Geothermal, Neuroplasticity, & Steve Hurwitz

Today we welcome Steve Hurwitz, one of our earliest residents who has a long history in marketing and advertising and now specializes in consulting with developers and builders, including Serenbe, on Geothermal HVAC and infrastructure for homes and communities. In this episode, we talk with him about how Coca-Cola brought him to Atlanta from New York and his garage band Neuroplasticity - which he formed with other residents, even though he didn't know how to play an instrument.

Serenbe Stories is a podcast about making an impact, building a better life, and the extraordinary power of nature and community. Follow Serenbe on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Transcript

0 (1s):
Hey guys, it's Monica here. I wanted to tell you about a new podcast that I've started with my very good friend, Jennifer Walsh called biophilic solutions. Our last season of ceremony stories, building a biophilic movement was so popular that we decided to dedicate an entire podcast to it every other week. Jennifer and I will sit down with leaders in the growing field of biophilia. We'll talk about local and global solutions to help nurture their living social and economic systems that we all need to sustain future generations more often than not. Nature has the answers. You can find biophilic solutions on apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, subscribe and follow us today. So you don't miss an episode.

0 (41s):
All right, now let's get back to ceremony stories. You're welcome. Steve Hurwitz, one of our earliest residents who has a long history in marketing and advertising, and now specializes in consulting with developers and builders, including ceremony on geothermal HVAC and infrastructure for homes and communities. In this episode, we talk with him about how Coca-Cola brought him to Atlanta from New York and his garage band neuroplasticity, which he formed with other residents, even though he didn't know how to play an instrument.

1 (1m 17s):
And he said, I want you to be in it. And I said, well, that's great. It's just one problem. I don't play anything. And he said, that is the idea. We're going to learn how to play.

2 (1m 28s):
And we're going to build new pathways in our brains. <inaudible>

0 (1m 36s):
I want to welcome everybody back to ceremony stories today. Today we have Steve Hurwitz, a very early resident. How are you, Steve? Wonderful. Glad to be here.

3 (1m 46s):
So good to see you in person in the studio today.

0 (1m 48s):
Thank you. I now we're back in the studio. We're so excited. It's great. Spent many good hours in this room. That's right. That's right. It's actually our conference room to quote the studio. So Steve, one of the first things that we ask everybody when they come onto Sammy stories is how did you discover Seren B and find your way

1 (2m 6s):
Here? It's a great question. Okay. And it's kind of an esoteric answer here. I was in up in Dunwoody, Georgia, which is probably the polar opposite space from where we are sitting today. It's north of the perimeter and I had been working on something and it was quite late, probably around midnight or so. And I just turned on the TV and there was a Fulton county commission meeting. I don't know if you've ever seen those or not, but it's like, I didn't know this ranch. Th th the meetings are broadcast so people can, so they're public public knowledge. And they were talking about sustainability and Fulton and how they needed to do so many things in somebody just mentioned at the corner of the table about this new, sustainable community, this experiment that was south of the airport in south Fulton.

1 (3m 4s):
And they mentioned somebody. So was that, that Sarah and B, they kind of mentioned the name and I was about ready to go to sleep. So I wrote it down the next morning, which was Sunday. I, it was a beautiful day. And I said to my wife and I heard about this, this place south of the airport. We had never been south of the, I hear that a lot from New York. We moved back and forth to Georgia and Virginia, but we had never really had any reason to come south of the airport. And we lived in a lovely gated community, executive community, 34 homes, manicured to the hill like English gardens. So I said, let's, let's take a ride.

1 (3m 46s):
We're kind of ready to see something new. Let's take a ride down to Fulton county. We wrote down. And as we started to come into Chattahoochee Hills, so that that's the discovery. As we started to come into Chattahoochee Hills, a feeling of calm came over me and a feeling of great familiarity, because even though I'm from New York and I worked in New York city, and I was all part of that eighties, conspicuous consumption, I'm a country. Boy. I was brought up 50 miles from New York and a little working town called Peekskill. And we had outside, we had farms and ranches and things like that. And I started to feel like I was home even before we got here.

