Sunrise on the Monon

What made you choose to build in Sunrise on the Monon?

Stephanie: When we were looking for a house, we had a lot of things that we wanted that we weren’t finding in already built homes. So, we decided to look at building and we heard about the neighborhood from some friends and it seemed like a great idea. We love the style of Old Town’s homes and we like the area a lot.

Victor: We came from living downtown, so we enjoyed all of the amenities that downtown had, but it was getting to be a little bit much. Coming north was a great choice and taking advantage of everything Carmel had to offer while still being accessible to downtown. It seemed like a great little quiet area, where you still have tons of access. Victor: We came from living downtown, so we enjoyed all of the amenities that downtown had, but it was getting to be a little bit much. Coming north was a great choice and taking advantage of everything Carmel had to offer while still being accessible to downtown. It seemed like a great little quiet area, where you still have tons of access.

How did the access to the Monon Trail influence your move to Sunrise on the Monon or did it?

Victor: We like to bike and run. Having access to the Monon is another way to get downtown if we wanted to or to Broad Ripple, head up North to Carmel. It’s just a fun way to stay active. Now that we have Daphne, she loves taking walks out there.

Can you discuss the difference in your lifestyle since you moved to Sunrise on the Monon?

Stephanie: We definitely have been able to entertain more which is what we wanted when we were thinking about the house. We had a birthday party yesterday, and we had people over last weekend. It feels like we’re a lot more social I think since we have the space to be social.

Victor: Exactly, we were downtown for a year before we moved here which is a very different lifestyle, generally. Living downtown in a small apartment versus up here in the “burbs”, it’s just a much larger area. We’re able to take advantage of it and host a lot more. Even when we just have small parties, it feels like a lot more relaxed it’s not as hustle and bustle. But there is still a lot of action and activity here. We really enjoy it.

Could you describe the feeling when you both walked into your finished home?

Stephanie: I think it’s hard because Victor was over here, every day, multiple times every day.

Victor: Yeah, I was. So, walking into the home the first time and knowing it was ours after taking ownership, that was definitely a “WHOA” feeling for us. Coming into something that was brand new, built exactly how we wanted it and that we had been able to watch the process since it was an open field, it was a really cool feeling. One of the best parts of that for me, was knowing that the people who worked on the house, Dave and Eddie, did stellar work in communication. They let us know exactly what was going on and if something had to change on the fly, they described what it was, what was going on and why it needed to change. I never felt like there was a question mark about any decision that Old Town made. I always felt like I was in the ‘know’ and I got to voice my opinion. Throughout the process, Stephanie and I, learned to trust the professionals. I know it’s a long-winded answer, but the feeling was all wrapped up in the fact that when we took ownership, I was excited not because it was ours, but because I knew from day one that it was as good as it could be and it’s just an amazing house.

What do you like most about living in Sunrise on the Monon?

Stephanie: I think that we’ve met some really great people here and we love having a yard. That’s one way that we meet people, through Daphne. She’s very friendly and we meet other owners. It’s been really nice to have a community feeling and community events, like Food Truck Friday and Bud and Maureen’s semiannual coffee day.

Victor: Just in general, all of the folks have been wonderful and so nice. I think for being relatively young in the neighborhood it’s been great to have the apartments nearby. We enjoy it because there are younger people walking around and we’ve made a lot of friends with people living in the apartments. The location is fantastic, I love that we’re just minutes away from everything but right now we have the windows and doors open and it sounds so quiet and calm.

Is there anything else that you’d like to add?

Victor: I think I touched on it earlier about learning how to trust professionals, I think a lot of people have problems with that. Even just looking at the initial schedule, week one on Buildertrend they show every single step all the way until you’re closed and some of that, to a leman like me, doesn’t make any sense. But you have trust. Mistakes and accidents happen, sure. But in our case, in the few times where that did happen building our house, Dave and Eddie bent over backwards to make sure that not only do we make up the time, but that we close a week early which is almost unheard of. So, we couldn’t be anything but happier with that. Looking around now at the house, I’m thinking about things like the trim, which I’m sure that some people have strong opinions of, but I trusted that Old Town knew what they were talking about. It helped remove the stress of being nitpicky about every little thing. The customization was there, and when I didn’t want to [customize], the trust was there which was great.

The Wieczorek family found the home design and location that was right for them. Make the move and write your own building story with Old Town Design Group at our newest Monon community, Sunrise on the Monon, in the heart of Carmel.

What made you choose to build in Sunrise on the Monon?

