of the red washer and dryer with drawers below at a comfortable height for doing laundry. The second floor contains three other bedrooms and a full bath and all of the bedrooms overlook the rear landscaping with large windows. Over the garage is a finished attic accessed by stairs in the mudroom. This room is clearly a bonus and is filled with sunlight from end gable windows and skylights in the sloped ceilings over the knee walls that would make a great office space.
Wonderful family home with a main floor primary suite, great flow among the four sitting areas of living room, family room, family room sunroom and oversized sunroom for large family gatherings or for entertaining. Gourmet kitchen, dining room with built-in wall of cabinets with under cabinet lighting to illuminate the serving surface, traditional architectural style-all in the sought after Oxford corridor-who needs anything more?
For more information about this property, contact Kelly Showell with Benson & Mangold, LLC at 410-822-1415 (o), 410-829-5468 (c) or [email protected], “Equal Housing Opportunity).
Photography by Janelle Stroop, Thru the Lens, 410-310-6838, [email protected].
Spy House of the Week is an ongoing series that selects a different home each week. The Spy’s Habitat editor Jennifer Martella makes these selections based exclusively on her experience as a architect.
Jennifer Martella has pursued her dual careers in architecture and real estate since she moved to the Eastern Shore in 2004. Her award winning work has ranged from revitalization projects to a collaboration with the Maya Lin Studio for the Children’s Defense Fund’s corporate retreat in her home state of Tennessee.
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