On October 11, 2011, Pike Road residents voted to raise property taxes to support a new, independent Pike Road school system.  Plans for this school have been in the works since 2006, and the approval of a 16 mill property tax increase means construction of a K-8 facility will begin in 2014.  Grades 9-12 will be phased in, one per year, thereafter.

The Town of Pike Road’s website is a great resource to find out more about the new school.  Here’s the short version of what it’s all about (for the longer version, click here):

The Pike Road School will be a Professional Development School, or PDS.  This means it will partner with 4 universities in this area to help future teachers learn alongside veteran teachers and university faculty.  The goal is a win-win environment for students in Pike Road, for the universities, and for other students in Alabama who will benefit from the resources and research done at the school.

The school will be within Montgomery County, but independent of the Montgomery Public School System.

But this is a real estate website.  Why all the talk about a new school?

If you currently live in Pike Road, in my estimation, you’ll likely see property values rise.  Think of other independent school systems in Birmingham, for example, and the demand for housing in those zones.  This is merely anecdotal evidence, but since the vote in October, developments that have been ghost towns since the recession are booming: Bon Terre, Providence – have you been by in the last few months? Whoa.

If you have any questions or would like to speak to a Realtor about properties in Pike Road, give us a call.  We’d love to help you find your piece of Pike Road and take advantage of the new school system. Call John at (334) 221-5862, or contact him by clicking here.

If you need to jump on I-85 N quickly, like a suburban atmosphere in a rural part of Pike Road, and prefer neighborhood amenities like a pool and clubhouse, Stone Park might be a good fit.

Stone Park has new construction homes that are Craftsman in style.  According the Stone Park website, standard features include  10 foot ceilings, granite counter tops, custom cabinets, and fenced yards.  You’ll see exterior designs that are similar to most new-construction neighborhoods, i.e. 2 car garages on the front of homes. You’ll also see sidewalks and underground utilities.

Homes range in size from 2,015 SF – 3,200 SF, and prices begin in the low $200’s.

At this time, Stone Park is one of the closest new construction neighborhoods to the proposed Pike Road School site.  The new school will be located in the back of The Waters development, which is maybe a mile or two from Stone Park down Marler Road.

If you’d like more information on homes for sale right now in Stone Park, or have any questions about Pike Road real estate, call John at (334) 221-5862, email us at threeriversrecon @ coleyre. com, or simply click here to fill out the contact form.

Gray Ridge is small – there’s one main street that runs through the development – so there’s no thru traffic, and it’s very convenient to I-85.  Some parts of Pike Road are very rural, but Gray Ridge has a suburban feel. It backs up to the established neighborhood of Lochshire, and is also close to Bridle Brook and Woodland Creek.

Gray Ridge is just north of the Pike and Vaughn Roads intersection.  Turn left from Vaughn Road onto Pike Road, pass the CVS and entrance to Lochshire, and Gray Ridge is the next neighborhood on your right. You’re close to Vaughn  Road, Chantilly Parkway (Wal Mart, Home Depot), and The Shoppes at EastChase.  For a Pike Road location, it’s very close to East Montgomery, and since you can hop on I-85 quickly at either the Mitylene or Waugfh exits via Highway 80, drive time into the city is pretty quick.

Gray Ridge is another neighborhood that was originally begun before the recession of 2008.  One or maybe two homes were built, and then it sat silent for a few years.  It’s been in the hands of a couple of developers along the way, but Gray Ridge is now being built out by Stone Martin Builders. Similar to Bon Terre and Providence (both neighborhoods also on Pike Road), there are lots for sale and floor plans to choose from.  According to the ad in Montgomery Advertiser East Montgomery December 28, 2012 paper,  homes in Gray Ridge have 2,000 – 4,300 SF of living space and are priced from the $170’s to the $210’s.

I’ll let you do the math.

If you’d like to know more about homes and lots for sale right now in Gray Ridge, or have questions about Pike Road real estate in general,  contact us by clicking here, or call John at (334) 221-5862.

Video Tour of Providence Neighborhood In Pike Road, AL

Providence is located southeast of the intersection of Vaughn and Pike Roads, and I think construction of this neighborhood originally began around 2007 or so.  The homes and lots were pricey, and the architectural style was going to be “French Country and European” according to the original developer’s sales material.

