Take a walk through the home, its natural settings, and two luxurious showers.
List Price: $1,390,000
The Property: When Kevin Fitzpatrick bought this 12-room hilltop house in St. Charles two years ago, the entire thing was white, inside and out. “It was right out of Raging Bull,” he says.
Looking to complement the home’s natural setting—two streams course around three sides of the property, and tall trees abound—Fitzpatrick, an investment banker, painted the house’s exterior in neutral sands and browns. Inside, he and his interior designer, Anne McCourtney, followed suit, toning things down with new stone accents, wood floors, and warmer colors. Now the house better suits its surroundings, which it had always embraced with a three-level rear deck that juts out over the hillside.
The master suite is on the main floor—though because of the sloping site, it’s actually the second floor, with another floor of four bedrooms below. The suite has a big sitting room and library, a private balcony, and a new master bath with black walnut vanities, a trefoil-shaped soaking tub with a view into the woods, and an eight-by-eight-foot shower with a pebble floor, multiple spray jets, a bench—and a dog shower.
The house was built in 1996 and expanded in 2002 with the addition of an indoor swimming pool and a changing room. Other indulgences include a lower-level bathroom where the shower is a self-contained spa, with towel warmers, a foot massage, a CD player, and 36 spray jets all around. An enormous cedar-lined fur storage room is across the hall. There is a second kitchen, which the original owners referred to as their “sauce kitchen,” and there are two safes, one concealed beneath a floor. “It reminded me of The Sopranos,” says Fitzpatrick, recalling his first tour of the property.
Fitzpatrick, who is single, has determined that the 8,800-square-foot house is too big for him; after the sale, he plans to move into downtown Geneva.
Price Points: Fitzpatrick paid $1,050,000 for the house in 2006. At the time, builders were willing to pay that amount and then tear down the house to put up a new residence on the very desirable lot. “I got the house for free with the land,” figures Fitzpatrick, who would not disclose how much he spent to refinish the house.
Listing Agent: Lynn Purcell of Baird & Warner, (630) 262-7136; lynn.purcell@bairdwarner.com