1 (4m 29s):
And then we came down and Steven, I can't remember where the sales office was in 2005. Was it in somebody's? How was it a townhouse? I think it could have been Pepper's townhouse.

3 (4m 45s):
Well, for a while, it was in the white house, up on the hill. There, maybe that's

4 (4m 50s):
Where

3 (4m 52s):
It could have been. We kind of popped whatever house was available. We pumped the sales officer,

1 (4m 56s):
Right. And there was a table there, you know, with a glass top and a phase one, basically with some blanks for two, three. And I don't even think four was there yet. And we walked into the, we went around a little bit, walk through the office. We met Reyna and we met garni and Guardi must have been in her early twenties. This is going back five, six. And we started talking and we talked for about 45 minutes and she kinda outlined whatever, what everything was, what was going on. And as we drove out, I said to my wife, I think I'm home. Wow. And her comment was frontier town.

1 (5m 42s):
What are you? What do you, what are you? She was worried already. Well, I was excited and we came back several times and then we took some time off. So about a year, went by, as happens with Sarah and B prospects and buyers. It takes time sometimes, especially in the early days, because then there were one 20 houses. Maybe, maybe there were 20 houses here. We're sitting here road out where we were sitting right now. There was, there was nothing. Not, not any of the buildings were here, not even the townhouse where the Daisy was there. And there were houses going up the street Steve's townhouses were there, but very, could there have been 25 families here, maybe max signs and photos of that.

1 (6m 29s):
You guys, Steve has some. So we came. So we came down several times quietly. And one night we came down. It was a Sunday night in February. And I think that we bought in March and we drove in and it was kind of dark. It was, it was Twilight, dusk, and it was cold. And we drove up cell born just about to the Daisy. There's a guy walking down the street with a clipboard in his hand. You know what? There were no, there was no iPad or not one in your hand, no phone, no iPhones. No. So there's a guy walking down the street with a clipboard and it was Steve and I pushed down the window and I said, is Steve Nygren?

1 (7m 16s):
He goes, yeah, I am. I said, if any guy who's working on a Sunday night at six o'clock in February, I want to live here. That was it. Yeah. That was the end right there. So this guy has a commitment I'm willing to make the commitment. I think it's going to have great opportunity for us. So that's, that's how we got here. And that's how it got cemented. And then through a long process with Garney and Raina and the gang, and we had in those, we had a nice signing at a restaurant and we bought the townhouse right next door to the development office before the development office.

0 (7m 54s):
Right. And which is, which is basically right next door to the hill

1 (7m 57s):
Restaurant. We're above it. Yeah. And we bought the, and Steve has shown me pictures where our building was the only building there, nothing across the street pads, but nothing. And our townhouse was still under completion when we bought it. So that's the big you're

3 (8m 16s):
At the very beginning of that second piece of phase one. Yeah.

1 (8m 20s):
Yeah. It was very exciting times. Tell me what

0 (8m 22s):
It was like in those. Like, I would, I have

1 (8m 25s):
To tell you, you know, you need to, I think to really appreciate ceremony the way we do. And I include honey in that now, since she's now on the ukuleles, which

0 (8m 36s):
Is <inaudible> talking about. Yeah,

1 (8m 39s):
Honey, in a way, I think she's enjoyed it more than me because she's had so many enriching relationships and experiences, but it was Sunday nights at the Daisy with just everybody in the street, because there was little traffic. We bought pizzas, Daisy served pizzas then on Sundays and nobody knew whose pizza was whose. And we just all sat around and chatted. And it was sort of like, like college, you know, it was like freshmen in college. And there were younger people and older people and people from all over the country. And that was kind of the core of, of how things got started, the tight knit group of it.

