Singer-songwriter Ray LaMontagne's taste towards a more old-fashioned sensibility goes beyond just music. He and his wife, poet Sarah Sousa, purchased a 104-acre property in Ashfield, Massachusetts back in 2008, going on to spend years and untold millions on renovating its six-bedroom house that dates back more than 200 years. Now, they're evidently finished with the project, and the property is being listed for sale with an asking price of $5.25 million, according to Realtor.com.
That's a profit of well over $4 million compared to the $1,050,000 that the couple paid for it in 2008, although that doesn't factor in whatever they've spent on bringing the antique home to the modern day while attempting to retain its history and old-world charms.
The home was first built back in 1811, and its official listing goes into a little detail about what made this restoration so special:
"Close by a charming rural village, a 104-acre estate surrounded by 438 acres of protected land offers the consummate country haven. Meticulously restored and revamped, this private retreat exemplifies the best of three centuries: early 19th-century Federal architecture,1920s country estate style, and the structure and systems of the 21st, as it provides generous spaces for entertaining and cozy ones for relaxation and daydreaming."
The house has more than 10,700 square feet of living space, with 11 fireplaces and a wood-paneled library complete with a ladder for reaching high books. There's also a recording space, one of the touches added by LaMontagne, who reportedly recorded at least one album there. It has a pretty interesting history, too, having once belonged to William C. Bullitt, who worked for the Roosevelt administration in the 1930s.
The listing also outlines a few other structures on the property, including a three-story barn, a stone cottage, a two-story carriage house, and a garage, all for a total of some 6,000 additional square feet of space for living, entertaining, relaxing, and enjoying the surrounding natural beauty. Then, it starts to get pretty poetic for a real estate listing:
"As the sun rises dissolving the early mist and a doe and her fawns come to graze in the east field, the house merges with its surroundings, an inspired marriage of architecture and nature. Prepare to fall in love."
That might also be a good preparation to make before you watch the video of the property below, from the William Pitt Sotheby's International Realty YouTube channel:
