Ages: 46 and 57

Occupations: Stacia — former director of regulatory compliance for Guardian Life Insurance Company in New York, former director of program management for Christ United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, now considering legal work for an architecture firm; Don — retired from Sheriff’s Department in New York, volunteers at Scroggs Elementary School in Southern Village

Child: Marcus, 11

Address: 413 Brookgreen Drive, Chapel Hill, in Southern Village

Square Footage: 2,790

Acreage: One-tenth of an acre

Details: Three-story Charleston-style house with lower porch hidden by double red doors; second-floor porch; bonus room over garage with separate stairwell in rear of the house; side garden; two-car garage that opens to alley in back; and small backyard with brick patio. First floor: Foyer opens to stairwell, a guest bedroom suite used as office, open sitting room and open living room; open kitchen with breakfast area, breakfast bar and built-in desk. Second floor: overlooks foyer; guest bedroom, laundry room, bedroom with door connecting to hallway bathroom, master bedroom and bathroom with vaulted ceilings; stairwell to third-floor, walk-up attic.

Move-in Date: February 2002

Nearby Landmarks: Lumina Theatre, Weaver Street Market

Where we live

Stacia: I like the house because it looks very small and narrow in the front. It’s deceptive. It takes up a small footprint. It’s a personal philosophy of mine. I just hate these sprawling homes. We always said that if we ever owned a home, we wanted every room in the home used. We didn’t want a shrine or a room where you just poked your head in. Every room in this house is used. This house is lived in. It’s not a showpiece.

Most of the houses in Southern Village have no acreage. Ours is a tenth of an acre. It’s nothing to speak of. It was kind of intentional. Right down the street, there’s a huge field, and the kids will go down there and play. They have access to two big fields and the woods. Sometimes I do miss a yard, but not often.

Why we chose our home

Stacia: Sept. 11 kind of was the catalyst for our coming here. I started thinking about our lifestyle. I commuted four hours each day to and from New York. I didn’t grow up like that. I grew up in the city. Our parents didn’t coordinate play dates. I thought, “I don’t want to have to drive Marcus everywhere. He needs some semblance of autonomy.” When I started really thinking about how we were living, Marcus was about 4.

We came here by the Internet. I chose the neighborhood before I chose the house. The style of the community is neo-traditional. It’s designed with walkability in mind. Our greenway trail will hook up to the Southern Community Park that’s being put in, so we won’t have to get in the car. We can just get on the trail and bike or walk. We use the car very little here. We really picked the lifestyle, and then we picked the house. What I’ve found is a lot of people who move here from New York or New Jersey have picked communities like ours because it feels citylike.

I really liked the style of our house. I like the double doors with the hidden porch. If you go to Charleston, you’ll see a lot of porches are designed with that style with a side garden. I like the layout of the house. It’s a good mix of being open with some kind of formality. Also, to me, it was very important to have a full bathroom on the first floor or a master bedroom. My grandma didn’t have a bathroom on the first floor. She became a prisoner in her own house. The guest bedroom suite on the first floor was probably the biggest seller. That really opened my eyes about how we live and the different stages of our lives.

Advantages

Stacia: Being able to walk to school, to the store. There’s just a real sense of community here. And then there’s the free public transportation, which I love. It goes right by our front door. A lot of people were up in arms about it. But I like it. I’d rather give Marcus the bus schedule than car keys when he’s 16.

This house is within walking distance of the commercial area, which I love. There’s pizza. There’s a movie theater. There’s an outdoor theater. There’s ice cream. Weaver Street Market is up there. If I get antsy for conversation, I can walk up to the coffee shop and almost always run into someone I know. I can send Marcus up to the store for milk.

There’s also a clubhouse, pool and tennis courts. We walk down to the pool. Sometimes we’ll stay there all day and just order food.

Disadvantages

Stacia: There are times I wish I could wave a wand and have a bigger yard so we could have a barbecue. We used to throw barbecues all the time in New York. And a basement. That would be one disadvantage — not having a real family room to play in. And not having a full attic. It’s not big enough. It doesn’t run the full length of the house. That would be the downside to the style of the house. I plan to finish the attic for Marcus and his friends, put a little refrigerator up there and let them have at it. That way they have somewhere to play besides our living room. His dad gets kicked out.

Our neighborhood

Stacia: One of the things that I love about it — whether it’s morning or night — is I love going out and walking. People always are outside walking. There’s a fairly good mix in age range. There’s not as much ethnicity as I would like, particularly African-American.

The biggest thing about the neighborhood is community because my [extended] family is not here. Living here makes it very easy to get involved if you want to. All of the merchants up there, I can honestly say I know all of them; they all know my kid’s name. It’s a community.

There are a lot of people who will buy up or buy down here, depending on their needs. The prior owner sold us the house and moved to a townhouse here.

Making our house a home

Stacia: Color. I love color. When we picked the fabric for our sofa, the designer said, “Oh, you could choose this taupe, this neutral for the walls.” But that’s not really what I want. I love color. My front door is red. The color in here [breakfast area] is a clay color, almost orangey. My office is a bright yellow gold. My bathroom is red. One wall in my bedroom is red, and the rest is a pale green. I love color. That’s what energizes me.