I am learning more about the way-cool Park Cities home Troy Aikman snapped up near McCulloch Intermediate School and Highland Park High School, after he sold his carefully crafted estate on Highland Drive.
Aikman “took his home off the market” last fall, only to sell it about a month ago to a Park Cities couple. His house was not in MLS, but I hear the sale was in the $11.5 million range. He looked everywhere, but the rose went to 3801 Normandy Ave.
The spacious corner lot — 75 by 192 — anchors a vintage 2007 Tatum Brown Custom Homes beauty. Now he has 10,662 square feet with five bedrooms, five full and four half baths, seven living areas, three stories, and an elevator to help him get there should he injure something with all that jogging.
There is a wine room on the first floor, but what I think really sold this home is the “morning room with fireplace.” Morning rooms — known to us regular folks as a “sitting room” — appear to be all the rage, especially in 8,000-square-foot-plus homes.
The Normandy property also has a separate sitting area off the second-floor master, a “her” office, game room, study, media room with teen-friendly concessions bar counter, exercise room, three-car garage, and covered outdoor living area with kitchen. Then, of course, there is that fabulous Harold Leidner landscaping and pool.
Betty Lou Phillips did the original, beautifully light interior decor for the sellers, which includes limestone, hand-scraped wood floors, marble and granite everywhere. Of course, those are going bye-bye; Aikman has brought in his own people: Robert Trown & Associates. I suppose leopard carpet just wasn’t his style.
Anyway, the best thing about this house is that it was barely lived in. A St. Louis couple bought it as a second home for when they came to town to visit their grandchildren — hence the cute kids’ rooms.
It had been on the market since April 2011, listed with Joan Eleazer et al of Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s, starting at $6,850,000. The price was lowered to $4.6 mil, and Aikman jumped right in at $4,250,000.
He always was so darn quick on his feet!
Harold Leidner designed the landscape and pool.
