Central North Carolina

Next stop- Mebane, NC. Side note- how would you pronounce Mebane? We said Meebane- nope, not right. The correct pronunciation is Mehbun. Like I said previously, you have to learn the language- even here in the US! 😉

We are exploring the Triangle, short for the Research Triangle, which is anchored by the cities of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. Winston-Salem is also close by. There are many major companies and 3 major research universities here:North Carolina State, Duke University, and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Wake Forest is also close by- whew! There is a ton of building and expansion going on in this area, and healthcare is excellent.

We spent 3 days looking at real estate. We visited another 55+ Del Webb Community, and it is going to be beautiful when done. It is in the town of Clayton, which is a short drive from Durham, and has a large lake at its center, with the pool and amenity center overlooking the lake. The development is surrounded by trees, and there are lots of trees within it. We liked a couple of the houses- here are various pics:

Another had the largest laundry room I have ever seen- that is a 2X3 foot folding table on the right:

We also visited Flowers Plantation, a master planned community with lots of different neighborhoods and builders. It was nice but the existing neighborhoods are the nicest and way too expensive. Also, the amenities are not set up to handle the number of people who live there, let alone for the new houses that are being built. We looked at another builder, and really liked the houses, but they are bigger than we want and are the nicest in the neighborhood, with the others being more like starter homes, so not great for property values.

We drove to Charlotte to look at another Cresswind community since we really liked the Cresswind development near Charleston. We toured the models, which all have different names than the ones near Charleston, and we are consistent- our favorite was the same layout as our favorite at the other community (except about 50 square feet bigger)! Too funny! Here are some pics:

I’m not crazy about the exterior, but there are 4 other options. Here are a couple more pics:

Nice kitchen, great bathroom!

Jerry hit it right on the head- every time we think we have made a decision, we find something else! This is sooooo hard!

After 3 days looking at real estate we are going to do something fun tomorrow!