Just wanted to tell our story of coming to The Pinehills. We started to plan for retirement about 4 years before we left our jobs. After spending a lot of time on vacation in Hilton Head Island, we wanted to live that life in retirement and started searching for something that resembled that way of life. After months/years of looking, we found that The Pinehills development was patterned after the Hilton Head Island concept. So we decided to take a look, and at that time, there were about 12 builders with each having different development ideas. Each one at this time had an open house model home for viewing.

Since we were still working at this time, we took every weekend and holiday to drive down from our home in Dorchester, Massachusetts, to view a different home style and walk around the model. We would then go home and discuss/fight about our ideas of what we had seen. We were closing in on the 55-plus neighborhood of the Great Island homes, and started to put our Dorchester house on the market to see if we could make a lateral real estate move, since it had been paid off years earlier.

Things seemed to be moving fast, as fast as homes were built, they were sold. A new 55-plus development had been started that looked like it could answer all our needs, called Seton Highlands, being built by Abbott builders. Not wanting to miss our dream concept of having the entire home built around the fireplace in the center of the first floor, which gave all who entered that "WOW" feeling, we made an offer on one under construction, with plans for a walkout lower level, and eleven windows plus sliding patio doors to a large landscaped area. That would be located on a corner lot at the beginning of a cul-de-sac.

This was in 2007, and of course, every weekend we drove down to make changes to the plans and to help the workers and contractors in doing their jobs (smiles). As our building progressed, we started to bring items from our house in the city to help move things along. We brought our guest bedroom set in first so we could spend a night if needed, as all walls and windows were put in by this time. I had a company van for my job and was able to use it on weekends, which allowed me to next bring down the kitchen set, so we would have a place to have lunch, and a place for the workers to eat.

There were already two other finished homes in the cul-de-sac that were occupied, and we later found out that they thought we were the movers and not the incoming neighbor (We all later laughed about that). On our first nights here, I had to play the radio because of the unusual quiet. We were from the city and used to fire/police, boom boxes, and people talking as they passed by our house sounds and felt different. We are used to it now and just love it here, and with the building of the assisted living facility, when and if needed, my wife can just bicycle up to see me every day.
– Victor Wilcher

Celebrating 25 Years

That "WOW" feeling

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