Home blends California living, Old World ‘soul’ like no other in Sacramento area
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- Loomis estate lists for $3.7M, blending French design with California views.
- Custom craftsmanship defines interiors, using reclaimed European materials.
- Property includes pool, guest house, citrus grove and 22.4 kW solar system.
Jim and Stephanie Tilton’s journey to creating their dream home began with a rock and a view.
After buying Lot No. 3 in a private Loomis community nearly 25 years ago, the couple would sit out on a rock on the property, sipping wine or champagne, and gaze at the downtown Sacramento lights in the distance.
“We like the view,” Jim Tilton, who founded Tilton Pacific Construction, said. “One of our criteria was to have a nighttime view of city lights. You come out here at night and the lights sparkle. You’ve got downtown Sacramento, about 22 miles away. You can clearly see the bridges. You can see the ballpark down there.”
In another direction, the Sutter Buttes and the Sierra Nevada can be seen.
“It’s got a really cool view all the way around,” Stephanie said.
Their perch, once just a quiet seat among oaks and wild grasses, became the genesis of a French-inspired, stone-clad, 5-acre estate that blends Mediterranean allure and Old World warmth with California’s easy indoor-outdoor lifestyle.
The 7,000-square-foot, four-bedroom, seven-bathroom residence is on the market for the first time since the couple built it in 2004. Price tag: $3.7 million
The Tiltons tapped award-winning Sacramento-based interior designer Paulette Trainor and architect Tim Sheil to do the work. They gave Trainor and Sheil creative latitude.
“They were amazing,” Trainor said. “I’ve always said, ‘I’m only as good of an interior designer as my client allows me to be.”
Creative freedom on design
Trainor and Sheil yielded a home with custom everything — from cabinetry and ironwork to fireplaces and tile floors, much of it sourced and reclaimed material from Europe.
“I think all the floors came from France, as well as the fireplaces,” Trainor said. “And some pieces came from Italy. Some pieces came from Greece. And a lot is custom made (for) the individual space.”
Inside the home, soaring 23-foot ceilings and a two-story fountain crown the circular entry. Reclaimed French oak plank and tile floors, set by hand, radiate character underfoot. In a whimsical touch, tiles in the kitchen bear little footprints on them.
In the kitchen, gourmet fantasy comes alive: A striking monumental mantel crowning a Thermador stove range, stone counters, a large black granite island and hand-stained custom cabinets by a San Francisco artisan.
With four en-suite bedrooms, a game room, a formal dining room and open living areas, the home balances family functionality and lavish hosting. Each room offers private outdoor access.
“This house is really set up for entertaining,” Jim said. “We’ve had 120, 130 people here at a time, and it just flows. You can walk from area to area, people are visiting here, and they’re over here in this pod, and the living room with the doors open. We had a band set up on the (concrete deck above the pool). We have a lot of beautiful sunsets here, so it’s really a great way to start a party. We love entertaining.”
Her favorite room
Stephanie’s favorite sanctuary is the sunken, circular conversation pit with a fireplace and a water feature above it.
“This is my favorite room,” she said, “because it’s off by itself a little bit without being too far. It’s calming. It’s a place where you can read and have a glass of wine and turn the fireplace on, if you wanted to. It kind of envelops you. It feels good.”
Trainor was up for the task of making the space work.
“I have found in every home it’s always a surprise what’s the most challenging space,” she said. “And this case, it was this space. Stephanie and I went through idea after idea after idea. We would come in here and sit in here and ponder and sit over here. We did a template on the floor (for the sofa), because this was custom made, and we had to make sure that it would fit.
“But it ended up being a really cozy space. You can walk around, utilize it, and traffic flows well.”
The home spotlights graceful archways, interior Juliet balconies overlooking the living room and a round formal dining table flanked by French doors. Custom ironwork by Sacramento-based Villa Iron Works embellishes the staircases and balconies.
The interior opens up to multiple outside balconies drawing in 270-degree views.
Co-listing agents Tatiana Bedoya and Tony Estigoy, luxury properties specialists with Nick Sadek Sotheby’s International Realty, said the French-inspired villa stands out among luxury homes, presenting an energy and intensity like no other.
Home with a ‘soul’
“This is one of those few homes that you walk into and it feels like it has a soul,” Estigoy said. “From the time that you drive onto the property to the time that you walk into the door, you feel like it’s a home.”
Bedoya said the residence is dubbed Asolare, which in Italian means to pass time in a delightful, leisurely way.
“This one, when you walk in, you can feel it,” Bedoya added. “It truly reminds you of many countries abroad — Italy, France. You can see it and feel it in this estate.”
Signature outdoor amenities, such as the 50-by-25-foot pool and spa with an adjacent outdoor kitchen with a wood-burning pizza oven, abound.
The dedicated pool house is luxurious with tiled floor-to-ceiling, making it an ideal for post-swim showers (or even for hosing off pets after encounters with mud or skunks).
Estigoy is especially fond of the detached guest quarters.
“One of those bedrooms actually is outside, like a casita, so it can be used as a guest suite, or maybe your teenager just wants a little more privacy,” he said.
The property is defined not just by luxury but sustainability, too. The estate is equipped with a 22.4 kW solar system, three 5-ton HVAC systems, and a 22-zone irrigation system with seasonal ditch water access.
The property has a 1,600-square-foot garage/workshop equipped with power and water for the hobbyist or car collector, and a citrus grove with Satsuma mandarins, oranges, limes and lemons.
While recently walking the grounds, Jim pointed to one of the citrus trees: “That one—you get like 300 lemons,” he said.
Jim and Stephanie said it’s time to pass their dream home — Asolare — to a new steward as they prepare to move to Oregon to be closer to their children’s families.
“I hope that we can find somebody who can appreciate what we feel in this home, because we literally did live up to the agreeable and leisurely passing of time with our friends and our family and couldn’t ask for anything more,” Stephanie said. “I hope someone else will appreciate that.”
This story was originally published September 27, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
