If a breathtaking, 10-acre estate overlooking Folsom Lake in California sells for the asking price of $7.5 million, the deal will mark the second-highest residential sale ever in the Sacramento region, according to a local real estate expert.

The rare, unobstructed views of the lake alone might be worth that price.

The jaw-dropping infinity pool is the apex of the property’s amenities, giving the impression that you could swim over the edge right into Folsom Lake. But the luxury compound, located at 100 Rock Lane in El Dorado Hills, offers much more than that for the money.

“This property is a unicorn on a few different levels,” housing analyst and appraiser Ryan Lundquist said. “Its size, at roughly 12,000 square feet, makes it one of the largest homes in the region, having 10 acres overlooking Folsom Lake is uncommon, and the price point at $7.5 million is territory for outliers.”

The list of unparalleled features, sophisticated touches and exquisite details is long. There’s scraped white oak wood floors, an open gourmet kitchen with a back kitchen for food prep, floor-to-ceiling stone fireplaces, huge disappearing walls of glass, 24-foot ceilings, a Dolby-sound home theater with a bar, a sizable indoor gym, a large game room and a private spa area with an oversized sauna, steam shower and massage table.

Every room opens to the outside and offers lake views. The home also presents clear views of the downtown Sacramento skyline.

The 10-acre grounds comprise meticulously landscaped lawns and gardens, tennis and pickleball court, a fire pit and outdoor fireplace, solar field, gas station, walking trails, a barn and chicken coop, a vineyard and a luxury guest house.

“This what $7.5 million buys you in El Dorado Hills,” listing agent Angela Dameri of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices NorCal said while taking the Sacramento Bee on a tour. “It’s unusual to have 10 acres that front Folsom Lake.”

First impressions

If first impressions matter, this house undoubtedly leaves a positive mark from the moment you walk through the oversized oak-and-glass front door. From the formal entryway, the eye is drawn across a grand family room to the zero-edge pool and panoramic lake vistas at the back of the house.

Enhancing the indoor-outdoor lifestyle, the family room’s massive glass doors open onto the pool and patio. The airy family room itself feels like the warm lobby of a high-end hotel.

In the 10,000-square-foot-plus main house, there’s a primary suite and six other bedrooms. The 1,400-square-foot guest house adds two bedroom suites to the total square footage.

The lake-front location was always prime, but an existing house on the property needed to be updated and better designed to enhance the lake views. That’s when Matt McCauley, former CEO of children’s apparel store Gymboree, and his wife, Marina, stepped in as the new owners. In 2012, they started the process of stripping the former residence down to the studs and rebuilding from the ground up.

“I would call it a significant rebuild,” McCauley said. “We took it down to the studs and took the roof off in the middle section so that we could really capture that view. I didn’t like when you walked in, you expect to see this just dramatic view and ... you couldn’t see straight out to the (lake).

“They had a really beautiful pool, but they had waterfalls and trees that were blocking the view,” he added. “The vision was to just open it all up and make the view the hero, and make sure that all of the oak trees and nature were preserved.”

The project took two years to complete. McCauley worked with architects Milestone Studios and luxury home builders Ray and Sherine Lee of Lee Construction to get the job done.

“The vision was to try to create the ultimate gathering place,” said McCauley, who was a star pole vaulter on the track and field team at nearby Nevada Union High School in Grass Valley before graduating from BYU. “We wanted to make it very cozy and warm, too, not just big. There’s a lot of big houses out there, but it was very important to us to make it feel warm and homey and comfortable so people don’t feel like they have to come in and take their shoes off (with) everything so pristine that they feel uncomfortable. We want anybody who’s coming to just immediately feel at home and comfortable and warm.”

Ultimate gathering spot

The concept of the ultimate gathering spot was tried and tested during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, McCauley said.

“It was an incredible place during COVID,” he added. “We had family, extended family, all living there, and every single room opens up to the outside, so people could come quarantine. It was indoor-outdoor living. We could walk down to the lake.”

The residence has lake access, although there’s a strip of federal Bureau of Land Management property between the lake shore and the private property. The property overlooks the marina at Browns Ravine, where the homeowners have a boat slip, Dameri said.

“It’s just amazing to be able to walk out your backyard, to the marina, walk to the lake,” Matt McCauley said. “I go running every day, and so I run those trails in the back.”

At one point, the McCauleys hosted more than 25 people for a week-long family reunion.

“We have a traditional family reunion with extended family, and we have over 25 people there for a week, and it’s very comfortable,” he said. “You think that it’s that’s a lot of people, and it doesn’t feel like a lot of people.”

That was how they drew up the blueprint.

“In that space, you can have kids having a ball up in the game room, and the whole group in the home theater watching movies, and if you want to escape a little bit, you’d be in the primary bedroom and not know that any of it’s going on,” he added.

Vacation at home

The property may be the ultimate vacation spot, without ever having to leave home, Dameri said.

“If we blindfolded you and put you here, you would never think you were in El Dorado Hills, or even California,” she said.

That vibe was intentional, McCauley said.

“We traveled a lot and had seen a lot of beautiful resorts and places around the world,” he said. “A lot of times, we’d say, ‘Oh, I think we can recreate this. And so we took a lot of those ideas from our travels.”

The property extends beyond deluxe living spaces to add a little bit of farm life. Marina McCauley especially wanted to care for animals there.

“We just love that we’ve been able to create kind of a world inside of another world,” Matt McCauley said. “You can step through those gates and all of a sudden you’ve got privacy, beauty, views, nature. And if you’re an animal lover, you’ve got the whole world of anything that you would want to do with animals, horses. We’ve got llamas and goats and chickens. It, but then you go back outside the gates, and you’re five minutes to Safeway and literally two minutes to the schools. It’s a pretty unique thing. “

The estate is accessed through the exclusive gated El Dorado Hills community called The Summit, but it’s separate from the luxury subdivision, and therefore isn’t subject to The Summit’s HOA or other fees. There’s a second security gate for 100 Rock Lane.

The highest residential sale ever in the Sacramento region is an $8.25 million transaction completed in April for a property at 2000 Creekside Lane in Loomis, according to Lundquist. That’s $750,000 more than the McCauley estate. Otherwise, only two other sales have ever hit $7 million in the region, both sold within the past three years, he said.

Expanding luxury home market

“A listing like this reminds us we’ve seen the luxury market expand in recent years in Sacramento,” Lundquist said. “Since 2020, there have been 579 sales above $2 million in the region, and El Dorado Hills actually has the highest number of these sales at 139,” surpassing Granite Bay at 134.

The McCauleys decided to put the estate on the market since their six adult children don’t find as much time to visit these days. They will live at their Bay Area residence for now.

McCauley rapidly rose through the ranks at Gymboree Corp., becoming the youngest CEO ever to head the company. He was named president of the outfit in 2005 at the age of 32 and became CEO and chairman in 2006. He played an instrumental role in turning the company around financially, according to media reports.

After leaving Gymboree, he and his wife teamed up to launch the children’s apparel brand, Hope & Henry, which emphasizes sustainability by using organic cotton and recycled fibers in its clothing. The company aims to reduce waste and promote environmentally friendly practices in the fashion industry.

“We launched Hope and Henry after seeing the documentary ‘The True Cost,’ kind of sad commentary on the negative impacts of mostly fast fashion on the fashion industry,” Matt McCauley said. “ After seeing the negative treatment of factory workers, the negative impact on the environment, with all the chemicals and pesticides, and all the cheap fast fashion filling up landfills, it was our feeling that maybe we should go back and leave the industry a little better place and try to do things differently. “

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