The 6 best homes of the year
Featuring an organic-designed home in Santa Barbara and a garden-to-table kitchen in Big Sur
Santa Barbara, California
Michael Carmichael designed the Whale House as an undulating, organic work of art. The 1978 three-bedroom, cedar-shingled home features Venetian plaster, cedar, and stone interiors; 270 Belgian leaded and stained-glass windows; log beams; rock fireplaces; and a 75-foot lap pool flowing through a wood-clad tunnel into a grotto-like interior courtyard.
The courtyard, shaded by oaks and sycamores, includes a bamboo-lined shower and a guesthouse. $3,250,000. Daniel Carpenter, Sotheby’s International Realty, (805) 770-0889.
Status: On the market.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Set in historic Chestnut Hill, this 1925 restored Colonial Revival is walking distance from dining and galleries and near the arboretum. The four-bedroom house has a Federal-style staircase; multiple fireplaces; a chef’s kitchen with herringbone-tile floors, 11-foot island, and walk-in pantry; a freestanding solarium; and living and dining rooms with French doors leading outside.
The yard includes a covered patio and large lawn ringed by mature trees. $2,295,000. Ryan Cortez, Kurfiss Sotheby’s International Realty, (215) 800-6874.
Status: Sold.
Bronxville, New York
Terry Manor, a 1935 five-bedroom Tudor, was designed by Lewis Bowman. The stone, brick, and timber–faced house, updated with smart technology, features leaded-glass windows, stained-glass insets, a wrought-iron staircase, custom cabinetry, a living room with Cuban mahogany paneling and carved fireplace, a chef’s kitchen, and a primary suite with a black granite soaker tub and sauna.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The landscaped lot has lawns, a wraparound slate terrace, and a saltwater pool. $5,195,000. Susan Kelty Law, Houlihan Lawrence Bronxville, (914) 659-5856.
Status: On the market.
Denver, Colorado
This multilevel, four-bedroom condo is in a 1911 loft building on a quiet cul-de-sac near the river, Union Station, Coors Field, the arts district, and downtown. The home has vaulted ceilings; exposed beams, posts, and brick; a three-story atrium; a chef’s kitchen with a concrete island; a rec room with a climbing wall; a media room; a wine cellar; and guest quarters.
Off the living room is a large brick patio with a firepit. $2,495,000. Matt McNeill, Kentwood Real Estate City Properties/Luxury Portfolio International, (303) 949-9889.
Status: Sold.
Big Sur, California
Casa Luna is a glass-walled Mediterranean-style home designed by Mickey Muennig. The 1982 three-level, four-bedroom house features a living room with exposed trusses, stone floors, and column fireplace; a garden-to-table kitchen;
and a glass-faced primary suite with fireplace, all with panoramic mountain and ocean views.
The 5-acre property has sweeping steps, flagstone paths, raised gardens, patios and a detached art studio; the beach is a 10-minute drive. $5,850,000. Ben Heinrich, Coldwell Banker Realty, (831) 915-7415.
Status: On the market.
Asheville, North Carolina
This two-story, three-bedroom blue house with butterfly roof and yellow-accent door stands on a peaceful non-through street in West Asheville. The three-bedroom 2020 home has an open layout, wood floors, stainless kitchen appliances, main-level primary suite, and upstairs bedrooms and office.
Outside are a front lawn with potential garden beds, fenced backyard, and screened back porch with views of mature trees; shops and restaurants are walking distance. $539,000. Ann Roth, Keller Williams Professionals, (828) 254-7253.
Status: Sold.
This article was first published in the latest issue of The Week magazine. If you want to read more like it, you can try six risk-free issues of the magazine here.
-
How are these Epstein files so damaging to Trump?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION As Republicans and Democrats release dueling tranches of Epstein-related documents, the White House finds itself caught in a mess partially of its own making
-
Margaret Atwood’s memoir, intergenerational trauma and the fight to make spousal rape a crime: Welcome to November booksThe Week Recommends This month's new releases include ‘Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts’ by Margaret Atwood, ‘Cursed Daughters’ by Oyinkan Braithwaite and 'Without Consent' by Sarah Weinman
-
‘Tariffs are making daily life less affordable now’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Train Dreams pulses with ‘awards season gravitas’The Week Recommends Felicity Jones and Joel Edgerton star in this meditative period piece about a working man in a vanished America
-
Middleland: Rory Stewart’s essay collection is a ‘triumph’The Week Recommends The Rest is Politics co-host compiles his fortnightly columns written during his time as an MP
-
‘Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America’ and ‘Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary’feature The culture divide in small-town Ohio and how the internet usurped dictionaries
-
6 homes with fall foliagefeature An autumnal orange Craftsman, a renovated Greek Revival church and an estate with an orchard
-
Bugonia: ‘deranged, extreme and explosively enjoyable’Talking Point Yorgos Lanthimos’ film stars Emma Stone as a CEO who is kidnapped and accused of being an alien
-
The Revolutionists: a ‘superb and monumental’ bookThe Week Recommends Jason Burke ‘epic’ account of the plane hijackings and kidnappings carried out by extremists in the 1970s
-
Film reviews: ‘Bugonia,’ ‘The Mastermind’ and ‘Nouvelle Vague’feature A kidnapped CEO might only appear to be human, an amateurish art heist goes sideways, and Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Breathless’ gets a lively homage
-
Book reviews: ‘Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity’ and ‘Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice’feature An examination of humanity in the face of “the Machine” and a posthumous memoir from one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, who recently died by suicide