1 (9m 25s):
And then it became an ever expanding community. But I remember people driving in, in those days and I think you were doing weddings, Steve already, but it was still pretty well unknown. And people driving in and saying to me, what is this place now that does not happen. Right? Because people are aware, thanks to you, Monica and your crew. And Steve, that doesn't happen anymore because people do know why they're here. Thank goodness

3 (9m 57s):
What happens now? And then, I mean, people like comfort conferences or weddings. It, it does. And they say, what is this? What is, and I spoke with someone just this morning, the, the, the Warren from, from SCAD and she, and she says, I pulled up your webpage. And I can't believe I did not know anything about this to you. I'll have to admit. And, and we talk, talk to, you know, she's, I, I think I know Atlanta. And I said, but you don't know Southwestern. She said, no, I had to pull up a map to see where this

1 (10m 27s):
Was. Right. So I think that still exists. It does. And I think that's part of the charm of it really is that it's not insular, but it's, and it's not even isolated, but it's a hidden thing. It's a hidden gem until you come on it, then it's your reality. But you could drive past the entrance if it weren't for the little ceremony signs forever and not know what's. And I think that's part of the excitement versus a major to do entrance, which many subdivisions have. And it's very important to them to have the brick wall with the name and the water fountain and the water fountains and the waterfalls and the bridges B is a discovery place.

3 (11m 11s):
Yeah. And that's a great compliment from a marketing guy. Who's used to encouraging those kinds of branding things. You know

1 (11m 17s):
What, Steve, if I was planning it, I would have said, well, we need an entrance. Right. And you'd have said, no, we won't. And I would've said I quit. So this guy I never going to get along and doesn't understand anything. Where's the began campaign. But yeah, that's the beauty of it is that if you come on it, and as you drive in, it's like, and I, as Steve knows in my current career, I work with many developers from all over the country, all over the world. And part of the magic is, is driving in and watching their faces. As I described the experience from the entrance to the Daisy. Yeah. It's like, when you hit crossroads, they get it. We haven't seen Granger motto yet.

1 (11m 60s):
And it, the minute they see crossroads, they're like, I'm going to town. I'm going to town. When we talk about intentional communities. And I know all the words, because that's what I do now. And I've been fortunate enough to work with Steve for 15 years. Most, a lot of people don't get it. They want it, they see it. They don't know how it happens. That's a magical thing. Yeah.

0 (12m 22s):
Well, and I think the discovery of individuals who come, that's kind of the cool thing that you feel like you found a little secret,

1 (12m 30s):
It feels like that almost all of it. And then as, as we've said over the years when we've had some cultural events and my brother's band came down and was playing across the street at our wine and chocolate shop that Jane Widers that I said to Steve, that was a Saturday night, just another quiet night in the country. Yeah. And it was rocking just rocking.

3 (12m 50s):
Now this happens regularly. I mean, what about three Saturdays ago? There were three different, big events. Yeah.

1 (12m 55s):
Yeah. I mean, it's just still kind of a little bit of a gem.

0 (12m 59s):
Well, and the segue, you mentioned marketing. So tell us a little bit about your background and how you got from New York to Atlanta and your time in Denwitty. And that

1 (13m 8s):
Was no accident. I worked for most of my career in advertising and I worked in New York city for a major multi-national ad agency called McCann Erickson, which was actually part of a conglomerate called the inner public group, which was at that time, the world's largest ad age communications company. And I had, I worked my way up there from an account supervisor to a management director, senior vice-president management director. And I had some wonderful accounts, Sony corporation, Johnson and Johnson worked on some general motors stuff. Some Pillsbury things at a nice portfolio, living the life in New York, all the things you miss, the mad men era by about five years, I was a little bit older, a little bit younger than that, but there was only one when I got there, but there was some of the old timers that were still doing the three martinis.

1 (14m 6s):
But anyway, Coca-Cola was one of the largest accounts at McCann. It was an international account, probably in 75 countries, everywhere. Exxon was one and L'Oreal was another, they were huge accounts while there was a challenge on the Coca-Cola business. Unbeknownst to me on, on everything that was not in a bottle or a can. So it was the fountain business, which means zoos, stadiums, amusement, parks, Disney, fast food restaurants, C stores, you know, convenience stores. And they felt like they weren't getting the attention that the bottle can was getting.

