It will be February when the first family to occupy Autumn Hall moves into its new home next week. Their builder, David DesChamps of Red Star Construction, designed the house and broke ground in August. During the six-month construction process, the homeowners walked their dog and strolled their baby throughout the community and enjoyed the six parks located in their Phase I neighborhood, all linked by paved sidewalks.
DesChamps is one of five local builders approved by Autumn Hall developer Raiford Trask III to mint a new architectural style: Cape Fear Heritage, rooted in the architecture of old Wilmington’s antebellum manors, Southport’s coastal plantation homes, and Wrightsville’s casual summer cottages and grand soundside retreats. Authentic details such as low brick walls, standing seam roofs, detailed metalwork, deep overhangs, grand porches and outdoor rooms will be evident in the design of the new homes, including this first-completed dwelling at Dungannon Village.
Staff photo by Joshua Curry
This new house at 5412 Old Garden Road in Dungannon Village is the first home to be completed in Autumn Hall. The new owners move in next week. |
The charming, pale green two-story, weatherboard-over-frame home, supported with a tabby and trellis foundation, has enormous curb appeal. The yard is surrounded by a gated white picket fence that opens to a small grassed yard and a patio with a tabby fireplace, sheltered beneath the canopy of an oak tree that presented a bit of a design challenge for DesChamps when it came to siting the 3,160-square-foot home. Tree preservation being one of the hallmarks of Autumn Hall’s master plans, work around it DesChamps did.
The interior design is coined neo-traditional. A glazed mahogany door flanked by side lights opens into a spacious foyer. To the left, a formal dining room with paneled wainscoting, chair rail and coffered ceiling. To the right, a powder room and adjoining study that overlooks the street. The foyer is linked by a passage to a contemporary open kitchen and living room embellished with traditional details — Caribbean heart pine floors, fireplace with mantel, and built-in bookshelves and cabinets. The open kitchen, designed by Krista DesChamps, features maple cabinets, coast green granite counters and Kitchen Aid Energy Star-rated appliances.
Early morning sunlight floods the living area through a pair of sliding glass doors that provide access to an open deck and the side yard. The late afternoon sun trickles into clerestory windows that perforate the west elevation, set high into the upper wall to screen the view of the adjacent home. The garage occupies the rear ell, which faces south with private access by way of an alley that adjoins Edisto Park nearby.
Staff photo by Joshua Curry
A formal dining room with paneled wainscot, chair rail and chandelier is the traditional element of the neo-traditional floor plan. |
Vintage details — tobacco brown and white tile floors, built-in benches and coat hooks, beaded board wainscot and old-fashioned plumbing hardware — add the nuance of coastal cottage to the mud room, the powder room and the laundry. A wet bar at the foot of the enclosed stair is an added convenience.
On the second floor, the master bedroom is placed at the top of the stairs to benefit from the second-level porch. A spacious bedroom adjoins a large bath with a double sink vanity, a corner whirlpool tub, glass enclosed shower and walk-in closet. Two additional bedrooms share a full bath. An upstairs home office and playroom above the garage enjoys the added passive solar benefit of its southern exposure.
The crimped metal roof will be a standard feature of many of the new homes in Autumn Hall. One alternative is slate.
“This is not a cookie-cutter community,” said Brian Lewis, sales associate. The ideal client, Lewis said, represents the entire spectrum of the demographic range — from young families to working professionals to retired couples — who might afford completed new homes starting at $650,000.
“With five to six sets of plans,” Lewis said, “there is a lot of flexibility.”
If and when they decide they want it or need it, the new owners can transition their 5-foot-by-5-foot first-floor pantry and upstairs hall closet into an elevator and restyle the first-floor study into a guest room. For now, they are content to grow into their floor plan and into their neighborhood, where six more homes are nearing completion.
In a climate where home sales are languishing, the winds of change are coming to Autumn Hall, where a first-class neighborhood is emerging from the landscape.
