Open House #6: Rockledge Estate

One thing I’ve learned from spending so much time looking at homes in the Birmingham area is that they are building a lot of new ones with all of the character and charm of older homes. There were several that I thought were older homes at first. This one, for example, which is on Rockledge Road in the exclusive Mountain Brook neighborhood, was “recently constructed” per the MLS, even though it looks like it’s been there forever.

According to the MLS, it’s on the market for $2.75 million and sits on 1 acre. It has bluestone porches, a mahogany front door, 10′ ceilings, wrought-iron handrails, copper gutters, travertine floors in the kitchen, and a slate roof.

Let’s start the tour!

What do you think? Do you like it or not? We’ll be looking at our final houses tomorrow and taking a vote on which of these homes you would most like to buy. Will this make your short list?

UPDATE: Hooked on Houses reader DaK has done it again and found an aerial view of this home, too, for us to look at (if you missed the aerial view of Homewood Manor, go check it out–the lot it’s on is far from ideal when you see it from the air!). You can see how big these places are from this angle, that’s for sure. Rockledge is the one toward the back in the center of the photo:

Did You Miss Any Other Open Houses this Week? Go Catch Up!

• Open House #1: French Chateau in Birmingham
• Open House #2: Shook Hill Mansion
• Open House #3: Sleek Greek Contemporary
• Open House #4: Southern Traditional
• Open House #5: Homewood Manor (the mystery of what “Vulcan” is has been solved and I just updated the Homewood Manor post with photos of it!)

If You’re Hooked on House Tours:

• Fantasy Open House Series One in Hyde Park, Ohio: Paxton Avenue
• Fantasy Open House in Hyde Park: Rookwood Drive
• Fantasy Open House in Hyde Park: Edwards Road
• Fantasy Open House in Hyde Park: Observatory Drive
• HGTV Green Home ‘08
• Designed to Sell? The Purple Angel House
• The Spite House in Virginia (only 7 feet wide!)
• Cobble Court, a French-Norman Estate in Ohio
• Stokesay Court, the manor used in the Keira Knightley film “Atonement”
• Coco Chanel’s elegant Parisian apartment at 31 Rue Cambon
• 1908 Gaslight Mansion in St. Louis

If You’re New Here: Hooked on Houses features decorating inspiration, celebrity house tours, fabulous before and afters, real estate news, fantasy open houses and more fun stuff. It is always 100% ad free. Comments from my readers are the only payment I receive, so I hope you’ll leave one! To see what we’re talking about today, click here.