Where the Deer Play.

Photo: Mountain Magnificence: The hot tub affords Carmel Valley views night and day.

At the very end of a quiet street off Carmel Valley Road, Gail Stidel''s house seems within touching distance of the Santa Lucia Mountains. Behind the 3,400-square-foot ranch style house is a greenbelt of lawns, flowers, and trees that merges into the landscape. Stidel, who''s contemplating a move to Colorado, wouldn''t have it any other way.

"I''ve got to have privacy," she says. "I''ve got to have my little world."

Over the past decade, Stidel has turned an entirely unlandscaped backyard, "full of weeds," into a retreat of wide green lawns bordered with flowering crab apple trees, lilac bushes, wisteria- draped archways, rhododendrons and camellias.

And as she gardens Stidel can listen to the sound of the Carmel River rushing by, just outside the fence that her son, a contractor, built around the 1.4 acres of land. The fence is also handy in providing safety for her grandchildren, who are "in heaven" playing on the lawn.

"The gardens are actually pretty easy to keep, and I have a fantastic gardener who''s promised to go with the house," she says.

A wide deck that Stidel keeps regularly painted offers a sunny spot to gaze at the mountains shooting up behind the house, and a hot tub provides a nighttime retreat.

Upstairs, Stidel''s husband Ken likes to bring coffee up to the master suite so she can read the paper in bed in the mornings and watch hawks circle outside the large windows. A balcony off the master bedroom allows for watching of birds nesting in Sycamore trees.

Inside isn''t too shabby either: In 1997, a whole-house remodel raised and vaulted all the ceilings, replaced insulation, added new oak trim, put in recessed lighting, new roof and revamped the kitchen and most of the bathrooms.

Stidel''s favorite room, the great room, gets a lot of use. Stidel''s son built a custom entertainment center that allows for large-screen TV watching or music listening. A long padded window seat under an enormous garden view window gives Stidel another spot to nest. "This is where I live," she says, as she pats her Siamese cat D.J. (for New York Yankee''s shortstop Derek Jeter). "Right here with my book and my ''kid''."

There are also multiple seating areas in the great room, a wet bar, and a gas fireplace, one of two in the house that provide enough heat for the entire home. "I haven''t turned on the central heat in five years, except to see if it''s still working," Stidel says.

Thick-slatted wooden plantation shutters provide window treatments that easily modify the amount of light coming in through the oversized, UV-tinted windows. Seven skylights throughout the house also have their own window treatments to control the sunshine factor.

In the kitchen, a corner sink centered in the intersection of two large windows looks out on mountain views. European faucets and professional-quality appliances round out the enormous tiled kitchen, which also features an island with the cooktop built in next to a well-organized pantry and shelving system.

Stidel slides out a drawer behind the range, revealing row after row of spices.

"I had to design this myself," she says. "Men don''t seem to realize that when you''re cooking, you need things close to you."

The countertops provide bar-style seating, and a breakfast nook surrounded on three sides by windows offers eating with a view.

An additional den, four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a plethora of closets, a large laundry room with its own laundry chute, and a three car garage with a workshop complete the two-level house.

"I put my heart and soul in this house," Stidel says. "My husband, my friends, they all keep telling me I''m crazy to sell it."

Price: $2,495,000. 27215 Meadows Rd., Carmel. Contact: Lisa Porch of John Saar Properties at 521-0680.