Lake Lanier Retreat

I recently obtained a Listing Agreement for a three bedroom stone home on beautiful Lake Lanier, just north of Atlanta.  Most homes we list on the lake have the normal issues with the less than stellar condition of the wooden decks and docks, but not this home.  The deck and dock are not new, but were in remarkably good condition.  This tells me that the owners work very hard on maintenance of their home.

The lake and single slip dock are down the hill from the home and can be easily walked or accessed by the golf cart included in the sale.  When installing a “For Sale” sign on the dock for passing boaters, I saw a huge largemouth bass swim past the dock, so I plan to do some fishing prior to my open house tomorrow.  The dock is on a very quite cove so you don’t hear the normal sounds that often intrude into other lake homes--boat and Jet Ski noise.

The driveway to the home is very long and curved, so guests have lots of parking and never need to park on the private street.  The first thing you notice while in the driveway is the home is very well maintained stone structure, with some very interesting architectural angles on the roof line.  The next thing you notice is all the stonework on the property.  There’s a huge retaining wall made of very large rocks creating a level front yard.  The steps from the parking area are made of stacked stone and flagstone.  The flagstone sidewalk meanders toward the hand carved wooden entrance door.

Once inside, you’ll be amazed at the details of this peaceful home.  Skylights over the entranceway and in all the bathrooms provide lots of natural light, eliminating the need to have lights on during the daytime.  The master bedroom is large with a four-season sitting room just perfect for reading and relaxing.  The home has what the owners call their coffee room.  It’s a small screened room with French doors contiguous to the dining room.  When entertaining the owners open the doors to make the dining room much larger, but without guests, they enjoy their morning coffee, newspaper and the absolute quiet.

Finally, there is a large covered screened porch with a built-in swing, just perfect for relaxing and recharging from Atlanta’s urban living.  The owners sit with their children reading, relaxing, playing games or watching TV almost every evening.  Outside the screened porch is an open deck for cooler days at the lake and a custom stone fire pit.

All in all, this home is a perfect weekend retreat from work and stress, or a fulltime residence that’s thirty minutes or less to Atlanta and forty minutes from Buckhead.  For more information click on:  http://www.georgiabrokersrealestate.com/Featured%20Listings.htm

Lenox Park, Military Reunion 2011

I know I’m telling my age, but I am planning a reunion of the Company I served in between 1969-1970.  Yes, it was Vietnam and I spent one year as a grunt in A Company, 1/12^th Cav.  Why is this in my blog, you say?  Well, I couldn’t think of a better place to have my fellow Troopers meet than in Lenox Park. 

I have blogged about Lenox Park before and mentioned it was a Planned Unit Development located in Buckhead, Atlanta’s preeminent shopping and restaurant neighborhood.  Within Lenox Park, the residential and commercial areas were defined in the plan, and a hotel was part of that.  The Residence Inn Marriott was built many years ago and now offers a quiet retreat within the bustling Buckhead neighborhood.  The men I served with can stay in a nice hotel and use the meeting room facilities off the lobby, and when we host the reception in our home in the evening, they can walk to the event.  Atlanta is a city that you need a car, but once in the hotel in Lenox Park, you can take advantage of the free parking and not be behind the wheel unless you wish to travel unrelated to the reunion.  I should add, Atlanta’s rapid transit system is a short walk from the hotel, and the hotel offers free shuttle to it, and local shopping malls.      

We are meeting over Memorial Day weekend and I’ll blog more about this after the event.

Lenox Park, Holidays

Christmas in Lenox Park has passed and we are awaiting the arrival of 2011.  With the leaves missing from the deciduous trees inside the park, we have a clear view of the lake and fountains from my deck.   The record snowfall from last week has melted and the days are much warmer. 

The Christmas lights have not been taken down and put away for next year, so the night is still alive with colorful decorations.  I don’t know if it was the Christmas snowfall, but it seems the colorful holiday lighting is staying up longer this year.

This year, we had guests from Belgium that seem to enjoy being in Atlanta during our holidays.  We met them over thirty years ago when they participated in a Friendship Force visit with us.  Since meeting them so many years ago, we have shared holiday mail, and now more frequent e-mail.  Their children are adults now, and we had the pleasure of attending their oldest daughter’s wedding in Belgium three years ago.  A wedding we will always remember fondly.  Our Belgium friends go for a walk every day in the park, even when it was a little too cold for me and my wife to join them on their walk.  I have some real estate appointments today, so my wife is taking them to see the Olympic Park and the MLK museum.

Tonight, we will go out to dinner at Ted’s Montana Grill.  I thought this might offer them a unique opportunity to dine on bison, after a week of eating southern styled chicken and pork.  Tomorrow night, New Year’s Eve, we plan to prepare fondue for our guests.  Their departure will be on New Year’s Day.

It has been quiet for my real estate business since just before Christmas and I was taking a well deserved holiday, but an Agent phoned me yesterday to see a commercial listing, so it’s back to work today.  Happy and successful New Year to all. 

