...and suddenly, it's all very clear...




Lot #77 Before Construction


...and suddenly, it's all very clear...Lot #77, that is....after an agonizingly long wait, construction is underway!   Since pictures speak louder than words, here's what's happened so far:



The building site was cleared



The downed trees were fed into THE BEAST and turned into mulch

A LOT of mulch!  To be used later.

My sons have become the "site supervisors"

The basement has been dug



The Lady of the Lake

The Lady of the Lake

Polly Leadbetter at Lake James Real Estate

The Difference is in the Details: Cottonwood Development

Steve Leadbetter and Tracy Jones
Owners of Cottonwood Development



Smooth river rock and rough poplar bark, warm cherry wood and cold forged iron,  rustic and refined;  these are just a few examples of the complementary elements you'll find in any Cottonwood built structure.  Much like Steve and Tracy, the blending of opposing elements, seemingly too different to be cohesive, creates a spectacular combination.



Just stepping into their office, a few miles from Lake James, inspires.  The building was a dilapidated day care with a chain link fence in the front yard in the year 2002.  They have transformed it into a cozy cabin-feeling office space on one side with a grand "Lodge" office building attached to the side.  Huge tree trunk columns dominate the boulder strewn entrance.  A lovely lily pad ironwork bench greets all visitors as they enter.  Inside, they are welcomed by a towering stone fireplace,  log beamed ceiling, wide plank pine flooring and custom iron railing and details.  The walls are decorated with vintage waterskis, canoe paddles and fishing tackle advertisements.  It's like a warm embrace from the great outdoors and a salute to the bygone days of lake recreation combined.

Steve Leadbetter and Tracy Jones combined forces in 2006.  They came from very different backgrounds and have very different personalities.  It is their differences that make them the perfect team.  Steve grew up in Florida, lived in Colorado, worked in medical equipment sales, designed snowboard clothing and a host of other occupations.  He's creative and constantly moving.  He'll draw a rendering of a house for a client on a napkin in a restaurant.  He's the dreamer, the guy with the big ideas.  Tracy, on the other hand, grew up here in Morganton, North Carolina.  With an MBA and a background in production management, he is the one that gets the right supplies to the job site at the right time, on budget.  He gives the perception as a regular "local yokel" with his mountain drawl, quiet easygoing  manner and workman's attire.  He's nothing of the sort.  A guy with discerning palate in food and microwbrews and a penchant for gourmet coffee with "fancy flavored" creamers, actually Tracy is the one with last word in all construction details.  Whenever Steve is talking fast, spinning ideas, dreaming up some new facet of a project with a client, Tracy is sitting across the table or in the corner of the room quietly making eye contact with Steve and either nodding a "yes, we can do that...it is possible but might be too expensive" or "no way...don't even start promising...stop where you're going with that, right now".  And Steve adjusts his dreaming accordingly.

It was both the office building and the complimentary personalities of Steve and Tracy that made my husband and I consider having Cottonwood Development build our house at Lake James.  It is a big decision to choose a builder and we had a list of several possibilities recommended to us by realtors and various others who'd either built a house on or near the lake or knew someone who had.  Everyone was more than happy to give their opinion on the subject.  What sealed our decision was touring the houses that they'd built and talking to the owners of those houses.  They were so satisfied with their homes and had nothing but rave reviews for Steve and Tracy's ability to make a vision into a reality on time and on budget.

For example, a couple in the SouthPointe community on Lake James came to Cottonwood Development wanting to build a house on their waterfront lot.  They had a limited budget because they'd sold their house at the coast for a fraction of what they'd hoped and their lot was divided in half by a deep ravine that ran the length of the property down to the lake.  There was no decent place on the lot to build a house.  Steve drew up a plan in a matter of minutes detailing a multi-level house that straddled both sides of the ravine, dubbing it the "Gulley House" because of the big gully running underneath it.  The house was completed in September 2010, on time (less than 7 months) and on budget in spite of many who predicted otherwise.  The couple is thrilled and gives a tour to any and all who ask. 



The "Gulley House" completed



The Pleasures and Pitfalls of Owning Lakefront Property

15 feet deep!

