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"View Slideshow\n\nThe career of motocross legend Ricky Carmichael lasted nearly a quarter century, which is a long time in the world of competitive off-road motorcycle racing. Of course, he began riding when he was five, which means that the so-called \"golden years\" of his retirement began just before he reached his 28th birthday. Appropriately enough for a well-to-do retiree, he bought himself a nice piece of lakeside property in Florida and filled it with tangible memories of the road that had brought him there.\n\nNaturally, he needed an interior designer who got him: his passions, his personal history, his need for a home that offered peace and quiet on the one hand and celebrated his love for speed and action on the other hand. Fortunately, there was someone living in the immediate vicinity who filled the bill perfectly: his wife, Ursula Carmichael, whose intuitive understanding of her client was unquestionable.\n\nA combination entertaining space, museum and shrine announces his success.\n\nThe Carmichaels had seen and loved a specific parcel of land on the shores of Lake Hall in Tallahassee but had lost out on it. Disappointed, they purchased another property and had even begun working on it when the first one suddenly and unexpectedly came back on the market. Local architect Bradley C. Touchstone gave the couple a house that combined modern and Mediterranean influences; the grounds are landscaped with a mixture of desert and tropical plants. As soon as it was safe for her to go inside, Ursula Carmichael began to work on the interiors.\n\nWhen visitors first enter the house, she says, \"they would have no idea, based on what they were seeing, that a motorcycle racer lives there.\" From the barrel-vaulted entrance hall, callers are drawn into a living area, where arches set atop marble Doric columns and a coffered ceiling suggest Neoclassical influences. Dark plum fabrics and the neutral tones of walls and floors carry throughout the main living spaces, dotted here and there with rich accents, such as a silver-chain chandelier in the master bath.\n\nA visitor would have no doubts about how the homeowner made his living.\n\nA door from the living room leads to the master suite, the bedroom of which is a study in contrasts: hard lines and gentle curves, classical serenity and playful fancy. The walls and ceiling are painted a quiet taupe; the floor is covered with a custom-woven wool carpet whose shade of heather gray mediates between the walls and the marble fireplace surround. Against this muted backdrop, other aspects of the room\u2014the dark wood of some of its furnishings, the sinuous bend of a chaise longue outfitted in purple velvet and feather trim\u2014stand out like fascinating guests at a low-key dinner party.\n\nIf it's true that a visitor entering the house via the front door would have \"no idea\" that a motorcycle racer was living there, it's equally true that a visitor entering at the lower level would have no doubts whatsoever about how the home-owner made his living. Here a combination entertaining space, museum and shrine announces his unparalleled success: Everywhere one looks there is another reminder of Ricky Carmichael's achievements in his chosen sport. A troika of his championship bikes, their front wheels rakishly angled, adorn a tall pillar of a wall that connects this floor to the living room above it. Trophies, medals, ribbons, helmets and jerseys seem to fill every square inch of space that isn't already collaged with the scores of framed magazine covers on which the champion has appeared or his exploits have been heralded.\n\n\"It's what I always dreamed of when I was racing motorcycles,\" says Ricky Carmichael.\n\nThe house\u2014both its motorcycle-free upper half and its motorcycle-intensive lower half\u2014\"is what I always dreamed of when I was racing motorcycles,\" says Ricky Carmichael. \"This is what I always wanted when I retired.\" Semiretired is probably a better word for it: He recently traded motorcycle racing for stock car racing and is now burning up the NASCAR circuit driving modified pickup trucks at events around the country. \"People ask me what my favorite pastime is,\" he says. \"This house is it. Just relaxing and hanging out. When I get back from an event and I'm driving home from the airport, I can't wait to get here.\"\n\nA final note to Florida readers: When Ricky Carmichael says he \"can't wait\" to get somewhere, it's best to pull over to the side of the road and let him pass."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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