People often ask her why she moved from Arizona to Johns Creek. She always laughs and gives the honest answer: "Because it's too hot."
Anyone who has lived in Arizona understands. Summer days regularly pass 104°F, the ground feels like an oven, and in many places there are few trees and little grass, just bare brown earth as far as you can see. Over time she missed a different kind of life: shade, lawns, and being able to step outside whenever she wanted.
First visit to Johns Creek
Last summer she came to Johns Creek for the first time. Driving in from the airport, her first impression was: trees everywhere. Rows of big trees along the roads, green lawns in the neighborhoods, houses tucked into the woods. The air was soft and quiet, nothing like a desert city.
Around the same time, U.S. News & World Report named Johns Creek the No. 1 best place to live in the US. She told me: "If I were going to pick a place in America to slow down and live, it would be a city like this."
Seven Oaks
Then I took her to see the Seven Oaks community. It was early evening. People were out walking, someone was kicking a ball on the lawn, the tennis court lights were on and there was laughter by the pool. That was the moment she started to fall for it.
Back in Arizona, she kept thinking about Seven Oaks, until this house came along: a private lot of nearly three-quarters of an acre, with a heated saltwater pool, a covered patio with a fireplace and a hot tub. When the lights come on at night, the backyard looks like a resort.
Seven Oaks is a very active community: tennis and pickleball courts, an Olympic-size pool, soccer fields, a fishing lake, trails and parks, with something going on almost every day. It is in the Northview High School attendance zone.
She later told me: "In Arizona, so much of the time you are stuck inside with the air conditioning. In Johns Creek, I want to be outside every day."
Sometimes the reason a city draws people in is simple: trees, water, community and a life worth living.
