Make your escape to one of the grandest lakefront estates ever offered in Tampa Bay. Prominently featured in Florida Architecture Magazine and beautifully positioned on an expansive ~ 7.5-acres with stunning lake views, refined custom finishes throughout over 10,000 total SF, spectacular outdoor entertaining areas and a private covered dock with lift. An impressive gated Chicago brick circular drive and dramatic double door entry welcomes you to a main house featuring 5 bedrooms, 5 full and 2 half baths, with soaring ceilings throughout. The main level features a formal living room, formal dining room, family room and executive office. The gourmet kitchen delivers function and beauty with exposed beams, center island with prep sink, breakfast bar, Thermador, Wolf & Sub-Zero appliances, wine refrigeration and butler’s pantry. An inviting family room provides a dramatic fireplace, exposed beams and arched French doors. Reinvigorate in the first level master retreat with generous sitting room, fireplace, lake views and opulent bath with jetted tub. The second level features a sound-insulated media room with entertaining wet bar and terrace access, playroom/game room, along with a den and 3 additional en suite bedrooms. An adjacent 1/1 guesthouse offers a living room, dining room and kitchen. Outdoors, enjoy multiple covered lanais, a saltwater heated pool and spa with Jerusalem Stone pool deck, outdoor fireplace and kitchen featuring a grill and pizza oven with majestic lake views and abundant green space. Appointments include fortified concrete construction, Walnut hardwood flooring, newer HVAC systems, home generator, motor court, tennis court, impact high-efficiency windows, interior/exterior sound system, Luton exterior lighting, playground, small barn with riding area and additional equipment storage. For the car enthusiast, there is automobile storage for a total of 15 vehicles, plus RV, along with a state-of-the-art garage. Located less than 30 minutes from downtown Tampa, this grand estate offers the conveniences of its location, with a grand balance of privacy, exclusivity and acreage. www.16106GlassLakeDrive.com.

Address: 16106 Glass Lake Drive, Odessa FL 33556

Price: $7,500,000

For more information, please contact Jennifer Zales at 813-758-3443 or jennifer@jenniferzales.com

Jennifer Zales is the exclusive agent representing the Tampa Bay: Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties, Florida real estate market as a member of the Haute Residence Real Estate Network. View all of her listings here.

Photo Credit: Tony Sica Photo Credit: Tony Sica Photo Credit: Tony Sica Photo Credit: Tony Sica Photo Credit: Tony Sica Photo Credit: Tony Sica Photo Credit: Tony Sica

The post A Gallant Mansion In Odessa by Jennifer Zales appeared first on Haute Residence by Haute Living.

Take Saban's lake house for instance. It's hard to imagine a coach like Saban anywhere not related to football. However, on the rare day he does take off from the recruiting trail, analyzing game film, or preparing the Crimson Tide to face their next opponent, Saban disappears to a remote sanctum on the water.

Saban doesn't care if people like him (and there are plenty of fans of rival schools who don't.) He concerns himself with where he wants to go and how he's going to get there. Which is why it is so surprising to see Saban, a man whose scowl is feared by many, jumping off the dock of his lake house with ESPN's Tim Tebow and Marty Smith.

Tebow, who was born in the Philippines, told Saban, "this might be the most remote place I have ever been in my life," while he stood in the coach's backyard looking out over the lake. It wouldn't be long before Tebow, Smith, and Saban jumped off the boathouse into the shimmering water below.

This home is the one place Nick Saban can get away from all of the pressures and factors of leading one of the top-ranked teams in the country. Located on the point of Lake Burton in woodsy Tuscaloosa County, Saban's lake house is down the road from a $10.95 million investment property he sold at auction in 2013.

The rustic mansion features large imported tile, rich red oak paneling, exposed beams spanning vaulted ceilings and a plethora of windows that soak up the stunning vista of Lake Burton's most picturesque point.

On rare days off, this is where Saban likes to be. He'll play a round of golf at the North Georgia golf club (where he is now co-owner) in the morning, then grab a bar of Ivory soap and jump in his lake for a nature bath. The pleasures found out here are the simpler ones, and that's how Saban, who makes over $7 million a year at Alabama, likes it.

That doesn't mean Saban won't flash some swag when he needs to. The coach frequently hosts recruits at this home. Alabama offensive lineman, Jedrick Wills came for a visit when he was a blue-chip prospect. He likened the experience to a "scene out of a movie." There was security at the gate, a long driveway leading up to the Tudor-style mansion, and Saban's signature series Mercedes parked in the front.

That's right, Saban doesn't just scheme ways of beating opposing teams, he tells Mercedes how to build their cars.

