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Dream House

Dream House | An exclusive Drapers, Port Antonio dream

Published:Sunday | February 5, 2023 | 1:54 AM
A most spectacular bedroom setting.
A most spectacular bedroom setting.
The dining room opening to gardens and sea views, whets your appetite.
The dining room opening to gardens and sea views, whets your appetite.
One of the largest, most impressive and exclusive estates in Portland.
One of the largest, most impressive and exclusive estates in Portland.
A bridge over water as it leads to a waterfall fish pond.
A bridge over water as it leads to a waterfall fish pond.
A twisting staircase that wows first time visitors.
A twisting staircase that wows first time visitors.
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The story of this dream house tells an intriguing tale of Iris, a young Scottish girl raised in France in the 1920s by her no-nonsense, authoritarian mother. In time, she couldn’t suffer her circumstances any longer, and quietly fled the family home - never to return!

Iris’s globe-trotting lifestyle ultimately transported her to the Far East in 1933, where in Hong Kong, the daring, defiant woman met, and was swept off her feet by Norwegian shipping mogul, Reidar Johannesson. In the fullness of time, they would exchange wedding vows.

Shock and horror, they would eventually experience, as their home (with their young children also inside), was bombed by Japanese invasion and occupation. Escaping the nightmare of war and certain prison camps, the family would silently flee through China to India, and beyond.

In the early 1960s, the Johannessons, were on cloud nine when they found, and fell in love with this vacant property, constructing their winter home to soar above mesmerising San San Bay, on the very top of a private Hill, in Drapers, Port Antonio.

Arguably, the largest, and one of the most impressive, exclusive estates in all of Portland.

In 2005, the house accepted the change, and said goodbye to the family, while welcoming its new owners along with their three children. The supportive wife, who is Jamaican by birth, is a former certified accountant and a Chief Financial Officer. Her entrepreneurial husband and business partner is an American, whose company became the leading independent distributor of medical equipment in Latin America and the Caribbean before he sold it.

These eight acres of enchanting botanical gardens in a nature reserve and bird sanctuary is seeking international accreditation, with rare, imported, exotic varieties of trees and plants, amidst bamboo groves; with waterfall fish ponds and their fountains.

Nature trails find their path downwards to the forested areas, and still further, to a private beach. A sky blue swimming pool with a leisure deck, bonds with the green lawns and meditation garden, with the sea in full sight. Volleyball and badminton are there for you to play.

The architecture overwhelms your senses, featuring incredible, locally produced, natural pink-coloured cut stone walls, punctuated by complete stretches of extensive glass windows and doors, unifying home and habitat. Floors are distinguished with shiny hardwood upstairs, and kitchen counters sport quartz material.

The sunlit, renovated layout of 4,000 square feet, exposes in all its refinement, four spacious bedrooms, with bathrooms ensuite; a sleeping loft; and a powder room. Formal drawing and dining rooms join them, including a bar, and an office - all ventilated by breezy wraparound balconies and verandahs extending from both upper and lower floors.

Appreciate the outstanding furniture pieces from Europe and Asia, blending with handmade floor rugs, art, and antiques from China.

This is the house of ‘no return’. Once you visit, you wish not to go back to where you came from.

- Barry Rattray is a dream house designer and builder. Email feedback to barry-rattray@hotmail.com and lifestyle@gleanerjm.com