1 (14m 53s):
And that's the glamorous side, have a caucus, smile, you know, mean Joe Green, all that wonderful stuff. Fountain was just quietly making all the money and getting no agency attention. So they tapped me to come down and run that fountain account, which is now called food service. So I came down within two weeks. I asked my boss, when am I leaving? He said, get a ticket. And that was it. We were gone in two weeks, packed up our car. My family had never been south of the Jersey shore. How old were the kids? My son was 13. Yeah. Not a great time to move. Yeah.

3 (15m 29s):
And so you knew you were moving, you were just coming down for,

1 (15m 32s):
It was supposed to be a project the way they get you to move. They go, it's only two, it's only two years. You didn't give up your house yet. No, not for the first year rent rented. And then we realized we're here. So we stayed and I we're actually ended up working for a friend of Steve's closeby Clark who's passed on, but I'm working for mechanic, Atlanta working with Dave Fitzgerald at, for gelatin company, which actually got acquired by Interpublic. And Steve knew Dave quite well. And so everything has a, has a story to it, but that's how we got here. First, we lived at east Cobb because that's where the school system was from her son.

1 (16m 12s):
We moved to Virginia for a couple of years after he went to school, then I was transferred back here and we lived in Dunwoody and I left my job in 2005. Okay. So right around the time that you were deciding on my own. Yep. One of the things that Sarah and B was part of was the change, the change in my life from coming from that 4,000 square foot executive, you know, three beds,

0 (16m 43s):
All the things you thought you needed, all the things,

1 (16m 45s):
Except for the sustainable and a quality part of life. And the people there were, they weren't my peeps, but I didn't know that, you know what I mean, Steve, they weren't my peeps.

3 (16m 58s):
And you realize, you didn't know it, you waved at your neighbors, but you didn't know your neighbor.

1 (17m 3s):
They all had the garages with. I did. I mean, I lived here at ceremony. I actually still do. I lived here at ceremony without a garage. I, I didn't think it was possible to,

0 (17m 15s):
It's not funny without a garage, but there's not a crazy world that we live. One

1 (17m 19s):
Of the things that was people park on the street and I'm like, what do you hear? Like how, what, when Garney said to me a day, well, because we have to have green space so they can have garages. And you know, when you first look at that, you don't see the value in it. You don't understand like, Hey, but I need mine, you know? And somebody says, well, there's no garages in the front. Those who were fortunate enough to have garages. And you're like, why not? That would be more convenient. So you can't go around the back and upset the space, just put it to the side of the house.

3 (17m 51s):
Yeah. Well, and the fun thing, because you know, all the, on the outside of the mega, all those houses can have a garage. Yes. Yes. And in the initial phase, the builder said, oh, we have to include a garage. And we encourage them not to do that. And then very few people have built a garage, even when they had the option, Hey, they don't want to block their view

1 (18m 11s):
Of the woods. It's fabulous. You walk out your backyard and you're in the woods. And until you understand, I mean, really the commercial part for me, the ceremony commercial is the, the, the land plan is so unique and so magical with these omegas. And until you show somebody and walk one and see how you can walk through the woods to get to somebody's house faster than if you drive and how much more delightful it is, people just don't understand the link plan.

3 (18m 45s):
And, and, and the next decade that challenges is let's get people to let go of their cars.

1 (18m 50s):
Well, you know, I tell the story that somebody says, somebody once said to Steve, and I think we were in the meetings. How are you going to regulate golf carts? And Steve turns around, he says, regularly golf carts. I want to regulate cars. I never forgot that. And so who cares about cars? Get them out of here. That's the regulation, no, no regulation for golf carts, but once you get the hang of it and you see what the, what the green space really looks like, and the way it's laid out with the, the buffers that are in between in a regular subdivision, those would be houses or manicured lawns.

3 (19m 35s):
Well, you know, we see a national trend that people are disengaging from their cars. And I think Sarah MBI is that place. And Monica that's one of the things we, you know, we didn't talk about is a real campaign because, because people walk here and use their golf cart, generally their cars are parked. And what is that? Costing them to park that big piece of machinery. I'm one of them versus if you have a Zipcar and, and lift you, he actually can save money, tremendous amounts of money. And the worry about that car repairing car sits. I mean, we

1 (20m 10s):
Use one car, we have two cars. Cause you know why, that's the way I grew up. Right. You know, if you're making money and you're in the suburbs, you have two cars and they better be new, you know, where else?

