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Steamboat Springs — There's something to be said for buying Routt County land and holding it for the long haul.

Especially when the parcel in question is a secluded building site overlooking Soda Creek and an ocean of trees with a glimpse of the ski trails on Storm Peak in the distance.

Dean Anthony purchased a steep 3.4-acre lot on Pebble Run from Harry Taylor, of Taylor Brennan Real Estate, on Dec. 8, 1978, for $25,500. Nearly 31 years later, he and his wife, Pat, have leveraged that initial investment into a partnership with VGS Enterprises, in a spec home that just came on the market for $3.9 million.

Jerry Stanford, of VGS Enterprises, built the 5,059-square-foot home with noteworthy stonework throughout. Stanford's wife, Shelley, and colleague Sharon Beaupre at Colorado Group Realty have co-listed the property.

They introduced the Strawberry Park home, with its towering hammer beams and a dry-stack outdoor fireplace, to the real estate community during an open house Wednesday.

"We've always had picnics up here and talked about how to build a house on it," Anthony said. "I've been bringing Jerry up here for 20 years."

Formal planning for the home began five years ago with architects Keith Kelly and Tim Stone, of KSA. Jerry Stanford began construction two years ago in the midst of a record snow winter.

When the recession landed in the middle of their plans to develop a nearly $4 million home, they didn't pull back. Jerry Stanford's plan all along had been to build the home with the best finishes possible, Shelley Stanford said. There is evidence of that in the leather-textured finish on the kitchen island granite, the heated sandstone patio that surrounds the outdoor fireplace and the custom lighting that shows it off from the great room. There is an onyx countertop in the wine room and ebony wood inserts were used to cover the hardware on the wide stair treads that lead to the upper level.

Will the luxury finishes overcome a slow real estate market?

"It's a little scary right now, but when you walk in that front door, it definitely has that 'wow' factor," Shelley Stanford said.

She pointed out that at an asking price of $770 per square foot, some prospective buyers may view it as being aggressively priced, but the level of finishes and the lengths taken to build on a dramatic lot are built into the price.

Shelley Stanford said buyers likely may not take into account the expense of building boulder retaining walls and a driveway to the upper portion of the lot to ensure views of the ski mountain. Likewise with the complex concrete foundation. And it's difficult to place a dollar figure on going to sleep to the sound of Soda Creek.

Following trends

Shelley Stanford said she and her partners set out from the beginning to build a smaller footprint home than some of the large homes that were prevalent five years ago.

"Absolutely, four bedrooms are a must," Shelley Stanford said. "And some people want five, but we think a family with three adult kids and spouses can be very comfortable with four bedroom suites.

"That's the trend that we see people going to. We didn't want to build an 8,000-square-foot McMansion. (Her colleague) Jim Cook told us we're right on the beam, and he's pretty savvy about these things."

Stone said his firm worked closely with engineer Luke Studer and concrete contractor Matt Gantick on solving the challenge of a 24-foot change in elevation from the rear to the front of the house.

The architects worked to make the most of the great room concept with an unusually large kitchen.

"That's where the market trends are going," Stone said. "It's more efficient. The kitchen was designed to accommodate a lot of people."

With a master bedroom on the upper floor, Shelley Stanford predicts the likely buyer is a successful couple in their 40s, interested in an outdoor lifestyle and with children at home, perhaps even with children enrolled at nearby Lowell Whiteman School.