If you`re a closet connoisseur or, rather, a connoisseur of closets, then drop by 231 Dewey Rd. in Inverness.
Even when you consider that this 40-year-old ranch doesn`t have a basement, there still seems to be enough storage space for even the most dedicated pack rat. You can hardly walk two paces in this home-listed with RE/ MAX Unlimited for $469,000-without spotting a place to hide your towels or coats or records or stereo system or . . .
”It has a lot of closets,” observed Diana Schoenberger, who was sitting in for selling agent Mary Jane Felt during Sunday`s open house. ”Kids could play hide-and-seek and you would never find them.”
Take, for example:
– The shelves and drawers behind a row of six doors, complete with brass rose handles, that line one wall of the 14-by-13 dining room. The closets add up to a built-in buffet, with ample storage room for formal dinnerware and table linen, Schoenberger said.
– Another two closets next to the white marble fireplace in the 38-by-18- foot living room. Because these closets are wide, they could accommodate stereo or television equipment.
But most spectacular is the space behind the not one, not two, not even three, but four sets of white wood closet doors with fancy brass handles lining the dressing area of the 18 1/2-by-12 master bathroom off the 23-by-14 master bedroom. That`s not to mention a linen closet and another big closet next to a door leading to an outdoor hot tub embedded in a wood deck.
The main bathroom area has a shower stall made of beige marble that matches that around the bathtub, which is surrounded by three bare windows.
”Self-confidence, to sit in that tub,” one visitor commented.
But more privacy could be easily attained by hanging pleated shades over those windows, Schoenberger noted.
”Holy mackerel,” said visitor Annette Maresh of Chicago as she walked into the bathroom. ”There could be 50 people in here and you would never know it.”
What with its wide dressing area/hall and room for racks of shirts, dresses and shoes, Maresh said the bathroom reminds her of a grand 1920s East Coast mansion she once stayed in.
The white-brick home, set on a wooded acre lot, has been added onto several times, Schoenberger said. The front door, just off the circular drive, opens into the living room, which has off-white carpeting with an emerald green border.
But the original front door is on the other side of the living room. That door opens into a hallway that leads to the master bedroom as well as to a middle and a corner bedroom, both with identical dimensions of 14 by 11 feet. All three rooms are painted off-white to match the carpeting.
At the end of the hall is an entryway to the kitchen`s 10-by-12 eating area and another full bathroom. This bathroom has a mix of modern peach, mauve and green wallpaper and beige marble like that in the master bedroom bath. And, of course, there`s a linen closet.
The kitchen eating area also has its storage space-folding wood doors that hide the clothes washer and dryer and cabinets for laundry items.
The kitchen has a feeling of Mexico, with its wood cabinets inset in white stucco and topped by an extra-wide marble counter that is open to the living and dining rooms.
The Mexican flavor extends to the adjacent sun room, which has a large burnt-orange ceramic tile floor and four sets of sliding doors that open onto a brick patio.
A doorway leads into a relatively new area of the house that includes a 12-by-11 bedroom, 20-by-13 study and a full bath.
This bedroom can be used as a spare or a maid`s room, Schoenberger said. Or the entire area could be separate living quarters for in-laws or long-term guests, with the study serving as a living room.
