Summer House, Ocean Club Estates

Property Description

The world of luxury real estate is brimming with listings of large homes with super-sized rooms and features galore. But rarely does a home come on the market that marries warmth with wonder like Summer House in Ocean Club Estates on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

An architectural delight, intimate despite its size – 12,058 square feet under roof – Summer House is sheer perfection in beach cottage feel, constructed with extraordinary strength of premium materials, with fine finishing touches and a casual ambience, inviting soft nautical décor that says welcome home.

Enter through tall mahogany doors flanked by glass to a view so stunning you feel as though you have walked onto a movie set. Rising a full story above ground level to maximize the view, the house seems to float into the blues and greens surrounding it – drawing you through the open, inviting living room to the panorama outdoors, a vista stretching as far as the eye can see, over oceanfront golf course, a pond with tall grasses and water fowl, hugged by deep pink oleander bushes, tropical flora and fauna, hundreds of palm trees from one end of the 180-degree view to the other, a secluded cove below, white sand beach and turquoise ocean beyond.

The setting has been described as “the single most perfect, most profound view summing up all the Bahamas in one place.”

Basics only begin to tell the story: 5 bedrooms, 6 full and 2 half baths, 12’ ceilings on first floor, 10’ on second floor, stone and mahogany floors, covered breezeways and porches, sweeping vistas, complete summer kitchen, infinity pool with 8 fountains on patio deck overlooking golf course and ocean capable of hosting 100 of your closest friends, guest wing and loft capable of hosting your college student son’s fraternity, full gym with Life Fitness equipment for the serious enthusiast (bench presses, weights, TV-equipped treadmills, bikes, rowing machines and more), kitchen with two islands, cabinet-covered Sub-Zero full standing cooler/freezer, Viking professional 6-top gas cooking station, dining room that seats 10, breakfast room off kitchen that seats 8, matching golf carts included in 1,220 square foot garage. Mechanical specs equally impressive (see below).

Completed in 2008, Summer House is situated on an acre of oceanfront land in one of the most exclusive communities in the hemisphere. Discerning residents of Ocean Club Estates enjoy social membership in the Tom Weiskopf-designed golf course club, full membership in the Beach and Tennis Club and are minutes from the famed resorts of Atlantis, the Cove, the Reef and the One&Only Ocean Club with fine dining, luxury shopping, casino, award-winning Mandara Spa and an endless array of sights, sports and stars for entertainment.

While the cinematic-like setting sets Summer House apart, the residence itself is nothing short of breathtaking. Two words: Style and Leisure are written all over it. Beyond the entry foyer lies a casual sitting room with deep-cushioned sofas and seating, built-in mahogany cabinets nearly twice standard ceiling height. To the left is one of two dining areas and to the right a sophisticated, fully-equipped office (photo with Tiger Woods not included) and master suite that includes full built-in closet cabinetry for him and her and a stunning master bath, a walk-through shower with marble seating, a work of art in etched glass. Upstairs is a game room, fitness centre, two bedrooms and the guest wing with loft.

There is virtually no place in the home where the outdoors does not seem to melt into the interior nor the residence blend with the land from which it rises and the sea that makes for constant variation in color and feel.

While the seaside and golf-side beauty lend a gentleness to the profile of its placement, the home’s specs and mechanics are an engineer’s dream. The house was built to Dade County category 5 hurricane standards with 135, 16” poured concrete pilings sunk down 35’ to solid rock for strength and a 9” poured concrete slab for the second floor. Under the three-car garage is a 35,000-gallon rainwater cistern. There’s 20,000 gallons of propane storage, a lightning protection system, all commercial wiring, distribution panels and back-up generators.

From automated systems and lighting to the golden light at dusk provided by nature, Summer House is a home where everyone’s favorite season lasts all year.