REAL ESTATE REPOR T are a hom e values

Childhood PTA’s fundraising home tour.

Jenny is involved in the ECPTA and is looking forward to the tour, she says.

“We love hosting parties, having family and friends over, neighborhood meetings, anything like that,” she says.

And while the Kelloggs’ wide-open interiors are indeed ripe for keeping themselves and visitors entertained, outdoors is where the magic happens.

The Kelloggs’ backyard is framed in Savannah holly trees and purpley loropetalum bushes. A fountainside bloodgood Japanese maple tree and an array of other hearty foliage softens and prettifies the landscape while requiring minimal maintenance.

A covered patio accommodates a big flatscreen TV, stylish outdoor furniture and a fireplace. “This adds a modern touch to the ranch feel,” Derek says. Opposite a lengthy swath of meticulously groomed grass is a stage, large enough for a band but used mostly for charades, a regular family pastime. Beyond that, a playhouse and a vegetable garden — if this verdure seems rather endless, it is. All told, the Kellogg home sits on a half-acre of land.

By the time the April home tour rolls around, the Kellogg home will be utterly polished, picture-perfect (with a few exceptions, because, Derek says, everything is always a work in progress). It is their best work so far, they say.

“We get better with each job,” Derek says of his remodeling work. “Of all the homes this is the only one we’ve taken to this level, invested this much in.”

So can they stay put, or will their seek-andrestore urges drive them to a quest for the next big project?

At this inquiry, they smile at each other like co-conspirators.

“We will stay here awhile,” Jenny says. “It is harder to move, to do this with two little ones, and we are really happy here, but, you know, I always have an itch.”

A VISION FOR LAKE HIGHLANDS: PART 3