List Price: $3.25 million
The Property: Bret and Ursula Boyd drew on their European travels and Ursula’s Slovenian heritage when they built this 19-room house for themselves in Lake Forest in 2003. Working with the architect Richard Swanson, they created a home whose gated front courtyard and stone turret set the stage for an interior whose beamed ceilings, stucco walls, bell-shaped doors, and numerous other details exude a distinctly Old World attitude.

Today’s luxuries weren’t banished. A large flat-screen TV recedes into the ceiling above the stone-and-brick fireplace in the big family room, and there is radiant heating throughout the house and a half-court indoor basketball gym in a basement beneath the garage.

The house was laid out for entertaining, with a dining room designed to suggest a wine cellar and a pretty garden room with lights twinkling in the sky mural overhead. Double doors lead out to the terrace, where an outdoor dining area sits beneath a beamed ceiling. “They have a lot of family gatherings, and they wanted room for everyone,” says Kathy Rojina, Ursula’s sister, who was helping the couple sell the house before they signed with an agent.

With eight bedrooms, an enormous party room in the basement, and just under an acre of land, it’s likely the Boyds did have room for everyone. The master suite is particularly nice. The sleeping room is adjacent to the children’s bedrooms, while the closets, bathroom, laundry, and other functional areas are all lined up off to the side. And as you will see in the video, the home is abundantly detailed. The hand-laid stucco on the walls extends into closets and other out-of-sight places, the door hardware is of the same quality in the basement as in the main rooms, and many window treatments are motorized. “Nothing was skimped on,” Rojina says.

Price Points: The Boyds, who have moved full-time to Florida, were originally marketing the house without an agent; they signed with Brunner-Dasse in June but kept the same asking price.

Listing Agent: Mary Kay Brunner-Dasse of Prudential Rubloff; 847-460-5425 or mdasse@rubloff.com. You can find more details and photos of the house here.