9300 Bates Rd

Most people who want land want less of it than they think. Twenty acres sounds romantic until you own the tractor, the bush hog, and the Saturdays that come with them. Five acres is the number that works. Room for horses, room for a garden, room for kids to disappear for an hour and come back muddy, and still small enough that a weekend belongs to you instead of the mower. Welcome to 9300 Bates Road. Three bedrooms, three and a half baths on five acres behind black board fence, cross fenced into paddocks, a gated drive running up between them, mature pines and hardwoods along the back, and a brick Cape Cod at the top of the rise that has been taken down to the studs and rebuilt for the way people actually live. Wide plank oak runs the main level. Shiplap climbs the walls. The kitchen anchors everything: white shaker cabinetry, quartzite counters, a dark island under schoolhouse pendants, farmhouse sink set below a window that looks out over pasture, gas cooktop, double ovens, hood built into the millwork. Plantation shutters filter every room, and nearly every one of them frames fence line and open field. From the back of the house that view changes: a wall of windows and doors opens onto the covered porch, the pool sitting just beyond it, blue water against the fence and the pines. The primary suite sits on the main level, off on its own, hardwood underfoot and windows on two walls looking out over open field. The bath behind it keeps a warmer, older character than the rest of the house: a long maple vanity under granite, travertine climbing the walls, a soaking tub tucked into the corner beneath a window that frames nothing but tree canopy, and a separate tiled shower. It is the quietest corner of the property. Upstairs the bedrooms are carpeted and generous, both with walk in closets, sharing a jack and jill bath finished in shiplap and vessel sinks. One sits under twin dormers and opens directly into the bonus room, giving that end of the house its own suite: bedroom, sitting and play space, a built in desk wall, and enough square footage that a teenager or a long staying guest could settle in without crossing anyone's path. The lower level is a third living space rather than storage. Stacked stone fireplace, glass shelf built ins, brick archways carried over from the exterior, a wet bar with a beverage fridge, a full bath, a finished flex room behind its own door, and an open bay already serving as a gym. Guests can stay down here and never feel like they are in a basement. Then you step outside. A freeform pool with a slide and a tanning ledge. A pool house across the water with a stone fireplace running floor to ceiling, stained plank ceiling, grill, and a table that seats everybody. A hot tub on its own pad with nothing behind it but fence and field. Past the pool the property goes to work. A four stall barn with tack room and loft. A lean to for equipment. A mechanical shed. A finished building with a half bath and its own driveway, an office today, framed with room to add a second floor for an apartment or studio. And a treehouse on posts, two rooms joined by a covered bridge, one styled for a girl and one for a boy. Right sized for the country. Finished like a city house.