Serenbe, GA

If you read my previous post on the HGTV Green Home, you know that touring the home was my reason for visiting Serenbe in the first place.  I'd never heard of the community until I was invited down for the tour.  I was excited to see the home, but I had no idea that Serenbe would find a special place in my heart and I can't wait to share my experiences with others.  I already have big plans for an after wedding, weekend trip down to relax.

If you go to the Serenbe Portal Page, you can find all of the information on the community that you could ever need.  I hope to fill you in on my experiences in my short, afternoon visit.  After touring the home we had about an hour to kill before we had to be at The Farmhouse for our dinner reservations.  Because it's a small town and there isn't a constant stream of people on weekdays, the local business have some pretty weird hours.  A few of the stores that we really wanted to try were closed for the evening and it was only 5:00.

We drove from the house to the downtown area of Serenbe.  It's a more established area from the side with the HGTV home and the new General Store.  This part of town has restaurants and all the boutique shopping you would want on a lazy Saturday afternoon.  We were able to make it into two stores but would have loved to stop in more.

Our first stop was Blue Eyed Daisy Bakeshop, which was closed at the time, but we were able to get inside just as the shop owner was closing up and we were allowed to purchase a 4-pack of cupcakes.   I'm sorry I don't have a picture of those - we ate them too fast.

 Not only was the little bakery adorable, but the menu looked superb.  It would be the perfect place for lunch or brunch.  If your a foodie and watch some of the million cooking shows that are on TV these days, you may recognize the bakery for a little award they just won.

Yep, just a few days before we were there the show aired announcing them as the winner of Cupcake Wars.  Having tasted the cupcake recipes from the show I can tell you they deserved to win.  The place was packed full of 4-pack containers waiting to be sold.  The dining room was industrial chic with a giant fan overhead and exposed brick walls but it felt welcoming and warm at the same time.

With cupcakes in hand we drove another block (we were driving because we didn't know what would be open as we passed by - again with the weird hours).  We stopped at The Bilt House, an adorable little shop with clothes, gifts and items for the home.  They have two other locations in Atlanta and Roswell, mental note to check those out too.  I found the cutest Anniversary gift for my dad and step-mom while in the shop, I'll have to see if I can find it in one of the closer stores or I'll call in my order and make a drive down to pick it up.  Darn.

Some new town homes available in Serenbe.

Then it was time for dinner.  We were having dinner at The Inn at Serenbe where we were lucky enough to meet Steve and Marie Nygren whose vision started Serenbe in the first place.  They came down to visit a farmhouse for sale years ago and fell in love with the area.  They bought the land and continued to develop it.  With the help of the 1996 Olympics the Inn started and from there they developed the plan for a community that would create a sense of place for it's residence.  You really get the feeling that the neighbors really know each other and care about each other.  Marie was one of the nicest people I've met and to meet someone with such vision was remarkable.

The Inn itself has a few rooms and then little cottages that you can rent.  I'm not sure of prices, I didn't even look.  It felt so comfortable there that I'd be okay paying what ever it may cost for a weekend of relaxation, and we're not rolling in the money, believe me.  There are two saltwater pools at the Inn for guests to use, this one looked like the perfect place to spend a Thursday evening.

Before dinner, we stopped at the bar and had the BEST. PEACH. SANGRIA. EVER.  Would you look at these things!  I wish I knew what was in them, but I know the bartender made them that day, with fresh peaches in the mix.

We ate dinner on the patio section of the dining room.  The mismatched chairs at the table really made you feel like you were visiting the Nygren's home, not dining at a restaurant.  Our server knew every detail of the menu and was a delight the entire evening.  (The table in the picture below is not our table, I'm sitting at our table, so you can't see the chairs I just mentioned.)  The patio is enclosed in glass, so no bugs to worry about, you can't really tell in the photo.

The menu is fresh each week, they serve what is available at the farm in Serenbe or other local farms.  For our trip they were serving a trout or a steak.  I went with the steak, a salad to start and homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream sandwich for dessert.  The serving sizes were perfect, not one of us left feeling over stuffed.  The food was cooked to perfection, I'm not sure any of us had a bite left on our plates either.

