An Amazing House on the Prairie
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| This stone, Tuscan-style home in Leawood, Kan. cost more than $5 million to build. Photo: Reece and Nichols |
STATS: A 5,874-square-foot home at 11517 Pawnee Circle, Leawood, Kan. featuring four bedrooms, three full baths and two half-baths is for sale at $4 million, or $680.79 a square foot. Property taxes in 2010 were $21,706. The homeowner's association dues in 2010 were $4,000.
DETAILS: This Tuscan-style stone house in a gated community is half an hour from downtown Kansas City, Mo. Completed in 2007, the house includes a carved French bibliotheque from the 1800s that's used as a linen closet and display case, says the owner. Just off the bath is a wrought-iron Juliet balcony, also from France. The 100-year-old tile roof came from a Chicago church, and the ceiling beams go back to a Civil War-era barn in Pennsylvania, according to the owner. The owners commissioned an artist to hand-paint the stair risers "to add some sparkle to the house," says the owner. Three fountains, two inside and one outside, come with the house.
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SELLER: Richard Mueller, a private investor and the retired chief executive of MTW Corp., a software company.
THE NEIGHBORHOOD: It's 30 minutes to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo., where "Monet's Water Lilies" is on exhibit until Aug. 7 (admission is free). While you're there, catch "Original Rules of Basketball," a show featuring the 13 original rules of the game as typed up in 1891. From the museum, it's 10 minutes to the barbecue at Oklahoma Joe's (note that the burnt ends are only available for lunch on Monday and Saturday or dinner on Wednesday).
WHAT WE PAID: The Muellers paid $450,000 for the lot in 2001. Mr. Mueller estimates that they put more than $5 million into building the house and landscaping the garden.
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| This home includes a carved French bibliotecque from the 1800s. Photo: Reece and Nichols |
WHY WE'RE SELLING: Mr. Mueller's wife of 46 years, Kay, passed away last Thanksgiving, and he now feels that the house is too big. He is looking for a condominium in Kansas City, Mo. on Country Club Plaza.
WHAT I'LL MISS: "I'll miss the emotional part of the house and the process of building it," says Mr. Mueller.
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| The owner of the home says that he no longer needed this much space. Photo: Reece and Nichols |
WHAT I WON'T: The landscaping and maintenance, says Mr. Mueller. "My wife was an avid planter of flowers, and I was the guy that dug the holes for the bulbs," he says.
OTHERS SAY: Angela Mueller (no relation to the owner), an agent with Reece & Nichols Realtors, says the house is priced well considering the location, the finishes and touches like the porte-cochere. Heather Broderick, an agent with ReMax State Line in Kansas City, says the house is unique and therefore difficult to price. "You don't feel at all like this is a house that you'd find in Leawood, Kan.," says Ms. Broderick.
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