Saban is known for his attention to detail, and his home is no exception. The 10,000 square foot plan is spread out over three levels with six bedrooms. There's a pub-style billiards room, and a wine cellar with an antique gate imported from Barcelona. The custom boathouse has a second-story viewing deck and a stone lighthouse.

If Saban ever tires of seeing the lake, the other side of the house features inspiring mountain views. The property is buffered by 1.7 acres and over 700 feet of private lakefront.

Nick Saban's family would never presume to tell him how to win a football game, but the one thing his kids always say to their dad is, "never sell the lake house."

The post Step Inside Nick Saban’s Tuscaloosa Lake Home appeared first on Haute Residence by Haute Living.

Some people work and strive their whole lives hoping to acquire their lakefront getaway. They are enraptured by the slowness of time spent on the lake, the shimmering water, the cool, inviting breezes that form a sense of peaceful balance.

The writer Wallace Stevens once said, "Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake."

These lake house properties offer the tranquility of nature while not sacrificing an ounce of modern luxury.

Bill Gates' Medina Lake House Mansion

The Microsoft co-founder's $82.2 billion net worth could afford him the ability to build anywhere. For his extravagant "Xanadu 2.o" Bill Gates chose a parcel on the edge of Lake Washington in Medina.

This is Gates dream house, and a quote from the Great Gatsby covering the library's ceiling confirms that fact. It reads, "He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it." The library also contains Leonardo da Vinci's actual 16th-century notebook Gates purchased in 1994 for 30.8 million.

The estate is built into its natural surroundings making it 'earth-sheltered.' This decreases the environmental impact by making the home more energy efficient.

As anyone would expect from a giant in the tech industry, all 66,000 square feet are loaded with technological innovation. Wall art can be switched out digitally as its displayed on 80,000 worth of LCD monitors.

GPS tracking pins are given to each guest, enabling them to change the temperature, lighting, and music anywhere in the house with the push of a button. Electrical outlets, phone jacks, and servers are hidden inside walls for a sleek seamless look throughout.

There is also a famous "trampoline room" which only select guests get to enjoy, but it's rumored to be part of a 2,500 square foot fitness facility that also includes a sauna, steam room, and separate men's and women's locker rooms.

Those wishing to take a swim, have a 60-foot pool with its own underwater music system located in a separate building on the property. By swimming underneath a glass wall, someone in the water can surface near a terraced area nearby.

The residence took over seven years to complete and cost over 63 million. Like the fictional Charles Foster Kane, Bill Gates is living in a real-life Xanadu–a mega-mansion of enviable proportions.

A Lake House Jewel on Lake Tahoe

Located on over 5 acres and taking up two prime lakefront parcels, this jaw-dropping 75 million dollar residence is a harmonious blend of creativity, ingenuity, and luxury.

A private gated drive leads up to an entry pavilion. The residence has an attached guest house and the estate also includes a beach house with its terraced lakeside beach.

Surrounded by private forest land, this eight bedroom, ten bathroom estate offers every imaginable comfort during the day or at night. There are manicured gardens, a 4-car garage, 13 fireplaces, two funiculars to lift guests from the lake to the house, a 10-seat theatre, and a 1,687 bottle wine cellar.

Lake Tahoe is America's largest alpine lake. Located on the border of Nevada and California, this setting has it all. No wonder Mark Twain called it, "the fairest picture the whole world affords.”

George Clooney's Italian Lake House

Clooney put Lake Como on the map for Americans when he moved into a charming eighteenth-century villa on the exclusive Italian lake in 2002. However, if he hadn't gotten lost on his motorcycle in the lakeside area of Laglio in 2001 and discovered the beauty of the place, Lake Como may never have gotten its most famous resident.

The Clooney's spend the summer at the lake, and Clooney even allowed part of Oceans Twelve to be filmed here. George and his wife, Amal, enjoyed an intimate dinner at a Lake Como restaurant just three weeks ago. Clooney is staying at his villa while he recovers from a recent motorcycle accident.

Lake House Luxury in the Carolinas

His Airness, Michael Jordan, plus a bevvy of NASCAR stars all call Lake Norman home. Located due North of the banking city of Charlotte, Lake Norman boasts some grand estates on one of the most beautiful lakes in the South.

Lake Lure, best known as the lake where Patrick Swayze lifted Jennifer Grey out of the water in the '80's romance, Dirty Dancing is another majestic lake offering pristine views from stunning luxury properties.

Some of the world's most desirable homes are lake houses. With plenty of party space, ample boating and fishing areas, and the natural buffer of miles of clean, clear water–it's easy to see why so many wealthy residents are choosing to spend so much time at the lake.

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