Buyer knew Lochmere Place home was the one she wanted

Michelle and Mark Wall needed a new home – fast.

The beginning of the school year loomed, and they wanted to find a home in the Edythe J. Hayes Middle School district. Michelle’s search turned up a home at 769 Lochmere Place in The Enclave at Lochmere, off Chilesburg Road. It had just gone on the market. She saw some pictures and liked the kitchen and the open living room with all its windows. But there was a slight snag in getting the opportunity to look at the house in person.

“I didn’t even have a Realtor because we hadn’t formerly started looking yet,” Michelle said. So she enlisted some help.

“I sent a message to all my girlfriends and said, ‘Does anybody know of a Realtor?’” she said. “One of them gave me the name of a friend who was a Realtor, and I called and said, ‘Can you get me into this house?’”

An open house was scheduled for that very weekend. Michelle went to look at the house and made her mind up immediately: “I’ve got to have this house.”

However, her husband was out of town on business. Could Michelle make a monumental decision like this without his input? She sent Mark some photos with an emphatic message: “I really want this house.” She wanted to put an offer in before the open house to ensure they would get it.

Mark sent his positive reply long-distance, agreeing to let her put an offer on the house without him seeing it. “She said, ‘This is where I want to be’ and I said, ‘I trust you,” he said.

Turns out Michelle’s instincts were right. The house was the perfect place for them and their three children.

“It’s a beautiful house,” Mark said.

Scenic Serenity

“What really drew me to the house was the kitchen,” Michelle said. “I loved the views of the walking trail out back behind the house and all the trees. I loved all the windows we have in here.”

The kitchen has a large island, granite countertops and stainless appliances, including a double oven with a five-burner range. There is also a huge walk-in pantry and a wine cooler under one counter. From the kitchen you can walk out onto a covered deck, and you can take the stairs down to the back yard.

“We love to sit out on the deck at night,” Michelle said.

“Almost every night we eat outside on the deck,” Mark said. Overhead fans keep everyone comfortable and chase away insects. The trail below goes all the way around the neighborhood, and nothing will be built behind the Walls’ house, so they will continue to enjoy scenic serenity whether they are on their deck or in the living room with the tall windows flanking the fireplace affording another great view.

“My kids love to go out there on the trail,” Michelle said. “They have a fort out there somewhere back in the trees. I do photography so I take pictures out there often.”

On the second story of the house are four bedrooms. The owner’s suite is accessed by a couple of steps up from the hallway, giving it a bit of a secluded feel. This spacious room has a wonderful tray ceiling complete with a fan. The washing machine and dryer are in the upstairs utility room, making laundry day a breeze.

Chicago Style

The basement was another selling point for Michelle. It already had a bar in it and lots of blue carpeting, but Michelle saw the potential in it.

“We like to entertain,” she said. “We bought the house in September and we wanted to have a Christmas party, so we rushed and got the whole basement finished in a month and a half.”

One eye-catching feature in the basement is the huge sliding barn doors that can be used to close off an exercise room and a playroom from the bar area.

“It was just one big room, so we made it so that we can have room to enjoy with our friends,” Mark said. “And then if we want to close it off, we can. It worked out pretty well. We were able to make a workout room down here for us as well.”

“The doors were custom built,” Michelle said. “They actually came off a barn that collapsed.”

“We didn’t want to go with the traditional doors,” Mark added. “I said, ‘Let’s do something unique.’ The doors are about 300 pounds each.”

Michelle’s aim in decorating the bar area was to make it reminiscent of Chicago, where she and Mark met.

“There’s a little bar in downtown Lexington. It’s the only place that reminded us of home and the places that we like to go to back home,” Michelle said. “They have a similar décor with a brick wall and shelving and rustic touches. We painted the whole basement and put in the brick wall and the floors and all the shelving.”

There is a fifth bedroom with a complete bath in the basement, an ideal place for family to stay when they come to visit. Other improvements and upgrades the Walls made to the house include some of the flooring and light fixtures, as well as custom blinds in both the basement and the family room.

A particular upgrade request from their builder is the front porch, a perfect place for the family to gather and sit together enjoying the quiet comfort of their neighborhood and all its green space.