Las Ventanas

Custom-built in the early 1990s on a slope overlooking a panoramic view of Sonoma and the southern Valley of the Moon, Las Ventanas' profuse windows and French doors swathe its two-story, 2BR/3BA interior in constant light. Make no mistake - despite having "only" two bedrooms (the office can double as a third), this is a spacious manor-sized house that induces an exhilarating sense of elegance and ease. The house sits only minutes from downtown Sonoma, yet the winding country road that reaches it, passing woods, vineyards and chaparral-clad hillsides, makes it seem more cozily remote than it really is. Protected by unobtrusive fences and an electric gate, Las Ventanas is surrounded on three sides by oaks, laurels and meadows. Lazily gliding hawks are common visitors here, as well as small woodland creatures. Gentle walking paths lace the property - one of them will take you past the 35 olive trees whose crop the owners press every year to make their own oil for the table. Las Ventanas' exterior highlight is its terrace, whose trellis rests on dazzling white columns, and a deep blue pool. Four towering glass doors offer access to the bougainvillea -flanked terrace, whose Italian-tiled pavement sweeps out toward the pool.