On the market: A rustic Poconos hideaway for $695,000
In addition to an interior of 3,700 square feet, the house has 1,400 square feet of elevated, covered veranda space with views overlooking the natural landscape.
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Pat and Doug Wood’s prairie-style home sits adjacent to the Kittatinny Ridge, which takes its name from the Lenni Lenape Indian word for “endless mountains.”
Since 1993, the Woods have enjoyed the seclusion the four-bedroom, three-bath home offers but also the fact that travel to Philadelphia, New York, or just the nearby designer outlets is feasible.
“We can come home on a Friday and not see anybody,” Pat says, “and have peaceful solitude until the week starts again. It’s a nature lover’s paradise. But it’s also a great family place for entertaining.” In fact, the couple were married in the house and had the wedding reception there.
The hillside is studded with native oaks, rhododendron, azaleas, and mountain laurel. And the Woods, both avid birders, can see Hawk Mountain from their property.
But feeling a need for greater flexibility to see their grandchildren in Reading and California and to travel, they are moving to the Reading suburbs.
The previous owner started the house in New Ringgold Borough, Schuylkill County, in 1975 and worked on it intermittently until he died unexpectedly in 1985.
The Woods, who are both accountants, bought it in 1993, moved in, and gradually finished what he started, installing local slate stone floors, laying carpet, installing wrought-iron stairwell rails, putting in wildflower gardens, and finishing the stonework.
In addition to an interior of 3,700 square feet, the house has 1,400 square feet of elevated, covered veranda space with views overlooking the natural landscape.
It also has a gourmet kitchen and central courtyard.
There are two unfinished bathrooms that a new owner could complete, and the Woods say that the house could easily become a bed and breakfast, an idea they toyed with.
Pat adds the fact that the previous owner had been planning to put a helipad on the roof, which could have supported it structurally. “He had great vision,” she says.
The property is listed by Craig Sachse of Keller Williams Allentown for $695,000.