Watlingtons build old-timey dream home
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David and Debbie Watlington have that – and in grand, old-timey fashion. Their newly built home in the Kings Pointe subdivision combines gadgets and luxury with a down-home style reminiscent of years ago.
The house features 10-foot ceilings for an open feel on the first floor, and all four bedrooms for the children are on the second floor. The kids, Kyle, 15, Ryan, 14, Paige, 11, and Alex, 7, all have their own bathroom and their own laundry room upstairs.
“We leave the upstairs to the kids,” said Dr. Watlington, one of three OB/GYN doctors in town. “They clean up after themselves just like normal kids, they don’t.”
Added Debbie, “I try to go up there as little as possible.”
The downstairs, which features the master bedroom, is where the home gets its flair. The living room features a brick hearth, white pillars and a coffered ceiling. A brick porch is located off the living room and takes you directly to an in-ground pool. The brick is the same type as that was used for the recent Chamber of Commerce expansion.
“We kept looking at old houses to live in and restore, but we just couldn’t find the right fit,” said Debbie. “A lot of the older houses we looked at, they just wanted too much for them. By the time you got through restoring them, the cost would have been outrageous. So we decided to build something new to look old.”
The floor plan the Watlingtons eventually settled on came from Southern Living. And Dr. Watlington made sure to fill the home with new-age technology.
“I’m a gadgets kind of guy,” he said.
The living room features a plasma TV with a Bose surround sound system. A subwoofer is located under the floor and sound fills the room from openings that look like vents but are actually in place above the speakers.
“It makes it really nice to watch movies,” said Dr. Watlington, who also has all four of the home’s computers connected to one server to make a network similar to most offices with multiple computers.
Another noteworthy extra is in the kitchen where the pantries are equipped with automatic lights that operate like a refrigerator light. When the door is open, the light comes on. When the door is closed, the light shuts off.
“It’s only about a $15 option, but the electrician needs to know about it when he’s wiring the house,” said Debbie.
As for the home itself, it rests well off the road past a newly built pond. The spot was picked by contractor Jewell Hale after the Watlingtons had wrestled with where to put the house on their seven acres.
“Jewell came out, took a couple minutes looking over the land, and said, ‘The house should go here,'” said Debbie. “That’s where we put it and he was right. It’s the perfect spot for it. He has an eye for how to take a piece of rough land and make it look good.”
The Watlingtons had high praise for Hale, and cabinet maker Charlie Pearson, and were proud to say local workers did all the construction.
“We’ve been to Brentwood and other places and some of their new-home construction is sort of shoddy,” said Debbie. “This home is a good example of the type of work local people can do.”