Come Meet Myrtle!

Sure, the east coast is always beautiful in the spring. Backyards are radiant with color, but the lacy pastel party wear of the apple, cherry & pear tress are quickly changed to their more formal green uniform for summer.

Here in the Carolinas we have one delightful hold out. The 'Crepe Myrtle', who wears her bright floral dress for most of the year. She may be dressed in lavender, white lace, fuschia, pale pink or red. No matter the color, she will turn your head every time.

                                                                                                                                                                                This "Flower of the South" can be seen beautifying the Raleigh area at every turn.

I was bowled over by their breathtaking bouquets when I first moved here, as I drove down Cary Parkway, where they decorate the median for more than 10 miles.   

They can be seen greeting you at the entrances to subdivisions, shopping areas, in front of fire houses, hospitals & schools.  They can be seen peaking over fences from professionally landscaped back yards.

You will find them shading moms and dads while they watch their children play at the many area parks. Everywhere you go, the Raleigh Triangle is decorated with their perennial splendor.

 A refreshing change from the browns and greens of the north eastern landscape,

 Myrtle welcomes you to the south!!

A Stellar Endorsement

If you work in the software business, an endorsement from Bill Gates might be your goal.  As a chef it might be a pat on the back from Emeril Lagasse.  When it comes to homes and living the good life, the ultimate endorsement would be from the ‘Goddess of home and garden’, Martha Stewart. 

                                                                                                       photo source: http://thepopfix.com

She might not be everyone’s cup of tea but, as a brand, she has gained respect for her nit-picky attention to detail and business savvy as much as her ability to bake cookies. It was that business savvy that led her to partner with a nationally known home builder KB Homes and find the perfect town to launch her first Martha Stewart neighborhood.

That perfect town was…Cary North Carolina.

The home designs are inspired by Stewart’s  own homes in New York, Connecticut and Maine. Stone work on some like homes in costal Maine, and some have cedar shingles like the beach houses in The Hamptons.


Photos: BJ Barratt



Models were wainscoted and accented with Stewart’s signature greens and creams, but they are not as grand as Stewart’s personal houses.  They are designed, sized and priced to appeal to the tide of middle and upper middle class North Easterners flooding into this area to escape high taxes, bad winters and traffic jams.

photo source: http://www.kbhome.com/martha/

...and to top it off, a beautiful community pool/clubhouse/tennis area was designed into the community.  Most communities here in the Raleigh area have pools... but this one is particularly nice:

photos: BJ Barratt

Once again that business savvy paid off. During its opening week in May 2006 Martha’s Twin Lakes subdivision sold out its first 100-home phase in Cary.  Now in it’s final phases, Twin lakes has just 11 home sites left to be built, however a constantly flowing market keeps several of the detached as well as the newly added townhomes on the resale market. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

This lovely home was recently on our weekly broker tour. It is one of those homes that should be listed as "COME SEE ME, I AM SO BEAUTIFUL INSIDE!" Most of these homes are quite modest on the outside, but open into a well laid out and beautifully detailed interior, like this: 

 



Bonus/loft with great built in computer worksspace

TMLS photos courtsey of listing agent, Pam Marshall - Fonville Morisey

 

So whether you want to live in the Martha Stewart community or, like Martha, you just want to find the perfect town to call your own - CARY North Carolina is the place for you!

Park it in Cary

The town of Cary North Carolina is a rapidly growing suburb of the capital city of Raleigh.  It is edged on the north and east by Raleigh, on the north and west by Research Triangle Park and Morrisville, on the south by Apex and Holly Springs, and on the west by the Jordan Lake area.

It is a little over 40 square miles of heaven on earth.  Back in the suburbs of NY there is precious little park area, and what there is of it is surrounded by strip malls and aging infrastructure, and there is a good chance you have to pay to get in. In Cary, there are more than 25 free town parks.  We’re talking BIG parks, many with large boating/fishing lakes!

 In addition to the multitude of beautiful parks, they have these things here called ‘greenways’.  As a Yankee, I had only ever heard of greenways on golf courses – but here they are miles and miles of paved trails that run behind residential areas and through parks.

They are EVERYWHERE, they are lovely and they are making it very difficult for me to come up with excuses not to take up jogging

.