Chances are you’ve never driven down—or, rather, up—North Berrys Chapel Road. It’s not far from downtown Nashville, probably 25 minutes, maybe 30, tops, and only minutes from Cool Springs, but then again it’s not exactly a main thoroughfare, either. Which is just the way the local attorney who turned a generous Williamson County hilltop into a homesite wanted it.
Actually, three homesites, to be exact, though only one home is built at the moment. Named Shagbark, after the tree most often encountered in the area, the mini-community and its first home give new (and positive) meaning to the phrase “suburban isolation.” Designed by architect Brad Norris of Norris Architecture in conjunction with the owner and built by Lane Construction, the 4,500-plus-square-foot custom-built log home has been meticulously conceived and constructed to complement its natural surroundings, using both on-site and imported logs and materials.
In fact, the current owner’s conception of the home (it’s now on the market through Ellen Christianson of French Christianson Patterson & Associates) came complete with a back story of sorts.
“My idea was that the garage be built to look like it was the original settler’s cabin, and the rest of the house came later,” he says. And, true to his vision, the structure that serves as a garage, attached to the main house by a stone-and-timber drive-through breezeway, looks more like a hunter and trapper’s rough-hewn house than it does a roomy two-car garage with a fully-fitted guest suite above it. It’s a telling detail, signifying, as it does, the home’s overall commitment to both outstanding craftsmanship, sensitive planning and a sense of history.
Judging from the adjacent “additions,” the settlers’ descendants did pretty well for themselves. From the breezeway, the house explodes into a rustic yet elegant set of living spaces, some traditional, others utterly unique...
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