A Spanish Manor equestrian estate in Rancho Santa Fe

With a median sales price last year of just under $3.4 million, Rancho Santa Fe retained its title as the priciest neighborhood in San Diego, and clocked in as the 18th-spendiest in the nation. And while that median price is sky-high on its own, it means that half of the homes in town are selling for more — often much more. Let’s take a look today at a property that hopes to blow by the mid-water mark by a factor of five, shall we? “Location, style, attention to detail and masterful construction find harmony within this newly built Spanish Manor equestrian estate,” opens the Zillow pitch for this nearly-9400-square-foot mansion “poised on 9.22 rare and unique acres.”

The first photo we see is of the pool, and I already have questions. It seems the hot tub is in the middle of the pool, and that you have to walk across a handful of submerged stepping stones to reach it. Also, the lip doesn’t seem to extend above the water, so is the heated hot tub water mixing with the cooler pool water? And is that a submerged TV screen of sorts that I see? I’m hoping to get an explanation of all this soon. But before my pool queries can be addressed, we move on to some aerial shots showing the house and several outbuildings, a tennis court (actually a “pickle ball court with viewing area,” per the listing), multiple solar panel arrays, a long “pebble finished” driveway, a barn, and a horse arena. There’s a security gate to get from the driveway to the garage, but I’m not sure why, as I assume there’s another gate just to get on the property.

We eventually get to the entry, passing through a courtyard with a water feature to a massive front door flanked by a pair of animal statues. The windows here were reportedly sourced from a church in Belgium. Inside, the living room features a fireplace with an ornate hand-carved wood mantel that stretches to the ceiling. From there, we continue to a kitchen/dining area that’s open to the covered patio by the pool. Everything here looks fancy in an old-fashioned sort of way, despite the home’s 2021 build date. I’ll let the listing explain: “The authenticity and historical respect infused within the home’s fresco design is ever apparent in the detail of Walnut hardwood flooring with custom parquet and herringbone design, elaborate custom carved woodwork, hand-honed authentic beam work throughout, custom brick accent ceilings, custom hand painted tiles, custom designed stone work from Turkey, Turkish marble flooring throughout the kitchen, great room, decks and patios, and hand troweled plaster wall finish to highlight a few of the many custom details and finish work.” Okay, impressive enough, but having a construction background myself, I’m not sure there’s any other way to plaster a wall besides using a trowel held in your hand.

The mysterious underwater hot tub.

zillow.com

The feature list continues: “Accolades of the residence offer [sic]: gourmet kitchen with La Cornue range and all top of the line appliances, wine dispenser and cooler, coffee center, large pantry flowing into the great room with oversized fireplace, a wall of glass that opens with the touch of a button to the outdoor heated living/dining loggia.” I’m not sure about the wine dispenser, but I definitely like the giant teal stove.

Leaving the kitchen, we head out to the “vanishing edge Sukabumi lava tiled pool with underground speaker and spa.” I had to look this up: apparently. Sukabumi is a bespoke brand of ceramic tile from Dubai. It certainly looks nice, and the semi-submerged lounge chairs are inviting, but I still don’t understand this jacuzzi that’s not separated from the pool in any meaningful way. Anyway, while we’re out here, we also get a fire pit and full outdoor kitchen with pizza oven.

Back inside, a curving stone staircase leads us up to the “home theatre/billiards/game/music room with full bar.” Or maybe this is the “9-inch thick concrete vault wine room,” because there’s a row of wine refrigerators along one wall and a window on the other that looks into the bottom of the pool. This is probably what I thought resembled a TV screen in that initial photo. I’ve got to say: they really like this pool. We get a few more pictures of it before we’re finally back inside and headed down a long hallway to a bedroom and bath outfitted with a freestanding tub that looks to be made of hammered copper and is easily deep enough for a nice soak — which is more than I can say for the cheap pre-fab fiberglass unit at my house. Continuing through a pair of stone archways, we arrive at the shower, which isn’t an enclosure so much as it is an entire room of its own. We’re also told that this wing of the house offers “his and her custom detailed dressing rooms” and “two offices, each with stunning hand designed and carved cabinetry.” The “professional gym” looks like something anyone could cobble together with a few hundred dollars and a day spent scouring Craigslist, but this is really the only part of the house that doesn’t impress so far.

We peek inside a few more bedrooms and some decidedly more pedestrian baths (but still decidedly nicer than anything I’ve seen in person), then we move on to the “state of the art 8-stall barn encompassing approximately 4654 square feet with custom iron work, full gourmet kitchen, caretaker’s apartment and 3-car garage.” I don’t know why we need a gourmet kitchen in a barn, but it’s there, along with another outdoor kitchen adjacent to the “large recreation area” with bocce ball space and horseshoe pit.

Some more aerial shots of the grounds wrap up our tour. Public records list the estate’s owners as Ralph and Patricia Faison; it was last sold in 2012 for a reported $2.6 million, well before the current estate was constructed. It’s been on and off the market since late 2021, the original asking price of $19,995,000 has since been reduced to $19,500,000.

5631 El Camino Del Norte | Rancho Santa Fe, 92091

Current owner: The Faisons | Listing price: $19,500,000 | Beds: 6 | Baths: 11 | House size: 9300+ sq ft