Teri and Steve Bennett loved the spa-style grotto at a Ritz Carlton hotel in Colorado. So they recreated it inside their Tonka Bay home.
In the Bennetts' version, a waterfall flows from a stone wall into a hot tub — which can hold up to 10 people.
"We made it cozy and cavelike," said Teri, "with candles along the stone wall."
In fact, their 11,193-square-foot home on Lake Minnetonka is entertainment central with everything from a spacious outdoor pool-side patio with a flat screen TV to an upstairs billiards room warmed by a stone fireplace.
The Bennetts' Tonka Bay estate, with four bedrooms and six bathrooms, is on the market for $5.25 million.
The couple bought the sprawling home in 2000 and Teri, an interior designer known among her friends as the Martha Stewart of Lake Minnetonka, has redone the home from top to bottom over the past 17 years.
"I like different styles — Old World, European, Italian and some modern," she said.
The couple has built several additions, including a curved porch facing the 500 feet of shoreline on Lake Minnetonka's Old Channel Bay.
The updated "chef's kitchen" can handle their large holiday family gatherings with a Wolf range, two refrigerators and walnut butcher block on a raised end of the island. For a touch of elegance, Teri hung crystals from the Euro-style iron chandeliers.
Teri sets up the family Christmas tree next to a massive stone fireplace in the light-filled two-story living room. The owners' suite is in a separate wing with another fireplace and his-and-hers closets.
It's easier to get motivated to run on the treadmill when the adjacent exercise room overlooks the lake — and has two TVs. "We enclosed an old outside patio and turned it into an exercise/flex room," said Teri.
They also converted an indoor swimming pool into a basketball sport court where their boys shoot hoops.
But now that their grown children have left the nest, and Teri and Steve, who is part owner of Lexus of Wayzata, are downsizing to a smaller home in Excelsior.
"We hope someone with a family who likes to entertain can take over this house," said Teri.
Patti Jo Hermann of Edina Realty has the listing.