Then we had a recession and Providence construction came to a screeching halt.

Enter Stone Martin Builders around 2011, and the neighborhood is back on track, but with a new vision, significantly reduced prices, and more limited choices in architectural styles and floor plans.

According to a January 11, 2012 article in the Montgomery Advertiser’s East Montgomery newspaper, there are “at least 104 lots” now available in Providence, and the builders have several floor plans you can choose from.  These are big homes:  designs range from around 2,000 square feet to 4,300 square feet, with prices from the $219’s – $300’s.

Stone Martin has bought other partially built Pike Road developments and is quickly building them out.  Bon Terre and Gray Ridge, also neighborhoods on Pike Road in close proximity to Providence, are quickly filling up with new homes, too.

Why the push to be in Pike Road?   #1, in my opinion these homes are being built at significantly lower prices than anywhere else in town. Look at the square footage and prices above and do the math.   #2 The Pike Road school system.

This past October, Town of Pike Road residents voted to raise property taxes in order to support a brand new Pike Road public school system, separate from the Montgomery Public School System.  The new k-12 school is expected to open the first phase of its K-8 facility in 2015.  All residents of Pike Road will be zoned for this new school.

To recap: new construction, large homes, low prices, new school system = get it while it’s hot.

If you have questions about Providence or any homes in Pike Road, contact us by clicking here, call us  at (334) 22-15862, or email us at threeriversrecon @ coleyre . com.

In a good way.

Like maybe a it’s little more hip than the typical central Alabama neighborhood?  (What is Hampstead? Read more here.)

I love that I get these emails every now and then from “Events@Hampstead” letting me know what’s going on there.  You can get them, too, by going to the Town of Hampstead website and subscribing to their newsletter.  The emails don’t come often, and usually have something pretty interesting to say.

For example – the latest one announces the opening of The Tipping Point coffee shop and bar AND the upcoming opening of Ham and High restaurant on April 30th.  See what I mean?  Two cool new places to gather, eat and drink in Montgomery!

My neighborhood emails usually announce the due date for HOA dues and dates of neighborhood work parties.  Not nearly as exciting!

Even if you choose another River Region neighborhood to call home, Hampstead still invites us all to join in on the fun.  For help with your Montgomery-area house hunt, contact us at the number above.  We’re local Realtors who would love to work for you!

I do too!

If you haven’t been to this great little sweet shop in the Winn Dixie/Sturbridge shopping center on Vaughn Road, you need to go.  Nancy’s passes our test for 3 reasons:

1) It really tastes good (the kids will eat all of it).  The Italian ice comes in fruity flavors, plus, there’s gelato (like a dense ice cream), soft serve ice cream, and baked goods like cookies and cupcakes.  Someone under 6 at our table immediately ate the icing off the cupcake we bought (imagine that) so I didn’t get a lick of icing, but the cake was more like a pound cake than a regular cake = excellent!!  The baked goods are made in the store each morning.

2) It is reasonably priced.   We don’t like taking out a loan to go to the ice cream shop.  At Nancy’s, the kid’s “little owl” cup is $0.99.  The servings are huge. You get a lot of mileage out of a trip with prices like that.

3) It’s a locally owned, family business.  It’s fun to support them.  And from what we gathered on our last trip, a lot of Montgomery families are also having fun supporting them!  The after-school traffic was steady, and it was nice to gather and visit with friends.

Thanks, Nancy’s, for adding some more local flavor to east Montgomery!

If you’d like to find a home near great restaurants and shops like Nancy’s, give us a call.  We can show you any property in the Montgomery Area MLS, and it costs buyers nothing to have a Realtor on your side!

The Feed Lot has products that will help you take care of it.

In this neck of the woods, Bermuda grass is the ground cover of choice.  It has a fine blade, is invasive, and varieties are used for golf course and football field turf.  Whether you care for it or not, it’s probably in your East Montgomery yard.

Upon moving to Montgomery, we built a house and battled weeds in our Bermuda lawn for 5 years.  When properly treated, it has a slick, highly manicured look, and weeds stick out like a sore thumb.  Our neighbors had effortless, immaculate lawns.  We had no kids and time to kill.   We fertilized,  we fretted.  We constantly had weeds.

