Buckhead Aerie - Forested splendor minutes from downtown

Thank you to my guest for her review. The construction she's referring to is a truck that the city has stationed for the past few weeks on the street in front of the driveway to clean the sewer line. It does not block access to the driveway, but my guests have had to drive around it. The work is slated for completion soon. Tom

Thanks to my guest for his comments. I'm sorry about the smell of mothballs, which were in the rear closet off the main bedroom. They have been removed.

Many thanks for the kind review. Tom

Many thanks to my guest for her kind comments. One minor correction: the piano is a concert grand, not a baby grand. :) Tom

Thanks to the guest for her thoughtful review. She is correct in stating that the house has not been renovated. That has been intentional. My goal is to keep it as authentically mid-century-modern as possible. So the striated plywood walls remain just that; the cedar shakes are weather-worn, the kitchen counters are not granite and the windows are casement windows are original and crank open. But prospective guests should know everything works, and the house is well maintained. In the past year, I have replaced all 8 skylights, the air conditioning unit, the dishwasher, the roof, the gutters.

The guest is absolutely right, the house is indeed quirky. It was built for the owner, whose taste I happen to like, but it does not appeal to everyone. There is no television set in the living room by design. It is intended to be used to look through the wall of windows that face the woods or at the rising sun, or to read a book, or, yes, to play the concert grand piano and maybe sing along. There is a TV in the master bedroom, and another in the room off the kitchen, but families who want to gather en masse around a television in the living room should consider looking for another rental. I am grateful for the guest's comment about the drawers and closets containing debris. Since I am out of the country, I was not aware that debris had accumulated there, and have asked the maid to clean them. I apologize to the guest for the fact that the house was not prepared for his arrival. It occurs rarely, but sometimes the maid requires more than 3 hours to clean between one guest's departure and the other's arrival.

Thank you for the thoughtful review. 1. Yes, the driveway is steep. When covered with leaves or on the rare occasions when it snows in Atlanta, it can prove difficult to navigate. But, in the 10 years I have lived there, neither I nor the neighbors who share the driveway with me was unable to make it to the summit. Neither of us has a 4-wheel-drive vehicle. 2. The sunken living room is two steps below the main level of the house and there are two staircases to reach it, each equipped with normal-height stairs. If a guest chooses to bypass the steps, he or she will find that it is an uncomfortable distance to traverse in one step. That would apply doubly to toddlers, whose movements should be monitored. The dining room is also two steps below the main level. But access to it is limited to the steps. There is no way anyone -- toddler, older person or in between -- can bypass the steps. 3, The microwave is located in the laundry room, which is just off the kitchen. I leave it there because it is not a particularly pretty object. It works.

Thanks to my guest for his review. I apologized for my failure to get the driveway blown off prior to his arrival; the man who does it did not get my message until later in the afternoon, when he did clear off the leaves. Tom

Many thanks to Rose for her kind review. Tom

There's a lot to unpack here, so bear with me if I appear to meander. Here are my guest's comments, which she sent on the afternoon after her scheduled arrival, after I sent her a note asking why it did not appear that she had arrived: "Yes , it was all dark inside and the sliding door on the back was unlocked and slightly ajar. The house had a lot of nooks and crannies and we weren’t sure if someone might be in there and didn’t feel safe as two women to walk through alone to check it out . Sorry I did t write tit that night but it was 9pm and we were exhausted after a long drive and have been very intensely working since then. Thanks for refunding any nights you manage to re-rent." There is no sliding back door; I'm guessing that my guest was referring to a door in the rear bedroom that opens onto a patio. I am sorry that the maids must have left it unlocked. Since then, I have asked them to ensure that the door in the back bedroom is locked and that lights are left on. I offered to reopen the calendar and to refund any money I was able to get, but I got no takers. That was not a surprise, since most people book well in advance. I'm not sure what she is referring to about having changed the rental dates to 3 nights rather than 5. I'm guessing that I was not able to open dates that had already passed and that I did not re-open the dates until the day after she told me she was not planning to stay there. Hence, only 3 days were available for reopening. The driveway is indeed steep, though it is used daily by the two neighbors -- both of whom are elderly and handicapped -- who share it with me. I'm not sure what my guest is referring to in describing the house as "somewhat cluttered." The pictures on the website are recent, and the house's furnishings have not changed since they were taken. Buckhead has had crime issues in the commercial district, but the residential neighborhood where my house is located is far from there; it's so safe that I never used locks while I was living in the house. It was only when I began renting it out that I had working locks installed. Amid the trees, at the top of a hill overlooking a park, one does get a sense of isolation, which some people like. I'm sorry my guests had such an unfortunate experience. Had I known about their safety concerns at the time, I would have been able to do something about them.