The excitement of the Sundance Film Festival arrives next year, and Boulder real estate agents report seeing buyers wanting into what locals call the “Boulder bubble.”

But Compass agent Coleen Sanders has a property that reaches for someone hoping to be close to the bubble, but seeking more elbow room than Boulder’s tight confines can provide.

Five miles northeast, she has 5952 Oxford Road in Niwot, a home designed by noted solar architect Richard Crowther, for a 9-acre hilltop site. The property, which is being repriced this weekend from $4.5 to $4.25 million, lies close to Haystack Mountain, a landmark in this scenic area midway between Boulder and Longmont.

Passive solar

Crowther was known for passive solar — using the sun’s low path across the winter sky to bring heat indoors. He was a major figure when solar was the rage in Denver during the 1970s Arab oil embargo. That included for his own solar residence in Cherry Creek — sadly torn down in 2022 for a pair of more expensive homes after it failed to gain landmark status.

But the passive legacy lived on in this Niwot plan — an unpretentious modern design in stucco with a metal roof, where the shed roof elements incorporate the solar. The roof was apportioned to create a visual play with the Haystack butte to the southwest, earning the moniker Haystack House.

In 2018, the seller brought in architect David Kahn, who early on had met Crowther and toured the Cherry Creek house, for a remodel down to the studs. That included bringing the passive solar from its 1977 origins up to current standards, adding a heat pump that serves hydronic heated floors of beetle-kill pine, set beneath cedar-beamed ceilings. The seller estimates the 4,376-foot space now heats and cools for around $400 a month.

Like other agents this spring, Sanders said there are plenty of buyers now, but sellers often aren’t on the same page with them pricewise.

“Homes need to be show-ready,” Sanders said. “If you have things that need doing, buyers are marking that.”

She adds that this one has none of those obstacles: “It’s very unique, it’s not a farmhouse style.”

The plan could go to the family looking for sustainable living, not just the energy performance, but also raising organic food. The seller has a designer henhouse for eggs and grows peaches, apples, plums, currants, and berries. But there’s a new Morton barn that could base a more serious farm operation. The site lies along the Boulder Feeder Canal, and Sanders notes it comes with 45 water shares, enough for serious irrigation.

This plan is four bedrooms, five baths, counting one in the barn, where there’s the possibility of a guest suite or accessory dwelling unit (ADU). The views, Sanders notes, run from Pikes Peak to Longs Peak, including Boulder’s lights.

Trout pond

Along with the update, there are spa baths, plus a lower level with a gym, steam shower and kitchenette. The buyer, Sanders said, might want all of this for the privacy; but an acre-sized trout pond with an island, a dock, a fire pit, and footbridges are amenities that — with a festival coming, might suggest special events.

SHOWN BY APPOINTMENT ONLY

WHERE:  5952 Oxford Road, Niwot; from Valmont Road in central Boulder take Foothills Parkway north, continue onto Colorado Highway 119/Diagonal Road three miles to a left onto 63rd Street; head north on 63rd three miles to Oxford Road and turn left.

SIZE: 4 bedroom/5 bath, 4,376 square feet

PRICE: $4.25 million

WEB: coleensanders.com

AGENT: Coleen Sanders, 303-921-2964