A few years ago, a request for a game of pickleball might have elicited some curious looks. Today, the sport is minting stars such as Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns, and the courts are becoming a hot amenity in new housing communities.
Jodi Elliott and her husband, Robert, were right at the tip of the trend in 2016 when they built a pickleball court in the yard of their home at 4550 County Road 104 in Oxford, Florida, minutes outside of the huge master-planned retirement community The Villages. The Elliotts were way ahead of the game when they founded their paddle-making company, Engage Pickleball, in 2015.
“We were known as the first family of pickleball for a while,” Elliott said.
The Elliott home hit the market in September with an asking price of $2.495 million. Michelle Jarvis of Premier Sotheby’s International Realty is handling the listing.
A game leads home
The story of the Elliotts’ ascension in the rising sport is inextricably linked to their journey into the house, and the home that reflects the ethos of outdoor living also sits at the heart of their business.
It begins with a move to Florida from Massachusetts in 2012 as an attempt at an early retirement. “But that didn’t happen because pickleball happened,” Elliott said.
The couple and their two children lived in the same neighborhood that would eventually become their home. In the meantime, the couple, who had long played tennis, started playing pickleball with their neighbors in The Villages, who convinced them to enter a tournament.
“We actually won it,” Elliott said.
Despite their prowess, Robert noticed Jodi was struggling with her paddle handling.
“He said, ‘How about I make you a paddle?’” Jodi Elliott said. “And lo and behold, that paddle turned into a company … If I was more athletic, this company would never have happened.”
The company took off, and the 5.86-acre estate they had been eyeing went on the market.
“We’d joke around, like, ‘Let’s go to our house.’ And then, you know, the law of attraction, what you put out, you get back,” Elliott said.
The family scored the house for $451,500, according to county records. “The moment we moved in, we felt like we were home," she said.
Building to play
Pickleball courts were the first major addition the family made. This began a transformation of the grounds into an ode to fun and games. “We love the outdoor living,” Elliott said.
They put in the in-ground, saltwater pool. “And if you have a pool, you have to have a pool house,” Elliott said. “And then you have to have an outdoor kitchen.”
Bocce ball, shuffleboard courts, horseshoes and a variety of other games and activities followed. The family added a detached English-style tavern and a separate game room.
Elliott described the flow of the grounds as a progressive party. “We would start like somewhere, like in the outdoor kitchen to make sure everyone has a drink, and then we move on to the pool house and so on," she said. "Then we have games, not just conversation all the time, because that can get boring.”
If it’s timed right, the party can end with a view of the sunset from a swing near the gazebo on the west side of the property.
“Sunsets are incredible,” Elliott said. “And of course, there’s a game out by the tree.” It’s that one where you try to catch a ring on a hook.
Fun indoors, too
The outdoors didn’t get all the attention. The five-bedroom, five-bath main house also received renovations.
Elliott felt the house looked like something from New England, “so it would match my furniture,” she said.
She loved the kitchen's spaciousness and cabinet layout but remodeled it to add a quartz-topped island and molding. A balcony overlooks the kitchen, so she added decorative flat boards to the top of the cabinets.
The eat-in space became the central gathering place in the house. “We love cards and games and we’re always using the kitchen table,” Elliott said.
The main suite of the 4,501-square-foot house is on the first floor that also includes a family room with a gas fireplace, workout room and a sunroom with French doors.
The property also features seven outbuildings. In addition to the pool house, tavern and game room, the Elliots built a four-car garage and repurposed a shed into a she-shed with four chandeliers.
A barn that came with the property came to house a menagerie of animals, including four cows that turned into 20, two donkeys, two Shetland ponies and a miniature horse named Lewis. An old garage on the property was converted into a feline paradise for the family’s 23 cats. “The cats had more room than some people,” Elliott said.
All the animals have since been rehomed. “I am very sad, but the next chapter of my life is beginning,” Elliott said.
That next chapter for the empty nesters is making the move to The Villages, “my second cult after Apple,” Elliott said.
The Elliotts leave behind the kind of entertainment retreat one would expect of the house that pickleball built.