Seems like with all the negative press around the “rebel flag” these days, you might not want to feature it prominently in the listing photos for your home. I guess things might be different when the home you’re selling is in Nashville, Tennessee.
The home itself has some nice detail work…
But it also has some oddly modern-looking spaces:
And some confusing ones:
And some spaces that look back at you:
Asking price for all this: $16.3 million.
At 22,000 square feet and over five acres, it’s quite the estate. Of course, if you buy it you have to live in Nashville, so there is that.
Game trophies on the walls and Civil War museum pieces aside, this is classic Old Southern money. There are a lot of nice spaces here. It looks like they have a variety of collections going on. Besides the Civil War stuff I saw a Native American display as well as figurines, dolls, and I’m sure they have some collector’s wines in that locked climate-controlled wine cellar.
Anyone with “Southern Pride” and this much money isn’t going to care what anyone else thinks of them displaying a Rebel flag. Authentic ones fetch anywhere from the low five-figures to the upper six-figures and I have to believe the one here has been proven real. If so, by all appearances it went through hell, as did the men who fought under it. That takes serious guts, even if what they were fighting for was ultimately proven unsupportable. Whether or not the home really is Old Southern money is another matter. The style, the taste, the show of quality without outlandishly overdoing it are all correct, but the place wasn’t built until 1998. (See Page 11 of “Pertinent Facts” under the “More” menu choice.)
Hard to believe, but even the gasp-inducing stair hall is not overdone; it simply displays bravura structural ability and graceful lines. These particular “flying” spiral stairs may be supported by unseen modern means, but identical originals built back in the day were not. The skill it took to design and build them is awe inspiring.
There is nary a misstep in the entire place. The near-monochromatic master bedroom is subtle but not at all boring. Both interior and exterior galleries/verandas offer a variety of elegant yet enjoyable public and private space. Even the floral upholstered chairs in the wine tasting room manage not to clash with the equally “energetic” Persian carpet beneath them.
I personally would forego the Rifle Medallion, but my hubby might think it dandy. I’d also skip the hall-of-mirrors effect in the gym even though the thought of my over sized image being hidden among the plethora of reflections has its appeal. I’d also move the outdoor Jacuzzi closer to the house. It’s a treat to soak on a chilly evening and warm up so nicely that a brief walk afterwards has no unpleasant side effects. But that far? The effects would definitely be lost too soon.
The one actual misstep I do see is the lower cabinet to the left of the master bathroom sink. How is one supposed to open it, given the marble stair just in front of it? Oops… If it isn’t meant to open it would be better to not make it look as though it does. I’m fairly sure I could cope, though…
Marty, there seem to be all sorts of places you’d rather not live. I can’t say I’d welcome Nashville summers, nor the unstoppable wall of country music, but the town also features the expanded cultural offerings of a university setting (Vanderbilt) with a top notch medical center, as well as The Hermitage Museum, and the only built to scale replica of the Parthenon of ancient Athens in existence. It even has a reproduction – covered in real gold no less – of the 42′ statue of Athena once found inside the original structure. Having made a pilgrimage there myself, I can honestly say it is breathtaking.
@Emerald63: I wouldn’t mind visiting Nashville, but I wouldn’t be able to tolerate the sweltering humid southern summers.
I just, I can’t…erm. No. Just no.
@Emerald63: I just live a few hours down I-40 from Nashville, but I can’t say I’ve been to Nashville much. I imagine the summers are similar in my area. You get used to the heat and the humidity.
Although it’s known for country music, it’s truly a metropolitan environment. There’s a whole lot more there than the music industry, and a whole lot more music there than country. I have a couple of friends of mine I occasionally jam with (I’m a pianist) who played Nashville in their younger days, and there are a couple of musicians we know located in Nashville that frequent our area.
@Marty E.: Understood. Odd how your neck of the woods is known for it’s moist climate, yet the lower temps make it tolerable, at least physically I imagine. I’m not sure I could mentally take all the rain and cloudiness, if they are indeed as frequent as popular media claims.
I’m also at a loss to explain how anyone justifies the “Yeah, but it’s a dry heat” point of view. That line has become a joke, but only because those not from the desert southwest adroitly pointed out the folly of the notion; thus, the notion had to exist first.
I think the worst, by far, is the ungodly combo of heat and humidity found in the southeast. No doubt at least some of the early settlers looking for a high-profit to low-work ratio path to riches would have pursued the late and unlamented practice of slavery regardless of climate. But one wonders if the pre-industrial revolution working conditions had not been so onerous whether the “curious institution” might never have taken as strong a hold, or perhaps fallen much sooner and with less effort than it did.
Frodo, I (and apparently Marty, too) do not understand your and other Southerners’ ability to withstand the sauna that is your homeland, but it awes me nonetheless. Perhaps if my father hadn’t been transferred from Little Rock to Chicago when I was 3, I never would have succumbed to repeated bouts of heat exhaustion after one single fateful camping trip to an area with weather I underestimated over 20 years ago (central Indiana… who knew?). Since then, my need for hot-and-humid vigilance is constant.
@MsWildhack: ??? What troubles you? Is it the flag on display or the home in general? The former I could understand, but the latter… Yes, it’s a lot to take in, but it seems in quite good taste, whether or not one cares for the particular style. Please, tell us what you’re thinking…
@Frodo: Yes, there’s much to be said for Nashville’s offerings. While it hosts a number of musical styles, those of us with an intolerance for excessive country music tend to hear nothing but in areas where it’s popular. Perhaps for me it’s from living in a town of 40K and often not being able to decently receive our one classic rock radio station due to it being overrun by multiple country and Christian music stations. I don’t mind folks being able to listen to what they like, but I count myself among them and yet I cannot. Town is no more than 5 miles by 5 miles but the FM radio dial isn’t big enough. Somehow reception always seems to be fine when its time to preempt Zeppelin and the Stones for the local high school football games…
I actually like old time country, Hank Williams, Sr, early Loretta Lynne, and especially the late, great Patsy Cline. I also like honky tonk and rockabilly. More recent country artists, however, just aren’t my style.