James and Aly Dwyer were living in the New York City area when they took their first trip to Charleston. They instantly fell in love with the city and began to dream of making it home. After a second trip to the Holy City, they put the wheels in motion, working with Cassina REALTOR Charlie Inglefield to find their perfect home in Mount Pleasant’s Hibben neighborhood of Belle Hall. The home is perfect for their family, which has grown to include young daughter Hadley. Read more about their journey to Charleston below!
What made you decide to move to Charleston?
J: We just loved it. We were looking for a change from New York City, and with a baby on the way, we were thinking of needing a lot more space, more fun…beach. So we just wanted to be near the water with good weather.
What do you do for work?
A: We both work remotely. I’m in digital advertising sales for Yahoo.
J: And I’m in artificial intelligence and automated machine learning, data science.
What was the home search like?
J: Well we first came down for Aly’s dad’s 60th birthday party. We had never been here and we were looking for places to go because we knew New York wasn’t a final destination for us. We came here and we were both like: “This is amazing. Its February–there’s palm trees–its sunny out. Let’s put this on our short list.” And then we came back a second time over Halloween for a friend’s wedding. Our expectations were probably so sky high where we didn’t think it would be as good, but we came back and loved it even more.
A: And that’s when we first looked at houses with Charlie.
J: We want back…and then we started doing a ton of online research. And we came back as an official “let’s go see houses” trip. We weren’t expecting to buy. It was just like step 2 out of 10. And then we saw this place and ended up putting in an offer and Charlie did a great job negotiating. Our timeline was so far out, it was kind of unique, and he was very helpful. And we ended up just moving.
A: We were thinking June and then we fell in love with this house….sure enough June turned into closing in February and moving in April.
What were the key selling points of this home?
J: The look on Aly’s face.
A:I told him I was leaving my heart here! The layout of the house we thought was perfect for a family. Especially because its somewhat open concept but you still have rooms that are kind of more defined. And all of the detailing in the house–all of the moldings–we really fell in love with that aspect. And the putting green was a big selling point.
How was working with Charlie?
A: It was great–especially because we were remote.
J: It was amazing. He was very helpful. I mean our timeline was 2 years away and he was still extremely responsive. You could tell he was in it for the long run. Very helpful.
Did you renovate or take on any home improvement projects after moving in?
J: I personally painted every square inch of the walls. I’ll brag because it was terrible!
A: I pulled the pregnancy card!
J: Other than that though, we redid the kitchen. We changed out the colors, more superficial.
What is your favorite spot in your new home?
A: I love the kitchen. I’ve gotten into cooking now that I actually have a space to cook. So I like spending time in there. And then the living rooms too are great.
J: It depends on the situation or scenario for me. The balcony is incredible during the sunset. Or the kitchen is really nice with the holding room when people are over. Eating dinner on the porch if we’re feeling social and want to talk to neighbors. We’re on the corner so everybody walks by and you see the pond.
What are your favorite things to do in the area or neighborhood?
A: We love Shem Creek. That’s probably our favorite go to spot with [Hadley]. If we can get there for happy hours, its very relaxed and low key.
J: We’re so close to everything. The beach is 15 minutes, Shem Creek is 10 minutes, the city is 15 minutes, the airport is 20 minutes. The central location is great. We don’t go to the beach everyday, we don’t go to Shem Creek everyday. It’s more of our location–we loved it when we saw it.
