Looking for your castle?

Rockport house brims with unique design touches

3 Andrew's Hollow
Rockport
Price: $699,000
Style: Contemporary
Built:1981
Square feet: 1,172
Rooms: 8
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 2
Sewer: Public

This compact house isn't sure if it wants to be a medieval castle, boat, tree house, or rustic cabin - but that's what makes it so unique.

The medieval piece is the front and rear turrets, the dense front door with stained glass, and a stone and beam entryway. The boat-like features are the tall mast used for the narrow spiral staircase and the sense that the living quarters are complete, and tightly contained. The tree house sense comes from the catwalk to the master bedroom, many slanted walls, and clever use of close quarters. And the rustic cabin feel - well, that's pretty much everything else, with all the recycled wood used in this green design, built by a local resident ahead of his time.

Since the step-down kitchen is in the turret, it is designed in the round - custom made with curved pine cabinets and counters, a wood ceiling with beams, and stucco plaster walls. The adjacent open living room has a soaring 21-foot ceiling with slanted roofline and it opens into the small dining room, which has a wall of glass and a wood stove sitting on a granite base made from local stone. The dramatic round bathroom has a large window to the yard, detailed beige and blue tumbled marble tiling, and a sunflower showerhead. An upper L-shaped loft above the living room serves as office or guestroom, or both. One bedroom is at the top of the large front turret and has a cone ceiling. The master bedroom is good-size with large windows and includes a partially open bathroom with round mini-spa tub.

A bonus massive structure on the grounds - created as a boat-building barn - has 12-foot high windows and doors, a loft, and another enclosed upper room, and is beckoning to be turned into something very special. Listing broker is Holly Chiancola of Holly C & Co. Fine Homes.

MINDY POLLACK-FUSI