428 Lucas Avenue ExtensionKingston, NY 12401Price: $849,000

Custom built with a distinctly Mediterranean influence, this extraordinary property feels almost hidden in plain sight, surrounded by mature gardens and remarkable privacy, yet within walking distance of the vibrant City of Kingston. For more than twenty years, the gardens have evolved into a verdant, richly layered landscape. Moonflowers and sunflowers mingle with echinacea, daffodils, tulips and climbing vines, while a handmade waterfall tumbles into a koi pond below. It is the kind of depth and abundance that only comes with time, a garden that has grown alongside the house and become inseparable from the experience of living here. Step inside and the architecture immediately reveals itself. Soaring ceilings rise above a dramatic great room, where walls of windows flood the interior with natural light and blur the boundary between indoors and out. A woodstove anchors the room and radiates warmth throughout the home, while the slightly sunken living area, a nod to the sunken rooms of the 1970s, brings an unexpected intimacy to its grand proportions. An open staircase rises nearly twenty feet above the great room, creating a striking architectural focal point and a visual connection between the two levels. Open sightlines continue into the dining room, allowing conversation and entertaining to flow easily from one room to the next. Just beyond, the three-season screened porch may be the quiet jewel of the house. It is a place for morning coffee and slow starts, summer rainstorms, long dinners and those rare moments when there is nowhere else you need to be. From here, the gardens become the entertainment, with birdsong, monarchs and hummingbirds moving among the flowers, and the gentle sound of the waterfall spilling into the koi pond. Protected from the elements yet immersed in nature, it is a place that invites you to slow down and stay awhile. A generously proportioned first-floor primary suite with an en suite bath adds ease to the floor plan, while three additional bedrooms and a full bath upstairs create a natural separation for guests. The Mediterranean influence continues through the stucco exterior and beautifully proportioned casement windows, designed to capture the breeze and allow fresh air to move throughout the house. The property is also being offered with an adjacent parcel of nearly three-quarters of an acre, which can remain untouched to preserve the setting or offer possibilities for creating an extended compound with an additional dwelling. After years of walking through homes throughout the Hudson Valley, it still feels special to encounter one that is genuinely its own. This house has personality, drama and grandeur, but also warmth, intimacy and a wonderful sense of ease. Most of all, it has been shaped over time, by thoughtful design, an extraordinary landscape and twenty years of life lived within it.