Alex: I was looking at a place that would be a reasonable commute, with working at St. Francis on the south side, but still be in Carmel or Zionsville. Since this was the closest to 465, I felt that this was the the best option to keep the commute within reasonable bounds. Plus, I just like being close to northern Indianapolis. It’s a good location with Keystone, Nora and Carmel and Zionsville is close too.

Did the access to the Monon Trail influence your move to Sunrise on the Monon?

Shalina: Yes, I will say yes. We looked in both Zionsville and Carmel, and we were looking at new home developments and for sure the Monon Trail really pulled us here. Living down on the south side, we came in the summer with our boys four or five times, just to ride our bikes up here [on the Monon]. So, we would drive 45 minutes, park the car and then go on a bike ride right by where we are living. I would be so jealous of all of the homes on the Monon, I was like, “This would be a dream if we could just live here”. So, when we found out that there was new development on the Monon, it was a big deal to us.

Alex: Yeah, it’s things we always do as a family; ride bikes or walk on the Monon and being right there is obviously helpful.

What are your favorite places to go off the Monon Trail and how close is it to your home?

Shalina: The Farmer’s Market up in Carmel and riding down to Broad Ripple too. We’ve gone to dinner with our boys by bike. The three-year-old can ride a balance bike about 3 or 4 miles. We’ve gone to dinner in the last month 4 or 5 times by bike, so it’s been really fun. It’s situated half way between Broad Ripple and Downtown Carmel and I don’t know how you could beat that.

Alex: The Arts and Design district and the Monon Center was a big selling point too, being so close with a water park for the kids.

Could you describe the feeling when you both walked into your finished home?

Shalina: It was our 10-year wedding anniversary the day of the closing, so that was really just a great day. It was overwhelming, but in a good way, when we walked into our home surrounded by our neighbors, toasting to our home. It was a really special day.

Alex: It did feel very welcoming, that so many neighbors took the time to come and show up. You know, this neighborhood is not even near filled out, so we really appreciated that.

What do you like most about your new home?

Shalina: I like the whole floor plan. It was a happy experience to get to design the home with people that you could trust and knew what they were doing. We’ve never done this before and it was a lot of decisions, but it was I’d say, 85% exciting and 15% nerve-wracking.

Alex: The grill. Grilling is a new hobby for me that I didn’t have before. It’s nice having the nature preserve right behind it – you can just look out and its just trees. It’s very green. Having the front porch very accessible and the back porch very accessible, both having views of greenery is something that I value.

Is there anything else that you’d like to add?

Alex: Every vendor was very professional and understanding that we don’t have the knowledge that they have and how to work with us and get us to show our preferences in a way that they could manifest them in the home.

Shalina: I think it was really helpful having Theresa work with us for the interior design stuff, just because these are things I’ve never thought about before. To be able to talk with any of the vendors and contractors about how we live our life and for them to instantly come up with solutions, they were excellent at that. They put in a laundry shoot for the boys. We said, “This is what we do in our kitchen”, and they made us a craft cabinet.

How did you first hear about Old Town?

Carol: Well the way that we first heard about Old Town Design Group was at a wedding! Actually, at a wedding reception, we were sitting next to some friends of ours, that go to the same country club that we do, and they were talking about the home that they were building. It just sounded so perfect to us. So, we actually went to see it [their neighborhood and the model], and it was one of Old Town Design Group’s homes, in Old Carmel. There really wasn’t an available lot that appealed to us there, but it gave us the opportunity to meet Justin Moffett. Justin toured us on some of the other homes they’d built, he seemed to know what we might want from talking to him. That was the beginning, just building that relationship with Justin was fabulous.

Could you describe the feeling when you both walked into your finished home?

Paul: This was a labor of love of Carol’s designing and ultimately decorating. As the house became built, and the pieces came together, it was clear to me that what she’d put together was going to be really special, and it is.

Carol: For me, it’s sheer joy and gratitude. The joy came from seeing dreams realized. The gratitude came from being at that place in our life and from being able to work with the people we worked with.

Paul: Old Town did a great job of listening to her vision and putting it on paper, making a few adjustments and you can see the finished product.

What do you like most about your new home?

Carol: Oh – the view! The view, inside and out. I just love that the inside seems to be an extension of the outside. That kind of goes with the Prairie style feeling that we wanted, but I am totally enamored with that as I believe Paul is. But I have to say, a close second, but the location. We feel like we’re tucked away from everything and yet we’re moments away from everything that we want to do, which is fabulous. Then we live in probably the friendliest community that exists.

What do you like most about living in Sunrise on the Monon?

