On the Market: “Builder’s Special” Colonial in Media
What makes this house special? The master builder who made it his home when it was built in 1986 has upgraded it significantly.
Set amidst woods and right next to Springton Lake, this informal Colonial at 2224 E. Deerfield Dr., Media, PA 19063, has been transformed from good to great by the master builder who has lived in it since its completion in 1986. You should enjoy living in it every bit as much as he did. | Photos: Colin Burkhardt via BHHS Fox & Roach Realtors
Note to readers: The initial version of this story rested on a misreading of the listing copy; the owner of this house bought it from its builder rather than built it himself. We regret the error.
“We build every home as if we are going to move into it ourselves,” says Achristavest Fine Home Builders, one of the most sought-after builders of luxury waterfront houses at the Jersey Shore.
You could say that the reverse happened with this Springton Lake Colonial house for sale: Eustace Mita, Achristavest’s founder, chairman and CEO, moved into this house when it was built in 1986, then brought it up to the standards he sets for the homes he builds now.
Fortunately, he had good material to work with to begin with. His first and so far only home was solidly built using high-quality materials. It looks a little less substantial than the houses Achristavest has built since its founding in 2004, but it doesn’t have to withstand all the things Mother Nature throws at oceanfront and even bayfront houses at the Shore, either. The absence of the ocean and its accompanying storms makes Springton Lake Reservoir’s climate more tranquil through the course of the years.
This house is a handsome Colonial with traditional style and details but a very modern sensibility. And it’s designed for elegant yet easy living and entertaining.
Front elevation
Rear elevation
The house’s modern sensibility shows on the outside in its massing and fenestration. In contrast to the formal symmetry of the traditional Colonial, this house stretches out across its not-quite-one-acre lot with a three-wing design that looks even more modern in back than it does in front.
Foyer
The center wing contains the house’s Wow! spaces. In front, that space is a two-story-high foyer with a curving staircase.
Great room
The stairs lead to a bridge over the passageway to the sunken great room. This room’s vaulted ceiling, full-height brick fireplace and gables with fanlight windows should suitably impress your guests when you invite them over for a visit. Those windows also offer a great view of the woods beyond this house’s backyard and of Springton Lake Reservoir itself.
Living room
To the right of the foyer is a more traditional living room. It too has a working fireplace with a marble surround.
Note how the wide-plank white oak floors sparkle — this house has been very well taken care of. Mita installed much of what you see in these pictures within the last five years, including the hardwood floors, the Karastan carpets upstairs and downstairs, and the bathroom fittings in three of its five bathrooms and its first-floor powder room. He also replaced its roof with a cedar-shake one 15 years ago and added the semicircular driveway lined with Belgian block that leads to its front entrance in 2020.
Study
A wainscoted study lies off one side of the living room. Its windows look out on that driveway. By the way, those are true (and truly traditional) multi-light, double-hung mullioned windows by Marvin, which also made all the other windows in this house.
Formal dining room
The formal dining room sits to the left of the foyer. Again, it is elegant yet simple, with unfussy wainscoting.
Kitchen
The fully tricked-out kitchen is connected to both the great room and the dining room. It has a 10-foot-long granite-topped center island, a Sub-Zero fridge and beverage fridge and a Wolf microwave, smooth-top cooktop, warming drawer and double oven. You can see one of the two ovens and the warming drawer in this photo; the other is located in the island, directly opposite the cooktop. A work desk is located next to the door to the great room.
Breakfast room
Off the kitchen, a sunny breakfast room with a knotty pine ceiling also has sliding doors that lead to the rear deck.
Rear deck
Five of the house’s seven bedrooms are on the second and third floors of the kitchen/dining room wing. The primary bedroom suite, however, lies on the other side of the bridge, over the living room and study.
Primary bedroom
Its spacious bedroom features a fireplace and a large fanlight window overlooking the backyard.
Primary bathroom
On the opposite side from that window are two large walk-in closets and a sumptuous, newly upgraded primary bath.
Primary bathroom
That bath features a soaking tub on one side of its dual vanities and a Calacatta marble tile shower on the other. The floor tiles are made of the same material.
Basement rec room
There’s also a finished walkout basement rec room. It has new carpeting, knotty-pine wainscoting, a wet bar and another fireplace. The seventh bedroom, also on this floor, has an en-suite bathroom that makes it ideal for an au pair, in-law or guest suite, and the basement also has unfinished storage space.
Rear terrace
French doors that flank the fireplace open onto a landscape architect-designed terrace and gravel path into the backyard.
This Springton Lake Colonial house for sale is far enough away from the heart of Media to offer you peace and quiet yet close enough for you to enjoy its lively downtown and great dining scene whenever you feel like it.
It should be clear from this house that Mita knows how to inject quality into one, having applied the knowledge he has acquired over a lifetime of interest in real estate and construction to this typical-yet-atypical Colonial. Like an Achristavest home, its style, while rooted in a modern sensibility, has stood the test of time and will look as good decades from now as it does now. And while it won’t be Mita’s forever home, it could well become yours.
THE FINE PRINT
BEDS: 7
BATHS: 5 full, 1 half
SQUARE FEET: 5,600
SALE PRICE: $1,875,000
OTHER STUFF: The house also has an attached three-car garage.
2224 E. Deerfield Dr., Media, PA 19063 [Kathy Devine | BHHS Fox & Roach Realtors]
