Friday, December 19, 2008

Some pre-Christmas Nashville Niceness

SELLERS: Benjamin Sohr and Genifer Goodman Sohr
LOCATION: Stanford Drive, Nashville, TN
PRICE: $899,000
SIZE: 4,100 square feet (approx.), 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: Modern Rustic on over 2 wooded acres, moments from Green Hills, this log home has been re-imagined with a modern twist. Clean lines & traditional craftsmanship combine to create a property that is stunning and unique...soon to be featured in Domino magazine..."Boutique" master suite features his and her baths, separate walk-in closets and large shower/steam room. All bathrooms have been completely redesigned with premium fixtures. Four plus bedrooms. Multiple outdoor spaces create an ideal setting to entertain.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Believe it or not, Nashville, TN ain't all about country music stars wearing ropers and tight Wranglers stuffed with pocketfuls of money. Thanks to a fine gentleman we call Neville Nashvegas, Your Mama has learned that the much lauded aesthetes Benjamin Sohr and Genifer Goodman Sohr have recently listed their Nashville nest with an asking price of $899,000.

We understand that most people will not have any idea who these two people are. However the design minded married couple are certainly well known to all the retail queens, designs queens and dedicated readers of glossy and gleaming shelter magazines like Elle Decor, Better Homes & Gardens, Domino and etc. That's because wherever these two live, their luscious and lovely living quarters wind up photographed and published in any number of magazines and discussed on any number of blogs.

As we understand, Miz Goodman currently holds (or used to) a high powered position at panty purveyor Victoria's Secret–a company for which Your Mama once toiled in the trenches–and Mister Sohr, a trained architect, did (or maybe still does) work for the Gap or Banana Republic or one of those other San Francisco based mass retailers. Several years ago the couple left the glitz and glamour of big city life to move to Nashville, TN where they made babies and opened a shop and day-spa called Favorite. It's unclear to Your Mama if that bizness is still in operation? Can any in the know Nashvillians give us an assist on that?

In October of 2007, the couple purchased a house in the fancy Forest Hills area of suburban Nashville where, until recently, nearby neighbors included Grammy winning singing sensations LeAnn Rimes and Keith Urban along with his Academy Award winning and frozen faced wife Nicole Kidman (who denies having any work done on her face). Anyhoo, property records show the Sohr paid $600,000 for their 2+ acre property and Stanford Drive. Now, just over a year later, the updated, upgraded and modernized log cabin style abode is back on the market. We'll leave the children to their own speculations and conclusions as to why.

Listing information indicates the two-story residence measures in at approximately 4,100 square feet although prop records show 2,934 square feet. Neville Nashvegas whispered that the couple expanded the sixe of the house during renovations. There are, according to listing information, 4-5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms including a "boutique" style master suite with dual bathrooms, dual closet/dressing rooms and an always appealing to Your Mama steam shower.

There appear to be several living rooms, several stone faced fireplaces, massive amounts of meticulously maintained woodwork and a sleek new kitchen (probably designed by Mister Sohr) with a spectacular 14-foot long work island with a Corian counter top that does double duty as a breakfast table. Who doesn't love double duty design?

While no house is perfect and no one house can please everyone, this well edited (and almost funky) abode comes mighty close with its successful merger of mid-century, modern and rustic day-core. As far as Your Mama is concerned, and considering that the house was scrubbed and polished for the photographs, the Sohrs–being the talented creative types that they are–have managed to straddle the precarious and dangerous line between looking like a magazine layout and having enough personal items and quirky knick knacks to make it look like a house in which people can and actually do live.

Plus, did y'all see the laundry room? We'd give our left leg for a laundry room like that.

Property records show this is not the first or only house the couple have owned in Nashville. Back in August of 2003 the couple bought a different house which they still appear to own and, interestingly, the couple also own a banal tract house in the unlikely and not particularly design-savvy San Joaquin Valley metropolis of Fresno, CA, which just happens to be one of the most murderous cities in the entire country.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

you just gone done moved this post up in the order mama!!! i was like wahhhhhaaaat!!

Anonymous said...

It is interesting to see what Mama really considers a great house. I find that inside and out......this place horizontals me to distraction.

Your Mama said...

Hunny Snowman, you know Your Mama love you, but we did not say this is a "great house." We said they did a great job with what they had. It's no architectural wonder, but it is very well considered even if this Martha Stewart-ish day-care ain't your thang.

Besides, not everyone finds vaulted ceilings cozy, you know?

We have a gal pal who has a house in upstate NY with the lowest (beamed) ceilings you can imagine, but it's one of the warmest, coziest and well done houses we've ever been in.

