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It was May of 1999 when I made my first trip to the North Georgia Mountains. I had just finished an exhausting consulting project, and I needed to unwind and
de-stress. I searched on the internet, and something caught my eye: “luxury mountain cabins– jacuzzi’s, mountain views, king size beds, peace and quiet”…it sounded perfect. I arrived on “My Mountain” a private residential mountain located in Blue Ridge, Georgia, and
i nstantly fell in love…with the people, the surroundings, and the cabins themselves. I spoke with the
property managers who were very helpful in giving me advice about the area, and about others who had
come to visit and decided to stay. So much for my week of “getting away from it all.” I spent the rest of the week meeting with owners, driving around viewing plots of land and talking about my dream house with builders. The idea of Sanctuary was born.
It was late
summer of 1999 when I first found the plot of land that was to become the home of Sanctuary. It was the most breathtaking view I had ever seen…and there was nothing else like it on the mountain. It had mountains, valleys, farmland, horses, and the oldest barn in Fannin County. And on November 12th, I took down the sign and became the proud owner of lot 5Q.
After scouring log home magazines and picking the features I like the best, I created my first floor-plans in MS PowerPoint. A word to the wise – your engineering drawings will never match your PowerPoint drawings – be prepared to adapt. It was during this process that I met the most valuable asset to this project – my builder Keith Hyatt. Under his guidance, the final engineering drawings were completed,
 the materials selected,
the start date was chosen, and we were ready to move forward.
July 24, 2000 – the day we broke ground. It was chilly and
rainy, but all in all, an amazing
day. My family and I camped out the night before to be ready for the backhoe when it arrived early the next morning. We found some baby pine trees growing in the center of the land that we carefully dug up so they could be transplanted on the edge of the property. Keith took one look at them and said, “Oh…good thing you dug those up…those are black pines…you don’t want those growing on your land.”
...this city girl still has a lot to learn.
Then  on a cool fall morning in late August the land was finally ready, the forms were in place, and on September 14th, the cement was poured. It was an all day event – starting with the walls and finishing with my signature in the floor of the foundation. If you look in the closet down
in the Game Room, you can still see my handprint commemorating the
d ay J.
October 2000 through June 2001 were crazy, hectic months of building (with lots of learning about building thrown in on the side for me).
The Pella windows that showed up 5 weeks late, delaying the start of work in the interior of the house. The contractor who designed his “own version” of the entertainment center for the Great Room (not to worry – Keith quickly remedied that). And learning that picking out
fixtures for the shower means not only the faucets and handles, but also what goes behind the wall and on the floor as well (those were long nights at Home Depot).
But  in all the craziness, I don’t want to forget some of the wonderful little surprises along the way, …the recessed lighting fixtures, painted to match the Great Room ceiling, the discovery of rock walls on the lower level leading to the edge of the cliff – all courtesy of Keith, who took the time and recognized that we were building something special.
And in July of 2001, as we stood together in the Master Bedroom, playing with the remote control for the fireplace, and looking over everything we had built together, we knew we had done it.
Welcome to Sanctuary.
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