Lenox Park, Urban Oasis-Sunday Morning

My wife and I awoke early Sunday morning.  The air was cool but the sky was clear and the sun was shining brightly.  It was one of those glorious days in the Atlanta fall, when the humidity was very low and the sky clear blue with no clouds in sight.  We decided to get dressed and drive to a local patisserie on Peachtree Street, near Lenox Mall, and have fresh pastries and cappuccinos, sitting outside watching one the best shows in Atlanta.

On the way back, a former client phoned and asked me about homes available inside Lenox Park, and if any of them would price in the range that would work for her son and his wife.  They have looked at homes intown for a while and believed that homes in Midtown and Buckhead would cost $500k or more, but they wanted a home for around $350k.  I knew there were lots of choices in the area for the price they wanted, but I purposely looked at what was available inside Lenox Park.  I was shocked to see a fantastic home available for $375k.  It was a beautiful home, that had some recent upgrades, and best of all, it was NOT a short sale and could be closed rather quickly.  I live inside Lenox Park and watch listings frequently, and was stunned to see this home available right now.  There are a couple of other homes for sale on the same block for $500k, so I sent the info off to my former Client and suggested we all link up quickly.  

Three years ago the $375k home would have easily sold for $500k+, so someone’s misfortune is a economic opportunity for a young professional couple, and with that home off the market, the other two should get quick offers at a much higher price.

Lenox Park, Urban Oasis

Living inside Lenox Park gives me opportunities that most residents of urban Atlanta don’t have.  Lenox Park is a planned unit development within walking distance of the subway and the most successful shopping and restaurant district in Georgia and arguably in the United States.  To make transportation even easier, we have a no charge shuttle that functions as a people mover, carrying riders around Lenox Park and to nearby shopping and the subway.

My wife and I try to walk the perimeter sidewalk around Lenox Park every day.  A steady walk takes approximately forty minutes and the views of lakes, fountains and trees with a backdrop of towering high rise buildings reminds me of walks through Central Park in NYC.  Every day I think how blessed I am to be living in this urban oasis. 

Sometimes on the weekend, we walk the inner ring trails contiguous to the two lakes, which allow us to enjoy the lake more close up with the ducks and geese cruising the lake, and labs fetching balls tossed into the lake by their owners.  The landscape is beautifully maintained by the HOA and on the warm weekends the expansive lawn is filled with people picnicking, chatting or tossing Frisbees.  

The trees are starting to change to their fall colors and sky has been blue and clear for a few weeks.  Fall is not here, yet, so the views will only get better.  I love living inside Lenox Park.    

Lenox Park, Urban Oasis

Before building in Lenox Park, we lived in the Pine Hills neighborhood in Atlanta for over twenty years. I thought Pine Hills was a wonderful neighborhood. It was quiet, safe and everyone took care of their homes, without the need for covenants. Pine Hills was walking distance to the major regional mall, Lenox Square, and too many restaurants to count. My wife and I lived comfortably in the same home on Goodwin Road until we realized we needed a change. In 2001, I was traveling out of the country most of my time and my wife worked very long hours for AT&T, so we needed to downsize the yard but we wanted more inside space. This led us to Lenox Park.


For as long as I can remember, the Standard Club & Golf Course existed in the space where the new development of Lenox Park was being built around 1990. Lenox Park was a planned unit development designed to accommodate a wide spectrum of residential and office space, and was closer to Lenox Square and MARTA (Atlanta’s mass transit system) than where we had lived for over twenty years. The development was planned so that anyone who cared knew where the office buildings, detached homes, condominiums and apartments were to be built. There would be a primary HOA that every owner was a member and within the park each neighborhood would have its own HOA. Most of the common cost would be paid by the office building and apartment owners, so the common costs for Lenox Park would be very low for the individual home owners. Later, Lenox Park allowed an assisted living facility and hospice to be built in the park, so anyone could live their entire life within the park.

Within Lenox Park, there are large expanses of land kept as open space for all of the neighbors and guests to enjoy. There are two lakes, two bridges, two lake fountains and one waterfall to enjoy. There is a sidewalk circling the greater Lenox Park and also a shorter hiking path circling the lakes. The open space around the larger lake is filled daily with locals who live and work in the neighborhood—walking, picnicking, and throwing Frisbees, footballs and baseballs. If you have lived in a congested city for a long time, the first time you see this open space with its well maintained grounds and lakes; it will take your breath. It did mine.

We have lived here for ten years now and while we have a small front and back yard, we have no outdoor maintenance to maintain since all outside maintenance is done by a common landscape service. Our total HOA cost for our HOA, which includes our share of Lennox Park HOA costs, is approximately $100 a month—that’s right, it costs about $100 a month to live in an urban oasis with no required responsibilities for outside maintenance.

I plan to write more about Lenox Park in the future and maybe add some comments about nearby Pine Hills.  For more information about Lenox Park, Pine Hills or other Atlanta homes, visit us at http://www.georgiabrokersrealestate.com/ .