"It was so scary looking—like a haunted house." That's how this suburban Philadelphia property seemed to Eve Wildrick before she bought it, she told the Inquirer some years back. But Wildrick, the CEO of Executive Interiors, completely transformed the property. Designed by Paris Prize-winning architect Harry Sternfeld (who designed the post office at Ninth and Chestnut), the stone castle-like home—with turrets, odd angles and spiral staircases—was dubbed Balinor and finished in 1928. By the time Wildrick arrived on the scene, the home was a vacant mess. She restored it to its former grandeur, uncovering amazing details like a cypress-beamed ceiling stenciled by famous 1920s muralist Carlo Ciampaglia. Cleaning the blackened fireplaces revealed incredible details; one of them is a direct copy of a fireplace in Leeds Castle. Wildrick also did significant modernizing, of course, and the kitchen, with its Shaker cabinets and a commercial six-burner Thermador range, was featured on HGTV's Ultimate Kitchen.
The home, which sits on land that used to belong to the Cricket Club, now overlooks the the 6th hole of the Club's Wissahickon golf course. Ah, nature.
Size: 6 beds, 5.5 baths, 6,991 square feet
Outdoor space: 1.5 acres, gardens, flagstone patio, pond, in-ground pool.
Price: $1,895,000
· Listing: 740 Hunt Lane, Flourtown [Coldwell Banker Pref]