Love Affair With Lake Highlands: New Home in White Rock Valley Impresses The Most Discriminating House Snobs With Wrap Room

by Karen Eubank

Which neighborhood in Dallas has defied current market trends? What area of town has steady new construction and extensive remodeling on almost every street? What neighborhood is so solid that young professionals return to buy homes around the corner from their parents?

Lake Highlands of course! It’s one of the few places you can find homes in a broad price range, enjoy exemplary Richardson schools and still get downtown in fifteen minutes. And within Lake Highlands is a wonderful area known as White Rock Valley that has vast lawns, large homes and big beautiful trees. I’m a bit of a house snob, so when I heard about a new build high up at 9506 Parkford Drive I was not really expecting to be impressed.  I figured it would be your typical builder home: big, bold and boring. I was wrong. In fact I’d move into it tomorrow if I could.

“This is an amazing new construction home, a mile from White Rock Lake, with high-end finish out rivaling anything in the Park Cities, Preston Hollow or Lakewood,” says Realtor Donald Wright with Gilchrist & Company.

The present homeowners purchased the property from the estate of the original owner. After living in the home a few years, the couple decided to expand. It made more sense to tear down the existing home than renovate. The new home was built in 2009. The result is a two story, five bedroom beauty with four full baths, two half baths and a 20 x 17 covered patio with the requisite outdoor fireplace and grill. Total square footage is 5699. 

This house is the most well thought out, beautifully designed new build I’ve seen in years. Grand without being grandiose, nothing is overdone. We’re so used to seeing over the top construction that will never feel like “home”,  it’s striking when you find a house which retains a distinct family feel while remaining tasteful and stylish.

Got ya drooling yet? Here are some deal sealer details: the kitchen opens to the den with a view of the back yard. The playroom is directly above the kitchen so when the kids are in the upstairs game room, replete with indoor swings, you can easily determine if a trip upstairs is warranted! (“Any broken bones?”) The master bedroom has a cylindrical vaulted ceiling and what I think should be a standard feature these days, a chandelier in the 13 x 12 walk-in closet. The piece-de resistance is what I like to call the “Candy Spelling special”: an impressive gift-wrap room! Asking price for a Lake Highland home with a wrapping room: $1,299,000. And it’s already under contract!