3 (20m 20s):
And a 5,000 square foot house. Absolutely. That is very inefficient

1 (20m 24s):
And a gate that people, and still there was a robbery and people wanted to have guards at the gate. So, you know, I mean, that's just the way it goes. But, and then people do ask me about that. We have no gates here. Instead we have

3 (20m 38s):
Eyes on the street, which is the most secure thing you can have.

1 (20m 41s):
We're just talking about that, about that, those two little girls yesterday that got lost. I don't know if you saw that and Beeler posted a Facebook that two little girls last night around dusk were lost. They probably visiting for camp or something. And she didn't, they came to her porch, light was on, they came to her porch and say, Hey, we don't know exactly where we are and then found this, their father and

0 (21m 6s):
Yeah. Yeah. Well, and the same thing happened to me two days ago, I was coming down in Atlanta Noonan road and there were three kids and a dog on the side of the road waving at me in the rain. And I pulled over and I was like, what's going on guys? Do you guys need help? And they were lost. They had been on the trails and they popped off on Atlanta Noonan cause our trails pop right out. But they as kids, you know, they're 10 and 11. They didn't know. They, you know, they're not familiar with driving it. I knew they were just, you know, a second from Sarah and B, I just was like, get in the car, throw them in the car. And then like on the car, I'm like, oh, I know both of your parents. I'm like, whose house do you want to go

1 (21m 39s):
To? And I just dropped them off. That's the way

0 (21m 41s):
It is. And it was like, perfect little, they're always

1 (21m 45s):
Safe. If somebody's cat is lost instantly there's 30 Facebook posts that happened.

3 (21m 51s):
Yep. Well, the important thing with kids is this is giving them independence and the level of confidence that they were out

5 (21m 58s):
And then had a little excursion, like, like

1 (22m 1s):
We used to do. We used to get lost in the woods when we were kids in streams. That's part of the being home. And somebody asked me this morning, what are you, what are you, what is ceremony about for these families? I said, Serbia is about a kid in their pajamas, riding up to the Daisy on their bike, going to get, you know, a donut or a bum, but it on the house account. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, so it's not, like I say, it's a highly sophisticated place that has a wonderful set of low sophistication opportunities. So they, they get a muffin and they put it on their parents' house. Yes, exactly.

0 (22m 44s):
So since you've moved here, you were saying, so in oh five, you sort of set out on your own. I mean, you've had quite a fun experience with just BOSH coming here. Geothermal, we can talk about solar, but tell us a little bit about that arc and how you came into this world. And I'll just state the, you know, Steve has sort of an eye for people who roll in who have talent and he's like, oh, I'm going to put you to work somewhere.

1 (23m 11s):
Steve is, Steve is, I don't think I'll insult them too much. Steve is very good at that. He very good at reading people. Thank goodness. And he, he knows what you want. And I do love to volunteer and I help with the businesses for like four or five.

0 (23m 25s):
Yeah. You ran the SBA business association

1 (23m 29s):
Was challenging. We had some good times it was fun. And then Bosch came to build the experience center, just making a long story short. And Steve was actually kind enough because, you know, I ran the business association. All of the Bosch units were coming. They were, they were in this room. So all the advertising people, the product, people from appliances, from geothermal, from spark plugs and automotive, everything. And Steve said as the head of the business association, if you would like to come, come to the meeting and make a little discussion about it and you're on your own, see what happens because I'm a consultant. That's what I do.

