Boone’s Trace home offers style, space, great views, and welcoming country ambience

Ryan and Jennifer Wilson keep the welcome mat out for friends and neighbors and – especially kids – at their executive home in Boone’s Trace near Richmond.

“We tell people that if the garage door is up, just come on in,” Jennifer said. “Don’t ring the doorbell. Just come on in.”

The comment reflects the Wilsons’ love for their spacious home and the neighborhood, their affection for their neighbors, and their own country upbringing.

“As our own kids got a little older, we wanted a house that kids in the neighborhood could come to, because that was the way we grew up ourselves,” Ryan said. “When I was in school, the basketball team practically lived at my house. And this house is big and open enough to do that.”

The spacious brick home boasts more than 5,500 square feet of space; five bedrooms, plus another that’s been converted to an exercise room; 4  1/2 baths; first-floor master suite; formal dining room; fabulous kitchen; home office; and a stunning great room with two-story tall ceiling, fireplace and built-in cabinetry. There’s also a huge, finished walk-out basement that includes a second kitchen. The house was built in 2006.

The Wilsons have made several improvements since buying the house five years ago, including a new roof, new deck with Trex flooring, and new kitchen appliances.

Then there are beautiful and expansive views of rolling Kentucky countryside on all sides of the home.

It is located at 168 Gleneagles Boulevard in Boone’s Trace, a secluded, gated community a few miles north of Richmond. The development also is home to the Boone’s Trace National Golf Club, with clubhouse, pool, tennis courts and other amenities. The golf course previously has hosted PGA qualifying events, and the clubhouse is just a short walk – or a golf cart ride – from the Wilsons’ home.

The house has garage space for three cars, plus a second garage for storing tools and a golf cart. Many residents use carts to get around Boone’s Trace.

The Wilsons recently put the home on the market, but not because they want to leave. They plan to buy another house in Boone’s Trace that has a swimming pool.

“We want to stay in this community,” Jennifer says.

The subdivision sits on high bluffs atop the steep limestone Palisades lining the banks of the Kentucky River, which flows between Madison and Fayette Counties.

Interstate 75 is close by, providing easy access to either Lexington or Richmond, but never intruding on the subdivision’s atmosphere of rural tranquility, And the area fairly reeks of history.

Nearby Clay’s Ferry is named for Green Clay, a second cousin of Henry Clay and a founder of Richmond. Abolitionist firebrand Cassius M. Clay lived nearby. The Madison County Courthouse in Richmond displays a large stone on which Squire Boone – a brother to Daniel – purportedly carved his name in 1770.

But Jennifer and Ryan initially didn’t want to live here.

She is from Washington, Pa.; he’s from Williamsburg. They met at Eastern Kentucky University. The Wilsons considered Boone’s Trace when they first went house hunting about 15 years ago, but decided it was too rural and opted for Lexington’s growing Hamburg area instead.

“We were in our 20s then,” Ryan explains. “We were like, ‘who in the world would want to live way there?’ We wanted to be in the middle of things. But we got a little older, Hamburg really grew, and we wanted a little more privacy and peace and quiet.”

When they went looking for a new home, the Gleneagles Boulevard home immediately grabbed their attention.

Ryan said a home in Lexington that offered as much space and as many amenities as the Gleneagles location would have been beyond their price range.

“When we first walked in we fell in love with the high ceilings and the open floor plan,” Jennifer said. “The storage space was unbelievable.”

Ryan liked the big, open kitchen, with enough room for the whole family to be together.

“The kitchen is where everything happens. Dinner, breakfast, conversation, doing homework, everything happens around the kitchen,” he said.

Jennifer also liked being in a gated community. “You could feel safe here with the kids playing outside, riding their bikes, or skate boarding.”

Added Ryan, “Hamburg had gotten so busy that there’s no way in the world the kids would be able to ride their bikes on the street there now.”

The Wilsons also liked Madison County’s schools. Their children, Reagan, 9, and twins Ryan and Rylee, 7, now attend the new Boonesborough Elementary School a few miles away.

And family members said they simply fell in love with the Boone’s Trace neighborhood.

“It’s really like a little township of its own out here,” Ryan says. “People know each other, and look out for each other’s children. Everybody gets together at the clubhouse to watch University of Kentucky ballgames. Every other Friday they have live music over there. And you have the pool, the tennis courts, basketball. People go trick-or-treating and drive their golf carts. There are always activities.”

The Wilsons also were immediately at home in the country atmosphere at Boone’s Trace, where you can take an evening walk with the expectation of seeing deer, wild turkeys or other wildlife.

“There are coyotes; we’ve seen them before,” Reagan says.

She also likes the fact that the house can accommodate a 12-foot Christmas tree, which they just put up.

Jennifer says her favorite spot in the house is the first-floor office, which is perfect for sitting, reading or savoring the spectacular views, especially the brilliant sunsets.

Ryan favors the basement – the family calls it his “mancave” – where he retreats to watch football games.

Both Wilsons say the home could appeal to a wide variety of buyers. It would be ideal for a family with young children, they say, but also attractive to older couples who want to have guests in to visit. Jennifer notes that with its second kitchen, the basement could be used as a “mother-in-law” apartment. Finally, the house has abundant room for entertaining large groups of guests, she says.

The Wilsons recently made a contingency offer on a larger home in Boone’s Trace that has a swimming pool.

“Our kids are at the age where they want to go to the pool every day, and our current lot is not situated for building a pool,” Ryan explained.

But Jennifer says that if the proposed home purchase doesn’t go through, they might just stay where they are.

“We love it here,” she said. “All our friends are here, our support system is here. We’re definitely not leaving this neighborhood.”

This story was originally published November 24, 2019 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Boone’s Trace home offers style, space, great views, and welcoming country ambience."