This blog is primarily about my (our) experiences when we visit new homes, mainly on our home turf, and all of the new and interesting things that home builders choose to do with these new homes. But I can't always make the spur of the moment trips that we make around the corner (and further...sometimes much further) to see the newest homes. That's where my 12 y.o. son, Tristan, comes in. He likes to go with my wife, Sandy, and I to look at houses for fun, too. His favorite thing to do when we're looking at houses is to pick out which bedroom would be his. Same thing goes for my daughter.

Tristan and Sandy returned from their trip where they visited several homes in different subdivisions. He was very excited to show me that he had taken his own pictures of things that were interesting to him and some details that he thought I would have wanted to see had I been there. Very sweet...very thoughtful. And then it dawned on me that we had created a monster...a home-stalking monster. Without any direction from Sandy, Tristan discovered a laundry chute in one of the homes they visited and took some photos from some very smart angles and what follows are his photographic results. After a total of only 244 pictures later of some of the other homes they visited, he was ready to head back home. Thank God for digital.

One of the coolest features that I find to be a pleasant surprise when we're out looking at homes are walk-in hidden kitchen pantries. Not only are walk-in hidden kitchen pantries a cool feature but they are convenient, they blend in with the rest of the kitchen and they also have plenty of storage.

I've got a few photos of walk-in hidden pantries to show you to give you some ideas.

Welcome to a His & Her Custom Walk-In Closet with Dressing Area courtesy of the Senoia floor plan built by Donny Brook Homes in The Park at Anderson Farm in Marietta, Georgia. The floor plan and photo in the link provided above (in red lettering) is reverse of the home I toured.

There are two things to say about this large, his and her walk-in closet: Nice design and great storage capability.

In general, I find pantries and walk-in closets in new homes somewhat boring. In most new homes they tend to be strictly utilitarian and have little, if any, character and that's just fine for the average homebuyer. We were looking at some homes recently that had closet space, seemingly, everywhere you looked. There was nothing spectacular about the closets themselves, just that there were many of them within each home...with the exception of the walk-in closet within the walk-in closet in the Devonshire plan in Blackberry Run.

Seven Hills Master Planned Community

The homes are located in the Blackberry Run section of Seven Hills subdivision and it is a master-planned Cousins Properties community in northeast Paulding County, Georgia. My understanding is that there will be upwards of 2800+ homes spread out over 2000 acres and prices will range from the $170's - $600's, a wide range indeed. There are several sections in this huge subdivision, located just a couple miles north of our home, that will definitely have to be explored in the coming weeks, months or even years by the looks of the GIGANTIC size of the master plan. Seven Hills is "built out" about a quarter of the way so I've got plenty to look at for awhile.

The homes we looked at in the Blackberry Run section were Lots 332: The North Hampton, 290: The Courtland & 291: The Devonshire. Open this link and scroll down to see more info on the homes we looked at.

We recently visited Huntington Park subdivision with homes that range in price from the $400's - $600's+. These homes had loads of great details inside and out. The lot sizes ranged from around 1/3-3/4 acre and were primarily on mildly rolling terrain. They were located on beautiful, wooded acreage to say the least. It's a shame to see these old homesteads turn into subdivisions, one by one, but free choices are made and progress marches on.

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