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Just looked today and was really impressed with the Drees model - not sure what the floor plan was - Bradley maybe? but it was a soaring downstairs with great character and vaulted ceilings. It's more in our price range of around 350k but there was no on-site agent to show us anything else out there.
The Drees floor plan was much more open and modern than the St. Lawrence, which was more segmented - not closed off, but just not as open as the Drees.
Just looked today and was really impressed with the Drees model - not sure what the floor plan was - Bradley maybe? but it was a soaring downstairs with great character and vaulted ceilings. It's more in our price range of around 350k but there was no on-site agent to show us anything else out there.
The Drees floor plan was much more open and modern than the St. Lawrence, which was more segmented - not closed off, but just not as open as the Drees.
I think they have the Bradley and the Glen Eden out there. They also have another neighborhood in North Durham, and the prices for the same homes are about 50k less.
Just looked today and was really impressed with the Drees model - not sure what the floor plan was - Bradley maybe? but it was a soaring downstairs with great character and vaulted ceilings. It's more in our price range of around 350k but there was no on-site agent to show us anything else out there.
The Drees floor plan was much more open and modern than the St. Lawrence, which was more segmented - not closed off, but just not as open as the Drees.
Went by there this today, and they have sold about 5 of their inventory homes.
We fell in love with one of Shea's homes today and would love to build in Brightleaf...great commute for my husband and we love the neighborhood (and thanks for all your great info on this thread, which helped us discover the neighborhood).
We have a 3.5-year-old...are there any decent pre-kindergarten options and/or private school options that anyone knows of close by? My friends have kids at Durham Academy and love it, but I don't love the idea of driving 40 mins round trip twice a day.
We fell in love with one of Shea's homes today and would love to build in Brightleaf...great commute for my husband and we love the neighborhood (and thanks for all your great info on this thread, which helped us discover the neighborhood).
We have a 3.5-year-old...are there any decent pre-kindergarten options and/or private school options that anyone knows of close by? My friends have kids at Durham Academy and love it, but I don't love the idea of driving 40 mins round trip twice a day.
Look up near Brier Creek. There are couple of brand new places there, though I can't think of the name. There is also a place next to the shopping center down Miami Blvd at TW Alexander.
I'm not sure of the pre-k programs in the area, but a google search turns up a number of possibilities. It appears there are lots of options for k-12 in the area.
Would you consider church-based or religious schools? If so, that would seem to open a few more possibilities.
Also, the drive to DA might not really be all that bad. DA has a great reputation.
There is one called Trinity School that I think is supposed to be pretty good. It has locations in Raleigh and Durham. The Raleigh location, iirc, is on Glenwood (which is 70) and shouldn't be too bad a drive from Brightleaf.
I haven't looked at a lot of the schools, though; wish I could be more help.
There is one called Trinity School that I think is supposed to be pretty good. It has locations in Raleigh and Durham. The Raleigh location, iirc, is on Glenwood (which is 70) and shouldn't be too bad a drive from Brightleaf.
I haven't looked at a lot of the schools, though; wish I could be more help.
Good luck,
Mike
Mikeheel, I've been following up your new home experience at Brightleaf.. Is your house ready yet? Can you share photos with us? How do you rate your builder? Is the new nearby school ready? Is it a magnet/year-around school?
I somehow lost a post; maybe I closed the window by accident first, but I thought I replied to this last night. Sorry about that. I guess I must've hit the wrong button.
Shea actually has a photo site so buyers can see pix of different stages of the house as it is built, but it's in flash, and I can't figure out how to put the pix here. I haven't bothered uploading pix to a webserver, so I don't have any handy to link.
Anyway, here is part of an edited DM I sent to someone else who asked about our experience. I've removed all names to make sure to protect the innocent:
Quote:
1. Sales team. Our original sales agent was phenomenal. Extremely helpful and very quick to provide information and feedback in person, by phone, or by email. Unfortunately, she is out on maternity leave right now. The lady filling in for her is fine, but the original lady is one of the best, if not the best, customer service folks I have ever seen. I may try to steal her for my firm; she's really that good.
2. Design Studio. The folks there were very good, as well. The lady we dealt with has left the company, though. You have a lot of options, but the standard stuff included with the home is pretty good even without upgrades. The amount of options was a bit overwhelming at first, but it starts making sense pretty quickly. I didn't think we'd have to pick the color of grout for each bathroom and the laundry room separately, for instance.
3. Mortgage team. The Shea mortgage folks really ticked me off. They couldn't get anything right. I'm talking about their inhouse mortgage group based in Charlotte. I understand they may be using someone else locally now (I think that may be partly a result of my experience with them and onsite agent's push to make things right). That would be a HUGE improvement, but I ended up using a broker a friend suggested.
4. Building supervisor. He is a decent guy, and he has no problem fixing any problem. He goes out of his way to make things right, even if the problem is not sufficient to lead to an issue with an inspection. On the other hand, he is more reactive than proactive much of the time. The end product is good, but you have to be aware that he will seem to miss some things as they go. He has certain major inspection periods, though, when he catches everything - even stuff we didn't notice - and makes the crews fix it. He also, at no additional cost, threw in several very helpful extras to "make up" for the mistakes the crews made the first time around.
5. Building crews. These guys are hit-and-miss. The annoying thing is that there is very little coordination between the different "trades." That is, the hvac guys don't always understand where the deck is going to be located, so they may have an exhaust pipe sticking out of the masonry in the way of the deck. The roofers failed to properly flash the area where the garage butts up to the house, so we had a pretty heavy leak. The sheetrock guys came in and put up the sheetrock over soaking wet insulation, anyway. I happened to catch them in the act; they then told the building supervisor there was no way to know the insulation was wet. But water was literally pouring in. The building supervisor had them tear it all out, replace the sheetrock, replace the insulation, and get roofers to fix the roof. My understanding is these types of problems are normal unless you use a very small, custom builder. You just have to check on the house regularly. The building supervisor has done a much-better-than-the-norm job of fixing things and adding in little helpful things to keep us happy.
6. Construction schedule. We're still on-track for a late February closing. So far, so good.
7. Build quality. Despite the issues noted above, very good. We hired our own private inspection company (a company we heard about on this site, actually), but Shea also has an independent inspector/certified engineer inspect the home pre-drywall and at completion. As noted above, we've had issues from time-to-time, but the building supervisor has gone out of his way to make it right, and the end result appears to be very good, so far.
Anyway, I understood the build issues going in, so they really haven't fazed me. The mortgage thing was very disappointing, but that's far behind us now. My wife and I are extremely pleased with how the house is turning out.
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School options for Brightleaf?
