Cordova home is two kinds of retreats in one house
Lucy Wilkinson lived for 11 years in one of those 6,000-square-feet-plus, downtown river bluff homes that offers grand views of the river, bridges and Tom Lee Park.
Living alone — her husband died in 2001 — and needing to downsize, she moved five years ago to a much smaller Cordova house.
Smaller, but with a view and atmosphere that is every bit as appealing to Wilkinson.
In fact, she says she prefers the scenery from her Cordova home’s back deck, perched high in the mature trees of her half-acre lot.
While the bluff top offered an “incredible” view, Wilkinson said in Cordova, “I’ve got the birds and the squirrels ... I like this better, really.”
Still, she feels the time has come to move into a retirement community. Wilkinson is selling her three-bedroom, two-bath home at 35 Vine Grove Lane in the Planters Grove neighborhood of Cordova. The neighborhood is a half-mile east and south of Walnut Grove at Germantown Parkway.
Wilkinson’s house is 2,434 square feet on a half-acre, corner lot. The list price is $198,000.
The stucco house offers two surprising — and surprisingly different — retreat-like experiences despite anchoring the corner of a Memphis suburb.
The front features a courtyard of brick pavers and lush landscaping of azaleas, camellias and hostas. Bordering the space is a covered walkway to the front door, the front of the house, an alcove and office/hobby room, and a stucco wall.
“My friend called this a Spanish hacienda,” Wilkinson said with a smile. “It really basically is.”
Because the lot is sloped, the back door is elevated and leads to a twotiered wood deck perched high in the mature trees. The backyard is heavily wooded. Instead of stucco, the back of the house is clad in stained lumber much like a cabin in the woods.
The serene, forest view is what sold her on the house five years ago, and she hasn’t been disappointed.
“I like sitting here and being able to look out,” Wilkinson said from her den. “And I’ve got bluebirds and goldfinches and all that come to my feeder. And when it’s nice enough I like to sit out here.”
She opened the back door to the deck. “Isn’t it wonderful?” Wilkinson pointed down to the pea gravel path in the backyard and to the foliage. “And in the spring, this is all buckeye that blooms. Pink and red buckeye.
“I had such a view Downtown, but this is an entirely different feel ... And I feel private.”
Real estate agent Anne Piper of CryeLeike is the listing agent.
“The thing I like about it the most is it’s not a cookie-cutter design,” Piper said of the home. “I think it has personality with its walls and room placement.”
The master bedroom, den and kitchen — where Wilkinson spends nearly all her time — are on one side of the house. The sunken living room, dining room and two bedrooms are on the other side.
“And it has unexpected spaces here and there,” Piper said.
For example, one side of the courtyard is formed by an outdoor alcove and an office that Wilkinson converted into her flower-design and project room.
She’s a painter — she painted much of the framed art on the walls — and flower designer who has competed internationally in flower shows. An array of blue ribbons on the wall of that room attests to her success.
Wilkinson also has been a world traveler. The places she has visited are marked by embedded pins on the globe in her living room. There are so many pins they would be difficult to count.
Her home is “different from a lot of houses for the market,” Piper said. “And I think it’s delightful and refreshing just like Lucy is. And it’s a nice place to live.”
The house has “just got some nice features you don’t find in many other houses that size and that price range,” Piper said.