The lot is 140 feet across, 300 feet long, sloping down towards the water. To the north (up) is national forest land. That's one more lot between us; we chose this one as it gave a better view of the lake with fewer trees in the way. This development had previously been cleared for pasture land, there's hardly any trees on it as you can see in the topo map, it's marked in white for NO TREES. The road you see leading into the white area isn't there anymore; development roads have been paved in. Our road is at the extreme west of the lot, right next to that green area on the left.
According to this, the top of the lot is at about 2120 ft elevation, or roughly 400 feet higher than the lake. The grade is about 15 degrees; just about at the upper limit of mowable. Certainly not something we'll be playing baseball or croquet on. But we never played those games on the flat Florida lot, either, so who cares.
Here's a zoomed out view, showing more of the lake, and the nearest town, Blairsville. The lot is marked with the red cross in this map (in the above map the red cross is wrong). Blairsville is classic small town going through big growth. The new high school and middle school will be ready next year. They just built a Home Depot. Walmart is coming soon, although there's one in Murphy, NC just off the top of this map.
Satellite View from 1994. The lake was formed by the Tennessee Valley Authority and is subject to annual changes in water level. During the winter it tends to go down, in the spring, it goes up. In this photo it looks like it's about halfway down; as you can see there are quite a few mud flats, but still plenty of water left for playing in. There's a boat ramp in the right middle of the picture in that cove there, roughly a mile away from the lot.
For a panorama showing the view from the top of the lot, facing east in the center, click (500KB JPG). Taken February 2002, thus the low water and many dead trees.
Road Map showing position relative to Atlanta and other areas. Some of the most beautiful driving on the east coast is right around that big red circle I drew. Also marvelous camping, etc. Why's that you say? Because that's where the Smoky Mountains end. Look at the panorama (up there, yep, that link), you'll see.
Here's the drawing of the subdivision. We're lot number 35. You can see the roads that actually exist here. They're not on any official map because they were just paved a few months ago. There's a house being built on lot 42, one almost finished on lot 29, and a couple more just starting up.
Notice how our lot stretches from one road to the other; this means that no one can build below us and block the view except on the other side of that road.
Here is a picture of someone else building a house very similar to the one we want to build on a different lot, nearby. Amazing coincidence. That's my wife's car in the picture.
Here is another one of the very big reasons we want to move to Blairsville, in north Georgia. The climate averages over 68 years:
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Moderate summers with a nice warm mid 80s that drops to a cool 60 at night. Chilly but tolerable winters that typically freeze only at night but warm up enough during the day to walk around in a sweater comfortably. Plenty of rain, well distributed. Hardly any snow; usually it melts.
Another big reason: SEASONS. Watching fall come through with that view will be the highpoint of the year. We don't have seasons in Florida, you know. No big leaf change. Here, though, we'll watch it come down the hills.