1 (24m 10s):
And I did hit it off with one of the guys that was working on the geothermal piece for ceremony in the Southeast. And the boss center came about. He left a new person, took over the Bosch thermal technology division, which makes geothermal heat pumps. And he hired me to work with lo and behold developers. So, and Steve at that time was, it came out of his mouth. He said, Moto is going to be mandated. That's phase three, mandated geothermal. Well, that would

0 (24m 47s):
Have been like 13. You were thinking that

1 (24m 51s):
That's not going to be easy because there's some complications with geothermal it's not easy. But as Steve says, it's the right thing to do. And truthfully it is well because

3 (25m 2s):
We knew the third phase motto was going to be very dense. And as you know, one of the key things is not only the energy savings, but it's silent. And so if you're in a dense area, you don't want a bunch of air compressors. <inaudible> you want to hear the birds? I don't

0 (25m 17s):
Want that excellent house. Can I bet trip into Thermo? My husband asked me, oh, of course

3 (25m 22s):
You can, but it's expensive. Yeah. I think

1 (25m 24s):
You should wait until you're just doing her house,

0 (25m 27s):
A new house. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to move into a new land. I know you've sold your house

1 (25m 34s):
Warehouse and moved into what I now call. We sold our house in November and after 15 years, right next door. And believe me, I miss it. I really do, because I was right on, I, you know, we were on this, we had the townhouse, I was in the middle of every

3 (25m 52s):
Nation. Oh, on the balcony waving. We spend a lot of time on that

0 (25m 56s):
Balcony. Maybe you can rent it back from 'em

1 (25m 59s):
The guy who was a very nice guy is a nice family. And I'm glad because his mom is using the apartment that was downstairs and that's what it's there for. And it has an elevator. So she's private. It's a good situation. So not knowing what the heck to do and wanting to take a break. We moved into the textile loss, which, which is the apartment building here, which is what's the about six or seven years old, I guess. And it's, it's geothermal. It's not quite for that. All my goodness.

3 (26m 29s):
Five, maybe time goes quickly, goes

1 (26m 31s):
Fast. By the way, it's geothermal. I helped put the geothermal. My house was not geothermal. I used to get mad at Steve after I used to get my heating and air conditioning bills. Why didn't you mandate it earlier?

0 (26m 44s):
Well, and that's an interesting point is that even the motto is fully mandated or I should say required cause mandate seamless. I should say it's required. It's it should be everywhere. But a lot of pocket neighborhoods also have it like Swan Ridge and textile loss <inaudible>

1 (27m 3s):
As a matter of fact, that the blue eyed Daisy is probably, I don't know if it's still is, but now that I know about these things, I think it's the, was the smallest LEED certified building in America. If

3 (27m 14s):
It still remains the smallest silver lead certified, I understand there's an information or a center somewhere that has gold. And it's about that same size, you know, you normally would not spend the money

1 (27m 27s):
Cause it's whether it's 10 square, a square feet or 10,000, it's the same price to get LEED certified. Right? So Steve, again, why it's the right thing to do? Yeah. And the geothermal was the right thing to do from the neighborhood and the connectivity of the neighborhood and the ability to talk to each other and go out. But also from a sustainability point of view, there's no fossil fuel burn. The climate conditioning is better in the house. It's very quiet even in the house and I'm really enjoying it in a loss. It's fantastic. And we actually, through Steve, we, we put the geothermal infrastructure field across the street in one of the panels.

1 (28m 12s):
I have the first slide, the board, yeah. By the table, four holes, they're covered by horse grazing, which is amazing.

3 (28m 19s):
Yeah. And everyone said, oh, I don't know how we're going to do this. I don't remember. Then

1 (28m 22s):
I tried to get ahold of the pond, but Steve had other ideas for the pond because you can use water in fact. Yeah. Well, and it's what you see in the nest. Hmm. And that's 13, 14 houses, I guess. So very, and it's just gone from there and the opportunities for me have been great, but it's, it's really advertisement for Steve. It's really because he gave me the opportunity as he does for a lot of people, what you do. And that's true of ceremony. What you do with it when you get here is up to you, you want to open a cheese shop. That's an eighties thing to say, but go ahead and do it.

1 (29m 4s):
You know? And don't say you can't, you won't, it's not try it. Whatever you want to do. Now, you know, we started this band. I, Steve, give me a commercial on the that's about the bank to be a commercial.

