Sunraven

“The day after 9/11, Jerome Kohlberg, name partner in the Wall Street Kohlberg Kravis Roberts or ‘KKR’, came into Northern Westchester Hospital, where I was the Medical Director and Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs, and donated a million dollars to fund the development of Integrative Medicine within the Hospital,” Dr. Michael Finkelstein recalls. “Although I’d spent my entire career providing and administering in more traditional Western medicine, the President of the Hospital charged me with implementing the grant and, more generally, moving the Hospital in a more ‘integrative’ direction - which is to say viewing medicine and treatment as being about more than just the body itself. …I went back to school for two years at the Andrew Weill Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona…and fell in love with what I believe is the medicine of the future. In 2003, I opened The Center for Health and Healing for the Hospital on Smith Avenue in Mt. Kisco, which we maintained until 2005.”

“My life’s mission was forever altered,” Michael declares. “From when I was seven years old I knew I wanted to be a doctor so I could help people, but now I’d realized Integrative Medicine was the best way for me to do that! I decided to leave the Hospital and start my own practice, and started to look for a farm - because I felt a working farm would be complementary to my practice. …A lot had changed in me as well.” 

“Around the same time, one night, when I was living in the very traditional Southern Georgian Colonial at 491 Guard Hill - with my first wife and our kids Malcolm, Benjamin, and Caroline, I had an odd but very distinct dream about being in a bedroom that was wooden, with a corner fireplace,” Michael reveals. “About a month later, my neighbor put his home on the market- the house I’d been passing down the driveway for 12 years - this house at 501 Guard Hill - up for sale…and seeing the potential for it to be the farm I was looking for, and without even going into the house…I outbid some other interested parties and immediately purchased the property. …Then, when I finally went inside, the master bedroom was the same as the bedroom in my dream! It was clearly meant to be.”

“Though I’d purchased the place for the enchanting property…the house was a treasure!” Michael says with the same sense of surprise he enjoyed when it happened. “I learned that the Reeds, who had purchased the property in 1975 and sold it to the folks who sold it to me, had expanded what was the original barn - comfortable three-bedroom home I’d purchased - using wood reclaimed from a barn in Millbrook and doors and hardware reclaimed from barns around New England. And they added a lot of the special features, like the wagon wheel windows and the Chestnut floors on the second floor.  …They rescued animals, one of which was a Raven named Trevor who they kept in a specially built cage underneath the stairwell. …The story about Trevor was the inspiration for my naming the house ‘SunRaven’!”

“The paddock was empty when I started to operate the property, together with several colleagues, as a healing center, back in 2005. We built out the farm and rescued two horses, and built a large community garden, and welcomed lots of people who were nourished by the process and the produce. At one time we were feeding about twenty families,” Michael describes. “I separated from my first wife and moved to North Salem in 2006, but continued my holistic practice at 501 Guard Hill.”

“It wasn’t until October 2010 - when Robin and I began to plan our future together - and after my first wife had moved out of the house next door - that Robin and I moved into SunRaven and began to make it our own,” Michael details. “Then, a huge tree fell on the house during Hurricane Sandy in 2012…and that forced us to do a lot of work. …We added the first floor bathroom, and we redid the second floor of the house, integrating themes of color and texture we’d seen while travelling in Morocco and India with the naturally quaint cottage feel of the bedrooms.”

To be sure, 4 acres on Guard Hill Road - on the Bedford Riding Lanes Association trails - is Bedford’s best location, location, location! 

Crafted with rare reclaimed woods and featuring exposed beams unique windows and doors, and reclaimed wide-plank King Pine floors, the 3,350 square foot storybook house is a masterpiece of intentional design. Every detail evokes warmth, character, and timeless elegance.

The main floor is centered around a great room with soaring ceilings. The gourmet kitchen, with all top-of-the-line appliances and a large island with seating, is designed for real cooks and fun feasts. The spacious dining area and living area with fireplace are comfortable and easy, but also work for a formal dinner party. And the great room has large French doors that open to the property and the large outdoor dining terrace with retractable awning.

Situated privately off the great room there’s a wing with both an office with wooden bookshelves and built-ins and a separate library with French doors that open up to the property, and a full bath. On the other side of the great room, there’s a large and airy family room. And off the entry room, there’s a full laundry room with an extra side-by-side refrigerator and freezer.

On the second floor, which is replete with the same kind of wooden details as the main part of the house, the ‘dreamy’ primary bedroom is right out of a fairy tale, and has an adjacent sitting area and office, and a large bathroom complete with a soaking tub. And the two cute secondary bedrooms share another full bathroom.

And outside, SunRaven is a living landscape. A berry bramble, grapevines, and fruit trees surround an expansive organic vegetable garden with raised beds. Aviaries and apiaries are home to peacocks and bees. A spacious chicken coop houses a flock of twenty, while the barn and paddock support two horses and a llama. There’s a genuine teepee at the end of one meadow and several secluded sitting areas set around the property. And there’s a greenhouse, and a potting shed big enough for plenty of storage.

“The place has a real blend of history, artistry, and nature. It’s been a gathering space for the community, we’ve had drum circles with thirty or forty folks going at it together, and in our practice a lot of folks have found some inner peace here. It’s not just a home, it’s a sanctuary.” “SunRaven has good karma!”  Michael declares.

“...It’s time for us to move on,” Robin says hesitantly, “...but it’s definitely with mixed emotions. We have a house in Encinitas, California where we spend most of the winter, and we’re completing the renovation of a townhouse - on Bedford Street - in Manhattan where we intend to spend a lot of our time…and, maybe most important, we want to be more free to visit with my daughters Heather and Chelsea, and my young grandchildren Mason and Caden, who live in Connecticut. …I just hope whoever buys this property falls in love with the entire vibe! …And I’d be really happy if they want to adopt our two horses and the peahens and chickens!”

Robin is a Psycho-Spiritual Therapist, with a practice focused on couples counseling, but which also encompasses family, individual, and young clients who need support. “I specialize in communication skills,” she says. “With couples, I help to restore connection, love, harmony, and beauty, and to emphasize seeing the whole picture.” And Michael, whose book Slow Medicine sets out his philosophy that process and learning are the essence of life and his belief that humility is the true measure of a person’s worth, adds, “We’ll both be able to continue our practice from wherever we are…but we sure will miss SunRaven’s charm and energy!”

SunRaven, at 501 Guard Hill Road 

in Bedford, is being offered for sale at $2,850,000. 

Interested parties should call Zak Kaplan at 914-314-5053 or Evi Skyriotis at 484-894-2584 to arrange a viewing.