Health, Wealth and Natural Beauty: The Story of the House of Love

Here’s the way to start the New Year right: healthy living on the top of a hill with majestic, blood-pressure-lowering mountains all around you. And oh the fresh air! Go ahead and fill your bottles with tap water from the sink, courtesy of an aquifer that has not seen light in 18,000 years.  Dallas? Sorry, no. Throwing you a curve ball here. This is Oakley, Utah, a sleeper luxury ranch community of about 1,000 people just 20 minutes from Main Street in Park City, Utah. Surely you know Park City:  Deer Valley, Canyons, and the famous Park City ski area 35 minutes from the Salt Lake City Airport. Which is like two hours by plane from Dallas.

Why Oakley? Because it has some of the best quality air in the country, panoramic western mountain views, and easy living. And it’s also 20 minutes from Park Cities slopes. Not only is the air pure and clean, but an underground aquifer containing water that had not seen the surface in 18,000 years was discovered beneath Oakley in 1998. According to carbon testing, the water is found nearly 1900 feet below the surface in a layer of Mississippian limestone. It proved to be among the purest ever tested, free of tritium and any other contamination from anything the earth has undergone in 18,000 years. (No fracking contamination!) Free of pesticides and herbicides, the town now uses this water from the Humbug Well for its municipal water supply. They even bottle and sell it.
Movie stars also love the clean living circuit of Oakley: remember Izzie from Grey’s Anatomy? Actress Katherine Marie Heigl and hubby Josh Kelley live in Oakley with their family. Many people come here for temperate climate — it’s the polar opposite of Dallas: summers are cool. 

In fact, the owners of this home are Dallas residents and dear friends who came here to raise show dogs: the climate in Oakley is so perfectly temperate, the dogs never sweat!

This home was built with love in every square inch.

And it’s as big as lovers hearts at 7890 square feet, but well compartmentalized for a brood of visiting skiers. 3.5 acres. The barn is just waiting for horses and horseshoes. The lot is completely flat-fenced and holds a fire-pit, barn, greenhouse, lush landscaping, circular driveway and of course panoramic mountain views.

All of that and the home is on a quiet cul-de-sac. Not that it isn’t already quiet. About all you hear are geese and deer padding softly in the snow.

And you have never seen such a clean home. I am not kidding when I tell you I would eat off the garage floor, that’s how spotless it is. I do not believe this home was built in 2005 by Brandon Bateman, no way. Looks like it is less than a year old.

The home has two levels of living. The main level includes entry foyer, living, study, and the family/great room, which opens to a huge patio deck. All ceilings are 10 to 14 feet tall and with Venetian plaster, stacked stone. custom paint and stunning hickory wood wide-planked floors. There is a custom gourmet kitchen with luxe appliances and a huge granite bar opening to the breakfast room and great room. Right off the kitchen (actually, the breakfast room) is the dining room, making for easy serving of meals. The master is also on the main floor and is huge, luxurious, featuring a large his and her’s bath and closets. You can soak in a giant jacuzzi tub overlooking the mountains, or watch TV, or just relax by the tub-side fireplace after battling the slopes.

There are six bathrooms and six bedrooms total, five of which are downstairs. Each room seems to get larger than the previous. The five lower level bedrooms also enjoy a full kitchen, bar and family/game room — it’s as if there is a completely separate house downstairs. Here, too is the theater room complete with digital movie recorder, hundreds of movies controlled from your smart phone. There is so much storage you will never run out of space for skis, poles, long underwear and leggings.

Speaking of keeping warm, you heat up the house by phone. With the “Media Max Smart Home System” for heating, sound system, lighting and security,  you can turn up the thermostat when you land at the airport and turn on your phone.

Now in case you are wondering why my friends are selling this fabulous abode, I have to tell you, it’s a love story. Sad, at first, then happy. This was a retreat away from Texas for a dear Dallas physician and his wife, who died unexpectedly in his arms. She was the love of his life, and they had years of happiness and four lovely children. It took some time, and he nurtured the home as he nurtured her memory.

Then he met the most vivacious, darling woman who ever graced Austin. She brought new light into his life, and they fell in love. Madly in love. They dated and eventually married. The nice thing about mature love affairs is that it doesn’t take you long to know that you “click”. These two lovers are happy, travelling, enjoying their families back in Texas. So the Oakley House of Love I, as I call it, is ready for a new story.

Where is House of Love II? To be continued.

Listed with Paul Benson of Engel & Volkers USA, the same brokerage that Roxanne Taylor just joined in Southlake. Asking… and I hope you are not on the slopes reading this… $1,850,000. Less than $2 million for a House of Love in Oakley: priceless!