ASight to Behold

How to enhance—not distract— from your coastal view

My husband and I both grew up near freshwater lakes

and had so many wonderful memories of summers on the water with friends and family.

We always had a dream that life would come full circle, with lots of hard work and sacrifice during the early years and while raising our three sons. When our youngest was in his last year of college, and my husband continued to travel a great deal with his job, we decided it was time to begin looking seriously for our retirement home.

This led us to Charlotte, North Carolina. We already knew how much we loved living in this state because of its great weather, friendly people and lots of lakes as well. Charlotte felt like the perfect combination of convenience for travel, access to what the city had to offer and a beautiful lake that we quickly fell in love with. It was peaceful, beautiful and surrounded by woods and nature.

We are happier here than we ever could have imagined!

Our family loves coming here; and hopefully, our home will be filled with a few “grand-littles” in the years to come.

My advice to anyone thinking or dreaming about life on the lake is to consider a home that has potential but might need to be updated or might require repairs. Be patient—lake homes are in high demand everywhere.

Begin your home search early, and plan for it to take some time. You might lose a property or two along the way because of that high demand. Find a great realtor who can do much of the footwork for you and zero in on your style, needs, likes and dislikes. It can make all the difference in finding just the right home for you.

One more tidbit of advice: Never give up on your dream!