Inside a boldly modern Sacramento home built around an oak, with nod to the past
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- Terry Development’s one-acre Arden Oaks estate listed for $4.5 million
- The modern 5,871 sq ft home preserves a mature oak as a central design feature.
- Property includes main house plus two accessory dwelling units and resort amenities.
Developer Tim Terry’s newly finished one-acre showcase in Arden Oaks is a rare luxury listing — a boldly modern estate in a Sacramento area neighborhood defined by classic ranch houses and pastoral roots.
Inside its gates, the residence — six bedrooms, seven bathrooms and 5,871 square feet — immediately pays homage to the neighborhood’s past with an impressive iron horse statue anchored in the front near an enormous mature oak tree.
Arden Oaks was once part of the Rancho del Paso horse-breeding estate, and evolved in the 1940s into a tranquil enclave of one-acre, oak-shaded properties. Coldwell Banker listing agent Madison Fairchild of MadWest Realty said Terry’s design revolved around preserving the beautiful oak, making it a literal centerpiece through the home’s expansive walls of glass.
“This entire build and development was built around this tree,” she said. “They obviously preserved it — there was no touching that tree — and he really wanted to have the beauty of it front and center through the front door.”
Terry echoed the same philosophy.
“Everything I do, I try to bring outside in, inside out,” he said. The home’s extensive glazing is positioned so that “we get this unique tree,” he added. “We basically built around it.”
As for the attractive horse sculpture, Fairchild said that’s what made the property stand out to her from the curb.
“I joke that he put the horse out there for MadWest Realty, but it was an ode to the equestrian roots of the territory,” said the black-cowboy-hatted Fairchild, whose branding is inspired by horses. “Arden Oaks was equestrian property way back in the day.”
The property, at 3630 Winding Creek Road, just listed for $4.5 million, making it the highest-priced home for sale in the Arden Arcade area, which includes Arden Oaks, Arden Park, Sierra Oaks and Sierra Oaks Vista.
If it sells near the asking price, the estate will push toward a record deal in Arden Arcade. In 2013, a home at 480 Crocker Road sold for $4.75 million, and another at 601 Crocker Road sold for $4.55 million in 2021. There was a private sale for $5 million at 680 Laurel Drive in Sierra Oaks Vista in 2019, Sacramento appraiser and housing analyst Ryan Lundquist said.
The Winding Creek Road compound is a marquee project for Terry Development, known locally for one-off custom projects rather than subdivisions. Fairchild said Terry has a distinctive approach in a region where bold contemporary construction is still relatively rare.
“What I love the most about this builder, above any builder I have worked with, is his willingness to be bold with creativity,” she said. “He chases a modern design that you do not see around here. So he’s always bold in his styling, and then he incorporates a lot of different elements, so we’ve got the wood under the soffits, all of the stone-wrapped walls, and he takes the stone floor to ceiling, which I think is just a luxe look, but also one of his signature things is bringing the outside in. ”
The house replaces an older ranch-style home on the lot. The rebuild comes with a dramatic backstory: The previous residence was heavily damaged by a 2023 fire, and the new construction was completed at the end of 2025. A news report at the time said the family escaped safely, and no injuries were reported.
“We built it pretty fast and efficiently,” Terry said.
Even so, he described the design as a balancing act — modernizing without pushing Arden Oaks too far into something it isn’t.
“With this house, we didn’t want to over-modernize,” Terry said, pointing to details like a gated entry and a roofline that mixes a hip roof with flatter elements. “We tried to modernize, but we know the history here — the old horse property.”
One of the home’s main flexes is how it uses the lot — not just for square footage, but for view lines and indoor-outdoor living. Bedrooms and living spaces wrap around a rectangular pool and open up through large disappearing glass doors.
The mature landscaping is also a big part of the pitch at this price point.
“We definitely took advantage of the existing growth here, and that’s kind of why we think we have a good price,” Terry said. Newer developments can replicate a floor plan, he added, but not decades-old trees.
“They have to create new trees, and it takes decades to get this,” he added.
The marketing highlights a single-story layout and a compound-like feel. The property description calls it “an exceptionally rare offering in Arden Oaks,” emphasizing privacy, modern design and resort-style grounds.
The listing also touts multiple living areas: the main house plus two accessory dwelling units, positioned for multigenerational living or hosting. The main ADU and junior ADU echo the modern comfort and luxury design seen throughout the primary residence.
Fairchild described the kitchen as a visual statement — with stone and porcelain wrapping a full appliance wall and waterfall island. A second, fully equipped prep kitchen — more than a typical butler’s pantry — is designed to keep entertaining mess out of sight.
In the great room, she pointed out 16-foot ceilings, a striking stone fireplace wall rising to the ceiling— and a large ceiling fan with an unusually straightforward name.
“This very large fan is truly called a Big Ass Fan — that is the brand,” she said.
Outdoors, the amenities read like a boutique resort checklist: a pool with a built-in Cabo shelf, a sauna and workout area off a breezeway, fire features for evening gatherings, and a private pickleball court shaded by tall redwoods. Fairchild also noted the breezeway includes misters for Sacramento’s intense summer heatwaves.
At the back of the property, a wrought-iron fence separates the yard from the creek that gives Winding Creek Road its name. Fairchild said Terry also brought in grapevines — “four different varieties of grapes,” she said — and built a walking path around the perimeter of the acre, partly as an alternative to walking along busier streets. The result is a family-friendly loop where people and pets can do laps or just wander down to the creek.
The gated drive also caters to toys, with a tall four-car garage and extra parking designed to accommodate RV and boat storage.
To conserve water, Terry built a system that captures groundwater on-site and reuses it for irrigation, creating a dry-creek-style basin that collects runoff.
Terry said he’s seeing more construction activity nearby, too, a sign that the neighborhood’s housing stock is slowly evolving.
“There are about four builds and a demo going on right around the here — probably five projects going on right now,” he said. “The neighborhood is modernizing.”
Nearby, Terry bought a tear-down property at 3321 Adams Road and custom-built a new modern home in Sierra Oaks Vista. He sold that residence in 2021 for $3.35 million.
