You gotta love February. Seventy degrees one day, forty degrees the next. And we wonder why the flu is so prevalent!

Paving has been completed along both White Cliffs and Barnesmore and it really turned out well. While the paver was here we were able to get him to widen several areas of roadway where vehicles consistently were running off the road. Duke Power is now on site installing electric service and the full submittal for recording was submitted to New Hanover County since my last e-mail. You may notice when you walk up to White Cliffs that the river front lots have a number of different colored stakes. In addition to marking property boundaries, many of the stakes indicate a “building envelope” for each Lot. These areas are designed to both protect trees and insure that every Lot has a good view. We are requiring that homes on the bluff be set back from the property line along the river at least 20 feet. Additionally, the building envelopes on White Cliffs are designed to preserve a number of the large trees along the road (on both sides). We have three potential buyers who are very close to contracting on river Lots and we expect to have everything recorded within a couple weeks.

Our traffic at the Sales Center has been tremendous over the last several weeks. In the first week of January (the week of ice and snow) we had one visitor and over the last three weeks of the month we had fifty four. Contracts have been slow to come in but we just put Lot 28 under contract and Lot 26 is expected to go to contract any day. Several Lots in Rosewood Landing are also close to contracting. Karen and I will be attending the Ideal Living Show in Northern Virginia in about three weeks and believe it or not, the Parade of Homes is just around the corner at the end of April.

We are getting ready to start the completion of the road to the marina and that work should commence in the next month or so. That will allow us to get water and sewer down to the marina and get the restrooms and parking lot going down there. The next portion of Rosewood Landing will also be starting in the next month or so with the completion of Excelsior and the extension of Jenoa.

The biggest news over the last two weeks is the extension that were granted by CAMA for work on the bluff over the river. As I have indicated previously, the floating dock sections that will connect the fixed pier section of the riverwalk to the marina are currently under construction at Bellingham Marine up off I-40. We expect them to be delivered and installed in March. CAMA recently agreed to allow us the month of February to work on installing rip rap and fill dirt along the bluff so we can plant several thousand more plants and shrubs. A barge is currently on the way here from Myrtle Beach and is scheduled to arrive Monday morning. We will be loading the barge with rock and concrete down at the boat ramp and then having the material placed along the berm. The handrails along the fixed portion of the riverwalk have been removed to make the job easier so we would ask that you please stay off the riverwalk this weekend and next week.

Work on the multi-use room has been progressing nicely and you may have seen Lee and Luis from TMC Turner Construction around the property. They are also working on the bathroom building construction up at the amenity center on Chair Road. Electric and HVAC rough in have been completed in the multi-use room and drywall will be started shortly. The Multi-Purpose committee will also be working on the policies for the use of the multi-use room as soon as it is completed.

The bathroom building is really taking shape up at the amenity center and you probably have seen the fencing going in for the courts. Holmes Security will begin installation of the camera and key fob access systems in the next couple weeks.

The committee working on additional amenities has collected a vast amount of feedback and we will be going over that in the next several days. Thanks to all of you for providing input.

Tyler’s last shift of night work will be this Sunday. As I mentioned in the last update, he is training for working days as well so he can be available to fill in for Ron or Scott when needed.

Another reminder to please try to stay off the riverwalk and the bluff this weekend and next week as there will be a lot of work going on down there with a large number of vehicles delivering stone and concrete as well.

Thanks to all that attended the Super Bowl Party. We had a great turnout and hope it will become an annual tradition. We are working on a number of future events and nights of live music for Porches in the coming months and there will be more about that in future posts.

Farmer’s Market-Feast for the Gods will be back out on the front porch of Porches tomorrow from 10:00-3:00 and Farmer Steve feels confident that he will have new produce out for us next week. The high tunnel cover is on and they are working on the other elements of it now.

USS Battleship North Carolina-Ritt Schiano is coordinating another USS Battleship North Carolina tour on March 11th. The first on was a huge success Stay tuned for more details.

Parade of Homes-The annual Parade of Homes will be held the last weekend in April and the first one in May. We are just letting you know as a courtesy as there will be five River Bluffs homes entered in the Parade and we expect several hundred visitors to the property each of those weekend.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and don’t forget next Wednesday is Valentine’s Day!