Ted: This condo feels like a three-bedroom ranch. There’s enough room so that each of us has our own space — because we have different activities that we’re interested in. Each of these condos comes with its own storage space. That was an important feature for me. I like to fly remote control model airplanes. Half of [the room] we use for storage; half of it I have a work bench so I can work on these model planes.

You do not share any walls with any of the owners in the condos. You only share floors, and they made the spacing between the floors quite large. That was an attractive feature to us because we have windows on all three sides and we have the common hallway area on the fourth side. The building is shaped like an H, so each arm of the H has three condos, one on top of the other. And the cross bar of the H is the hallway area. It includes stairs at the ends and an elevator in the middle. For me, knowing my back was getting very bad, the elevator was an important feature because I like living on top with this view.

Nancy: We really like the roominess and the ease of living here. It’s very comfortable.

Ted: Although we downsized a lot of our possessions, I feel we haven’t downsized a lot of our functional living space. It’s very roomy.

Why We Chose Our Condo

Nancy: We chose this particular condo because we were looking for something more adaptable as we got older. We loved that it was on one floor, lots of windows and light, easy access to my husband’s work and where my children were living at the time.

We weren’t originally looking for a condo. We were looking to downsize primarily our yard, but we couldn’t find a smaller home in Meadowmont but really liked this floor plan.

Ted: I must say the decision to move into a condo was a difficult one because I really liked the house that we were living in before.

Nancy: It took us a long time. We first looked at the original building when it was only stud walls. We liked it a lot. But at that point we weren’t looking for a multi-unit condominium arrangement, and I certainly wasn’t buying anything that wasn’t finished. But we kept our eye on it. And it was lovely.

We had decided that this particular unit — top floor rear, looking in whatever direction we’re looking — was the one we wanted because we do have a pretty view and the building next to us is a little skewed, so we have a greater separation on this side than some of our other neighbors.

Advantages

Nancy: We like our neighbors. The folks in the entire complex for the most part are delightful. We happen to think we lucked into the building with the nicest people. Ted: When we were looking for something with less to maintain, there really wasn’t much in Chapel Hill.

Nancy: Particularly in the high-end area.

Ted: A lot of condos are side by side by side, so you share walls. Here it’s quite easy to air out the condo.

Nancy: Because of the windows on the three sides.

Ted: It’s highly efficient. Our energy costs are way low compared to our house. There is one other major advantage: I-40 is a mile and a half away.

Nancy: Maybe two miles.

Ted: So then it’s another two miles to Southpoint. With our son living in Raleigh, it’s only another 30 minutes to get to Raleigh. For me workwise, it’s significant that it’s a 20-minute drive to get to the airport.

Disadvantages

Ted: My stage of life I don’t think there are any disadvantages. If I were 20 years younger, I think I’d still like to live in a house with a lawn. One place we did look at a lot was Fearrington because Fearrington offered houses with very similar floor plans. Their plan was you buy the house and they’ll take care of the lawn, so a lot of people have chosen that as their solution to going from a large home to downsizing.

Nancy: Less maintenance, but it was too far away.

One of the things we expected to miss moving here were the birdfeeders we had out on our deck. The lady at the Wild Bird shop said, “Oh, just put one on your window.” So we did, and they come.

Our Neighborhood

Ted: It’s just nice to walk around in. This is a planned community in which I think most people take very good care of their property.

Nancy: It’s attractive. I feel very safe here. There are a number of community activities to bring people together. The Meadowmont neighborhood association sponsors a monthly brunch bunch, a drop-in event at the café in the village. Our condo association hosts a couple of social events for the residents of the condos, so people get a chance to meet each other from different buildings. And you get to meet people walking around, with the playground if you’re there with kids and the wellness center with various exercise classes. It’s a nice place socially.

How We Made 
Our Condo a Home

Nancy: We brought everything with us we had before. I only bought two or three new pieces of furniture. It was close enough in size to our last house, we really only got rid of one bedroom’s worth of furniture.

The first few months we were here, Ted used to say he felt like he was on vacation whenever he came up the elevator because that was an experience not in our daily life before. But, you know, it is home. The fact that it was such a good fit is what made us comfortable right from the beginning.