With great walls of glass, lines between indoors, nature blur

December 9, 2007

10 Algonquin Road, Canton
Price $424,900
Style Contemporary
Built 1957
Square feet 2,050
Rooms 6
Bedrooms 3
Bathrooms 2
Sewer Septic

CANTON - From a distance, this home in the Algonquin Estates neighborhood is just another boring rectangle of a ranch house. But then you walk inside - and the pine trees that surround the home come along.

Entrance to the house is through a white door snuggled into the glass wall that covers both the first and second floors. Inside, the first floor opens into a living room with oak plank flooring. The up-to-date kitchen consumes most of the remaining first floor space, except for a small, comfortable alcove used as a television room.

An overhanging roof shades the massive windows that comprise one wall of the master bedroom and does the same in the bedroom at the opposite end of the second floor. The third and smallest bedroom, tucked between, has windows lining the wall, all of them large squares that again, seem to make the pine trees part of the home's interior. Large windows adorn the kitchen wall. And the main entry on the first floor is see-through, too, plate glass from floor to ceiling.

"You watch the four seasons go by," said homeowner George Hannon, who along with his wife, Peggy, raised six children in the 2,000-square-foot house that has influences of a ski chalet in its design.

Still, there is a sense of privacy here. The house is reached by a short, rising driveway and is among the highest in the hilly neighborhood that shares geological DNA with nearby Blue Hills Reservation. Wrapped by pine trees and with relatively small space for a lawn, the house sits on a 35,000-square-foot lot of craggy outcroppings.

Laundry is behind a closet door in the kitchen. The second floor is reached by a brick-encased stairwell. The house is on a slab. The master bedroom has a working fireplace and a decorative deck. There are two full baths. Closet space is limited. Heat is by oil.

Barbara Slawsby of Pratt Realtors in Canton is the listing broker.

JOHN ELLEMENT