3813 Sweeten Creek Road

In June 1989, Reed Gwillim Law Jr., Janice Black Law, Reed Gwillim Law III, Evan Stanley Law, Blake Thomas Law, and Shirley Elizabeth Law moved into the house that Bryant Roberts had built to their specifications at 3813 Sweeten Creek Rd., Chapel Hill, NC. The family had been living in temporary accommodations in Chapel Hill for a year. This house was in a fairly new development called Chandler's Green, with half-acre-plus lots and houses of the type sometimes called McMansions. One of the other houses under construction provided the initial floor plan, which we modified here and there.

The lot sloped down a bit steeply from the street. Behind it was a sewer easement, and behind that, an artificial pond was a pleasant sight.

The house itself was on four levels. At bottom, an uncomfortable crawl space for utilities. The first floor was entered by climbing four steps to a roofed porch that formed about a quarter of the facade at that level. There were five main rooms on that floor, plus a built-in garage. Left front was a living room, left rear was a large, airy, well-lit family room with a soothing view of woods. Right front was the dining room, and behind it, the kitchen. Further back and to the right was a bedroom suite with bath. Between the living and dining rooms were the stairs to the second floor, a hallway with closets, and a powder room. The kitchen, garage, and bedroom suite were connected through a mud room, and another stairway led up to the game room.

The second floor was a bit like a dormitory. At the left were the master bedroom and bath. At the top of the stairs were a laundry room and the children's bathroom, in which the toilet and tub were separated in a back chamber. A sharp right at the top of the stairs led to the attic. A hallway ran down the center of this floor, with doors to two bedrooms in front and one in back. It led to the game room. Behind the game room and above the downstairs bedroom suite was a room that served mostly as a study but sometimes as a bedroom.

Several doors concealed child-sized crawl spaces for storage.

The large and numerous rooms made it easy to accommodate many visitors, including friends from California and Connecticut. Steven Inglis Law and his family came. When Reed and Winnie Law were in the United States, they often lived in the downstairs bedroom suite. Blake, Sarah Elizabeth Law, Luke Thomas Law, Micah Alice Law, Eliana Charis Law, Jesse Calvin Law, and Silas Finian Law were eagerly awaited guests at all occasions, especially holidays.

The neighborhood association maintained a playground and green community area a short way down the street. In 1996, East Chapel Hill High School opened. It was accessible by walking out the back door and around the ponds. Just outside the neighborhood there was a convenience store and gas station which had first attracted our attention to the area, and across the street, Cedar Falls Park provided ample recreation.