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Aug 15, 2023

Santa Barbara Estate Offers Fitness Pavilion and Whimsical Treehouse

Tucked into Santa Barbara’s tranquil Hope Ranch enclave, where it presides over 2.5 hillside acres overlooking the Pacific Ocean, a Mediterranean-style compound is fresh to the market with an asking

Tucked into Santa Barbara’s tranquil Hope Ranch enclave, where it presides over 2.5 hillside acres overlooking the Pacific Ocean, a Mediterranean-style compound is fresh to the market with an asking price of $19.95 million. The Dusty Baker Group of Sotheby’s International Realty—Montecito Brokerage holds the listing.

The sellers, who also maintain significant homes in Aspen and Palm Beach according to digital records, purchased the ocean view spread in 2010 for $6.1 million and have over the years made numerous updates and improvements overseen by top-notch outfits including acclaimed local architect Don Nulty and the Santa Barbara-based design-build firm Becker Studios.

Altogether, the handful of structures that dot the property offer more than 10,300 square feet of seaside elegance and relaxed comfort, with a total of six bedrooms and six bathrooms, plus a couple more powder rooms.

Perfectly positioned on the high side of a sloping parcel with unobstructed views toward the Channel Islands, the roughly 7,800-square-foot main residence was built in 2001 and sits amid lush terraced gardens punctuated with bougainvillea and other flowering trees and plants.

Ample formal living and entertaining spaces include a double-height entrance gallery that gives way to formal living and dining rooms, while the spacious family kitchen is open to a cozy lounge that spills out steel-trimmed glass doors to a terrace with dreamy views. A second equally well-equipped kitchen is perfect for making unsightly messes and large-scale entertaining.

A spiral staircase ascends to the four bedrooms on the upper floor. A children’s or guest wing comprises three bedrooms and two baths oriented around a large ocean view lounge, while the primary suite boasts a private sitting room, a stone fireplace, dual walk-in closets with bespoke fittings, and a spa-style bath with a soaking tub and sauna.

Just a few steps from the main house, the 1,000-square-foot, two-bed/1-bath guesthouse includes a private lounge, a kitchenette, and laundry facilities; there’s a pool house between the swimming pool and the sunken tennis court; and the separate fitness pavilion has overhead fans, mirrored walls, and two sets of bi-fold doors that open to lush gardens. Elsewhere, there’s a fabulous tree house, rolling lawns, planters for growing herbs and vegetables, and a chicken coop.

Though Hope Ranch is not gated and beaches in California are public, at least up to the high tide mark, there is no public beach access within the equestrian enclave that runs along a high bluff above the ocean. However, there is a gated entrance at the west end of the neighborhood that is for the exclusive use of Hope Ranch residents and their guests.

Click here for all the photos of 4187 Cresta Avenue.