At the house you have great privacy, with no other houses visible (you're on 20 acres), yet you are in the sweet sweet historic village of Flat Rock with small shops, galleries, restaurants, bakery, a movie theater (with wine!), the wonderful Flat Rock Playhouse and theater school ( https://www.flatrockplayhouse.org/ ). A drugstore and huge grocery store are about 4 minutes away. The Carl Sandburg Home is about a mile from our house and its grounds include trails up Glassy Mountain and a visit with descendants of Paula Sandburg's goats. https://www.nps.gov/carl/index.htm

Flat Rock is in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. Ten minutes north is Hendersonville, a small, bustling mountain city with many restaurants, shops, crafts, coffee shops, Jump Off Rock, etc. Breweries and wineries are also nearby. Twenty minutes north of that is Asheville, Western North Carolina's crown city, sophisticated and funky. http://www.exploreasheville.com/
The area is know for its crafts, music, whitewater, calmer rivers, and all sorts of river water sports: tubing, kayaking (easy and not-so-easy), canoeing, rafting at all levels, mining, hiking, golf, and more.

There are also plays, classical music, museums, and historic sites of all types. The Brevard Music Festival includes multiple music genres and is one of the premier festivals and training institutes. https://www.brevardmusic.org/

Biltmore House and its 8,000 acres (not a typo) of grounds and gardens is in Asheville. It's the largest house in the United States, built by George Vanderbilt in the 1890s with 75 acres of gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and many activities. https://www.biltmore.com/

Dupont State Park ( https://www.dupontforest.com/explore/ ) is about 30 minutes from the house, with 12,500 acres of walking trails, bike trails, waterfalls, swimming lakes. An hour from the house is Pisgah National Forest, 500,000 acres of whitewater rivers, waterfalls, Sliding Rock, and hundreds of miles of trails (and a great little ice cream shop). https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/nfsnc/recarea/?recid=48114

For the brave, there is a zipline over the Green River Gorge ( https://thegorgezipline.com/ ). About an hour away is Chimney Rock, near Lake Lure (where "Dirty Dancing" was filmed). https://www.chimneyrockpark.com/