The Village At Pilot Mill
The Village at Pilot Mill is an infill neighborhood of single family homes located in Downtown Raleigh. Located just north of Peace Street and behind Peace College, "The Mill" has been a keystone project over the past years in bringing residents back Downtown.
Built on the site of the original mill houses for the Historic Pilot Mill building, the neighborhood was designed with small lots, alley ways, and sidewalks to encourage a strong community.
The neighborhood has 103 homes ranging in size from 1600 to 3000 plus square feet - all have two car garages and community maintained mowing and irrigation system for a lower maintenance lifestyle. The builders used a strong standard feature approach with upfitting the homes - hardwoods on the first floor, tile in all baths, 9 foot ceilings etc. etc. As I have said many times, there is not a dud home in the neighborhood and you will not find any vinyl flooring in any of the homes.
A recently renovated city playground is adjacent to the neighborhood and it is an easy walk to Seaboard Station with a nice variety of restaurants and shops.
Since mid-2003, I've been involved with the sale of the majority of the homes as new construction and many of the resales since. If you are considering living in Downtown Raleigh, this is certainly a neighborhood to investigate.
Village at Pilot Mill Home and Floor Plans
When the neighborhood was launched, seven floor plans were available to be built by one of the two builders for the neighborhood. Three of the floor plans - the Oakwood, the Glenwood, the Salisbury - had two different elevations available known creatively as the Oakwood II, Glenwood II, and the Salisbury II.
Over the years, an eighth floor plan - the Lassiter was added and some modifications to the original plans came into effect. Many of the changes were suggested by residents doing a presale home and were so successful, they were incorporated into the plans for each design moving forward. For example on the Oakwood floor plan, the very large foyer was reduced in size by pushing the stairs forward. This increased the size of the family room and master bedroom.
The garage and storage or bonus room option was designed to be the same across all the floor plans. A full bath option was available and the majority of homes built after the first two years include a finished bonus room with a full bath. The placement of stairs did vary by builder and slope of lot. In some cases, it made more sense to do the stairs in the front and in others on the side. Spectrum Homes tended to put the stairs in the front of their spec homes by default.
Custom tweaks to the elevations were typically acceptable to the builders during presale so as you drive through the neighborhood, you will notice variations from floor plan to floor plan and from the original conceptual sketches.
One of the biggest changes came with the addition of what we termed a breezeway. On one of the presales, a resident requested an addition of a heated and cooled hallway to attach the main home to the garage and bonus room structure. This was done and was so successful, the vast majority of homes built presale and spec included this option. The breezeways ran from 6 to 14 feet wide and in some cases, became additional living space.
Click here to view the original Village at Pilot Mill Floor Plans and conceptual sketches.
If you are interested in the actual construction drawings or original specifications for a particular home in the neighborhood, just let me know as I have archives for the majority of the homes from time of construction.