North Beach Sun Real Estate Summer 2021

SUMMER 2021

Classic COTTAGE ROW

THE HISTORIC BUCHANAN COTTAGE raising homes surveying the outer banks

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SUMMER 2021 R E A L E S TAT E

10 FROM THE DESK 13 BUT FIRST...

14 SUMMER EVENTS CALENDAR 16 BUSINESS BRIEFS 18 HOME SPOTLIGHT The Buchanan Cottage in Nags Head

22 TOWN REPORT

24 THE LIFE-CHANGING

MAGIC OF (UN)TIDYING UP Finding joy in creative clutter

26 THE LAY OF THE LAND

Surveyors make sense of property lines

28 AHEAD OF THE TIDE

Raising Outer Banks homes

30 SUN SALUTATIONS 34 FIVE FACTS

Things you didn't know about John’s Drive-In

ABOUT THE COVER: The Buchanan Cottage sits proudly on the oceanfront in Nags Head’s historic cottage row. Photo by Cory Godwin.

ABOVE: The wooden desk that President Franklin Roosevelt gifted the Buchanan family after his historic visit in 1937. Photo by Cory Godwin.

Vacation Rentals & Sales

N O RT H B E ACH SU N | 9

1251 Duck Road | Duck, North Carolina 27949 | Office: 844.458.0201

F R O M T H E DE S K

staff PUBLISHERS Adam & Cathy Baldwin EDITOR Amelia Boldaji ART DIRECTOR Dave Rollins

An acrylic painting by Hatteras Island artist Randi O’Sullivan.

Photo by Ryan Moser.

We all have stories to tell.

HOW DO YOU TELL A GOOD STORY? That is – above all – the main question we have to contend with here at the North Beach Sun. And it doesn’t end – from the moment we come up with our first new ideas until the day an issue goes to press, that question is somewhere in the back of our minds, rattling around as a reminder that it’s our job both to find great stories, and also to tell them well.

Narrative is a tremendously powerful thing. It can open our eyes, move us, make us laugh or cry, and show us different ways of looking at the world around us. And it can even be a way of organizing seemingly disparate things and events – a means of getting from point A to B that may take a number of twists and turns, but ultimately allows us to forge a series of connections that might have otherwise been lost.

And that’s perhaps why it can be hard to recognize a good story at first glance. Like anyone in the business of narratives, there are plenty of times that we’ll hear a pitch or come across something new, and think it’s not quite what we’re looking for. Maybe it doesn’t appear very glamorous, or it feels too obscure, or it just doesn’t seem to have enough weight to it – whatever the case, it can be easy to dismiss a fledgling story idea this way.

More often than not, however, we find that if we look a little closer and dig a little deeper, the problem isn’t really the idea itself, but just that we haven’t figured out the best way to tell that particular story yet.

Because we all have stories to tell – whether big or small, life-changing or simply heartwarming – and the way we tell these stories can be just as important as the messages they contain. That’s where our voices can be found, after all, and that is where our truest point of connection lies.

As always, we hope you enjoy this issue – and all the varied stories it contains!

GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Adam Baldwin Dylan Bush CONTRIBUTORS Cathy Baldwin Amelia Boldaji Cory Godwin Steve Hanf Catherine Kozak Hannah Lee Leidy Amanda McDanel Ryan Moser SALES MANAGER Helen Furr ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Faith Turek

The North Beach Sun is published quarterly by Access Media Group. All works contained herein are the property of the North Beach Sun. The views expressed in the articles contained herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, editor or Access Media Group. The published material, advertisements, editorials and all other content is published in good faith. Access Media Group and North Beach Sun cannot guarantee and accepts no liability for any loss or damage of any kind caused by errors, omissions or the accuracy of claims made by advertisers.

NORTH BEACH SUN 115 West Meadowlark St. Kill Devil Hills, NC 27948 252.449.4444

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10 | SU M M ER 2021

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but first...

Flower Power

If you plant it, they will come…especially when you’re talking about pollinators. An array of animals such as birds, beetles, butterflies and bees (plus plenty of other small mammals) are critical to sustaining our worldwide ecosystems, and a grassroots project called The Butterfly Highway has been paving a new way forward in order to raise awareness about the importance of habitat restoration for pollinators in North Carolina since 2014.

Photos courtesy of Patricia Matthews and Jessica Loose.

How Does your Garden Grow?

Southern Shores resident Patricia Matthews came up with the idea of starting a Free Little Plant Library in her neighborhood last September (left). The idea was fairly simple: First, create a designated spot where likeminded gardening enthusiasts could rehome extra things such as seeds or other types of plants, and then foster that sense of community by asking people to use the honor system of “take one, leaf one.”

AFTER SEEING SOMETHING SIMILAR IN ANOTHER STATE,

Joined shortly thereafter by longtime Kill Devil Hills resident Jessica Loose, who hosts the Colington Harbour Free Little Plant Library (right), the fledgling project already has an impressive 600-plus local members – and Patricia only hopes that their ranks will continue to increase. “I would love to see these Little Plant Libraries pop up all over the beach,” she says. “Word is getting out, and it’s been so nice to watch it grow.”

Back to Soil School LOOKING FOR A REASON TO HIT THE BOOKS with the big kids at the end of summer – especially if you can do it outdoors? If so, you might find your calling with the Dare County Extension Master Gardener Program. No special skills are needed beyond a commitment to learning more about all areas of horticulture – from botany to insects and landscape design – and later sharing that knowledge with the wider local community as a Master Gardener volunteer.

The two-part training process (which consists of 40 training hours and a volunteer internship) is only held every two years, however, so if you miss the July 1 application deadline with the N.C. Cooperative Extension office, you’ll have to start planning for 2023.

For those ready to dig right in, though, classes start this September – and culminate with a graduation ceremony next year!

With the backing of the N.C. Wildlife Federation, this statewide program aims to establish a network of safe places for pollinators to thrive. The best part is that anyone NORTH CAROLINA IS HOME TO can join in by registering their backyard gardens as Pollinator Pitstops along the loosely connected and ever-growing “route” – which has been steadily turning some small NATIVE ideas into some big BEE numbers.

500

Since the project’s inception, more than 2,000 Pollinator Pitstops have been registered along The Butterfly Highway, which has subsequently protected more than 30,000 acres of land for native pollinators in a wide variety of N.C. counties – including Dare, which hosts at least two Pitstops for the general public to visit at the Outer Banks Arboretum & Teaching Garden in Kill Devil Hills and The Elizabethan Gardens in Manteo.

SPECIES

175

NATIVE BUTTERFLY SPECIES

1,200 NATIVE MOTH SPECIES

N O RT H B E ACH SU N | 13

summer events Though events may look a little different this year, the Outer Banks is always full of fun things to do!

