Thursday, June 27, 2013

Model Niki Taylor Lists Bucolic Spread in Brentwood, TN

SELLER: Niki Taylor (and Burney Lamar)
LOCATION: Brentwood, TN
PRICE: $1,450,000
SIZE: 4,719 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Model and spokesperson Niki Taylor may have grown up in Florida and traveled the world many times over during her salad years as a model and spokesperson but for more than a decade she's called a couple of the more affluent and star-studded semi-rural suburbs south of Nashville, TN home.

A wholesome, all-American looking professional model since the age of 13, Miz Taylor appeared on the cover of Seventeen at 14, at 15 she popped up on the cover of Vogue, and at 16 she was named to People magazine's list of 50 Most Beautiful People. She went on to shill for CoverGirl, prance the cat walk for scads of top designers like Chanel and Calvin Klein, and pose in skimpy bathing gear for several Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues. As a well-compensated spokeswoman, she's shaken her tall, svelte and famously beauty-marked money maker for a slew of high profile brands such as Liz Claiborne, Gap, L'OrĂ©al, and Pantene. In 2005 she opened a now shuttered fashion boutique (Abbie and Jesse's) in Franklin (TN) that she named after her two pooches; in 2008 she was a judge on the first season of Make Me a Supermodel; and in 2011 she popped up on The Celebrity Apprentice.

In October 2004—about the time she busted up with flat ironing country king Keith Urban—Miz Taylor paid $1,325,000 for a bucolic, six-ish acre spread in Brentwood (TN) that a local birdie recently chirped to Your Mama is up for sale with an asking price of $1,450,000. As it turns out, Miz Taylor and her second husband, NASCAR driver and airplane pilot Burney Lamar, have had the fenced and gated property with its red brick Cape Cod Colonial style home on the market since at least last August (2012) when it was listed with an in-hindsight rose-tinted $1,750,000 price tag.

The two story home, located on a picturesque country lane about 20 minutes south of downtown Nashville, is approached along a long, gated driveway that makes a sinuous curve up to the front of the house and around to the side where there's an attached three car garage. Current listing information shows the two story residence was built in 1997 and measures 4,719 square feet with four bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms.

There are dark wood floors—and rather upsetting flesh-colored walls—throughout most of the lower level public rooms that include a grand, double-height foyer and formal living and dining rooms, the former with built in book cases that flank a red brick fireplace. A well-equipped eat-in kitchen has custom cabinetry that stops short of the high ceiling, high quality stainless steel appliances, and a copper pot laden pot rack that hangs ominously over a center work island.

The master suite is on the main floor while the upper floor has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a loft lounge and a gigantic, 600-plus square foot recreation room above the garage.

The back of the house opens to a deep screen porch that overlooks a plaza-sized brick and concrete patio where there's a built-in barbecue station tucked under a shed roof. The patio gives way to a broad swathe of open land ringed by mature trees. There appears to be some sort of fenced livestock pasture but there does not appear to be a barn or—somewhat surprisingly—a swimming pool or spa.

Listing photos show the house has been entirely cleared of the Taylor-Lamar family furnishings and personal belongings. Presumably Miz Tayler, Mister Lamar and their two toddler children—Miz Taylor also has 18 year old twins from her first marriage—have decamped to a single story farmhouse they custom built on a much smaller piece of property just about 800 feet down the road from their old house. Property records show Miz Taylor acquired the vacant property back in 2009 for $390,000.

In 2006 the Miz Taylor sold the 47+ acre estate Franklin, TN she once owned with Keith Urban for $1.2 million and, in addition to her current Brentwood residential holdings, property records show she still owns a modest 1,193 square foot townhouse-type residence in Franklin, TN that she picked up in May 2002 for $127,000.

listing photos: Brentview Realty Company