0 (29m 16s):
Can you tell us about the band, Steve Nygren

1 (29m 18s):
No. Steve makes me, I told Steve the other day makes me very nervous when he shows up. But bunch of old guys, I got a call from my neighbor. He said, Hey, I'm putting together a garage band, which is a kind of a sixties term for kids that used to practice the Beatles in their garages. And he said, I want you to be in it. And I said, well, that's great. There's just one problem. I don't play. And he said, that is the idea. We're going to learn how to play. And we're going to build new pathways in our brains. His wife's a psychologist

3 (29m 52s):
And everyone's Howie. Oh, that's in that there

1 (29m 56s):
Everyone is over 65, mostly over 70. And I'll be dark. We did find one guy who helped us, who sort of our conductor, but we put on performances, pack people in

0 (30m 10s):
Incredible performances. 80 people showed

1 (30m 12s):
Up to the last potluck pre pandemic.

0 (30m 14s):
Yeah. Well, and tell us what the name of the band is

1 (30m 17s):
And has to do with the psychology behind it, which is neuroplasticity. Which if you look it up has to do with the psychology of building new pathways and reinvigorating your brain, which again, you want to learn. Now we have a paint space here. We have the ukuleles, which is a bunch of

0 (30m 36s):
Which we're in the 4th of July parade. And I believe one, yeah, one

1 (30m 40s):
As best float. And they all learned how to play the ukulele. They have t-shirts and everything. So what do you want to do? Right? You come to ceremony, you want to do it? You do it. I

0 (30m 52s):
Think he did line dancing. Didn't you guys all do line dancing and you were in the break one year,

1 (30m 57s):
A couple of Jewish people from New York. Scary. Good. We went to Sharpsburg every week. Yeah. We had fun. So

0 (31m 5s):
Well, even with a lot of your friends and I mean, I

1 (31m 8s):
Tell you, we've made some trips with Sarah and B that have been fantastic. And I must tell you that the cultural experiences that we've had both planned and unplanned meeting people, we've met everyone from occur, a retired Colonel in the military to our neighbor who is the ex conductor of the Seattle symphony. And they're in a room together and they're talking, where do you have that opportunity? You know, the beauty is we go outside there's bikes on the street. There's little kids out there. Many of our friends are younger than my son and we, and your son's in his thirties now 47.

1 (31m 50s):
Okay. Oh wow. I know. I have friends that are in their thirties that we are really, we go out with aye. Aye. They're equal. Yeah. Where do you have that opportunity? Very rare. Yeah. So I'm a, I'm a, yes. I'm a big proponent of Sarah B. I'm unashamed about it unabashedly. Now my problem is Steve took me to the Ridge. Oh, I was going to ask you about this Gator, which is scary, which is very scary. And that's the new thing that's coming up, which is Lupa loop. And I don't know. We'll see what

0 (32m 25s):
Happens. Well, let's do sort of give everybody a little bit of a teaser, right? We're going to release a good number of homes up there, 50 or 60 in the fall. And I believe everything's has to be, everything has to be EarthCraft but drum roll.

3 (32m 43s):
Yeah. Steve knows. And Steve's helping me do this. We are looking at what it means to make everything mandatory souls,

1 (32m 51s):
Which means it could be off the grid, which is incredible, which would be amazing for people. I don't think people even fathom what that could mean to them that there's no brownouts. There's no, it's very exciting. And there are many people saying can't be done. Right. Which to us really is the battle cry to

0 (33m 12s):
Say, let's go get it done. Heck yeah. I think that is you it's like you

1 (33m 15s):
Can't do that. That that's not the way it's done. I've heard that so many times. Well,

3 (33m 21s):
50% of the ceremony is what couldn't be done 20 years ago. Right?

1 (33m 24s):
Exactly. It's true. And again, developers come in and they go, how did he do that? How did he, how did that happen? And it didn't happen. It just takes attention, focus and no chipping away at the edges. Very difficult to, to do today's day and age, a lot of experts.

