Original style & recent renovations

COVER HOUSE

4275 TRAILS END DRIVE, KETTERING

Ranch with finished lower level sits on 1.8-acre lot

Contributing writer

A pleasing combination of original and new features creates a warm welcome in the Kettering ranch home at 4275 Trails End Drive.

Built in 1948, the original home benefits from two major additions in intervening years that bring its total living space to about 6,000 square feet. Current owners have made recent major renovations with a good eye for retainable vintage features and the necessary updates for today’s lifestyles.

The 1.8-acre lot offers deep frontage and a backyard with plenty of green space around the heated swimming pool.

Lois Sutherland of Irongate Inc. Realtors lists this home for $699,000.

The wide central entry retains its original hardwood flooring and creates an easy flow into main gathering areas. The versatile floor plan lends itself to individual options for using its welcoming spaces.

“It felt warm and friendly, and it’s great for entertaining and parties,” said the current owner.

With a choice for formal entertaining or for larger groups, the banquet-sized dining room is enhanced by a gas-starter fireplace and two long buffet counters built-in with cabinets and drawers. Crown moldings and custom draperies add finishing touches.

For smaller groups or casual gatherings, the quaint breakfast room, with a boxed bay window, retains its original gas fireplace with a rounded opening on a stucco-like rounded wall accented by decorated brick.

At the end of the foyer, the entrance area preceding the great room has a built-in wet bar complete with a glass-doored beverage cooler and a built-in ice maker.

Tiered sconces direct lighting upward to set a comfortable atmosphere in the great room, which retains its original built-in bookshelves wrapping around a corner into an L-shaped space for multiple books, artwork and storage.

On the opposite wall, an entertainment center accommodates a large-screen TV connected to the home’s sound system. Under a ceiling treatment with angled lines sits a stone fireplace surrounded by stacked windows. French doors open to the extended deck, which owners updated with a cathedral-style pergola.

The kitchen exudes a classy gourmet style with Amish cabinets, stone-tile flooring in varying shapes and long granite-topped counters, including that of the center island.

The homeowner, who is a former restaurant owner, said, “I wanted a kitchen I could cook in, and this kitchen has a good footprint.”

That footprint made it possible to be renovated with today’s standards and styles, such as oversized, stainless-steel, commercial appliances, including a Wolf six-burner gas range with grill and griddle and an extra-wide refrigerator/freezer.

And anyone who likes to entertain will sometimes need catering services. So the owner saw to that need by renovating the former mudroom/laundry room to match the kitchen with long counter space and matching cabinets for storage.

With one of the additions to the home, a mezzanine level was added to accommodate a two-room suite with a private full bath. Both rooms have tall windows on angled walls to add natural light and poolside views. This suite is currently used as a study/office, but it could be another choice for a bedroom suite.

Original sleeping quarters are off a wide hallway extending from the foyer. The main bedroom suite offers a cathedral ceiling, a wall of closets behind mirrored doors and direct access to the deck. The private bath has a double vanity, a corner makeup station, a jetted tub and a separate shower. Custom-designed shoe/handbag cubbies are installed on one wall of the walk-in closet.

Two more bedrooms share the remodeled hall bath, which has a wall-mounted designer vanity, tub and shower surrounded with ceramic tile in a woven design, a heated floor and Pella double-paned windows with interior silhouette blinds.

Lower-level finished space provides an equipped theater with blackout curtains circling the angled windows and an equipped wet bar/galley kitchen. The movie screen descends from the ceiling when needed, and there is an overhead projector. Double atrium doors open to the pool area.

A recreation/exercise room on the lowest level could convert to other uses.

KETTERING

Price: $699,000

Directions: Far Hills Avenue to west on Stroop Road, south on Trails End Drive

Highlights: About 6,000 sq. ft., 4 bedrooms, 4 full and 1 half baths, custom-built 1948, additions and renovations, ranch with finished walkout lower level, great room, theater room, wet bar, recreation/exercise room, porch, deck with pergola, heated swimming pool, 1.8-acre lot, circular driveway, attached 3-car garage, irrigation and sound systems

For more information:

Irongate Inc. Realtors

Lois Sutherland

(937) 478-5882

www.loissutherland.com

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