By Meg Barone

CORRESPONDENT

While neighbors are yearning for warm weather to open their own backyard pools or fleeing the state for warmer climes during the winter months, the owners of the spacious ranch at 256 Dayton Road in Trumbull are happily donning swimsuits to lounge pool-side and swim laps. And the nearly maintenance free, indoor, in-ground, heated Wagner pool is only the first of several unusual and interest ing features of this house, which has a contem porary flair.

Just off the living room is a solarium, which is ideal for plant-lovers.

The master bedroom suite contains a sauna that includes a tanning bed, rain shower and stereo system. The kitchen has a large walk-in pantry. And there are two garages and drive ways. The house has 3,559 square feet of living space and its open floor plan makes it an attractive entertainment place.

The original house was considerably smaller, but a renovation project about 30 years ago added on several rooms, including the master bedroom, indoor pool or giant sun room, the two-car garage and the bedroom above it.

The house sits on a parcel of just over one acre and includes open lawn as well as land scaped areas with stately oaks, Japanese maples, dogwoods and other plantings. The first paved driveway leads to a two-car at tached, under-house garage, and has a slate path to the front entrance, passing by flower beds lined in Belgian block, an open lawn and a mix of shrubs and trees. The second drive way is on the opposite side of the property and leads to a one-car, attached, under-house garage.

The exterior of the house, which was built in 1954, is cedar installed vertically and diago nally. The front door is wood with recessed panels and a decorative oval of clear beveled and leaded glass. This opens into a small area, which has brown ceramic tile and a large picture window on the left looking into the solarium, and three wooden stairs to the living room.

There is an oak floor in the living room, chair rail, pic ture- frame paneling, crown molding, and a gas fireplace surrounded by unpolished marble, a wood mantle with dentil molding and a slightly raised hearth topped in slate.

Two French doors open to the solarium, which requires several steps down. It has a gravel floor, shelving for plants, four large picture windows and four skylights on its slanted roof.

From the living room there is a hallway that leads to the dining room and kitchen, as well as to a first-floor bed room, full bath, two-car garage and stairs to the bedroom above it. This area of the house, except for the kitchen, has hardwood flooring.

The dining room has chair rail, crown molding and one enormous picture window, about eight-feet long by five feet tall, overlooking the spacious, enclosed sunroom that includes the pool. There is another large picture window, not quite the same dimensions, in the kitchen that also looks into the pool room. In the kitchen, there is a good-size eat-in section, linoleum flooring that resem bles off-white ceramic tiles, honey-colored oak cabinets with vertical planks of wood, an off-white ceramic tile backsplash, large skylight and a Formica-topped counter that separates the preparation area from the eat-in section.

There are three stainless sinks, including a vegetable sink, and the appliances include a Kenmore side-by side refrigerator and freezer, compactor and garbage disposal, Whirlpool range and GE dishwasher. On the opposite end of the kitchen is a butler’s pantry with numer ous cabinets, a counter area, and the same brown tile floor of the front entrance way.

This pantry provides access to the master bedroom, a sepa rate entrance to the master bath and also to the sun room, which houses the indoor pool, a laundry room with a sink, pool changing room and pool utility room. There is a second entrance into this sun room from the eat-in kitchen, where there is a sliding door and atrium “window” and then stairs to the pool.

The master bedroom is quite large and has a vaulted ceiling, and the exposed brick of the living room fireplace.

One wall contains an excep tionally long closet, which has four sets of double doors to access various portions of it.

At the top of the vaulted ceiling there are three hori zontal windows. This room also features two sets of two crank-out windows, bringing lots of natural light into the room. The sauna is on the interior wall, which it shares with the master bath. There is a large closet in the bath that can access the back of the sauna in case it needed work.

In front of the sauna there is a break in the bedroom’s wall to- wall carpeting, where there is instead an area of stone-like tile.

Beige porcelain tiles arranged in a pattern deco rate the floor in the master bath. Similarly colored tiles serve as the backsplash in the combo jetted tub and shower with sliding glass doors. One wall of the tub/shower has glass cubes.

The sun room has Spanish cedar wood planks on the walls, four skylights and six sets of double atrium sliding doors providing access to the wood deck, quarried stone deck, fenced-in backyard, which includes a large en closed area for pets, a stone retaining wall and stone steps to an upper level.

Next to the pool is a relaxing stone waterfall.

There is an area for a pool side entertainment system, which would allow for televi sion viewing from in the pool.

Those concerned about a chlorine smell permeating the house need not worry because there is virtually no chlorine smell in the pool room itself.

The only maintenance it requires is checking the chlorinator once a month.

The pool is on a timer to self clean and it is heated with gas. It also has a humidity control system. As an added bonus, the fact that the pool is inside means there are no leaves to remove.

The room above the two car garage is currently used as an office, but could be a third bedroom, if necessary. It has a separate heating and air conditioning unit from the rest of the house, lots of windows and a vaulted ceiling.

On the basement level, there is a large, carpeted family room that has a gas fireplace with a large red brick surround and a slate hearth, and a good-size bar with a sink. The upper walls are wood paneling and the lower walls are red brick with a ledge and numerous electri cal outlets just above the ledge throughout the room. On this level there is also a lot of storage and utility space, and access to the second garage.

For more information, or to set up a private appointment to see the house, call Darcy Hall of William Pitt Sotheby’s Inter national Realty at 203-261-7488, ext. 329.