The house is a modern, neo-classical home designed by Quincy Johnson of Boca Raton. The property sits high on a ridge, has panoramic mountain views, overlooks the prestigious Olde Farm golf course and is five minutes from the Virginian golf course, called "one of America's premier properties" by Links magazine and "one of the best places to live in America" by Golf Magazine.There are four private golf courses within 10 minutes.

The house has four bedrooms and four baths, twenty-five feet ceilings, floating spiral staircase, marble and hardwood floors. The large master suite with fireplace is on the first floor with the three guest bedrooms upstairs.

The house is built of custom brick with a foundation on bedrock. The builder and orignial owner was a very large person and intentionally "overbuilt" all features. For instance, each room has its own supporting block foundation.  (On one occasion a tradesman called me on his cell phone from under the house. He was lost in the maze of foundation walls.  Also the floating spiral staircase is reinforced with steel beams.)  This house was built to last a very long time with top quality materials throughout the interior and exterior.  This is the millennial version of those wonderful brick mansions built in the 1800s that one still sees standing today.

The home has every modern amenity: central vacuum, central music center with speakers throughout, intercom system, fiber optics, very reliable business class internet (currently 50mb download 15 mb upload), security system with lasers and incorporated smoke and carbon monoxide alarms (even though the property is very secure and situated in an area with an extremely low crime rate).

Mechanical/Electrical Notes:

2 Trane heat pumps  coupled with 2 furnaces (one propane, one electric) which are auxiliary to the heat pumps and activate at low temperatures

24/7 air circulation with six filter purification. (House stays remarkably dust free.)

1000 gallon underground propane tank that supplies water heater, back up furnace, automatic standby generator, and two fireplaces.   With full propane tank the house can stay lit and heated for 72 days without grid power per the builder. (The longest I have been without power is less than one day.)

Winco Generator automatic standby system 

Dusk to dawn outdoor security lights

All appliances are top quality name brand.

Bristol Virginia Utility provides electricity, phone, digital cable television and internet services in a very reasonable bundled price package. The headquarters of the company is approximately five miles from the property. The personnel are very efficient, courteous and responsive.

A professional energy usage inspector from the utility company said this house was the most efficient house of traditional design he has inspected concerning energy usage.

Water is supplied by Washington County, VA.  Water pressure is excellent throughout the house. Although the kitchen is equipped with a reverse osmosis water purification system I have never used it due to the excellent quality and standards of the county system.  The Bradford White 75 gallon Hydrojet water heater ensures that guests have plenty of hot water.

In 2010 routine exterior maintenance was completed in that appropriate areas were painted, roof completely inspected with nail pops reseated, all boots and air vents replaced. The most respected roofing company in the area stated that the roof has 25 + years of service in it.

All major doors downstairs are handicapped accessible (French or double) with levered handles on every door in the house. 

Overall the house is in excellent, turn key condition. If an indepth inspection exposes any minor issue it will be addressed and corrected immediately.

The five acre property consists of  woods and pasture and has been evaluated by a professional arborist and the trees thinned accordingly. There are numerous indigenous species highlighted by a large number of dogwoods, maples and oaks. We have planted hundreds of flowering azaleas. There is a circular walking trail of one mile on the property. Our planting zone is Zone 6. 

While we have deer, turkey, squirrels and other indigenous wildlife all species are in balance. We have tried to create a very balanced, functional ecosystem with the flora and fauna.

Overall the property has been designed for very low maintenance. (I do not own a lawnmower.) There is almost no raking on this property: the leaves are blown off the ridge naturally at the first good wind with just a couple of corners around the house that need picking up one time after leaf fall.   Due to the situation of the house high on the ridge the gutters rarely if ever have to be cleaned. For any maintenance, outdoor or indoor, I have developed a list of very reasonable and extremely competent tradesmen in the event the new homeowner wishes not to do any chores.

The private drive to the house of approximately one half mile is completely paved and connects with Old Jonesboro Rd. This property has deeded right of way; therefore, the owner of the driveway maintains the adjacent land . As a helpful neighbor I do however pitch in and make sure the decorative wood fencing is clear and attractive.   The paving and maintenance of the driveway is paid for collectively by the six home owners on a prorated basis by location. It was repaved in 2004. The driveway is in excellent condition and due to the infrequent, light traffic it will need little to no maintenance for the foreseeable future.

The property is located on what is known locally as the Great Knobs, a ridge line of hills through the Holston Valley that have an average elevation of 2400 feet. We do not experience the temperature extremes or high snowfalls associated with higher mountain properties.  The longest we have been "snowed in" has been several days. This was by design however since we chose not to have the driveway plowed and salted.  We always park one car on the lower pasture when snow is predicted in the event of emergencies. The drive from the lower pasture to the main road is about one quarter mile. The main road Old Jonesboro Rd is plowed and cleared constantly during snowfall.  In short due to the mild climate and convenient location of the property our infrequent snows are at best a beautiful vista and at worse a minor inconvenience.

The property is within ten minutes of Abingdon, Virginia, a quaint and civilized, historic southern town and home of the Barter Theatre. The location is also ten minutes to Bristol, VA/TN, the birthplace of country music, and a thirty minute drive to Bristol Motor Speedway, the mecca of stock car racing. Johnson City, TN is 30 minutes away, as is Kingsport, TN. Bristol, Johnson CIty and Kingsport collectively are known as the Tri-Cities Area.This area is is truly a mixture of natural beauty and serenity, fine living, and interesting events.

The immediate vicinity of the property is populated by a large number of multi-millionaires. In fact the estate across the street is forty thousand square feet. US presidents, politicians, business tycoons and celebrities are frequent guests. Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player recently attended a fund raiser that raised fifteen million dollars for charity across the street at the Olde Farm golf course.

The neighborhood immediately adjacent to the property is comprised of several twenty to thirty acre private wooded estates populated by retired physicians and executives.  I would recommend an aerial viewing of the property on Google Earth. Although the aerial view on Google Earth is outdated and does not show the extensive landscaping we have done, one can instantly see the interesting dichotomy in that behind the house is extensive natural beauty while the front of the property has human activity.  (We like the twinkling lights at night.)  

The picture does not come close to portraying the beautiful mountain views of this property. Everyone that comes on the property is mesmerized by the views.  We thought we would have to drive forty-five minutes up a remote switchback to achieve these types of mountain vistas.  Luckily we didn't.  

Another major point about the views, this particular Quincy Johnson design was chosen specifically to take full advantage of the long range views. With twenty five feet ceilings and the tasteful use of windows the outdoors is brought inside.  From almost any room in the house one experiences the feeling of being on top of the world.

Several natural resource companies are headquartered in the Abingdon area. While there are several universities nearby it is notable that a new medical school will soon break ground within ten minutes of the property and is expected to be in operation in late 2013.

Interstate 81 is six minutes away. Virginia Highlands Airport, a very nice private jet airport, is ten minutes away. Tri-Cities Regional Airport is forty-five minutes away.

Johnson Memorial Hospital in Abingdon, VA which opened in 2011 is fifteen minutes away.

There are no homeowner association fees.  The "neighborhood" consisting of six houses on Foothills Trail, which is a private drive, is restricted from further development. 

Real estate taxes are $3497.98 per annum.