Two Tampa Bay houses are finalists in HGTV’s Ultimate House Hunt contest

Emily L. Mahoney, Tampa Bay Times
·2 min read

Two homes around Tampa Bay are finalists in HGTV’s Ultimate House Hunt, an annual contest that allows people to vote for their favorite listings in different categories by viewing photo galleries online.

In South Tampa, the five-bedroom, five-and-a-half bathroom, 5,723-square foot home at 1903 S Cardenas Avenue is one of 11 finalists in the Amazing Kitchens group. Its “open-plan” kitchen is “loaded with gold metallic accents and lots of places to entertain,” according to a release by Smith & Associates Real Estate, whose agent sold the house this spring for $3.3 million.

“Warm, bronze tones extend from the modern, brown breakfast nook with a contemporary chandelier over to the marble waterfall edge kitchen island with four cushioned bar chairs,” the description reads.

In the Outdoor Escapes category, a French-Normandy style estate dubbed “The Oaks” on Lake Thonotosassa is also a finalist. The former owner, a co-founder of Lazy Days RV dealerships, combined four adjacent properties to form the 36-acre grounds, and created hills and planted hundreds of trees, including live oaks and imported Italian cypresses.

The main chateau has six bedrooms, eight full bathrooms and seven half baths and many amenities, including a bowling alley, according to its listing. In addition to the house, there’s also a workshop, guest house, gatehouse, horse barn with a grazing pasture, indoor and outdoor saltwater pools, a 20-car collector’s garage, jogging trail and go-cart track.

That home sold in April for $16.7 million, the highest price for the year in Tampa Bay until Derek Jeter’s house on Davis Islands blew it away for its price at $22.5 million, which represented the most expensive sale ever for the region, according to Smith & Associates.

Anyone interested in voting for these homes or others in HGTV’s Ultimate House Hunt contest can do so through August 4 here. Winners in each category will be chosen based on the number of votes and an overall favorite will be picked for the listing that received the highest raw total. Last year’s competition generated 1.5 million votes, according to a news release.