Lake Buckhorn

Home and Garden

Lake Buckhorn

Lake Buckhorn is a vacation home community located in Gilmer County.

"We wanted to hear the water," Del said. Their criteria for a second home also included a relatively flat lot. They appreciated Lake Buckhorn's amenities, including paved roads and utilities such as cable and Internet.

The lots in the Lake Buckhorn community in Gilmer County run from the $40,000s-$250,000s and homes range from the high $100,000s-$300,000s. Some have mountain views and locations on the lake and creeks.

The Powells spend almost every weekend at their Lake Buckhorn home, which is about an hour from their primary residence in Sandy Springs. Their property adjoins the Griffin-Thrasher Hiking Trail, allowing Del to take the 3-mile loop and end up back at his home. The couple also gets muddy offroading in their SUV. "We still enjoy finding beautiful places with creek and waterfalls," Del said. "We always try to find sometime to ride around and go up a road that we haven't been up before."

The couple spends most of its time on two covered porches, including a 12 foot-by-48 foot one facing the creek. "You get out there on that porch and it's so quiet," Del said. "It's just that background white noise of the creek. It's just so relaxing. You don't have to do anything. You just sort of sit there and watch birds flitter around and sit there."

After years of renting cabins in north Georgia, Del and Watis Powell built their first vacation home in the Lake Buckhorn community between Ellijay and Blue Ridge, moving into it in November 2008. "We have been looking in that general area off and on since the late '80s," said Del, president of Atlanta-based Public Entities of America, a subsidiary of Insurance Office of America that provides insurance and risk management services for the public sector.

The Lake Buckhorn community, developed by Sisson Co., gave them the opportunity to pick their lot and build a log cabin instead of buying an existing home. Their three-bedroom, two-bath home is on one level, which the couple desired, and has about 1,800 square feet inside. There's the central area with the kitchen, living area and pitched roof, and the master on one side and the two bedrooms on the other side, which provides privacy when family stays with them.

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The couple put offers on other homes before deciding to build in Lake Buckhorn - and found that some sellers weren't ready to lower their prices. "We were trying to get a great bargain, but the owners wouldn't budge," Del said. "The ones that were the most depressed in price were the ones that were the least desirable. Anything with a great view or on water seemed to hold its value better than the ones that were stuck out in the woods somewhere."

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