With the sparkling mountain town of Leavenworth topping Newsmax’s 2016 list of the best 25 Christmas destinations in America, I found a 4,500 square foot home just outside this charming Bavarian village that personifies what the best in luxurious mountain living is all about.
Brokers Tere Foster of Avenue Properties and Camiekae Lynch of Leavenworth Properties have the $1.45 million listing.
This timeless, timbered, lodge-like home, on 1.4 acres with 200 feet of waterfront on the Wenatchee River, was custom done for Jim and Debby Sincraugh. The couple previously owned a 26,000 square-foot Gold’s Gym in Bellingham, which they built and opened in 1997.
When they sold the gym in 2004, they moved to Leavenworth onto this riverfront property, which they owned and loved.
The Sincraughs first built the garage with a private, hideaway apartment above it and lived there while their dream home was being finished.
“We decided to build a nice big home to have nieces and nephews and family there,” said Debby.
They wanted the finest materials and so the couple bought a building in Monitor, Washington, a town 20 minutes from Leavenworth.
“It was going to be torn down,” said Debby. “It was built in 1910 and so we used every piece of wood in that building.”
In fact, Debby says all the wood in the Leavenworth house is restored from that 1910 building.
“All the wonderful planks show all the old nail marks. The floors, the ceiling, the trusses – everything is from that building. Even the Jamison cold storage doors. And the ceiling and floors are three inches deep because that’s how they used to cut the old wood,” she said. “They don’t make them like that anymore.”
Debby says she was able to design everything just the way she liked it – from the doors to the cabinets to the rolling shelves and the two dishwashers. “All the gorgeous tile and sinks in the bathrooms we imported from Mexico,” she said. “It’s so beautiful and we had lots of fun and parties here.”
Debby’s favorite place in the house was the large epicurean kitchen.
“I loved looking out and seeing the river from there while I was working, but there are so many windows in the house, you can always see the river," she says. "I loved that and the trail that goes down to it and the sprinklers and all the landscaping. I loved it all so much that every summer I couldn’t wait to get out in the yard and work.”
The home is a flowing open floor plan and has four bedrooms, a crafts room, expansive kitchen with butler's pantry, loft, rec room, separate apartment over the garage and more.
The Sincraughs have moved away to another house in warmer weather, but say they will miss their dream home so much.
“We are getting older,” she says, “and we just need to get out of the snow.”
Debby says this house is a perfect getaway, one they could never replace for the selling price.
“It cost us (a fortune) to build that home, and all that land with all its sprinklers, and the shed and the landscaping — the whole thing could never be replaced for that.”
On top of that, Debby says they have a 40-year collection of beautiful china and dishes, which they are leaving with the house, as well as all the furniture.
“It was all designed and meant for the house,” she said. “We have no need for it now. It’s perfect there and it belongs there.”
Check out the slide show of this sought after, street-to-water Leavenworth home featuring idyllic mountain and river views.