Ok, I’ll admit it: we’ve been entering the HGTV Green Home sweepstakes every day lately. Though we love our own house, the idea of winning a beautiful, eco-friendly home in sunny Florida (and the hybrid car that comes with it) is hard to resist. And imagine all the posts we could write if our names were announced on June 28th.
With Green Homes on our minds, we made a detour last week during a secret trip to Georgia. From a Florida trip last spring we remembered that the 2008 HGTV Green Home was only about five minutes off I-95 in South Carolina. We hadn’t toured it last year—the admission was steep—so this time we figured we’d swing through Tradition, SC and see if last year’s winner was open for a free visit. No southern hospitality surprise awaited us. There were no glasses of organic lemonade on a bamboo tray. In fact, it didn’t look like anyone was living there yet.
We saw a key-box on the door, the kind used when a house is on the market, which reinforced the impression that the home hadn’t been occupied.
Another clue was the surrounding neighborhood—there were only a handful of other homes in progress, and the Green Home appeared to be one of the few completed houses so far.
It looks like Tradition, the new golf community, still needs time to develop. Given the state of the real estate market, that’s not too surprising. From what we could see, the neighborhood was shaping up nicely—the other in-progress homes shared a charming beach-cottage style that we like—but seeing the area mostly empty did temper our idealized vision a bit.
So, the takeaway: don’t hold back entering the 2009 Green Home sweepstakes—you won’t be ruining our chances. Seriously, enter away. This year’s home is gorgeous. If you want a preview, check out the HGTV virtual tours for plenty of green inspiration. Update: check the comments for some interesting revelations!