The difference?  They had their yards sprayed by a lawn service and we didn’t.  Or, rather, we wouldn’t.  There was principle involved.  We didn’t need to pay someone else to keep our tiny yard tidy.  Where’s the fun in that?

The clover finally did us in.

Wait – isn’t this post supposed to be about The Feed Lot?  Stay with me . . .

So we called in the folks at Southern Lawns and got on their program that involved spraying fertilizer “stuff” on our lawn 3 or so times a year.  It was magical.  The weeds were gone.

Fast forward another 5 or so years: a new house, bigger yard, same problems.  We loved our experience with Southern Lawns and highly recommend them, but once again, we’re on a mission to do it ourselves.

Someone recommended The Feed Lot as a great resource for weed control products that actually work.  It’s the real-deal hardware/country store on Meriwether Road in Pike Road.

So we’ve gotten the “pre-emergent” fertilizer down that’s supposed to kill the crabgrass . . .

We’ll let you now how it goes . . . In the meantime, we’re Realtors, so give us a call if you need help finding your next yard (and home) in the Montgomery area.  We’d love to do the legwork for you!

So what’s the new Wilson facility like?  The first distinguishing factor is that it is part of the new development, New Park, off of Ray Thorington Road.  It is right behind the new Wilson Elementary School, and shares its gym with Wilson students during the morning hours.

Right now it has a gym, a weight room, a group exercise room (one class per day, M-F), and a Childwatch area.  It sits on 16.5 acres so there is room to expand – in the lobby are the site plans for other phases of development that include a pool and water park area.

Childwatch hours at the Wilson Y are 8:30-10:30 am and 4:30-7:00 am.  You can let your young children play in this area while you exercise. Y basketball teams are meeting in the gym on weeknights for practice.

One of the reasons the YMCA is such a big deal in Montgomery is the membership fee:  a family membership costs $59 a month ($100 sign up fee), and members can use all 15 facilities.  Members pay only 1/2 of the registration fee for sports programs, too.

For more information about a YMCA membership, go to ymcamontgomery.org.

They are having a soft opening so lunch was free when I went by there today. A friend tipped me off, but don’t think the free eats affected my review.

They started us off with “orange rolls” which were basically an orange flavored cinnamon roll type thing. Yum.

They have a daily menu, country style or meat and three style, whichever you prefer. I got the country fried steak, purple hulled peas, and okra. It came with cornbread, they didn’t even ask. I like a place where they assume you want cornbread!

Mine was really good. The steak was not too bready. The peas were fresh and not overcooked. The okra was good, but the real surprise was the mac and cheese. I was expecting the normal runny deal but it was more like grannie’s mac and cheese casserole. It was firm and cheesy, not runny. Excellent.

According to their website, they officially open on March 2, 2010, so maybe the days of free lunch are over. But I can tell you – I will be back!

Yes!  So long broken basketball goal that has been sitting behind my fence for a year and a half !  The flyer says there will even be workers at each site to help you unload the stuff you bring.  Won’t it feel great to kiss that pile of junk goodbye (in a legal and responsible way)!

(This service is REALLY helpful to those who move into a different house in 2010 – if you’ve moved recently you know the kinds of stuff you are left with . . .)

All locations will be open  from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm.

Here are the DATES (again, these are the last Saturdays of each month of 2010):

January 30, February 27, March 27, April 24, May 29, June 26, July 31, August 28, and September 25.

Here are the LOCATIONS:

Hope Hull: Vacant grocery store at railroad tracks (Wasden Road)

Mount Meigs/Pike Road:  Belser Blvd. in Bridle Brook subdivision OR County Lot Office across from The Feed Lot

Pine Level:  Pine Level Park (across from Sikes and Kohn)

Pintlala: Pintlala Elementary School

Ramer:  Transfer Station (County Road 12, Hickory Grove Road)

For more details about exactly what can and cannot be unloaded (toxic waste, items with freon, etc.) click here or call (334) 832-1210.

For those who live within the Montgomery city limits, your bulk trash is collected every 1st and 3rd Saturday from 9:00 am – 2:30 pm at city Public Schools.  Call (334) 241-2750 or click here for more info.