Saturday, March 3, 2012

The Grange at Serenbe: Details

The Grange at Serenbe

The HGTV 2012 Green Home is located in a section of the Serenbe Community known as the Grange.  Serenbe construction has been divided into three phases.  The first, which is pretty much completed, is Selborne, the cultural center.  Next is the Grange, which will have a more rural aspect.  Between the town section of Selborne and the Grange is a transitional neighborhood called the Crossroads (which is still part of Selborne).  All of the Crossroads houses seem to be variations on the white-painted farmhouse look.  The third phase is Mado, with a focus on health and wellness.  And according to our friendly waiter at The Hil, a fourth phase is being considered, which will be more of an artists' community.

I modified the Grange map above from the Serenbe website to reflect its current state of development to the best of my recollection from our trip.  When you arrive at Serenbe you enter via Selborne Lane.  From the side that we entered you will take a left onto Gainey Lane just before the Serenbe Stables and you will be headed for the Grange.  Gainey Lane ends at the intersection with Serenbe Lane.  At Serenbe Lane a right turn will take you to the west side of the lake, where the Green Home is located.  You will drive past some townhouses on your right and the Bosch homes under construction to your left before you reach the Green Home.  No other houses are built in the vicinity of the Green Home at this time, and beyond the Green Home only four other houses are constructed so far.  The first two are on the right just past the Green Home and one is for sale right now:

10731 Serenbe Lane

The other two are contemporary homes farther on down and to the left on the lake side (I included their photos near the end of my first Serenbe post in September).  Beyond these homes the road is quite rough and is closed off.

There is a lot more construction activity on the east side of the lake.  The Nest Cottages are well under way (notice that their location has moved from the "Xed" area on my map to their current location).  Quite a few houses have been built to the north of the Nest, and this one is under construction just to the south (my husband and I really like the natural-looking shingles and hope that they stay that way):


The road continues on all the way to the end of Serenbe and back out to a main road (Atlanta-Newnan Road), but there is a gate up so access is blocked off from this direction.  All of the construction as well as all of the rain we have been enduring lately have made the lake look quite muddy, but it was not like that last fall and I am sure this is only temporary.

Back up to where Gainey Lane runs into Serenbe Lane you can see the area marked in red where the shopping area and barbecue restaurant will be built.  At this point the land has been surveyed and marked with flagging tape but has not yet been cleared.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, the plan is to have this area well under construction by the end of the year, with the restaurant completed by then.

That's about it for the information I have to share at this time.  Be sure to check out these aerial photos of Serenbe to get an even better idea of what the community looks like:


And there are three consecutive videos by cnibbana on YouTube of a drive-through tour in Serenbe which will help you visualize just where everything I've described can be found -- here is the first (Serenbe, GA tour 1), which will link you to the next two (Serenbe, GA tour 2 and Serenbe, GA tour 3) after you've watched it:



These drive-through video tours are the next best thing to being there!  Thank you, cnibbana, for posting them!