Our New North Carolina Home

We are really excited about our new home in North Carolina. This is something that Laura has wanted for a long time and I must say that it is mostly due to all of her efforts that we have made this decision and purchase. She spent countless hours on the internet and then a 10 day trip to the Asheville area and found this property. It is in (and don't laugh) Swannanoa, NC which is 20 minutes northeast of Asheville. The property is one of 18 lots on a mile long private road so it is very quiet and devoid of road noise. The area is surrounded by Pisgah National Forest so there will not be any development of the adjacent land.

We have 10 acres and a small (1150 sq. ft.) house that was built 11 years ago. We closed on the house on November 21, 2001 and spent the next few days there exploring the area in the daytime and sleeping on our inflatable mattress and eating out of our cooler. It was like camping with a roof and hot showers. We walked the property and made plans for the future. There is so much that can be done with both the property and the house and we look forward to years of enjoyment. It was fun and exciting. The lot has lots of trees and the previous owners planted lots of flowers and bulbs. There are fruit trees and blueberries and we look forward to adding more. Below are some pictures we took and the one above given to us by the realtor, obviously taken at a different time of the year. By the way, Dash had a great time running and exploring the woods. We hope that you will all come and visit.

That was written many many years ago.  It is now 8 years later almost to the day.  We spent most of those years driving the 12 hours from south Florida to spend two weeks in heaven several times a year.  One Sunday morning 6 years ago as we were packing the car to drive south we asked ourselves why we were leaving and would we rather not be living here.  The answer was clearly and resoundingly YES.  So we set out to sell our house and business and started to plan on moving to Swannanoa.  Well you all know what the end of 2007 and 2008 and had in store for all of us and it took 15 months to sell the house but we did it.  On July 1, 2008 the last of our belongings were loaded into the moving van and we were on our way.  We were certainly excited and so was Dash.

Question: How do you fit 2300 square feet of furniture and belongings into an 1100 square foot house that is already fully furnished and packed to the gills?

Answer:  You have two very good friends who live nearby and have lots of room in their basement to store your things.  Susan and Bob Harper generously allowed us to store all our stuff in the basement of their newly built home.  We can never repay them for this.

Well 1100 square feet is fine for 2 week visits several times a year but will not get it for full time living.  So in April of this year we started an addition onto the house.  It is going to be a combination mud/laundry room.  It will have lots of storage and will help to keep us and Dash from tracking debris into the kitchen.  But mostly will allow Laura to move the washer and dryer from the kitchen and give her the pantry space that she is lacking and room for a second refrigerator so she can get back to making desserts.  It has taken longer than we thought (lots of interruptions and lots of design decisions) but we are getting there.  Bob and I have done the work and he has lent invaluable skills and design insight to the project.  We are both grateful to him for his patience and guidance.

Below are some earlier pictures of the house.  Click this link to see pictures of the addition.