Create Smoky Mountain Memories, Santeetlah Spectacular Lakefront Home

About Owner

The owner of this home is also the designer and builder of the home. I am a professor of Construction Technology at Indian River State College in Fort Pierce, Florida. It took me nine months to design and over two years to build this extra-special home. I personally worked on and was involved in every aspect of the construction, even to the point of custom hand making one-of-a-kind: queen beds, kitchen table, and the pine furniture cabinets in the kitchen. My favorite things to do: Spend time with my 5 children, fish (we caught 86 keeper size fish last summer on Santeetlah -white bass, walleye, lake trout, large mouth bass), and water ski. I am a licensed builder in both Florida and North Carolina (NC License No. 62831) and was initially licensed in Michigan. I teach all the building construction courses that lead to an A.S. Degree in Building Construction Technology. Builders, their employees, subcontractors, suppliers, and some county building officials enroll in my courses to earn a college degree. I have worked in the construction industry for over 27 years and on a tremendous range of projects: hospitals, stores, industrial buildings and warehouses, projects for the US Army, US Air Force, US Coast Guard, custom homes, renovations, restaurants, auto industry, churches, and schools.

Owner purchased this House in 2009

Why Owner chose Cheoah

Before building here, we took a family vacation with the goal of finding the best mountain lake to buy property and build. Since we live on the water in Florida we wanted more than 'flat or rolling land with a lake' since we already had that. We wanted to change the lifestyle and environment as much as we could and still be within a day's drive of South Florida. That ruled out many states and left the mountain areas of North Carolina as the best of all worlds. We then literally looked at the NC map and drove to every lake that was big enough to appear on the map and was on the western half of the state (not interested in rolling hills). We narrowed it down to 3 lakes and then considered other factors such as driving distance to stores and how safe or easy the drive would be. The other two lakes had roads that were too scary for my wife and driving age daughters, besides taking 30 min or more just to reach some sort of store. The winner was Santeetlah in almost every category. (What good is a nice lake if it is crowded with boats and cottages) We absolutley love our choice.

What makes this House unique

The unique features and benefits of this home are almost too long to list so to name a few: Everything is clean, crisp, and fresh. There is no long walk to the water, the home is right on the water's edge. Every room except for the bonus room and bathrooms have oversized windows and a view of the water and mountains. (Even the stairs leading to the basement has a window) The driveway and road is at house level for super easy and safe access. Plus there is plenty of parking area unlike some homes that have you park on the shoulder of the road. You do not have cottages right next to you as many of the other homes on the lake have. You have a choice of a covered screened-in porch, open upper and lower decks, covered front porch, or covered rear porch area. So even if it rains there are places to sit outside. There are no other docks right next to you, you can sunbathe and swim in privacy.