It was sad to drive away from Serenbe that evening, but the entire drive home we talked about how much we enjoyed it.  I brought a few goodies home with me: a magnolia candle that I wish I could have constantly lit in the house, the Fig Preserves that I'm obsessed with and the cupcakes from Blue Eyed Daisy.  (There are only three of the four pictured, I couldn't wait.)

I urge you to make the drive down to Serenbe or Like them on Facebook so you can keep up with the events going on around the neighborhood.  I know we will be.

Fig Preserves from Serenbe

Sometimes you get a gift or recommendation that you appreciate at the time but you have no way of knowing how great it really is until after the fact.  While we were in Serenbe to tour the HGTV Green Home, our host who has been to Serenbe a few times for other tours bought us some Fig Preserves.  They were made right there in town and sold at the General Market and we also saw them at the restaurant where we dined that night.  I'm not sure this blog post will be able to describe how much I love Fig Preserves, but I'll give it a shot.  I could be the freshness of the preserves, but I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that I'll love any Fig Preserves that come my way.  (When we were there we actually saw them packaging the Peach Preserves and putting them right out on the shelf for sale - that stuff is fresh!)

I've put the preserves on almost everything I've consumed at home.  For breakfast, I've added a spoonful to my Greek Yogurt - when it's mixed in with the strawberries and granola it adds a sweetness that I was missing before.  For lunch I've invented the best sandwich ever: a Toasted Fig and Cheese Sandwich with slices of Bacon.  OMG.  I started with just the toasted bread, fig preserves and a slice of
havarti cheese.  I was in love.  The next day I made it for Stephen and he suggested we add bacon, pretty male thing to do.  It made it even better!  I'm pretty sure I've had 3 of those sandwiches in the past 5 days.  I haven't tried it yet, but it was suggested to me to make a pizza with the preserves as the base.  On top of that you add arugula and feta cheese and I'd think some chopped walnuts or even some sliced almonds would be perfect.

I have to head home at lunch to take care of the dogs, I know I'll be having one of my favorite sandwiches again - just like yesterday.  Then we're out of bread and I have to come up with another plan.

The 2012 HGTV Green Home

Serenbe is a small community just south of Atlanta, about 35 miles.  Don't worry if you've never heard of it, I hadn't either until HGTV told my team at work that they were building their 2012 Green Home there.  Still I didn't do any research, I just thought it was a town like Dunwoody or Grant Park.  I had no idea how special, fabulous, peaceful, lovely, charming, I could go on, it was.  I think it's one of the best kept secrets out there.  I'm sure more people know about it now that HGTV has put it on the map, but I hope it keeps it's charm.  This is going to be a long post, so this post I'll focus on the Green Home and my next one will be about Serenbe, my new obsession.

I was invited to visit the HGTV Green Home with my rep from the network and then enjoy some time around town and have an early dinner before the trip back to Atlanta.  I accepted because I was so excited to see the home, little did I know that it would be only a small part of my trip, and to be honest, not even the best part!

When we pulled into Serenbe, which you'll miss if you're not actually looking for it, we first saw the brand spankin new General Store.  We had a few minutes to kill so we ran in to check it out.  I was immediately impressed with the store, the staff and all the goodies they had to offer.

After purchasing a few small items, King of Pops is there, yes!, we headed across the street to the Green Home to start out private tour.  Tours were open to the public (through this weekend) by appointment.  Next week the winner of the house will be announced and the family gets to move into their new home, or turn around and sell it - I'll be waiting.

I'll admit, that from the street the house doesn't impress me.  I'm one for a big, wrap around porch with fans and big chairs for drinking wine and watching the neighbors walk on by.  At this point, the house felt too modern for me.  When you walk in the front door you're in a small little entry way where there is a large closet and three rooms that HGTV left unfinished so the new owners have room to grow.  To get to the rest of the house you head up gorgeous stairs and you're brought right into the kitchen, from the view below.

