With its location close to the top of a legendary mountain, a design that evokes the warmth of a forest lodge, and a colorful – even roguish – history, Top O’ the World just might have some of the best bragging rights in all of Sonoma County.

The 5BR/4.5BA house rises from a meadow 2,100 feet up the side of Mt. Veeder – a peak whose appellation has appeared on bottles of some of the world’s finest cabernet sauvignons. Surrounded by grasses and dense woods of fir, cedar, oak, maple and manzanita, the 5,000-square foot house sits at the confluence of two seasonal creeks and is steps away from a year-round spring-fed lake.

Lichen-mottled chairs face the lake at regular intervals, which is flanked by trees on one side, and lined with reeds and bulrushes on the other. In fact, the property is dotted with teak benches and chairs at seemingly every bend.

Top O’ the World is a place that encourages the casual, conversational stroll. But if your mood demands less contemplation and more effort, the property has challenging paths that range all over its sometimes steep terrain.

At the western edge of Top O’ the World’s 45-acre holding is a striking view of Oakmont and Santa Rosa and beyond, taking in successive ridges of the Valley of the Moon’s northern end. The panorama offers an easy tutorial on Sonoma County’s flora and geology, and an existing wooden observation deck allows guests to relax while contemplating one of the county’s best vistas.

Top O’ the World’s interior was (and remains) a “great room” (2,400 square feet) long before that concept and terminology came into general use. While the house’s massive Douglas fir support columns and beams serve to divide the first floor into several discrete areas – kitchen, dining area, living room, office and family area (the latter has its own small private deck) – everybody remains within sight of everybody else. The space is totally congenial to socializing, yet affords places where guests or family members can stay in view but away from the social whirl for awhile if they choose.

The all-wood interior main floor, with pine walls and 100-year-old, 2-1/2-inch-thick wide-plank floors, joins a natural rock formation at one corner of the great room. Carpenters made painstaking efforts to have the wall’s horizontal slats match the contours of the rock where they met it. In front of the wall is a glass-sided fireplace.

Upstairs, Top O’ the World has five bedrooms, including a master, two smaller bedrooms, and two bedroom suites that played an important role in the house’s former status as a bed and breakfast. The master has built-in bookshelves, French doors to the house’s almost wraparound upper balcony/deck, a picture window with views to the great meadow, pond and forested ridges, a fireplace and a walk-in closet. The bath has two vanities, a water closet, bath tub, shower, two skylights and direct access to the upper gardens.

The smaller bedrooms share a Jack-and-Jill bathroom. The knotty pine-lined fourth bedroom, which used to be used as a B&B room, features a kitchenette, a balcony, views to the meadow, bath, sitting area and four-person dining table. It has a second exit to a deck that overlooks a 36-foot-long, 12,000-gallon koi pond and waterfall, surrounded by delicate-leafed Japanese maples.

Across the hall, the Cherry Room, also once part of the B&B, has cherry-themed decorations, huge built-in armoire-style storage, a bath, a fireplace and a door that exits directly to a large garden and sitting area. The view out the bedroom windows is a serene one: Japanese maples and fruit trees.