Due to changing regulations, some events were still being modified or added as of press time, so please don’t forget to check websites for the most current information on these individual events.

DOWNTOWN MARKET

Saturday mornings through the summer, ending September 18 Buy fresh local fruits, veggies and crafts at this farmers’ market every Saturday in downtown Manteo from 8 a.m. until noon. townofmanteo.com

FARMERS’ MARKET

May 27 – September 9 (Thursdays) Stop by Dowdy Park in Nags Head between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. each Thursday during the summer for fresh fruits and veggies, plus other crafts. nagsheadnc.gov

THE LOST COLONY May 28 – August 21

This fascinating drama – the longest running outdoor historical drama in the United States – brings to life the mystery of what happened to the first English colonists right here on the Outer Banks. thelostcolony.org

CURRITUCK CORNHOLE TOURNAMENTS June 16 – September 8 (Wednesdays)

Compete in weekly games at Whalehead in Historic Corolla for a chance to win a beach vacation donated by Brindley Beach. visitcurrituck.com

COROLLA CORK & CRAFT June 16 – September 8 (Wednesdays)

Enjoy local beer and wine tastings, live music and curated crafts by artisans in the scenic setting of Historic Corolla Park. visitcurrituck.com

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38TH ANNUAL ROGALLO KITE FESTIVAL

THE LOST COLONY WINE, BEER & CULINARY FESTIVAL

June 18 – 20

This free kite festival at Jockey’s Ridge honors Francis Rogallo, inventor of the flexible wing, and features stunt kites, kite displays, kite instruction, kite making and more. kittyhawk.com

UNDER THE OAKS ARTS FESTIVAL June 22 – 23

This free, two-day art festival features talented artisans on the waterfront grounds of Historic Corolla Park. visitcurrituck.com

INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION July 5

Marvel at fireworks on the lawn of Historic Corolla Park while listening to free live music and enjoying family-friendly activities. visitcurrituck.com

42ND ANNUAL WRIGHT KITE FESTIVAL July 10 – 11

Learn to fly stunt kites and watch large kite displays during this kiting event at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills. kittyhawk.com

LIGHT UP THE NIGHT SUP EVENT July 21

Attach a NOCQUA light to the bottom of an SUP for nighttime water fun during this annual event at Waves Village Watersports Resort that includes glow yard games, family activities and free demos. kittyhawk.com

2021

OUTER BANKS WATERMELON FESTIVAL August 5

There’s plenty for the kids to do during this summery event at the Kitty Hawk Kites store in Nags Head, including face painting, crafts, watermelon seed-spitting contests and more. kittyhawk.com

OUTER BANKS PIRATE FESTIVAL August 11 – 12

Learn pirate lore, meet Blackbeard’s crew and enroll the little ones in Scallywag School during this fun festival at Jockey’s Ridge Crossing in Nags Head. kittyhawk.com

OBX WEDDING FEST August 29

Meet and mingle with local wedding vendors at this wedding expo held at three venues: Sanderling Resort, Duck Woods Country Club and Keeper’s Galley at Haven on the Banks. obxwa.com

OBX ARTS AND CRAFTS FESTIVAL September 8 – 9

This annual show at the Hilton Garden Inn features paintings, pottery, jewelry, photography, glass and more. A portion of the artists’ entrance fees are donated to local charities. www.facebook.com/obxartfestival

September 25

This year’s festival features wines from around the world, regional cuisine, entertainment and more – all with a dramatic view of the Roanoke Sound from backstage at the Waterside Theatre. thelostcolony.org

DUCK JAZZ FESTIVAL October 9 – 10

This free, all-day event features national, regional and local acts at the Duck Town Park. townofduck.com

OUTER BANKS BREWTAG October 23

Watch teams launch handcrafted kegdriven flying machines from a flight deck while enjoying live music and sampling local and regional beers at The Soundside event site in Nags Head. obxbrewtag.com

OUTER BANKS SEAFOOD FESTIVAL October 16

Enjoy fresh local seafood, cooking demos, mullet tossing, live music and more at this family-friendly event at The Soundside event site in Nags Head. outerbanksseafoodfestival.org

BLUEGRASS ISLAND FESTIVAL October 21 – 23

Bluegrass lovers from all over the world flock to the Outer Banks for this tradition of acclaimed bands playing in one of the most beautiful venues anywhere, Roanoke Island Festival Park. bluegrassisland.com

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N O RT H B E ACH SU N | 15

R E A L E STAT E

business briefs COMPILED BY C ATH ERI N E KOZ AK

Rodanthe Pier Restored Power Line Upgrade

The storm-battered and aging Rodanthe Pier reopened on March 27 after a major restoration over the winter.

Deteriorated pilings, bolts and structural timbers were replaced, according to the pier’s Facebook page, and additional benches along the length of the pier will be installed by summer. To celebrate the reopening, the pier will continue to host its annual Youth Fishing Tournament on May 29, and seasonal live music is expected to resume after Memorial Day.

A “grid hardening” project intended to improve electric service reliability in Nags Head and on Roanoke Island is scheduled to be completed before Memorial Day, according to Paula Miller, a communication specialist with Dominion Energy. The project, which is situated along the Nags Head-Manteo Causeway, replaces 42 wooden power poles with 37 galvanized steel poles that are stronger and more resilient in storms – and will also include more “aesthetically Real Estate appealing” circuits to replace the old circuits on the poles. Numerous utility poles along the causeway, which crosses Roanoke Sound, have snapped during storms, including two dozen during Hurricane Dorian. Five poles As the busy summer season approaches, the Outer Banks’ removed along Pond Island will not be white-hot real estate market is showing no signs of slowing down replaced.

– with month-to-month sales up 86%, yearly sales up 80%, and total inventory down 55%, according to the Outer Banks Association of Realtors’ March 2021 MLS Statistical Report.

Woman’s Club Still Sales were up in every Outer Banks community, but Corolla’s Going Strong eye-popping 210% spike in sales, from 20 sales in March 2020 to 62 sales in March 2021, topped the list. Roanoke Island, On April 21, the Outer Banks Woman’s however, had the largest increase over the same period in median Club celebrated 50 years of service sale prices at 51%, from $354,925 in March 2020 to $537,500 just and support for the local community a year later.

– which has included many hours of volunteering and brainstorming Overall, the upward trend is strong. Residential sales are creative ways to meet unmet needs up 87%, and land/lot sales are up 74%. The number of through programs such as student properties under contract in March 2021 (883) doubled the scholarships. Over the years, the number under contract in March 2020. The median residential Woman’s Club was also instrumental sale price during that time period jumped 37%, from $347,900 to in helping to establish the Outer $475,000. For land/lot sales, the median price jumped 43%, from Banks Health Center, the Dare County $77,000 in March 2020 to $110,250 in March 2021.