It's not about perfection, it's about what you do with the imperfections.

Mike Cook said...

New kitchen, new windows and get rid of that (windowless) gray bedroom and I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

Anonymous said...

Oh Mama, it is Deeeee-Viiiiinnne!!!

Anonymous said...

Oh Mama........my knuckles is a smartin'! That spoon is a whopper!

Anonymous said...

Mez Cooter,

I no scrub undies no more 'til you have one launtry like dat.

luke220 said...

I don't see one comfortable place to sit. The fish is mounted too high on the wall and the pendant lights in the bed room are also too high.

Anonymous said...

1 word: FUGLY!

Anonymous said...

Until I saw the air return in the fish room, I was afraid the place lacked central air. You can't live around Nashville without it. Fireplaces will do for Winter heat.

As far as the fish goes, you really do have to hang them to where the lowest part won't hit anyone in the head and you know every drunken asshole is going to fiddle with it. In real life, it's truly difficult to hang dead shit directly over fireplaces - the heat rots, you know.

The hovering cabinets in the office are beautiful.

I love those huge naked double-hung windows. They're modern without insulting the log exterior.

lil' gay boy said...

Careful Mama; I suspect it's actually Svetlana who might just offer up your left leg for that laundry room.

And Snowman, don't you know better than makin' Mama use the spoon just before Christmas? Chile, we could all get shorted on dessert at the chillrun's table.

;-)

Anonymous said...

Look, this house is a F'd up premise--Log cabin meets modern--sort of like Dolly Parton wearin' some skinny jeans--it just don't work. The designer prob thinks they are a genius, in between hits off the pipe. Those styles don't merge together--New York meets Abraham Lincoln. Hence the price. UGGGLEEE. Nothing nice there PERIOD. But, we know Mama likes her some clean modern lines, it's like a "boob" man seeing a nice rack--he's partial to the whole picture.

Still playing nice for the holidays, Mama's black sheep in Weho.

Anonymous said...

P.S. Mama, Let's work our differences out on the West Coast now that you've moved closer to me. I know were on stricktly e-mail terms right now, but the ecomomy is bad, the war is raging, the stock market is down, and Daddy Cooter ain't gettin' no younger--can't your son come home for the holidays? I know I stole all your big "nerve" pills last time I was home, and said all those hurtful things about you being a "blogger" and not a real writer. Mamma, the truth is, if I had half your talent I wouldn't be working at Trader Joe's on Santa Monica St. Let's all sit on the sofa and watch some Dallas reruns or some reality T.V. and watch the ball drop together.

Your Black Sheep in Weho.

Anonymous said...

I know Mama would give her left leg for a laundry room like that coz she sez so, but really, it looks more like a case of legs up rather than legs off - it reminds me of the set of a cheap porn movie. I wouldn't feel my smalls came out at all clean.....

SitDownKaren said...

Nashville? Never been, never want to...

Anonymous said...

okay. different topic. check out the new west village digs of fabulous decorator steven gambrel in the january elle decor. i believe this is the decorator version of 'jumping the shark.' every project you touch turns to pure gold and many more golden commissions, until lo and behold you have accumulated enough moola to buy your very own house in greenwich village. emboldened by years of nothing but positive feedback (to your face), you embrace the freedom of no client. the client is you and only you, and your 'partner.' well i'm sure he's learned to keep his mouth shut, or who knows, maybe he's the brains behind the whole operation. anyway this entirely personal project appears to be a massive mis-step, despite the fact that the living room appears on the cover of the magazine. i know, you were looking for a january pick-me-up. something sunny and warm. well then, don't bother picking up the january elle decor because it is blue, very blue. i will bet the meager remnants of my 401k that this room, at this very moment, is in the process of being 'rethought.' if it hasn't already been completely redone. as for the rest of the place, well, you decide.

Anonymous said...

Back up boys and let's get some shedooby straight.You cannot get by with only a fireplace in winter for heat in Nashville you numnuts.As for the laundry room,I am the Queen of the Fluff and Fold and I say that laundry room is A#1 FABULOUS.I am not so crazee about the house but that picture of the laundrette made me pause and go "ahhh".To Blacksheep in WEHO,I was on vacation in lala land this summer,are you at the Trader Joe's on SM with the Mexican restaurant in the front parking lot? divine miss m

Anonymous said...

This place is impeccable. To look this good inside and out after standing for so long says everything with regard to level of maintence it has received. These old log numbers can go really bad (buggy) really fast without ongoing TLC. I love it.