Dream House | A spectacular Spring Farm Estates home

Take a deep breath, before reading on! This world-class, charismatic mansion epitomises the grandeur of a Caribbean home. It not only reflects gracious living at its finest, it defines it!

Its prized address, almost invisible from the road, is the 24-hour secured, wooded hillside enclave of Spring Farm Estates, St James, with all-embracing views of the sea and the Half Moon Golf Course below.

It was custom-built for Montego Bay in-bond merchant Dickie Wong, who subsequently sold it in 2002 to its current owner, interior decorator Elizabeth Simonitch, and her late husband Heinz, the former managing director of Half Moon Hotel, and the honorary consul of Austria, who made it their special home.

Its monumental, compositional style of classical assemblages of forms, with impeccable detailing, envelops 14,000-square-feet on three-levels of opulent, traditional interiors, with every accoutrement for lavish entertaining.

An astounding koi fish pond and waterfalls in the very centre of the house creates a mesmeric presence, along with surrounding clerestory (high windowed) walls saturating the innermost areas with natural light. Cathedral and tray ceilings, circular staircase ‘castle’ towers, join private external balconies and wrap-around terraces in communion with the sea, eagerly reaching out to a swimming pool pavilion revelling in its own gazebo and outdoor wet bar. The one-and-a-half-acre garden of floral extravagance, groomed to perfection, is also well fruited.

Drawing gasps of utter amazement and admiration are six irresistibly attractive timber-floor bedrooms, and eight bathrooms, including the foremost one savouring walk-in closets, and unfamiliar his and her individual Jacuzzi bathrooms. Overhead interior wrap-around balconies, marble-floor living areas, formal and informal dining rooms, a gourmet island kitchen, along with a fitness room, fuses admirably with a one-bedroom guest apartment.

This consummate house has pampered its occupants, inspired its audience, and enhanced the immediate environment. It is a dream of dreams, a fantasy of fantasies, come true. It is now quite difficult to recover one’s emotional composure.

Barry Rattray is a dream house designer and builder. Email feedback to barryrattray1@hotmail.com and lifestyle@gleanerjm.com.