Paul: It’s a community, not a neighborhood. That started when we had the lot selection back in October of 2015 where you get to meet prospective neighbors. So, when we moved in, we knew everybody. I think that distinguishes Old Town from a lot of other builders. People just move in and it takes them a while to get to know their respective neighbors, but we knew everybody.

Carol: Yes, a real feeling of community.

How would you describe your home?

Carol: The style of our home is what I would probably call Prairie. I wanted something kind of Frank Lloyd Wright-like, so marrying the outside with the inside, just kind of an extension there with nature. So that’s kind of how I came to pick colors and stones and things like that. But we really wanted it to be open and clean. Windows and light were of critical importance. That was the first thing, I wanted my black windows. Everything about the process was exciting.

Is there anything else that you’d like to add?

Paul: We have each met people who come to the Food Truck displays each month here, in the warm months, who are looking at potentially buying. We can’t say enough positive things about Old Town. If somebody wants to build something that’s quality and live in a community, versus a neighborhood, this is the place.

Carol: I would just like to add a big thank you, just a big shout out thank you to everyone that contributed to our home becoming what it is. I really feel like everyone at Old Town lives with the motto, “There’s no place like home,”.

The DeCoursey family found the home design and location that was right for them. Make the move and write your own building story with Old Town Design Group at our newest Monon community, Sunrise on the Monon, in the heart of Carmel.

What made you choose Sunrise on the Monon as your community?

Bill: The Monon Trail. We use the Monon a lot and we decided that if we were going to move, we needed to be close to the trail.

Susannah: We had a home in Westfield where we lived for over 20 years and we were right on the Monon there too. There was no way I was going to move if I couldn’t be close to the trail again since we walk, bike or run it nearly every day. We knew we wanted to build and there’s not a lot of options to build a home along the trail.

Could you describe the feeling when you both walked into your finished home?

Susannah: We were just really happy that it was finished. A few weeks before closing, our construction manager said he wanted us to stop coming every day so that there could be some surprise at seeing it finished.

Bill: The home was exactly what we had in mind. Living in the apartments, we were able to come over every day so there wasn’t a huge feeling, since we’d seen the home every step of the way. Once it was all cleaned up, it was the feeling of, ‘Yeah, this is it.’

How would you describe the style of your home?

Susannah: I think it’s a Craftsman style, but we went for something that’s casual and cozy. It’s not modern but it’s also not super formal. It’s very casual like we are. So many houses can be all white on white, which I know is popular right now, but the blue is exactly our style. It’s us.

Bill: It’s blue and we cannot disagree with it being called a ‘House of Closets’. Our new home consultant came up with that. She’d be giving tours in the house and said that you couldn’t turn around without finding another closet. But we had a very specific plan for usage of each one and it’s worked out well.

What do you like most about living in Sunrise on the Monon?

Susannah: Besides being close to the Monon Trail, everyone is so active and friendly. We love all of our neighbors. We walk a lot and sometimes it can be difficult to get a long walk in because we stop and talk to all the neighbors. But it’s a good problem to have – Sunrise is a perfect fit for us!

Bill: It’s a community like no other that we’ve lived in as far as openness and friendliness. One neighbor brought a monthly Drinks on the Drive tradition with them and it’s been a great way to keep in touch with the entire community.

The Dyson family found the home design and location that was right for them. Make the move and write your own building story with Old Town Design Group at our newest Monon community, Sunrise on the Monon, in the heart of Carmel.

How did access to the Monon Trail influence your move to Sunrise on the Monon?

Kristina: That was one of our top three things that we were looking for when we wanted to buy a new house is access to the Monon. We’ve spent a lot of time on our bikes and running and walking on the trail over the years and location near the Monon was one of our top 3 criteria for sure.

Sean: I agree, we lived in Broad Ripple and Meridian Kessler area and that was always important to us the Monon and everything around it and it was top 3 criteria when we chose Sunrise.

What are your favorite places to go off the Monon Trail and how close is it to your home?

Kristina: Well the trail itself is about 30 seconds from us, but our favorite places to go, we like to go south into Broad Ripple and the different restaurants and taverns and things along the way. And then north to the Monon Center, it’s only 8 minutes away from here.

Sean: Big Lug right there at 86th street and then Nora Plaza, the Target and Starbucks is right there and Huddles Ice Cream. Kind of our old places Monon Food Company and Broad Ripple Brew Pub and then going into Carmel Center we got the Monon Center we’ve got Bub’s and Bazbeaux and that whole area so it’s great.

Can you discuss the difference in your lifestyle before you moved to Sunrise on the Monon and how your lifestyle was affected after?

