A switchback staircase with an ornate newel post and balusters leads to bedrooms on the second and third floors. On the way, there’s a mezzanine with a barrel ceiling and a wall of stained glass depicting birds and flowers. A sitting room on the second floor opens to the upper porch through French doors.  The second-floor master bedroom is the largest in the house, and the only one with an en-suite bathroom. There’s an additional living area on the third floor, with French doors opening to a deck. The basement is finished as three separate recreation rooms.  OUTDOOR SPACE: The property is 7.85 acres, flat, landscaped and dotted with mature trees.  TAXES: Approximately $30,600 a year  CONTACT: Mary Davis and Jane Kottkamp, Lenihan Sotheby’s International Realty (502) 403-6308 / (502) 541-0367; maryedavis.com  WHAT: A ranch house with four bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms  SIZE: Approximately 4,004 square feet  PRICE PER SQUARE FOOT: $448  SETTING: This house is in Sherwood Forest, a small, wooded residential neighborhood in the Greater Midtown part of Atlanta, between Ansley Park and the Ansley Golf Club. Developed in the late 1940s, the neighborhood retains a handful of its original ranch designs, though most have been torn down for new construction. The High Museum of Art and the Museum of Design Atlanta, as well as the city’s symphony and botanical garden, are within two miles of this house.  INDOORS: The low-lying ranch was built in 1954 and was renovated in 2012 by Dencity Design, an architecture firm in Atlanta.  The house makes extensive use of cypress, including cypress paneling and cypress soffits around the perimeter, outfitted with recessed lighting. The U-shape design surrounds a saltwater pool. The layout is bright and open, with pitched ceilings, walls of windows and sliding glass doors.  Some original features, including a columnar sandstone fireplace punctuating the living and dining areas, were retained during renovations. Original casement windows from a wing that was demolished during renovations were reintegrated into the newly built master suite. Floors throughout are either dark oak or Porcelanosa tile.  The kitchen has quartz countertops, a 16-foot-long island and stainless-steel appliances. The room’s rift-sawn oak cabinets have a single continuous grain across the doors. The work of Dark Horse Woodworks of Atlanta, the cabinets received an award from the Cabinet Makers Association. Off the kitchen, there’s a bar designed to be handy to the pool through sliding glass doors. Additionally, there’s a library, set off with pocket doors.  Three of the bedrooms are in a wing off the common areas; the master suite is in another. Both bedroom wings have a laundry area.  The master bedroom is outfitted with extensive ebony cabinetry, including a television cabinet above a gas fireplace and dressers in a closet. The bathroom has a vanity with double sinks and a quartz countertop, as well as a frameless glass shower. Both the bathroom and closet have heated floors. The suite opens both to the pool area and to a small atrium.  Of the other three bedrooms, one is a suite with built-in cabinetry and a built-in desk. Its bathroom has floor-to-ceiling travertine and a jetted tub. Double glass doors in another bedroom open to the pool. There is an attached two-car garage.  OUTDOOR SPACE: The lot is about half an acre, fenced and level. A rustic stone wall with a built-in fireplace and grill runs along one side of the backyard, past the pool, giving the property additional privacy. The yard also has an outdoor shower enclosed by cypress walls, and a hot tub.  CONTACT: Doug Hildebrecht, Harry Norman, Realtors, (404) 424-2125; harrynorman.com  WHAT: An adobe compound with a two-bedroom main house, three one-bedroom apartments, a one-bedroom house and a studio apartment in the garage, with a total of seven bathrooms  SIZE: 7,780 square feet total, with about 3,000 square feet in the main house  PRICE PER SQUARE FOOT: $231  SETTING: Arroyo Seco is an unincorporated community of about 1,000 people between Taos and the Taos Ski Valley, in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. This property is across the road from the Taos Pueblo, a Unesco World Heritage Site and one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the country. Taos, a longstanding arts community with ties to D. H. Lawrence and Georgia O’Keeffe, is about 15 minutes away, as is skiing.  INDOORS: The houses were built about 1960 and updated over the last 15 years. All are adobe and frame construction, with thick plaster walls, beamed and wood-paneled ceilings, rounded kiva fireplaces and other marks of traditional pueblo design. Each has a view of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.  The houses are organized around a Japanese-style garden, with a waterfall and small pond that draw from an artesian spring on the property and run on a recycled water system.  The main house is two stories, with two bedrooms. It has hand-troweled plaster walls and radiant-heated clay-tile floors. Rustic wood columns offset the cream- and white-colored interior. The living area has a pitched double-height ceiling and shares an open floor plan with the dining area, which has a large picture window. Granite surfaces and stainless-steel appliances in the kitchen were updated during renovations. Off the kitchen is a large porch with a stone fountain, mountain views and a 50-year-old wisteria edging the roofline.  The first-floor bedroom is part of a suite with a tiled steam shower and a private patio. The upstairs bedroom suite measures 600 square feet, with a fireplace and a walk-in cedar closet. The main house also has two rooms used as offices.  The three one-bedroom apartments are in a one-story, 2,500-square-foot adobe building. Each has a kiva-style fireplace, wood-beam ceilings and a private walled patio. The heavy wooden doors throughout the building were handmade by the owner and by Pacheco’s Woodworks in Taos. There is also a stand-alone casita or small house with brick floors and two kiva fireplaces, and a built-in bed in a loft over the living room. The bathroom has a shower and skylight.  The studio is above a two-car garage and workshop, which has a fenced patio. Also on the property is a free-standing structure with a hot tub inside.  OUTDOOR SPACE: The property is about two and a third acres, landscaped with apple and plum trees, lilac and sage. A stream runs through the middle of the property.  CONTACT: Page Sullivan, Coldwell Banker Lota Realty, (575) 758-7890; taosrealestate.com
This week’s properties include a 1900 house in Kentucky, a renovated ranch in Atlanta and an adobe in New Mexico.