From the road, this house is as inscrutable as a barn, solid gray walls from ground to roof, crested by narrow rectangles of glass.
Inside, though, it opens up to high ceilings, light maple floors, and a back wall of floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on the snowy yard and the evergreens beyond.
You won't get claustrophobic in this flowing, open house where - other than the three bathrooms - only one room, the master bedroom, has a door.
This was the dream house of architect Edward Talanian, who bought the Belmont land decades ago.
But Talanian died three years after the home was finished, not long after his wife passed away.
He designed a symmetrical house: In the center of the living room is a free-standing wall with a gas fireplace.
The open kitchen, with maple cabinets on one end of the large room, also has a dining nook tucked beside sliding glass doors that lead to a small deck. The arrangement is mirrored on the other end of the house, where the large master bedroom - 16 by 17 feet - also has sliding glass doors leading to a deck. Beside the bedroom sits a huge walk-in closet.
The one-car garage has a door directly into the kitchen.
All of the rooms are large. Technically, the house has just five rooms - including the long living room - carved from its 2,174 square feet. Talanian recognized that later owners might want more privacy.
So he designed two rooms in front of the house - one he used as an office, and another that holds a piano - could be closed off and turned into two more bedrooms.
He also left room in the house's one half-bath for the addition of a shower. Listing broker Lisa Johnson will hold an open house today from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
KATHLEEN BURGE
