Look inside a pair of multimillion-dollar estates up for sale

SNOHOMISH — Here, in this oasis of rustic splendor, you can have it all.

A private polar bear plunge in the Pilchuck River.

Survivor camp for 100 kids. A wedding. Petting zoo with miniature donkeys and pygmy goats. Bands playing on the lawn. Seahawks parties in the outdoor living patio space with flat screen TV. A luxurious soak in a handmade copper bathtub by a fireplace in the master suite.

Rachael Sparwasser and her family had it all here and then some, except the polar bear plunge.

“We chickened out,” Sparwasser said.

This is your chance to have at it.

Her 6,815-square-foot Northwest Craftsman style house with seven bathrooms on 6.5 acres can be yours, for as little as $2.5 million, or $3.2 million with 20 additional acres.

But wait, there’s more.

The 7,020-square-foot stucco-and-stone estate next door, owned by her parents, Patti and Ernie Ward, is also for sale. It has nine bathrooms, indoor pool, turret, art studio, fountain, greenhouse, woodworking shop and 7.8 acres.

Both homes are classified as a single family homes, but there’s room for all your friends, relatives and their friends. And maybe your church congregation.

But wait, there’s still more: An option to buy the white farmhouse and barn in front with purchase of the other homes. The luxury homes are for sale separately, but not the old farmhouse.

The whole package, three houses on 38 acres, can be yours for less than $7.8 million. Annual taxes on all of it are $49,000.

Still, it’s a lot of bang for the buck.

“There are no comparable properties,” said Bob Wold, listing agent and managing broker at Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty.

“Value is often established by what’s sold in their peer group,” added his father and fellow broker Jim Wold. “But this has no peer group; they’re in a tier of their own.”

There are four other homes in Snohomish County listed for sale at more than $3 million, with two of these more than $7 million. There are total of 23 homes in the county priced at more than $2 million.

One thing is for sure. You won’t get cold feet here. There’s radiant floor heat, among other amenities and upscale touches. Copper gutters. Blown glass sinks and pendant lights. Automated window treatments. Wide plank floors. Wood plank ceilings. Massive beams. Murals. Inlaid marble floors. Frescoed walls. Custom millwork.

“At one point, it becomes a work of art,” Bob Wold said.

It is museum quality craftsmanship with masterpiece awe and creature comforts galore. Both homes have home theaters so nice that even bad movies would be good.

The homes share a gated driveway from 147th Avenue SE across from Machias Elementary School and east of the Centennial Trail.

Need a latte? No problem. There’s a coffee stand a few minutes away by the market at the corner of OK Mill and Machias roads.

The white farmhouse was home for Sparwasser and her husband, Eric, for several years before they even broke ground on the new digs.

“We wanted to live there and make sure it was a place where we’d want to build our home,” said Sparwasser, who grew up in Mount Vernon and has a law office in Edmonds. “It was quite a process because it’s on the river. There were a lot of environmental studies and things that needed to be done.”

Attention went into every detail.

“We used Tobiason Cates for the design. They’re a design firm out of Bellevue,” she said. “I had been pulling pages out of magazines for years and really like details. They made it all happen.”

In June of 2010, the Sparwassers moved into their fabulous new home. That January, you won’t believe what they did.

“We moved to Peru to help build an orphanage there,” she said.

That’s right. Six months after moving into their dream house, they packed up their kids, then ages 2, 4 and 6, to live in Peru.

They were gone for a year.

Her parents, founders of Valley Electric, pitched in during visits to Peru. “My dad helped do the power in the building and my mom came down to help.”

Meantime, in 2011, the Wards’ house was finished.

The families opened their homes for Snohomish Community Church camps and celebrations.

“We did river baptisms,” she said, “and have a huge barbecue and picnic. They’d do a survivor camp in the summer with a tug of war and build a big mud pit and do an army crawl through it. They’d have bands come at night and play music.”

“We wanted to create a place where people could come and hang out and it would be a comfortable place.”

So, too, did her parents, who insisted the indoor pool be built at their house and the wood playground installed in their yard. Her kids, Emery, 10, Finnley, 8, and Levi, 5, spent a lot of time over there, day and night.

“Nana and Grandpa’s was the place to be,” Sparwasser said. “They have 9 grandchildren, 10 and under.”

From the colorful bikes in the garage to the inflatable animal pool floats, the evidence of play and laughter are in harmony with the elegance and serenity of the property.

Why’s it all for sale?

“We’re adventurous,” Sparwasser said.

They moved to Colorado to be closer to another family member, her brother Andy. “It’s a 3-mile triangle between my brother, me and my parents,” she said.

She hopes whoever buys the Snohomish homestead carries on the legacy of family and fun.

“We’d love to see a family move in and love it like we did,” she said, “and make memories there.”

Andrea Brown: 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @reporterbrown.

By the numbers

Ward house

Built 2011

Price $4 million

Square feet 7,020

Acres 7.8

Bedrooms 5

Baths 9

Sparwasser house