The honeymoon is over.  If my family's first year of lake property ownership is like the first year of a marriage, then my husband, two sons and I would be,  collectively, "the groom" and lot #77, the property,  would be "the bride".  We had a courtship.  Just a couple of months late last fall.   My family and I would make the trip from Charlotte to familiarize ourselves with "her" contours, walking down the rough path to the dock, gazing at her peaceful shoreline and the cove beyond.  Sure, we compared her to other lots for sale.  But none could compare to "our" lot.  So, we took the plunge.  The papers were filed in the Burke County courthouse in January 2010.  We were official.  The Clark family and lot #77 were joined in holy property ownership.

We had a glorious spring and summer together.  We lacked a house on the property but that didn't prevent us from enjoying all that our lovely bride had to offer.  We swam!  We kayaked!  We jumped off the top rail of the dock into the crystal clear, 15 foot depths of the cove!  We grilled countless meals and dined "al fresco" under the gazebo in the warm summer evenings.

We bragged to people about her natural beauty and purity,  using the amusing story about the peach pie "incident" as an entertaining example of these qualities.  The result of that incident was the knowledge that eating a lake-soaked pie would result in no ill effects.  Not even "pie-ahhrea" (as one of the more cautious members of our party dubbed the predicted gastrointestinal consequences) befell any of those brave enough to taste it.  In fact, it was suggested that a bit of lake water just might become the secret ingredient in Loralie's famous "Lake James Peach Pie".

Yes, we were inseparable all summer and into the fall. And then something happened.  Duke Energy announced that lake levels would be lowered drastically beginning in December.   Being new to the lake, we didn't take this as serious news.  But people were buzzing about pushing out docks and pulling boats out of the water for the winter.  It was clearly something we needed to become familiar with.  Lake levels were going to lowered 15 feet below full pond from January until May.  That's 5 feet lower the droughts of 2002 and 2007.  Lower than anytime in recent history, no one living on the lake had experienced this drastic of a change in water level in such a short period of time.  We needed to make arrangements, and fast!

In a marriage, you vow to love each other "in sickness and in health".  We'd experienced the healthy times and now we were about to embark on some "sick" times.  We needed to care for our beloved lake property.  We took our boat out of the water in October and stored it on a trailer in a nearby marina.  We called the overburdened dock specialist, Craig McGee, to have him push our dock out into deeper water, which he did in late November.   We'd done what we could to ride out the big drop.  We'd done the equivalent of making chicken soup and wrapping a warm blanket around our bride when she suffered a cold.

The lake levels started dropping.  Our lovely lot #77 wasn't as lovely when the water dropped 10 feet.   This was the "sitting on the couch in an ugly sweatsuit eating ice cream from the carton" side of our bride.  Harsh reality.  It wasn't pretty.  The once 15-foot deep, crystal clear cove was now a murky, 3 feet with (gasp!) an old tire and cinder block visible on the muddy bottom.  It was like seeing a beautiful woman without her makeup for the first time, wearing thick eyeglasses and a retainer too!  The honeymoon was definitely over.

We decided that we loved her anyway and got to work clearing away some of the branches that were dangerously close to the end of the dock in the summer.  We donned knee high rubber boots and armed with a chainsaw, hand saw and pruner,  got to work trimming.  A few hours later, our boots filled with icy lake water and  rear ends filthy from perching on the logs while sawing branches, we had  fulfilled our mission to beautify our lady.

And so it has gone, this first year.  Much like a marriage, our relationship has deepened.  A solid partnership has to be able to endure more than just the good times.  And this year, our family has discovered that we are lakefront property owners now ...for better or for worse....

Low lake level--10 feet low, 5 more to go...dock is pushed out into the cove

Waiting to begin

It's the end of another year and I'm particularly aware of the passing of time right now.  Some noteable segments of time:

1 year:  My husband, David, and I decided one year ago to uproot our two teenage sons, move from Charlotte, NC to tiny Morganton, NC in search of a more balanced lifestyle and to fulfill a lifelong dream of building our dream house on a lake.

6 months:  The big move (actually only one of a series of big moves) from our large sprawling McMansion in Charlotte to a jumbled confusion of boxes and furniture strewn between a compact rental house and and storage unit outside of town.

3 months: Since we sold our house in Charlotte.  A mixed blessing.  Selling a house in these trying times was a stroke of luck.  The proceeds from the sale, or lack thereof, were less than impressive.  It's downright depressing to sell your house for less than you paid for it, six years later.

2 weeks: Until our construction loan closing.  This is the latest in a slew of scheduled closing dates.   It's been a complicated and frustrating process trying to secure financing in this shaky economy.  Banks are shying away from construction loans in general.

....and so...we cross our fingers and wait to begin...and waiting is the hardest part...