The last of the three pictures above is the opposite view of the first one.  The dining room table under the white lamps is all reclaimed pallets.  The floors are all re-purposed too, and the counter is the coolest.  Here is a close up view:

The counters are concrete mixed with shells from the GA coast and pieces of recycled beer bottles from Georgia Brewery, SweetWater (where we are having our wedding reception!).  The house has so many surprise like the counters, it was the small details that made the house so special.  The entire house is about 2000 sq ft, but feels twice that size because of the enormous ceilings and the windows, tons and tons of windows.

On the other side of the table is the living room pictured above.  There isn't a TV in this room, that's saved for two other rooms in the house.  The entire kitchen, dining and living space felt giant, when it really wasn't that big.  Through the sliding glass doors in the above pictures is this patio below.

Again, it's the small details that make the house so great.  If you look at the two pictures above you can see how big the space can feel because of the huge windows, the outside is so much a part of this house.

From the living room we went to the master bedroom which was much smaller than the one we have at home, but felt so big, again because of the high ceilings, windows and paint from walls to ceiling.  Click here to go to the HGTV tour.

The headboard was handmade and there is a tutorial on the HGTV website if you're interested in making your own.  If you look through the window in the picture you'll see the middle patio and then into the Georgia room.  the Master bath is floor to ceiling tile.  I took the picture from the water closet side of the bathroom, picture of toilets aren't interesting, a I'm looking into the center area with the double vanity in to the dual headed shower.  Each side could be programmed to your personal preferences with a key pad outside the shower area.  It is big enough for at least 8 people.

The middle patio is really the center of the mail level of the house with the kitchen to one side, the Georgia room on the other and the Master to the third side.  The forth side of the patio is the grill for outdoor entertaining.

This is the view if you're coming from the master bedroom which is to the left, the Georgia room to the right. Here is the view from the grill.

Instead of having the grill on the other side of the wall, they moved to to the far side so the grill master can see into 3 rooms of the house and still face the guests who are mingling around the kitchen (by the lamp in the background of the picture or under the umbrella at the table.

The Georgia room had one of my favorite features, the drill lamp!  How great is that?

The final room on the main floor is the media room below, well that's what I called it.  Again, walls and ceiling were painted the same color making the room feel much larger than it really was.  The sofa opens to a sleeper and the coffee table rolls under the long metal table by the window.

You'll also notice a window to the left in the picture above, this is an indoor window, you can see the view below.

From the media room and through the set of indoor windows you look through the main staircase, into the kitchen and out to the back patio where the sofa and chairs are with the "&" pillow.  This creates what the designer called borrowed light.  There is only one small light in the media room, but it has the large window to one side and then the borrowed light from the kitchen and staircase on the other.  Brilliant!  The kitchen also benefits from the light from the media room.

Up another flight of stairs and you come to four more rooms of the house, the main laundry room (there was a small stackable washer and dryer on the main floor off the kitchen in a mud room area), a "do" room with a long built-in desk perfect for homework or a craft table, a guest room and the kid's room.

Check out the kid's room!  It's not a large room, like all the other rooms, but it's full of windows and it uses the height of the room for additional space.  I love the loft area.  I really hope the family who wins the house has kids or grand-kids who can use this room to it's full potential.

The community is built to be just that, community.  Neighbors should get to know their neighbors.  You can see from this front porch that you can see quite a few other homes, some still under construction and an empty lot just waiting for a buyer.  More on that in the next post on Serenbe.

So there you have it, the 2012 Green Home.  I didn't take pictures of every single room, and some rooms didn't translate well to a two dimensional photograph.  The HGTV page has a virtual tour of the home which will do the house much more justice.  One last note I want to make is on the art in the house.  Most of it was from local artists or photographers in the area, keeping everything Georgia focused.  I noticed this wall art in the main laundry room - how simple and easy.  You'll also notice that one wall of the room is reflective tile so  the space has a lot of light with very little power.

Over 35 million people registered to win the 2012 Green Home, I can't wait to see who wins.  I hope they like stairs and getting to know your neighbors.  Serenbe looks like an amazing place to live if your lifestyle can mold to fit to the community, because it is a special place.