Youth Center and the annual Angel Gift Project held during the Christmas Meanwhile, residential inventory is down 72% and land season. Current projects include inventory is down 26% compared to last March. As a result, volunteer work at Hotline and Food the average number of days on the market is down 43%, from 121 for Thought, as well as participating to 69 days. in beach clean-ups and grass planting efforts.

market snapshot

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A Fishing Primer A new online guide, A Primer on North Carolina Seafood, is a valuable resource for anyone who’s interested in fish – whether eating them, catching them or conserving them. Released in April by North Carolina Sea Grant, the guide is focused on the commercial seafood industry, but it also provides enormous amounts of interesting data and research that touches on the cultural heritage, history, science and economic impact of the industry.

According to the study, North Carolina’s wild-caught seafood contributes about $300 million in value and 5,500 jobs to the state economy. From 2016 to 2019, the volume of all species landed commercially ranged from about 46 million pounds to 53 million pounds. The state’s most valuable wild-caught commercial fisheries in 2019 were live Atlantic blue crabs, shrimp, flounder and shellfish, including clams and oysters.

The most popular seafood in the U.S. since 2013 are shrimp, salmon, canned tuna, tilapia and Alaskan pollock – which together equal nearly three-quarters of all the seafood consumed nationally. Shrimp – a huge fishery on the Outer Banks – has also topped the list since 2006.

Funds for Buxton Beach A Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant for $5,782,866 has been awarded to help restore the beach and stabilize the dunes in Buxton that were damaged in 2018 by Hurricane Florence, according to a May announcement by the North Carolina Department of Public Safety. Other state grants were announced in October to cover the cost of beach renourishment along Buxton.

Dare County will be reimbursed by FEMA’s public assistance program funds for the cost of depositing 303,732 cubic yards of engineered dune beach sand and 5,000 feet of sand fencing along three miles of the north and south ends of the beaches in Buxton, according to a press release. The state’s cost share for the project is $1,445,716.

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N AGS H E A D ’ S STO R I E D B UC HAN AN COT TAG E

Time A T E S TA M E N T T O

P H OTO S BY CO RY GO DW I N / STORY BY H A N N A H L E E L E IDY

T

he term “old Nags Head-style cottage” immediately brings to mind a very specific image: a stately cedarshake house, rich brown in color, with shuttered windows and a sprawling porch. This image, and such homes, harkens back to earlier times when people first began to flock to the Outer Banks for vacations – and summer homes subsequently started to dot the oceanfront in Nags Head.

Affluent families from Edenton, Elizabeth City and Raleigh built a significant number of these cedar-shake cottages during the late 1800s and the early 1900s. The beachfront homes lining the corridor of N.C. Highway 12 in Nags Head rapidly earned the nickname “the unpainted aristocracy,” referring to their bare, cedar-shake splendor.

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That same stretch of road then became the more formal Nags Head Beach Cottage Row Historic District after joining the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 – though for many it’s still known more simply as Cottage Row. These homes are now some of the oldest coastal cottages in the Unites States, and many remain heirlooms of the families who originally built them – preserving an image of yesteryear’s Outer Banks and brimming with stories from the generations of vacations they’ve housed over the years.

Within this distinguished neighborhood, the Buchanan Cottage in particular has set itself apart since day one. John and Mattie Buchanan of Durham, N.C., had the cottage built in 1936 by Stephen J. Twine, the Elizabeth City architect responsible for many of the old

Nags Head cottages. He coined the structures’ iconic L-shape design (with the bend positioned to ward off the northeast wind), and embraced other features such as outward-leaning porch seating and slanted hip roofs.

But while Twine’s influence was certainly felt in the plans for the Buchanan Cottage, the original designs for what would become the largest oceanfront house on the Outer Banks were actually first drawn up by a Durhambased architect named George Watts Carr – with Twine coming in afterward in order to bring Carr’s vision to life.

And to this day, this nine-bedroom house remains the largest home on Cottage Row, complete with a covered wraparound porch and 63 windows. “It was terrible to hang curtains,” quipped Mary Frances Buchanan Flowers, the eldest of the Buchanan family’s five daughters and one of the home’s first residents.

HOME SPOTLIGHT

Historic photos line the walls of the Buchanan Cottage (far left). The Buchanan Cottage remains the largest oceanfront home on Nags Head’s historic Cottage Row (above).

Though much has changed on the Outer Banks over the intervening decades, Mary Francis and her sisters spent their first memorable summer at the cottage in 1937. To add to the home’s immense majesty during that inaugural season, the Buchanan family also arrived with their own maid, nurse, cook and a driver in tow – each of whom reportedly wore crisp uniforms every day.

But not everything was quite as luxurious. For starters, the cottage initially had no electricity, so power was sourced from a generator and water was hauled from a pump system. That also meant that meals were cooked with a woodstove all summer long – no matter how high temperatures soared in August!

In true Outer Banks fashion, the Buchanans and their employees were swiftly welcomed into the local community as well. Jim Holley, the family’s driver,

endeared himself to the neighboring cottages’ children, taking them and the Buchanan girls on regular excursions to the Wright Brothers National Monument, Fort Raleigh and Oregon Inlet to hunt for hermit crabs. In addition to this, the family’s nurse also became the neighborhood’s go-to source for treating burns, cuts and stings.

The Buchanan Cottage’s popularity and distinction even caught the attention of the White House not long after it was built. On August 18, 1937, Mattie received a rather extraordinary phone call: President Franklin Roosevelt intended to travel to the Outer Banks to commemorate Virginia Dare’s 350th birthday and see a production of The Lost Colony on Roanoke Island. Might he come to the Buchanan Cottage for lunch afterward?

The Buchanans had no political nor personal connections to Roosevelt, but the president’s upcoming

visit sparked excitement in the Cottage Row neighborhood nonetheless.

To prepare for the historic visit, the White House sent a crew to the cottage to construct a ramp for the president’s wheelchair well ahead of time. On the day of the luncheon, Secret Servicemen lined the Buchanan Cottage from front to back, and Marines created a perimeter around the house. Neighbors waited patiently on the porches of their homes, too, craning their necks to watch the motorcade and hopefully catch a glimpse of the illustrious guest.

When the president finally arrived at the cottage in a Packard convertible, he immediately made himself at home in the company of Mattie, John, a then-18-year-old Mary Frances and the North Carolina Governor, Clyde Hoey. Roosevelt went on to express his interest in N O RT H B E ACH SU N | 19

Clockwise, from top left: The wooden desk that President Roosevelt gifted the Buchanan family after his historic visit in 1937; One of the most distinguishing architectural features of the Cottage Row homes includes their outward-leaning porch seats; The Buchanan Cottage presides over a commanding stretch of the beach in Nags Head; With a total of 63 windows, even diners at the Buchanan Cottage can enjoy the oceanfront view from the comfort of their seats.

enjoying a toddy before lunch, but Mattie, a teetotaler, didn’t normally allow alcohol in the house. In light of the circumstances, however, an exception was quickly made – even though it required a last-minute visit to the neighbors in order to procure the necessary ingredients.

