SELLERS: Faith Hill and Tim McGrawLOCATION: Chickering Lane, Nashville, TN
PRICE: Your Mama Don't Know
SIZE: 6,430 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: n/a
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Late last night, after a long drive that followed a longer weekend of festivities, family, several turkeys, a sizable sack of salt water taffy and far too many gin & tonics, Your Mama received a covert communique from Vlad the Revealer who pointed us toward the Nashville estate of country music mega-stars Faith Hill and Tim McGraw who appear to have put their plush property up for sale.
It certainly makes sense that the Hill-McGraws would sell their Chickering Lane estate since they've spent years and many millions building a new nest on nearby Crater Hill Drive in which they can house their boat load of Grammies, CMAs, AMAs, ACMs, and People's Choice Awards. However, Your Mama has yet to locate a complete listing or even an actual asking price for the Hill-McGraw mansion located in the swanky neighborhood of Nashville known as Belle Meade. So, although we'd bet our long bodied bitches Linda and Beverly that the property is for sale, we can't yet say it's for sale without also offering this caveat: It may or may not be for sale after all. Okay? We'll try and get that bit of confusion cleared up soon.
Anyhoo, property records and previous reports reveal the Nashville nobles purchased the 4.22 acre property in December of 2004 for $2,550,000. Records show the quasi-rural, pastoral and bew-collick estate spreads across 4.22 acres and includes a center hall, antebellum-style mansion–or is it a colonial revival number?–built in 1934 that measures a sizable 6,430 square feet and includes 6 bedrooms and 6 poopers.
A long flight of wide brick stairs leads from the driveway to the front door which is tucked into a double height portico held up by six spindly columns that Your Mama could probably snap with one swift kick iffin we were inclined and angry enough. Inside, the wood floors have been ebonized that gives the historically minded architecture a slight touch of the contemporary and allows all the mostly tan, taupe and beige day-core a dark base on which to stand out. The Hill-McGraw's nice, gay decorator–or skilled ladee dee-ziner–has used the entrance hall to successfully set the mansion's decorative mood which Your Mama might describe as updated traditional merged with some much welcomed and needed modern moments.
The entrance hall splits the home down the middle and is sparsely furnished but exuberantly decorated with a wonderfully worn and perfectly sized rug in shades of cafe au lait and beige, a couple of ridiculously over-sized, tulip-like stone urns sitting on chunky pedestals and four serpentine sconces that are, rather strangely, affixed to the double doors that open to the formal living and dining rooms. A tightly curving and terrifically southern staircase opposite the front door has wood treads covered with a beige runner and swoops up to the bedrooms on the second floor.
The formal living room, missing a coffee table on which to set cocktails and done in a number of shades of beige, has just enough black or nearly black accents–the wood flooring, fireplace surround, lamp shades and wing back chairs–to keep the room from visually evaporating into a giant field of ecru nothingness. Even still, the symmetrically placed furniture is an undeniably dee-lishus mix of clean lined modern things such as the long library table cleverly placed in front of the multi-paned floor to ceiling window and updated traditional pieces such as the wing back chairs that flank the fireplace. Your Mama would bet our bank account the rug is hand woven silk and feels heavenly under a bare foot. Like the living room, the dining room day-core also follows a mostly symmetrical pattern and also has a magnificently long library table, only this one with spiral carved legs set cleverly in front of the window.
Modern and traditional elements meet in the kitchen as well. There is a black and white tile floor, lavishly expensive stainless steel appliances including two refrigerators and a double wide range with more burners and griddles than a private chef could ever want. There are two work islands, one a chunky, glossy black that is threatened with bodily harm and a cracked counter top by a linear pot rack and the other, a spare, lab table like thing lit by two simple drum shade light fixtures. Along the window wall, custom build cabinetry gives the eyeballs a good and need zapping with it's fire engine red color.
The kitchen's tile floor continues into a crisp but still cozy family room area with dramatically high ceilings and a couple of massive, winter white chaise chairs for boob-toob viewing placed in front of a huge and glossy black cabinet with glass fronted shelving. A nearby room, let's call it the sun room, retains its original and marvelous architectural detailing in the form of a coffered ceiling and elaborate corbels–that Your Mama hopes are plaster–and opens to the side terrace through at least seven massive, arched French doors .
The side terrace, which has a roof of fabric panels that can be pulled open or closed to ward off the harmful rays of the steaming summer sunshine, spills down to the simply shaped and enormous rectangular swimming pool. Brick and stone terracing surrounds the swimming pool and instead of chaise lounges the Hill-McGraws and their team of decorators have chosen chunky sectional sofas for lounging and sunbathing. Two adjacent pavilions, connected by a vine covered pergola, have a distinct John Woolf/Hollywood Regency thing going on and Your Mama can only hope and pray these pavilions provide poolside poopers and wet bars so swimmers and sunbathers need not trot up to the house in order to make use of a terlit or mix a mid-day cocktail. An outdoor shower has been installed near the pool and children, there is little Your Mama likes more than an outdoor shower. If y'all haven't experienced that bit of summertime bliss you really should. The Hill-McGraw's outdoor shower consists of a brick wall and curtains that can be pulled closed along the circular bar for privacy.
Your Mama presumes that the Hill-McGraws will be moving to their new Nashville estate over on Crater Hill Drive which they've been custom building since 2004 when they bought the hilltop property for $3,000,000 and took out another $12,000,000 to build the damn thing. According to the good folks at Virtual Globetrotting, Mister and Missus Hill-McGraw also own a farm in Williamson County's Bear Creek Road that they picked up in 2001 and which was formerly owned by country music legend Hank Williams Sr.
Records and previous reports also show that in addition to the comely country couple's Nashville area properties, they also have a big house in Beverly Hills. Located behind the gates of the fancy-schmacy Beverly Park community, the 10,000+ square foot, 6 bedroom and 7.5 bathroom beast was first listed in October of 2008 at $14,800,000 and remains listed as the "Best Deal In Beverly Park" at $10,800,000.
