Tell us a little bit about yourselves:

We are newlyweds who have just settled into our new home together. I love my job as the assistant manager at Nothing Bundt Cakes and Tim works as a Production Scheduler at Komatsu. We both graduated from UTK in 2017 and moved to Chattanooga shortly after. We have two kitties who help make this place a home. We love to hike and explore all this city has to offer. We love any hike with a good view: Glen Falls, Foster Falls, Edward’s Pointe, Sunset Rock. On Sundays, we will spend hours walking around Downtown and going into the local shops. We even got engaged on a walk downtown. We’ve been to Rock City several times and liked it so much we decided to get married right next door at Grandview. We’re excited spring is here so we can start going to Lookouts games again! We’re actually going to one this week!

How did you come to want to call greater Chattanooga “home”:

We knew Chattanooga was the perfect place to build our lives together. I’m from Memphis and he’s from Knoxville so we wanted a city close to our hometowns but we also love how close we are to the mountains and big cities like Atlanta and Nashville.

Tell us about being a first-time homebuyer. What kinds of emotions were you experiencing?

Stress. Excitement. Nervousness. We didn’t really know what to expect as far as how the closing process works, how to get a mortgage, or what kind of time frame we should plan for. We feel like our home fell into our laps and we couldn’t pass it up. We had planned to wait a few more months to purchase, but we came across our house on Pratt’s website and decided to go for it. Our realtor, Jennifer Jones, made it so easy for us from the beginning. She took care of everything and put our minds at ease throughout the whole process.

When did you close on your home, and which home plan did you settle on?

We closed December 31, 2018. We chose the Savannah floor plan.

What are your favorite things about your home plan?

We love the open floor plan. We love to entertain and we have the perfect space for it. We also love how spacious our house is. There is more storage space than we know what to do with!

What are your favorite things about your community?

We love how our community is so family-oriented. We go on walks around the neighborhood several times a week and we love seeing people ride their bikes or walk their dogs. Everyone we’ve come across in the community has been so friendly and that really helps to make us feel at home. We’re excited for it to warm up so we can enjoy our community pool.

How did the Pratt team help in finding your home?

Our biggest struggle at the beginning was our time frame. We knew we wanted a new build, but we had to plan around when our apartment lease was up. Brittany helped us out by letting us know when certain communities were opening and helped us plan based on our time frame. Our first experience with Pratt was with Dell, who showed us different floor plans and gave us different price points so we knew what to expect when we were ready. Ultimately, we found our home on Pratt’s website: PrattLiving.com. We picked our home mostly for the floor plan. It checked all the boxes on our “must-have list.” We knew we wanted an open floor plan, a mud room, and a fireplace. We didn’t work with the design team in our buying process because the features for our house were already picked out since it was one of Pratt’s Market Homes that are often closer to being move-in ready. But that worked out perfectly for us because all of the interior features are nearly exactly what we would have picked (white cabinets, dark counter tops, grey accents, etc.). We already lived in the Ooltewah area before we bought our house so we were set on staying in this area.

Charlene was the first one to show us our house in person. She kept in touch with our Realtor to let us know the details on the progress of the house during the build. Our process actually went pretty quickly. Once we found the house online, we toured it the next week and put an offer on it in the next few days. We loved it so much and didn’t want anyone else to beat us to the punch. When we saw the house for the first time there was still a lot to finish on it. After putting an offer on the house, we probably drove by it about a dozen times the next month to see how close it was to being done. We patiently waited for the sod to be laid, the driveway to be paved, and for the finishing touches to be put on. Finally, 1.5 months after putting an offer in we were ready to close!

If memory serves me right, you all were getting our newsletter and e-mails before you got married – what made you keep coming back to Pratt as your home search began?

We’ve known for years we wanted a Pratt home. We love the quality of the homes and the community the homeowners have. Of course we toured other homes, but our hearts were set on Pratt. You can’t beat getting a brand new home for the price.

What are some of your favorite memories made in your new home so far?

Our favorite memories involve our family and friends visiting us in our new home. We’ve had several game nights and we can’t wait to celebrate the major holidays here this year! Additionally, we love to cook meals together. We make dinner in our home nearly every night and enjoy it together at our dining table.

I know you all have some sweet furry family members! What are their favorite things about your new home?

Our kitties love all the open space to run around. They’ve never had this much space to chase each other and I can tell they’re so happy here! We use the mudroom as our “cat room.” It’s the perfect spot to keep their supplies.

What would you tell other prospective homeowners who might be nervous about taking the leap to buy or build?

If you’re in limbo right now, talk to someone about how the process works to help make your decision. Don’t be afraid to ask questions!

One other important question – It’s warming up and longer, nicer days are here! How excited are you about the pool and cabana – and other onsite healthy living amenities?

We’re so excited that it’s starting to warm up so we can take advantage of the community pool and cabana. We love to spend time outside so it’ll be nice to have a quiet place to sit and read a book in the warm, summer heat. This will also be a great opportunity to meet our new neighbors since everyone will be outside enjoying the weather.

We love how pedestrian friendly the neighborhood is. There are sidewalks throughout the whole community so we feel safe walking outside. We’ve already developed a routine walking path around the neighborhood.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about your experience?

We love our home and we’re so blessed everything went smoothly for us. We are already talking about which floor plan and interiors we’d choose when we’re ready to upsize to a new Pratt house several years down the road.

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This post was written by Sydnee Cearlock