Afterward, a grand luncheon for 50 guests – plus 37 members of the president’s security detail – was served. The menu included generous servings of ham, rolls, summer vegetables and Mattie’s special recipe for baked crabmeat casserole – plus blueberry cobbler for dessert. When the meal was complete, Roosevelt retired to the cottage’s generous porch, where he took in the views and continued conversing pleasantly with the Buchanans. Before the president took his final leave, he also rested for a while in the downstairs bedroom, signed the cottage’s guest book and personally shook hands with all of the workers who had helped put together the day’s activities. To further underscore his thanks, the president later gifted the family with a wooden desk that still remains a fixture in the cottage to this day.

2 0 | SU M M ER 2021

“He entertained us,” Mary Frances recalled many years later. “He was so gracious, and a charming man.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the cottage continued to remain a crucial meeting point within the Nags Head community long after the president’s visit. According to Mary Frances, young folks from the neighborhood went dancing at the legendary Nags Head Casino every Saturday night during the summer season. It was a weekly tradition that wasn’t complete until everyone retired for the evening to the Buchanan Cottage, where Mattie always had a midnight pancake breakfast waiting for them. The whole family – including the women – were also avidly interested in fishing, so they welcomed scores of recreational fishermen for visits over the years, many of whom relished the unparalleled oceanfront access.

Over the decades, that prime location did subject the Buchanan Cottage to a number of storms, however. The family had the structure moved back twice as erosion brought the ocean closer and closer, and during the historic Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962, the ocean rushed

in and knocked out the cottage’s dining room wall.

During that same storm, window panes were also lost in waves that reached 30 feet high…although they were later found about a mile away – still intact! Despite it all, the structure remained sturdy.

The Buchanan girls grew up and continued returning to the house for summers and family gatherings, eventually bringing their own children and grandchildren with them over the next few decades. By 1990, they established a limited partnership to maintain the cottage for a number of years, which included 25 people across three generations.

“We had so much fun here,” Mary Frances remembered fondly during her last interview in 2002.

At the age of 83, she sat comfortably on the sofa in the cottage’s main room, surrounded by the original juniper paneling while the late morning light shone brightly through the windows – just as it continues to do today, nearly a century since this remarkable home first graced these shores.

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N O RT H B E ACH SU N | 21

town report R E A L E STAT E

What’s happening in your town?

Here’s a report from all over the Outer Banks.

Currituck County A long-debated conditional rezoning request for Flora Farm, a proposed subdivision in Moyock, was approved in March by the Currituck Board of Commissioners, authorizing the designation on the 202-acre property to change from agricultural to mixed commercial residential. In a smaller version of the original proposal, North South Development, LLC has plans for 277 single-family units and 7,500 feet of commercial space. The project will be built in five phases, and will include additional stormwater protections, according to the developer. With those conditions, a 5-2 majority of the board voted to approve with the assurance that it would include adequate drainage capacity and that work would coincide with the anticipated expansion of the Moyock schools. The first phase will begin no sooner than June 1, 2022, and will be limited to 55 lots.

Duck A new rain garden at the northern entrance of the Town of Duck Park near the playground was added in late April in order to address issues with standing water. Acting as a type of constructed wetland, the rain garden is a natural stormwater management tactic that’s engineered to improve drainage and infiltration and to attract natural pollinators such as bees and butterflies.

The project’s construction was awarded to Emerald Forest, LLC.

Southern Shores On April 13, the Southern Shores Town Council approved an ordinance establishing two Municipal Service Districts to help fund the proposed 2 2 | SU M M ER 2021

2022 beach nourishment project, and a required second vote approval was issued at a follow-up meeting on May 4.

The ordinance is a separate issue from approval of the town-wide tax which would be required to pay for the project.

According to language in the ordinance, District 1 encompasses all properties along the ocean with an eastern boundary that’s equal to or greater than 25 feet, while District 2 adds all properties located east of Ocean Blvd/N.C. 12 and Duck Road/N.C. 12, properties located west of Ocean Boulevard from the southern town line to 137 Ocean Boulevard, and properties abutting Duck Road beginning at 139 Duck Road, north to 149 Duck Road.

Kitty Hawk Work on the Kitty Hawk Park to Birch Lane Trail connecter path is expected to be complete by June 2021, according to the town’s official website. With grants from the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation trails program and the Dare County Tourism Board providing 100% of project costs, LSI Marine Construction, LLC submitted a bid of $129,912.

The project plan calls for 490 linear feet of elevated boardwalk to connect to the 1.8-mile Birch Lane Trail located in the Kitty Hawk Reserve. Pedestrians, mountain bikers and horseback riders who have registered horses with the Town of Kitty Hawk will be welcome to enjoy the trail.

The town has worked cooperatively with the N.C. Coastal Reserve on the planning and construction of the trail, and will continue to ensure that the reserve’s natural resources are protected.

Guidelines and other trail signage will be provided for all visitors to follow.

COM PIL ED BY C ATH ERI N E KOZ A K

Kill Devil Hills In March, the Kill Devil Hills Board of Commissioners approved three zoning amendments in an effort to start encouraging more affordable housing and to provide more flexibility for parking areas.

One ordinance added Accessory Dwelling Units in certain districts that allows residents to add one single-family dwelling unit to their property that can be attached or detached from the main dwelling – including restrictions stating that it can be no larger than 800 square feet, or 50% of the size of the main unit, whichever is smaller. Another amendment reduces the lot size for duplex dwellings from 20,000 square feet to 15,000 square feet, allowing for more housing options. The third amendment reduces the size requirement for some parking spaces and reduces specific parking requirements for certain uses.

Nags Head The town of Nags Head is one of 11 communities that has been chosen to participate in the U.S. Department of Energy’s nationwide Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Program (ETIPP).

The project will harness the data, knowledge and expertise of partners at the Coastal Studies Institute and others – in addition to tapping on the local community in order to seek practical and effective solutions for recovering from power disruptions and various impacts from storms, intense weather and other disasters. By incorporating more efficient and renewable energy measures into the town infrastructure, the goal is to expand Nags Head’s ability to withstand and respond to disruptions, and also to rapidly recover without prolonged damage to the economic and environmental health of the wider community.

The ETIPP is expected to last 12 to 18 months.

Manteo The town’s nearly 80-year-old pump station near the downtown Manteo waterfront is slated to be replaced by a new facility. In April, the town’s planning and zoning board approved plans for the Shallowbag Bay sewer pump, which will have its own generator and be designed to be flood resistant. The $1.1 million project is expected to be under contract by this November, and the new pump station could be operating by late summer 2022.

