Secluded cottage features conservation land views, interior upgrades

STOUGHTON - From the outside it's hard to appreciate how beautiful this hidden cottage is. Owner and woodworker Maciek Butkiewicz did a breathtaking addition with cathedral ceiling at the rear of the home. The room is flooded with natural light streaming through the rear wall of glass, and Butkiewicz used commercial-grade reflective materials that keep it comfortable in both summer and winter. The room also has a wood-burning stove. Equally alluring is the view of 4.4 acres of mostly conservation land. Cherry cabinets, with built-in connections for a media center, line one wall. Down a short set of stairs is a gardening nook with access to the yard. Outside is 1,000 square feet of deck, partly covered by a motorized awning.

A half-step up from the living room is the kitchen, with black Corian countertops amid custom-built kitchen cabinets, some faced with pale yellow glass from a German company that supplies Butkiewicz with stained-glass. The kitchen also contains a breakfast nook next to a maple butcher block counter.

The master bedroom suite is ample, has a walk-in closet, and its own bath and marble-clad shower. The second floor hosts a small reading area and bedroom, all underneath a bend-inducing sloped roof. The other bedrooms are nicely sized. The house is zoned as a two-family, though it is now used as a single-family dwelling. Outside, contributing to the pastoral setting are two small streams running through the property. The owners installed sump pumps in the basement in case of flooding.

Andrew Lau of William Raveis Real Estate in Brookline is the listing broker. An open house is set for noon to 2 p.m. today.

JOHN RICHARDSON ELLEMENT