SELLERS: Andy Roddick and Brooklyn Decker
LOCATION: Austin, TX
PRICE: 8,660 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms
SIZE: $12,500,000
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: In the months before and after Andy Roddick retired, on his 30th birthday, in an
emotional on-court speech last August (2012) at the U.S. Open, the 2003 U.S. Open winner and his model/actress wife,
Brooklyn Decker, went on a bit of a real estate rampage during which they bought two new houses, sold another and—we first learned from Tex. S. Tattletale—listed their large and nearly new, lake-side mansion in Austin, TX with an asking price of $12,500,000.*
Your Mama's research indicates the enviably comely and deliciously shapely couple, married in April 2009, purchased the 1.8 acre lake-front spread in November 2009 for an unknown amount of money through a corporate entity that, with the assistant of the handy-dandy internets, Your Mama easily linked directly to Mister Roddick through public records.
Listing details show the two-story stone and stucco house, set well off the street down a long driveway, has a total of five bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms in 8,960 square feet of open plan living spaces that are both airy and earthy with vaulted (exposed wood) ceilings, polished concrete and rustic wood floors, lots of stone columns and other organic accents.
In the spacious center hall entry a ring laden with (probably and hopefully) faux-candle serves as a chandelier and a mis-matched group of three dimensional letters hung vertically on the wall spell the word "smile." Smile. Ugh. Don't misunderstand Your Mama, now. We have no qualm with Miz Decker and we love us some Andy Roddick—we were there, in the stadium, the night he won the U.S. Open in 2003 and we teared up during his retirement speech—but we find that wall-mountd smile business to be too cutesy, smarmy even, and—forgive us our silly word-smithing ways—a decorative double-fault. Anyways, the roomy foyer connects to the residence's main living and entertaining areas that include a dark paneled study/library with adjoining office nook, an over-sized formal dining room (with another faux-candle chandelier situation), and a extra-long living room with multiple seating areas, a stone fireplace, a long wall of built-in entertainment cabinetry, and French doors that open to a heated veranda with lake views.
The kitchen, open to the massive main living area over a four-stool center island snack counter, looks to Your Mama to be somewhat small-ish for a 9,000 square foot house but that might just be the way the pictures were taken and is, none-the-less, most certainly expensively equipped with custom mill work, a glass-fronted built-in break front, and the usual suite of high-grade commercial-style stainless steel appliances. An adjoining breakfast room has two walls of windows and, on a third wall, a couple of floating stainless steel shelves cantilevered over a low storage buffet.
The master suite has a private sitting area, vaulted ceiling, motorized black out shades, and his and her en suite facilities. Hers is an all-white, casually glammy affair with steam shower, separate tub and its very own washer and dryer (in the custom closet) while his skews towards a more masculine (and beige) vibe with rugged (but smooth to the touch) stone tile work, an open shower, an ice bath, and—because no one wants to run to the kitchen for a Bud with a face full of shaving cream—a built-in refrigerator.
Although Your Mama can't imagine why anyone would
ever want a dozen house guests all at the same time, it appears the Roddick-Deckers can actually put up (at least) 12 over-night guests. There are four guest bedrooms that will sleep eight people. All of the bedrooms, according to listing details, have lake views and en suite crappers and at least some of which are privately located in a second floor wing where there's also a bug-thwarting screened lanai. Four more guests—perhaps children or those who don't qualify for a private suite—can be put up in the games room/man cave that's equipped with a wet bar/kitchenette, a poker table, and bunkhouse-style bunk beds with flimsy plaid curtains for (an illusion of) privacy.
The back of the house opens to a veranda with built in heaters that soften the nippy winter edges and allow for year-round outdoor living. Beyond the veranda there's a swimming pool and spa, an outdoor kitchen, and a broad lawn that stretches down to the lake's edge where a covered (but not enclosed) boat house holds a good-sized ski boat and a couple of jet skis. Near the head of the long, curvaceous driveway a detached structure (that looks a little chapel-esque) is where Mister and Missus Roddick house the fitness equipment they use to keep their bodies looking like
this and
this.
Before they were married the couple picked up an 866 square foot one bedroom and one bathroom apartment with high ceilings and exposed brick walls at the
Gramercy Habitat building on E. 22nd Street—a converted brewery—that they sold in June 2010 for $200,000 less than the $1.1 million they paid for it in 2008. But, children, that's boring old news compared to the Roddick-Decker's more recent spate of real estate activity.
Last August (2012), just before he retired, Mister Roddick quietly sold, for $350,000, a three bedroom and 2.5 bathroom house in Boca Raton, FL, that he bought way back in October 2001 for $310,000. In October (2012), just
after he retired, he and his North Carolina-bred missus dropped $300,000 to acquire a secluded 2.76 acre spread in the teeny-tiny, scenic, and—let's be honest, butter beans—somewhat unlikely community of Cashiers, NC. Your Mama isn't quite sure if the property has an existing residence—we think it does—but
word on the celebrity real estate street around Cashiers is that the couple plan to build a house on the semi-remote property.
Lest any Texans in general and/or Austinites in particular worry that Mister Roddick has gone Hollywood with his actress wife or permanently decamped to the Smokies and forsaken the Lone Star State let Your Mama assure you, he has not. Property records we dug up show Mister Roddick and Miz Decker have, in fact, already acquired their next Texas home, a 15-plus acre spread in a small gated enclave on the western outskirts of Austin that they covertly scooped up in July (2013) for $3,694,000.
Listing details we managed to tease out of the internets show the property includes a 6,595 square foot stone- and wood-clad residence with five bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms, and a one-third mile long private driveway that ensures seclusion. Interior appointments include five fireplaces, reclaimed pine floors, ceiling beams from the original Chicago Stock Exchange, stone walls, and custom milled chestnut wood doors. The back of the two-story house opens to multi-level terraces and an amoebic negative edge swimming pool and spa.
*As best as Your Mama can tell, the property popped up on the open market in late June (2013) with an asking price of $12.5 million. The listing was removed just two months later but still appears on the listing agent's website as a so-called whisper or pocket listing.
listing photos (Austin, sell): Capital City Sotheby's International Realtylisting photo and floor plan (New York): Sotheby's International Realtylisting photo (Austin, buy): Gottesman Residential Real Estate
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