Dare County On March 31, the new $6.6 million Outer Banks SPCA animal shelter officially opened on Roanoke Island’s Airport Road. The 8,700-square-foot building replaces the former facility on Driftwood Drive that lacked adequate space and was subject to frequent flooding. The new shelter, located across from the N.C. Aquarium on Roanoke Island and the county’s regional airport, features playrooms off the lobby for the public to view a selection of adoptable dogs and cats, while a new fenced-in dog park is located in front of the shelter.

In other news, Dare County Board of Commissioners Chairman Bob Woodard also recently announced that representatives of local, state and federal entities have formed the N.C. 12 Task Force to collaborate on the development of a long-term plan to address transportation issues on Hatteras and Ocracoke islands’ only highway. In response to continued challenges from changing climate impacts, the task force will include members from Dare County, Hyde County, the National Park Service, the National Wildlife Service and the N.C. Department of Transportation, as well as stakeholders from the community and other nonprofit organizations.

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N O RT H B E ACH SU N | 23

R E A L E STAT E

The Life-Changing Magic of (Un)Tidying Up

BY AMANDA MCDANEL

E

ach year the MerriamWebster dictionary updates its volumes by adding new words. During 2020, in particular, many new words (or at least, new meanings for old ones) were added to our vernacular – pod or bubble and social distancing, for example – and when we need new ways to express our current world, it’s the dictionary’s job to track and document that.

Not every word winds up in the dictionary, however – but that doesn’t mean that its use isn’t influential. This past year, in fact, many homebound Americans reflected back to a phrase that made a big splash back in 2015: KonMari or the Marie Kondo method.

In 2014, Marie Kondo wrote The LifeChanging Magic of Tidying Up in which she outlines her process for decluttering your home once and for all. The book became an international sensation, hitting The New York Times bestseller list and inspiring thousands to dump their dresser contents onto their bed, throw three quarters of their clothes away and then fold the remaining ones into tidy dumpling-like packets.

CNN declared her manuscript “One of the Most Influential Books of the Decade.” Being a good consumer of high-quality literature, I purchased it (according to my Amazon.com records) on December 29, 2015, just two months after giving birth to my second daughter. It arrived, and I promptly put it on my nightstand beside the other 13 books I planned to read that month.

To its credit, I do believe that at some point I not only picked it up, but may have even read a few chapters… while doing early morning feedings, while hiding in the bathroom pretending to be showering, and maybe even in the 1.7 seconds between my head hitting the pillow and my eyes drawing their blinds.

The overwhelming thought of washing the clothing, let alone folding it into neat little squares to put away felt completely insurmountable during those early days of motherhood. Hell, if I had even put a clean shirt on or washed my hair in the past five days, I was feeling accomplished.

2 4 | SU M M ER 2021

Add to that a mountain of plastic toys, an overflowing dress-up trunk, a shared bedroom and a too-small house filled with too much love, reading Marie’s book just made me feel “less than” at the time – and like a terrible housekeeper and mother. I heard the petty comments, including “you’ll miss this messy house when they’re gone” or “I can’t sleep when my house isn’t picked up, but not everyone is like that,” and they clouded my mind.

I quit Marie.

Then I pulled another worn book out of my stack. It was a red paperback entitled The Evolving Self by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. It had been a reading assignment my junior year of college by my professor of positive psychology, Dr. Germana. While many people can’t remember what their professors looked like, let alone their names, Joe Germana, was a tall bald man who sported tapestry vests and beaded wooden necklaces.

He would saunter out of the classroom 15 minutes into a lecture on “theory of expectations” and not return. We would be told to gather on a hill near the main street of campus only to watch him walk down the street, enter

Carol Lee Donuts and perch on a stool with a cup of coffee to peer at us. At one point, I believe we had to climb a tree to meet him on a branch and tell him our self-assigned course grade.

Picking up the book, I thumbed to Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow: a state of concentration and engagement that can be achieved when completing a task that challenges one’s skills to maximize happiness and productivity. Getting into this state requires a sense of absorption into a task so complete that you ignore other cues while doing deep and meaningful work – and whether that means playing on the floor with the children while ignoring the dog hair or listening to their belly laughs while reading a book under a dusty lamp, it’s a way to find order amongst clutter and chaos.

This was the life manual I decided to dive into. Yes, a few years later as my infant turned into a toddler and then a preschooler, I would work on sorting the toys, labeling bins and bribing my girls by letting them use the “gobble machine” (a.k.a. the vacuum) to practice Marie’s tidying up. And while we may never “change our lives” through decluttering and organizing, I’m finding peace in our home with yet another 2021 addition to the Merriam-Webster dictionary: hygge.

Hygge: Noun. A quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being.

It’s a quality I’ve managed to embrace in a number of meaningful ways: Vases filled with flowers are set alongside ones filled with rainbow building blocks.

Artwork plasters the front of our refrigerator while the dishwasher remains bare. The dining room table is a place for both puzzles and pierogies. There are enough beach towels for everyone, even visiting friends, but they may tumble out of the cabinet when you open it because they aren’t all folded alike. The pantry is always stocked, but you may have to sift through several cereal boxes to find the one you like. The beers are always cold, but not arranged alphabetically. I make my bed every day, but have stopped even bothering with a top sheet on both children’s beds – after all, they’ll become civilized soon enough, why try to tame their wild spirits now?

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R E A L E STAT E In the four-wheel-drive area of Carova, professional land surveyor Jamie Furr spends a lot of time playing in the sand (i.e., digging holes) in order to capture the precise measurements that are crucial to his job. Photo courtesy of Helen Furr.

Survey says?

Pirates, snakes and wild horses are all part of a day’s work for local land surveyors.

The Lay of the

Land

BY STEVE HANF

WHEN JAMIE FURR SETS UP HIS SURVEYING INSTRUMENTS to dial in those precise measurements and mark property boundaries, he’s completing painstaking and exacting work.

But just how painful and exactly how crazy the work will be depends on the day and the location, especially when he finds himself in the four-wheel-drive area of Carova.

Sometimes, it’s an inquisitive homeowner wanting to know what he’s doing on their property.

“Our favorite joke as a surveyor is to say, ‘This is where the tunnel from Norfolk’s coming through,’” Jamie says with a laugh. “Their response immediately tells you who you’re dealing with – the person either laughs and you share a few giggles and move on, or the person gets quite irate, like you’re the worst person in the world.”

For those who can laugh it off, the next question often involves pirate lore: Is Jamie getting any closer to finding that X on the treasure map?

“Yeah, I’ve been looking for 25 years, and I haven’t seen any buried treasure yet,” Jamie says goodnaturedly. “I did find an old fiberglass pirate like you would see at Jolly Roger or a putt-putt course one time while I was doing a survey in Corolla. It looked like it had been there for at least 30 years.”

