On three magical acres landscaped with weeping willow trees and enchanting gardens, this Cotswold-style cottage isn’t set in the rolling hills of rural England but in Greenwich, CT, less than an hour from New York City. Cotswold cottages are famous for their stone-clad beauty, and this one on Connecticut’s gold coast, asking $1.195 million, is no exception.

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Just in case panoramic water views from one of the East Coast’s most sought-after spots isn’t enough, this meticulously renovated traditional home at 16 Marlow Court at the mouth of Cos Cob harbor on Long Island Sound in Fairfield County, CT, comes with its own .15 acre private island. Consider it an extension of your back porch, just another part of your $6.25 million private estate on 200 feet of direct water frontage with views of the harbor and the Riverside Yacht Club.

Get an eyeful of those views

This adorable cottage, dubbed “The Mouse House” with a plaque on the front gate, is steps from coveted Campo Beach in Westport, Connecticut. Asking $999,000, the 1,229 square-foot four-bedroom home has been a popular Airbnb listing. It has literary cred as well: The current owner is a bestselling novelist.

Beach house tour, this way

Located a tiny village in Canaan, CT–it’s the second smallest in the state–this former church in a historic district is currently home to a prominent artist and architectural designer. And we can see why it might be the perfect creative recharging space. There’s even a reading nook in the bell tower. Built in roughly 1900, the two-bedroom single-family home at 24 Beebe Hill Road is on the market for $525,000.

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Photo by Marcott Studios; courtesy of William Pitt Sotheby’s  International Realty

Musician Paul Simon has just listed his New Canaan, CT countryside estate for $13.9 million–16 percent less than he paid for it (h/t Wall Street Journal). The 32-acre property that Simon and his wife, singer-songwriter Edie Brickell and their three children, have called home since 2002 includes a 8,500-square-foot main house and a private recording studio, formal walled gardens and a courtyard, landscaped grounds with a brook, meadows, woodlands, a great lawn, a pond, waterfalls and a three-car garage.

See more of the marvelous, musical mansion

Photo of 50 Cent via Wikimedia

Twelve years later, the massive Connecticut mansion owned by rapper-actor 50 Cent has finally sold. According to the Wall Street Journal, the musician’s mansion in Farmington sold for $2.9 million, 84 percent less than the $18.5 million he first sought in 2007. Most recently, the 17-acre estate was listed for just under $5 million. The home stretches 50,000 square feet and is decked out with 19 bedrooms, 35 bathrooms, its own night club, basketball court, movie theater, and G Unit-themed decor throughout.

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The stories behind some of New Canaan, Connecticut’s treasure trove of modernist homes have been less than uplifting. In addition to Philip Johnson’s famous Glass House, the wealthy enclave boasts dozens of homes by Johnson and his colleagues known as the Harvard Five. An ongoing battle simmers between some of the town’s wealthy residents who favor sprawling McMansions and a passionate contingent of modern architecture fans. At least 20 of the homes, built in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s–have been torn down, usually to build larger houses on the property. One embattled example is a lesser-known Johnson house known as the Alice Ball House. The 1,700-square-foot home, built in 1953, has been referred to as a “livable version of the Glass House.” And it’s now for sale for $7.7 million–along with approved plans by the current owner, an architect who has envisioned a companion property on a much grander scale, including an indoor pool and a massive skylit underground garage.

Find out more about this storied modernist gem

A private island in Long Island Sound known as Rogers Island just got a new owner, who paid $21.5 million for the seven-acre property off the Connecticut coast. The sellers, a couple of “island collectors” by the name of Christine and Edmund Stoecklein, are bound for the West Coast, according to Mansion Global, unloading their gorgeously landscaped land mass and even lovelier Tudor mansion for less than the $22.3 million they paid for it in 2003, to an anonymous buyer.

Take the cross-island tour