Sean: One of the biggest reasons we wanted to build, we were in Meridian Kessler before and we had a great little bungalow 80 year old home, but it just wasn’t built for entertaining and having people over. The most you could have comfortably was about 9 or 10 people. So from the time we moved in this house in April, we’ve had something going on almost every weekend. So we really enjoyed entertaining and having our family over. We plan on doing a big Thanksgiving this year with maybe 30 people and this house is more than accommodating enough with the space and the way it’s laid out to do that.

Kristina: We’ll finally get to host the holidays. That was really important for us with a 2 and half year old we wanted to be able to have all the grandparents over and the aunts and uncles and be able to fit everyone comfortably. So that was the biggest change in our lifestyle, because otherwise we lived on the Monon before and we live on it again so that hasn’t really changed, but the ability to entertain in the home has. And I would also say that playing in the neighborhood and having a safe place for her to play. We were in the Meridian Kessler area, we were living on central ave and she couldn’t go out and ride her tricycle or big wheel outside. And here we’ve got the park we’ve got the cul-de-sac and the neighborhood is just fantastic so we feel she’s got room to grow and have her childhood years here in this neighborhood.

Could you describe the feeling when you both walked into your finished home?

Kristina: We were just elated. We were able to live close enough, a few hundred yards away while it was being built so we were here everyday watching the build. Sometimes Sean was here multiple times a day keeping an eye on things or just seeing how it was coming along. It was amazing to watch it from a hole in the ground and we thought, “How are we ever going to get finished?” and then closing day when we might’ve had 30 to 35 people here for our closing party. It’s just surreal. It was just, oh my gosh so exciting!

Sean: It wasn’t necessarily walking in for the first time. That was all anti-climatic because I took the last week off of work and was here all the time working with the folks from Old Town to get things done. It was that first night being in here and sitting on the couch. Basically, that Friday we moved in we had the furniture up and going and that night just sitting here and just sleeping in the house for the first night was amazing.

What do you like most about your new home?

Kristina: The location. With proximity to the trail, I drive downtown to work everyday so it added just a couple of minutes to get downtown, but we are so close to so many things we can be up in Carmel in a matter of minutes or we can be down in broad ripple in a few minutes. The park area and the access to the trail. I don’t know that I could pick one thing or even a couple. We just love our space. We put so much time and effort into designing this and getting exactly what we wanted and we did.

Sean: The outdoor living area is great, we love that. We were out there last night with friends for hours. You open up and there’s the kitchen and the great room and the closets compared to what we had before, oh and the shower, awesome shower.

What are the neighbors like and do you often see them using the trail?

Kristina: Oh yea, everyday. I can stand here at my kitchen sink and look out the window and people are out walking their dog, their on their bicycles and their out for a run. It’s constant, which is exactly what we love; the camaraderie and the friendship here in the neighborhood. We know every single person who’s moved in or bought a lot. We joke that when you go out in the evenings for a walk it can’t be a 15 minute walk. It turns into an hour and half because you stop and chit chat with all the neighbors along the way and we see people coming and going to get onto the trail on a daily basis. We just like to sit outside and talk and see who’s going to go by next.

Sean: We thought we might be isolated back here, but we didn’t really think that everyone has to go by our house to get to the Monon Trail. We are the welcoming committee for the trail.

Is there anything else that you’d like to add?

Sean: A lot of times people have bad experiences building houses. Everything wasn’t perfect, but one thing Old Town always did was if it wasn’t perfect they made it right. There’s always going to be bumpy moments, but as long as everyone was willing to work together and get it right, the process was great.

Kristina: Yea, and it was a team effort. We got to know the construction side, the interior designers, the office staff, the sales staff, everybody. We feel like we became a part of a family. We loved it and that’s the kind of people that we are and that was the experience we were looking for and we got it and then some. We couldn’t be happier with our choice to go with Old Town. We were watching them actually for a while before they purchased this land. We really loved the style of home that they built before we even knew anything about the quality and the thought and the effort that they put into everything. It was a team effort and I really felt like we gained 30 new friends throughout the process. It was important to us.

The Kennedy family found the home design and location that was right for them. Make the move and write your own building story with Old Town Design Group at our newest Monon community, Sunrise on the Monon, in the heart of Carmel.

How did you first hear about Old Town Design Group?

Janell: We had just sold our home in Washington Township where we had lived for 26 years and we had just moved into a rental home off of 4th street, in the Arts & Design district. We have a golden retriever, Manny, who we’d walk in our neighborhood and we noticed these beautiful Craftsman homes built by Old Town all around us.