2 6 | SU M M ER 2021

When Jamie made that discovery on a vacant lot near the Whalehead Club, he took several photos, and then took it home – where the pirate continues to scare visitors to this day.

“That’s probably the coolest thing I’ve ever found,” Jamie says.

“I’m still waiting for somebody to accuse me of stealing it!”

Treasure aside, the job of a professional land surveyor is mainly supposed to be pretty tame and straightforward: Using landmarks, GPS, maps and other instruments, Eastern Geomatics, PLLC – Jamie’s company – and a number of local land surveyors mark boundaries for construction sites, make sure people aren’t putting their pools or fences on their neighbors’ property, and ensure that the myriad of ordinances for every local municipality are being followed before projects begin.

It’s still the type of work that can come with its own unique set of challenges, however. By way of example, Jamie recalls one story of a surveyor who missed the mark on a relatively nondescript sandy lot in Carova. The lot was staked. The house was built. The proud owners came to see their new house – and promptly told the surveyor that it wasn’t on their lot.

Luckily, surveyors have insurance for that kind of thing.

But despite curious people, and the discovery of unusual property markers like gun barrels and car axles, the biggest challenges local surveyors tend to face come from the resident wildlife…especially in Carova.

Everybody loves Currituck’s famed wild horses, right? Not so much for Jamie, whose expensive equipment seems to draw members of the herd faster than a visitor with a forbidden carrot.

“One time I was 300 yards away from my instruments, and next thing I knew I had six horses jumping up and kicking each other as they ran around my equipment,” Jamie says. “Sometimes you just have to stand and watch it go down – and hold your breath hoping nothing else happens.”

Jamie will not, however, stand by idly when the water moccasins come out to play. He’s had days when the snakes were so bad they forced him to leave a job site…and other days when he’s tromped through marshy waist-high weeds in snake chaps.

“I always say, ‘Well, at least I won’t die from a snake bite – I’ll just die from the heart attack when I see a snake attached to my chap,’” Jamie explains ruefully.

Countless ticks, wildlife encounters and disgruntled residents – there are some good things about being a land surveyor, right?

Luckily, for Jamie, the answer is a clear yes. Jamie graduated from the University of North Carolina in Wilmington with an environmental science degree before eventually training to become a surveyor. For more than a dozen years now, he’s worked for others and for himself, dealt with building booms and busts, and put in the long, hard hours to learn the lay of the land all over the Outer Banks.

It’s a profession that’s hard to get into thanks to the need for a bachelor’s degree and years of experience before being allowed to sit for the state exams. Jamie jokes that surveyor conferences filled with guys in their 60s and 70s only make him realize that he’s doomed to never retire. And yet...

“I’m just not cut out to sit in a cubicle, that’s for sure,” Jamie says. “I tell people all the time that the best thing about my job is that I’m in a different location every day, and every day is different.

“If I’m driving up the beach on a nice sunny morning, it can be bumper to bumper even up there, but it’s not like being bumper to bumper in Chesapeake,” he adds with a smile. “Some people have it a hell of a lot worse when it comes to commutes.”

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R E A L E STAT E

AHEAD OF THE Sometimes we all need a little lift – and when it comes to houses on the Outer Banks, higher is often better.

BY CATHERINE KOZAK THESE DAYS A LOT MORE HOUSES HAVE BEEN – OR POSSIBLY SOON

And it’s not just the increasingly unpredictable degree and frequency of flooding that’s been worrying folks, it’s also the pending updates in the National Flood Insurance Program that’s spurring urgency to get structures up above potential flood waters.

“The demand is high,” says Jason DeVooght, an owner of DeVooght House Lifters, based in Bridgeton, North Carolina. “In this market, in North and South Carolina, we bid about 40 home elevations every month.”

Jason, whose company has been in business since 1964, says nearly all its work on the Outer Banks is done during the fall, and the vast majority of the jobs in recent years relate to getting safely above base flood elevation in order to meet flood insurance standards.

“What we’re seeing is a shift in the whole industry since 1990,” Jason says.

“Ninety percent of our work used to be moving houses down the road. Now, ninety percent of our work is raising houses.”

A lot of calls for work in North Carolina, he explains, come from owners with houses in flood zones that have experienced 51 percent damage during a flood. To get flood insurance premiums down, the house has to be raised two feet or more above base flood levels.

“It’s the only thing that ever protects houses in flood zones,” DeVooght says about lifting.

WILL BE – LIFTED.

Ti

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced in April that under a new rating system – the first major update in 50 years – price changes for flood insurance will start being implemented this October.

According to FEMA, the first phase of the new rating methodology will kick in for new policies on October 1, and existing policyholders who renew will see an immediate decrease in premiums. In Phase II, which starts in April 2022, all remaining policies will be subject to the new ratings. The agency asserts that most property owners will see decreases, while estimating that four percent of properties will see increases.

It’s not yet clear what impact the new rating system will have on the Outer Banks, but it is clear that rising sea levels and a higher water table, as well as increasingly intense rain events and tropical storms, means that flooding is a concern that isn’t going away.

“It’s cheaper to FEMA mitigation grants are also available, build up than however, for primary residences in a flood zone that aren’t on pilings, covering anywhere from out.” $30,000 or more of the costs to elevate houses -Steve Bray, above the base flood level.

“People are being more proactive than they Bray’s House Moving, Inc. were in recent years,” says Steve Bray, an owner of Bray’s House Moving, Inc. “People seem to be paying more attention to the weather.”

When Steve’s 80-year-old father, Julian, started the family business in 1972, most of the work was house moving. And until the late 1990s, most house lifting jobs only involved raising structures around eight to 10 feet. Now about sixty percent are lifted at least 12 feet, with the rest going up closer to 14 or 20 feet…and sometimes more.

Recently, says Steve, who is also president of the N.C. House Moving Association, a house in Frisco was lifted 26 feet – his highest job yet.

THE HOUSE RAISING PROCESS Stilt homes with enclosed ground floor spaces are typically the ideal candidates for raising.

2 8 | SU M M ER 2021

STEP 1 Remove decks, remove power and water services, and demolish any ground-level structures.

STEP 2 Use hydraulic jacks to raise the home inch by inch while stacking wooden cribbing blocks to take the weight of the home.

STEP 3 Continue raising the home and adding cribbing blocks until reaching a desired height.

STEP 4 Install new pilings and any necessary structural lumber.

STEP 5 Lower the home onto the new structure and remove cribbing.

ide

“If you have to raise your house anyway, why not raise it just a few more feet?”

Steve says, explaining the homeowners’ thinking – many of whom want to build under the first floor and still be above the base flood elevation. “It’s cheaper to build up than out.”

There’s also been a big improvement over the years in the engineering and equipment used in lifting. Steve’s company, for instance, uses the same advanced hydraulic technology used to lift and move the 4,830-ton Cape Hatteras Lighthouse back in 1999.

