Whether you are looking for a quiet place to raise your family with room to breathe, or retired and looking for a getaway to enjoy sitting on a patio watching horses grazing peacefully in the back yard, the contemporary ranch house at 6985 57th Street has it all. The five-acre property with many extras is ready to be whatever it is that you want to make it – this is a home which will grow with you over the years.
As Vero’s subdivisions spread with houses built on top of each other, the western part of the county has kept its rural charm and spatial advantages. This home boasts a four-stall barn with a tack room plus two separate penned fields for animals to graze and play and two fenced dog runs.
Away from the hustle amid other five acre parcels it is impossible to tell there is a main shopping area just ten minutes south and eight minutes east of this country-style ranchette. Up a quiet road that turns off 66th Avenue, visitors are welcomed to the property with natural Florida plants and trees and the sound of the cicadas singing. The property is completely fenced in so the resident horses and donkeys stay where they belong, and an entry gate provides security.
“This is a very friendly area where neighbors help each other out whenever needed,” said current owner Susan Peterson McBratney who lives on the property with her two feisty Australian sheep dogs, two horses, three donkeys and several cats.
This house is almost like two homes in one with a detached 1,000-square-foot mother-in-law suite with its own kitchen, full bath, two-car detached garage and entry onto the pool and patio with one of the dog runs out back.
The main living quarters are a grand 2,300 square feet with volume ceilings and a spacious open floor plan so that the kitchen, living room and dining room enjoy morning sunrises over the pool and stocked pond.
With all the time spent outdoors with the horses and fishing on the dock, who has time to worry about cleaning house all day long? The flowing floor plan, tile floors throughout, outdoor shower by the backyard and a full bathroom off the pool area makes for easy home maintenance, while floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors add to the indoor/outdoor appeal.
“The beautifully serene lake is really the focal point of the house which may be seen from just about every room,” said listing agent Laurie Blakelock a broker associate at Coldwell Banker Paradise who is offering the property for $549,000. “The tall volume ceilings and the layout around the pool also brings a lot of light into the home giving the house an airy, casually understated elegance.”
McBratney was raised on a farm in Waterloo, Iowa but has lived in Vero Beach for 42 years, the last three in this house. She wanted to find a place where her family and animals could spread out and enjoy country living while remaining close to the beaches and shopping.
“I have enjoyed living in the country. It is very relaxing to sit back and enjoy watching the scenery – the kids in the pool, the fish jumping in the pond, my horses and miniature donkeys grazing in the pasture,” said McBratney who plans to relocate now that her son has moved away.
Although McBratney does not have grandchildren “yet” as she says, she knows this would be the kind of home that would be perfect for a large extended family.
“The neighbors are all on five acres or more so a family has plenty of room to roam where we are all not on top of each other. There is always something to do whether it is swimming, playing with the animals, fishing off the dock or working out with the horses in the barn and pasture. It really is a fun place to live!”
Call Laurie Blakelock at Caldwell Banker Paradise to view this lovely country home and envision your paradise away from the city.