0 (33m 42s):
Well, and I think the biggest thing that we know as like, you know, a planet at this point that the built environment is a huge issue that we have to deal with. The grid is another huge issue in transportation's the third. And if we can decarbonize all of those, that's how we're going to get to 2030, you know, wherever our numbers are today, 45% and then 50, 50, 20 50. So I think that solar is an amazing data point to add on to the sustainable already to say, how do we reduce demand?

3 (34m 14s):
That's right. And well, and we see, you know, now post pandemic, a lot of people said we predicted it. It was just a matter about when, where there are a lot more people talking about the grid going down, whether it's, and we've seen examples of it, whether it's a natural disaster or terrorism. Yeah. And just imagine being dark for a month, that the grid's down, your cell phones are down. We think this was

0 (34m 44s):
Well, we saw what happened in Texas. Yeah. That took a

1 (34m 48s):
Week. People were in, it was pandemonium

3 (34m 51s):
And it's, it's, it's all so tied together. And so fragile that it, it, it, it could really be a major problem. It's exciting.

0 (34m 60s):
It is exciting. And I think exciting to be part of the solution.

1 (35m 4s):
Yeah. Yes. Part of the solution living in the solution, continuing on in ceremony, where in 15 years we've seen three different generations come in, mine being one, but there's, X-ers now there's millennials and all living together and zoomers coming in Z. Yeah.

3 (35m 24s):
If we delete this change, that's the fun thing is people come and find their own place, their own sheet of music, so to speak.

1 (35m 30s):
Yeah. It's, it's been a great journey and we're only in the middle, so we're only in the middle, you know, it's a great, we're very lucky.

0 (35m 39s):
Well, one of the last questions we always ask is what is it that you would tell somebody that would come to San Marie? Who's never been what sort of an undiscovered interesting thing that they should do. And maybe it's just go get the truffle fries at the farmhouse. What's a good story.

1 (35m 58s):
Also the fried oysters at the hill are really good, unfortunately, that is it. Monica. That is a great question. And, and I, don't the reason why I'm having a little trouble with it is because I think, I think people find their own way here. They find what is right for them. I think now even more than before, and I look at motto, which is highly dense as Steve says, which it is, I think people are looking for that connectivity. They're looking for that personal relationship and literally to be able to reach out and communicate with their neighbor by voice, even knocking on the wall.

1 (36m 42s):
I think it w if you want solitude, go to a format, if you want to live in high density, go to motto. If you want to live in a cottage, go to cell barn. If you can find one that's available. So if you want to live in an apartment and try it, because I had never lived in an apartment, it's actually kind of cool. Yeah. And I have a fabulous view out my window of the wall of the land bridge to Swan Ridge. When I wake up, I see those chimneys from those townhomes, it looks just like I'm in Europe. And I have all trees outside. I look outside, it's a hundred percent trees, very different from my townhouse.

1 (37m 22s):
So I think that's a long way of saying find your own way here, because there's so many things for you to look at and do, and try that. If you can't find something, you probably, maybe it's not for you, which is okay. Everybody has a place. Yeah. Maybe that's not a great answer. That's the answer. Yeah. Find your way. Well,

0 (37m 53s):
Thank you so much. I appreciate you spending this time with us,

3 (37m 57s):
Steve. We just love having you and honey, and you've been part of making this happen and being literally part of it in so many.

1 (38m 5s):
Thank you. Thanks for joining us today. Thank you. It's great to see everybody have a great day. Thank you.

0 (38m 13s):
Thank you for listening to ceremony stories, new episodes are available on Mondays. Please follow us and leave us a five star review and visit our website to learn more about guests, episodes and everything. ceremony@serumbstories.com. This episode is supported by the, in it Seren. Be nestled in the rolling countryside of the bucolic community of ceremony, where guests can walk on the 15 miles of private trails through preserved forest land, the wildflower meadow, and the animal village, relax at the pool hot tub or in rocking chairs on wraparound porch. Lay on the croquet lawn, grab a canoe and jump on the in-ground trampoline, connects with nature and each other all while staying in a luxurious space at the end at Seren.

0 (38m 54s):
Be book your stay today at S E R E N B E I N N. Dot com.