Mike Blake, an estimator with Wolfe House and Building Movers, started out in the industry at age 13 by helping his father and grandfather with Greensboro-based Blake Moving Company, which has been in business for 55 years. Over the years, Mike has seen the various scenarios of erosion and flooding that property owners so often contend with.

“They either lift, or they leave it as long as possible,” he says. “Some houses are being eroded on the shoreline, and they’re in the surf right now. Some of them have to be torn down because there’s not a good way to get them to a new lot.”

Cost can be a factor, depending on the size of the house and whether it’s wood, brick or mason. A 600 to 700-square-foot house might cost $18,000 to $20,000 to lift, not including the foundation, roof and other parts of the job, Mike reports. But surprisingly, weather permitting, the main work – the lifting and placing down on the foundation – can be completed in a matter of days.

But buyer beware, Mike warns. With more demand, there are more contractors.

“Some of these guys coming from out-of-state work cheap, and they don’t have the right insurance,” he says. The professional companies that have stayed for years in the business, on the other hand, have adapted over time to modern tactics and engineering standards.

“And it’s always a good feeling when you lift a house without any damage,” Mike adds.

STEP 6 Build and enclose any new living spaces and reconnect power and water.

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R E A L E STAT E

sun salutations Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty Beach Realty & Construction Beach Realty Welcomes New Sales Associates Beach Realty & Construction welcomes Samantha Lauric Foxwell to the sales team. With a background in the local rental industry, Samantha is wellequipped to assist both buyers and sellers in the purchase or sale of vacation rental properties.

Samantha works from the Kitty Hawk office and can be reached at samantha@beachrealtync.com.

Heather Sakers, along with team members Charles Gill and Ann Taylor Lusk, earned the prestigious International President’s Circle award in 2020. This award is presented to the top 20% of all Coldwell Banker teams of three in the United States and Canada. The Sakers Team is a consistent top three producer in the firm. Heather can be reached at heather@cbseaside.com or (252) 599-6814.

Jason Woodard joined the Beach Realty sales team this spring. Jason graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Old Dominion University with graduate work in environmental health. He worked for the government for 10 years before relocating to the Outer Banks. As a small business owner with an outgoing personality, a career in real estate sales was the natural next step. Jason can be reached at jasonwoodard@beachrealtync.com.

Emily Bray Earns Coldwell Banker International President’s Circle Award

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Chelsea Jordan has earned the prestigious International Diamond Society award. This award is based on adjusted gross commission income for 2020 and is awarded to the top 15% of all agents worldwide. Chelsea can be reached at chelsea@cbseaside.com or (252) 207-6659.

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The Heather Sakers Team Earns Coldwell Banker International Award for 2020 Sales

Emily Bray has earned the prestigious International President’s Circle award. This award is based on adjusted gross commission income for 2020 and is awarded to the top 8% of all agents worldwide. Ranked #2 in the firm for sales volume, Emily is also ranked in the top 50 of Coldwell Banker agents in North Carolina for units sold. Emily can be reached at emily@cbseaside.com or (252) 412-5991.

Chelsea Jordan Earns Coldwell Banker International Diamond Society Award

Edith Rowe has earned the Top Sales Agent Award for the last four years. This award is based on closed sales volume. She holds a broker’s license and has been in sales on the Outer Banks since 2000. In addition to a thorough knowledge of real estate and construction, she brings to the table a degree of local sales acumen and familiarity with the area found in few agents. Contact Edith at (252) 202-6165, toll free at (877) 642-3224 or by email at edithroweobx@gmail.com.

Jeff Kluger Earns Coldwell Banker International President’s Circle Award

Catherine Strachan has worked on both the listing and selling side of several foreclosures and short sale transactions, a valuable skill in today’s volatile market. She is a designated Short Sale and Foreclosure Resource Specialist, as well as a Resort and Second-Home Property Specialist, specializing in the vacation home market. Contact Catherine at (252) 489-9540, toll free at (877) 642-3224 or by email at obxproperty@gmail.com

Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty Welcomes the Mausteller Team

Jeff Kluger, a sales associate with Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty, has earned membership in the Coldwell Banker International President’s Circle award, a level achieved by only the top 8% of all sales associates worldwide. This is the sixth consecutive year Jeff has earned an International Award. A top five producer for the firm, Jeff can be reached at (252) 903-1738 or jkluger@cbseaside.com.

John Mausteller and Katie Kennis have joined Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty at the Kitty Hawk location. John grew up in Williamsburg, VA, in a successful commercial real estate family, and Katie is the former owner of a successful yoga studio in Duck. Team leader John Mausteller can be reached at jmausteller@cbseaside.com or (727) 876-9273.

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Great Escapes Announces Top Two Agents in Duck

Sun Realty Announces Agents of the Month for February and March

Great Escapes Vacations & Sales is proud to announce that Leslie Gilmore and Connie Mason were their top two agents in Duck for 2020. Leslie had 54 closed transactions, landing her in first position, and Connie followed closely with 40 transactions, landing her in second. Connie and Leslie have both specialized in Duck and Corolla real estate for more than 20 years. They have helped clients buy and sell homes, condos and co-ownerships. Contact Leslie and Connie for the latest Duck and Corolla real estate information by emailing DuckandCorolla@GreatEscapesOBX.com.

SAGA Realty & Construction SAGA Realty & Construction Welcomes Meg Minetree SAGA Realty & Construction is excited to welcome Meg Minetree to the growing sales team. Meg has an MBA from the University of Mary Washington, specializing in project management, and a Bachelor of Science degree from Virginia Tech. Meg has been an Outer Banks real estate investor for nearly 20 years and has spent many years traveling the globe brokering luxury sailing catamarans. Meg can be reached at (252) 564-4744.

SAGA Realty & Construction Welcomes Mark Evans SAGA Realty & Construction also welcomes Mark Evans to the sales team. Mark has always had a passion for real estate – he studied business law in college at the same time he was studying for the Virginia real estate exam. Mark then began a career in aviation as a flight dispatcher and often worked part-time as a realtor simultaneously. Mark can be reached at (817) 637-2453.

SAGA Realty & Construction Welcomes Shellie Leete SAGA Realty & Construction is pleased to announce that Shellie Leete has joined the marketing team. Shellie was born and raised in San Diego, California, then enjoyed a stint abroad after marrying her Aussie husband and working in public health in Sydney. Her journey took her from Sydney to building a home in Seattle, and then into the Blue Ridge Mountains where she was a successful small business owner and entrepreneur. Shellie now calls the Outer Banks home and enjoys creating new content in her dream job working for SAGA.

