The article titled House Hunting in…Honduras was written by Marcelle Sussman Fischler, March 13, 2019
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/13/realestate/house-hunting-in-honduras.html
A Five Bedroom Compound off the Coast of Honduras
$1.3 Million
This five-bedroom, six-bath compound is in Sandy Bay, a community on the northern shore of Roatan, the largest of the Bay Islands of Honduras, about 30 miles north of the Honduran mainland.
Known as the Green Room Estate, the property is three acres, with three buildings reached by way of a gravel driveway, past a small gatehouse: a three-bedroom main house, a one-bedroom guesthouse and a detached studio apartment.
The main house, which has two exterior staircases, is perched in the treetops above the driveway and parking lot, overlooking the Caribbean Sea. The guest cottage is on the other end of a multilevel pine deck, with a swimming pool connecting the two structures.
“It feels very secluded, but is easily accessible to the rest of the island,” said Brittany McCann, the marketing and agent manager for Roatan Sotheby’s International Realty, which has the listing.
When Drew and Mary Lynn Long bought the property 14 years ago, it was to run Rick’s American Cafe, a steakhouse they later turned into a bar and lounge. To exercise and see clients, the Longs — personal trainers who owned fitness centers in Los Angeles — added a 3,000-square-foot gym with 15-foot ceilings and the studio apartment underneath. The gym is connected by decking to the main house. About six years ago, the Longs converted the restaurant into their home.
Beyond the glass double-door entry, Caribbean pine floors run throughout the great room, which has large windows and an 11-foot ceiling with wood beams and wood-plank trim. Doors open to a deck with bamboo wainscoting.
At night, 100 LED bulbs on a smart-house system twinkle in the trees. “It is as magnificent at night as it is during the day,” Mr. Long said. “I explain it as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater meets the jungle canopy.”
The kitchen has a rustic terra-cotta floor, granite counters, open shelves, Vulcan appliances and a stainless-steel freezer. Large windows and a glass door set into a stacked flagstone wall separate the kitchen from a hardwood wet bar with stone counters. A dining and lounging area is beyond the bar. The house is being sold furnished.
Upstairs, three en suite bedrooms have pine floors and bathrooms with double showers. One of the bedrooms has an outdoor shower and views of the Caribbean. Travertine slabs cover the bathroom walls, and the double vanity has marble counters. Another suite faces the jungle, with a green-tiled bathroom. The third suite overlooks the pool area.
Behind the house, the one-bedroom cottage has jalousie shutters and a colorfully painted bathroom with a pedestal sink and a fiberglass-enclosed shower. French doors open to the pool, which has a semicircular sun shelf and two lap lanes. The separate three-room apartment includes a living room, a bedroom and dressing room, a kitchenette, a blue-and-green tiled bathroom and a private deck.
The property has mature gardens with tropical plants, two wells and an acre of banana trees. It currently rents for about $600 a night, depending on the season.