Bill: We saw the model home that was open there. We went in and I said, “Janell, just turn around and go out because this is not in our budget.”

Janell: But we didn’t give up on it. It was soon after that, that Sunrise on the Monon opened. What’s so nice for us is that this is in the middle of where we came from, the Nora community, and Downtown Carmel. It was just perfect. We love everything about it.

Could you describe the feeling when you both walked into your finished home?

Janell: It felt like home the minute we walked in. We loved it. To this day, I come home from work and still feel like the first day we walked into our new home.

Bill: I’ve always been a basement guy, so I’m really glad that we have a finished basement with extra bedrooms. We have space for when family comes to visit. It’s so livable. At our age, we plan to be here well past retirement. We can live easily just on the main level.

What do you like most about your home?

Janell: Our kitchen. The openness with the high ceilings. It’s a great house to entertain in.

Bill: We had actually started looking in the Broad Ripple area, but if you’re wanting to find open concept floor plans [there], you’re going to have to spend a lot of time gutting an existing home.

What do you like most about living in Sunrise on the Monon?

Janell: The neighborhood – the community. Everyone came here for a common reason, to build a new home. We had no interest in going to an existing neighborhood. Our neighbors are like new friends.

Bill: The neighbors are great. We have a commonality with them. They’re all different ages, it’s a wonderful community.

What was the building process like?

Janell: We’d never built a home before, it was all new to us. It was a wonderful experience. In fact, soon after we built this house someone asked us, “Would you do it all over again?” and we would. We would build all over again, with Old Town. It was a great experience that we enjoyed doing together. We had the opportunity early on to work very closely with Zach. Old Town’s craftsmanship and finishes are like no other.

How did access to the Monon Trail influence your move to Sunrise on the Monon?

Janell: We had always used the Monon in our last home, we’d run, bike and walk the dogs. But to think that Sunrise had this direct access, to us, that’s what sets this community apart.

Bill: From my perspective, there is very little space in Carmel that has direct access to the Monon like this.

The Gurney family found the home design and location that was right for them. Make the move and write your own building story with Old Town Design Group at our newest Monon community, Sunrise on the Monon, in the heart of Carmel.

What do you like the most about living at Sunrise on the Monon?

Everything… We’re really happy here. We have our coffee in the morning, head over to the Monon Community Center to play pickle ball, and then we head to work and about our day.

How did access to the Monon Trail influence your move to Sunrise on the Monon?

It was a primary concern to us that we live close to the Monon. Having access to it, has been phenomenal. We both like to be able to access it quickly.

What are your favorite places to go to off of the Monon Trail, and how close are they from your home?

Both of us love the Monon Community Center, which is a mile and half from where we live. I also enjoy Perk Up, a local coffee shop right off the Monon in Broad Ripple. As well as a frozen yogurt shop called Huddles. Another thing we really look forward to is the Farmers Market and being able to ride our bikes to it.

Can you discuss the difference in your lifestyle from before your move to Sunrise on the Monon and now?

Both of us spend more time in our home now, than we did in our house in Zionsville. We are enjoying our time in our home as opposed to using it as a ‘base’. There is a lot of comfort in our great room. We spend an abundant amount of time in here because of the comfort and how it suits our lifestyle. In the summer, I imagine we will be out on our porch a lot.

What are your neighbors like and do you often see them out?

Our neighbors are great! As people are coming in, we are all getting to know each other because everyone is new. We’ve met a bunch of neighbors, as well as soon to be neighbors, and have gotten to know them pretty well. It’s been fun getting to know people that you know will be around for the next twenty years or more. There is a special comradery because we’ve all built a new home.

Tell us about the building experience with Old Town.

We had never built a home before, we have always moved into an existing home. With Old Town, there was this process in order to really make this what we want. We felt like everyone at Old Town listened so well to all of our needs. They were very good at adapting our house to our needs… it’s not usual for someone to have a room specifically to make coffee, but we do.

Share with us the thoughts and feelings you had when you got to walk into your home fully completed.

Our reaction was, “This is our home… can you believe it”. We still continue to say, “I love our home”. Anytime that you build a custom home, there will be moments where things don’t always go the way you think it would. But anytime that occurred, Old Town always made it right. Everyone who we worked with at Old Town was just terrific. A shout out to the fellas who did the shiplap, they did incredible and meticulous work. Old Town strives for satisfaction.

The Glassberg family found the home design and location that was right for them. Make the move and write your own building story with Old Town Design Group at our newest Monon community, Sunrise on the Monon, in the heart of Carmel.