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February’s Agent of the Month is no stranger to these accolades: Michael Davenport was the company’s top sales agent. With more than 35 years of real estate experience, Michael provides extensive area knowledge and local expertise of the current market conditions. Michael has closed more than a thousand real estate transactions to-date, representing both buyers and sellers. Contact Michael at (252) 441-8011.

The Willey team of Hugh (Scooter) and Gerri Willey took top honors in March. The Willey Real Estate Group is an experienced, top-producing sales group.

Hugh has been in real estate on the Outer Banks since 1985, with Gerri coming onboard in 2006. Both pride themselves in providing excellent customer service to both buyers and sellers, and on using the latest technology to find the right fit for their clients’ goals. Contact the Willey Real Estate Group at (252) 489-8491.

Twiddy Premier Sales The OBX Homes Team Welcomes Crystal Swain The OBX Homes Team is thrilled to announce their newest team member, Crystal Swain. Crystal joined Twiddy Premier Sales in the summer of 2020 and found the perfect match with Heather McLay, Ashley Ladd and Mandi Jones.

Rob Ladd Celebrates 22 Years with Twiddy Rob Ladd, broker in charge of the Duck sales office, is celebrating his 22nd Twiddy-versary this year. Twiddy Premier Sales thanks him for his dedication to the firm and its agents.

Bill Hogan Celebrates 30 Years with Twiddy Twiddy Premier Sales is honored to celebrate Bill Hogan’s 30-year Twiddy-versary. Since 1991, Bill has been a successful and dedicated realtor on the Outer Banks and he’s not slowing down anytime soon. In fact, he’s had more than $6 million in sales since January 1st of this year.

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An original acrylic painting of John’s Drive-In, courtesy of artist Dawn Gray Moraga/Red Dawn Designs.

F I V E FACT S

John’s Drive-In

B Y HA N N A H LE E LE I D Y

– has maintained a following of locals and seasonal visitors for nearly a half-century now. Families, children and even puppies return every summer to the old-school, window service drive-in for specialties such as dolphin boats, where hot, battered fish turns hands sticky from the grease, and milkshakes thick enough for a straw to stand up on its own. But above all, they mostly come for the ritual of John’s: driving down the beach road in Kitty Hawk, soaking up the sun as they wait in line, and ordering a meal that’s consistently delicious – whether they first tried it four days or 40 years ago.

JOHN’S DRIVE-IN – KNOWN BY MOST SIMPLY AS JOHN’S

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The Original Work from Home

Before John Tice Sr. bought the building that would become John’s in 1977, the structure served Kitty Hawk as a Dairy Mart. No stranger to the industry, Tice had already spent 30-some years in the restaurant business up north, where he mostly managed drive-thrus. Seizing the opportunity to relocate his growing family to the Outer Banks and strike out on his own, the location had the added appeal of including an onsite home – which was a big perk for a businessman who was also a consummate family man. The residence, which has since been removed, made it easy for the whole family to stay hands-on from the start.

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A Family Affair

Every member of the Tice family played a part in the daily operations of John’s from day one. Originally open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Tice Sr. steered the ship with his decades of restaurant experience, while his wife, Pat, demonstrated her prowess in the kitchen by cooking and working on recipe development. Though still school-aged in the late ‘70s, the Tice children – John Jr., Mona and Tina – were also expected to lend a hand in the afternoons – which often meant manning the counter, prepping food and taking turns doing their homework on top of the freezer. John’s remained in the Tice family for 43 years before it sold to Outer Banks residents Chelsea and Jason Jordan in 2020.

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Desperately Seeking Southern

Although the dolphin boats, crab cakes and Cajun sauce have long been mainstays on John’s menu, that Southern flair wasn’t something that the Tice family knew much about when they first relocated to the Outer Banks.

Hailing from Pittsburgh, the Tices were newcomers to Southern food, but they knew they needed to learn – and fast – in order to appeal to the local clientele. In order to expand their repertoire, Pat started visiting some of the small eateries on Hatteras Island, where old-timers taught her how to fry and smoke fish and make proper North Carolina barbecue. Mrs. Ellis at Frisco Pier even taught Pat her secret tartar sauce recipe – which had been around for generations, and is still on John’s menu today!

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Must Love Dogs

As hardworking as they were, when the Tices did take vacations, a meal out always meant buying a hotdog for their four-legged family member, too – which spurred Tice Sr. to make sure that at John’s all dogs ate for free. An instant hit, John’s famous Pup Cups – which consist of a chopped-up burger or hotdog, free of charge – became a staple for families eating out with their canine companions. And while the Pup Cups have largely been served to dogs since they first graced the menu, they’ve also attracted many other visiting animals over the years, including horses, weasels, monkeys and once – perhaps most famously – a penguin.

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Picture This

While “family first” was a big motto for the Tices, how they defined family wound up extending well beyond their immediate unit of five to all the people (and animals) who came to visit the drive-in over the decades. To commemorate that bond, Pat started a tradition of snapping pics of their customers with her Polaroid camera during the ‘80s. These pictures eventually came to be displayed collage-like on boards that earned a permanent space in John’s windows – sometimes capturing several generations of a family over a number of years – in a sort of communal scrapbook that continues to tell the story of this much-loved Outer Banks eatery.

BUYING? KW HAS YOU COVERED! SELLING?

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Ashley Contristan 252-256-0344 ashleysellsobx@gmail.com ashleysellsobx.com

Carleigh Hines 252-216-5395 Cmhines@kw.com carleigh-hines.kw.com

Alex Miller-Saunders 252-207-7080 alexsellsobx@kw.com alexmillerobx.com

Liz J Holterhaus 252-202-2156 obx4sale@gmail.com obx4sale.com

Danielle Taylor 252-489-9185 danielle@sandbarliving.com sandbarliving.com

Sarah Brown and BJ Neal 252-202-5279 bj@simplysalesobx.com simplysalesobx.com

Lauren Nelson 252-207-6504 lauren4beach@gmail.com windwardgroupltd.kw.com

Ellen Heatwole 804-839-7064

252-202-2173 denisegraham@kw.com Eddie Kavanaugh: 252-207-7773 eddie.kavanaugh@kw.com Denise Graham:

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sellnobx@gmail.com SellnOBX.com

252-202-8147 kargiroff@gmail.com Alex Argiroff: 252-202-8148 aargiroff@gmail.com

Kathleen Argiroff:

Mercedes Tabano, CRS, ABR 252-305-1358 mercedes@homesontheouterbanks.com

Sarah VanLeeuwen 813-990-9193 sarahv@kw.com sarahvan.com

Market Place 5595 N Croatan Hwy, Southern Shores, NC 27949 Each Keller Williams Office is Independently Owned and Operated.

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TWIDDY & COMPANY, REALTORS 1181 DUCK ROAD | DUCK, NC 27949 *Based on information from the Outer Banks Association of Realtors MLS for the period of January 1, 2019 through December 31, 2020.

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