Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for “fifth of May”) is a celebration held on May 5, surprisingly enough. It is celebrated regionally in Mexico, nationwide in the United States, and is a big occasion down here at the beach. The date is observed in the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride to commemorate the cause of freedom and democracy during the first years of the American Civil War.

What does it mean to me?  It’s a super duper excuse to go Mexican for the night and believe me I don’t need an excuse. What’s the best place to celebrate Cinco de Mayo here at the beach? Well this is right up my street. I guess it depends on your mood and whether margaritas are important to you. Margaritas are imperative in my family as my wife loves them!

My go to suggestion has to be Moe’s Southwest Grill. I think I could honesty eat Moe’s everyday of my life. Queso and chips are stupendous and I rarely leave with my food under my arm without rummaging around for the chips straight away. Plus how can you not like a place that shouts out “WELCOME TO MOE’S” every time someone enters. Scared the wits out of me the first time I went in! My favorite menu item is the Joey with steak, rice, peppers, mushrooms, queso and salsa. Moe’s just added an app so you can order on your phone and avoid the queues! It might just be the best app ever! Although my MIL loves the Walgreens app for repeat prescriptions… She’ll kill me for writing that.

My favorite spot for margaritas and dinner in Rehoboth has to be Dos Locos. They do pumpkin margaritas (Halloween season) and the misses loves them. Not my cup of tea but there you go. Great bar food and they have awesome Karaoke! Yes I participated and it was amazing. ”I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes…” and so the song continues! Classic.

My favorite Lewes spot is the crème de la crème of exquisite Mexican food and drink, Agave. There is no rival in my eyes. When they do their local gift card sale I’m at the front of the line and I hold my ground! Great location in the heart of down town Lewes and right next to Kings Ice cream. The food gods couldn’t of placed them better even if they tried.

For the best happy hour experience ever there’s Que Pasa in Dewey Beach. Catch the sunset drink margaritas and be on the beach… what could be better?

For a quirky and great value experience check out La Tonalteca on Route 1. You’re not going to get a brighter decorated restaurant that’s for sure. The location on Route 1 makes it easily accessible as well.

So where should you go?  Well, that depends on your mood and where you are I guess. From my Rehoboth community, The Avenue, you can walk to Dos Locos, eat and drink as much as you like, and walk it off on the journey home. From The Avenue you could also walk to the Jolly Trolley stop just behind Lingo Realty and ride over to Dewey Beach to catch Que Pasa for happy hour.

At The Villages at Herring Creek you’re nestled nicely between Rehoboth and Lewes, although it’s a bit challenging when you actually have to decide where to go! Whether it’s a margarita in hand or a corona, it’s always good to remember how blessed we are to live at the beach with such fabulous restaurants and bars to frequent! Cheers!

Wanted to make sure you’ve heard about our April Incentives at Lewes Landing and our MOMENTUM Event Saturday, April 21st!

We are celebrating with a “SWEET 16” event at Lewes Landing on April 21st, because we are down to just 16 home sites left in the community. The countdown is on! We will have 9 homes available to tour on Saturday, floor plans include the Mulberry, Herring Point, Kingfisher and Henlopen. This gives you an opportunity to view these homes with different structural and cosmetic options all in one place! Plus you’ll be able to enjoy delicious desserts from local restaurants here at the model, tons of beverages and some great giveaways including a $5,000 vacation voucher!

Since we are almost sold out and we are heading into our Summer season, incentives have been temporarily increased for the event and are available now!

$16,000 OFF BASE PRICE + $16,000 TOWARDS OPTIONS = $32,000 OFF YOUR CONTRACT PRICE!

We also have our Home Site Special on Site 35, where the developer is giving $10,000 off the lot price which means you’d be saving a total of $42,000 off your new home!

I hope to see you here on Saturday and PLEASE don’t hesitate to call or e-mail me if you have ANY questions in the meantime!

The Mulberry has its first anniversary in April and we’re celebrating in true Schell Brothers style. The Mulberry has been a hit and it’s made many strong hearted people melt when they walk through the front door. For good reason, and not just because I greet them as they enter (couldn’t resist that one). To celebrate, we’ll be throwing a party on Saturday the 21st of April as part of the Momentum event. We’ll have party food, drinks and prizes along with some very special incentives!!!

Not only is The Mulberry celebrating its first anniversary, but The Sanderling will be having its baby shower!!! Ha. Yes that’s right, it’s the grand opening of the new Sanderling model at Villages at Herring Creek. The model is already sold – actually it sold even before the construction process was finished – that’s how great it is! You can come and see two Courtyard Series homes in one community! The Sanderling starts at $292,900 at Herring Creek.

The Courtyard Series was revealed one year ago with the opening of The Mulberry and has received rave reviews ever since. We foresee The Sanderling following in the footsteps of it’s bigger brother, The Mulberry.

Consider this your personal invitation to come along to my party and who knows, maybe you’ll win what you’ve always been wishing for. While you’re here you can check out our superior building techniques in person; we’ll have two homes under construction that are a stone’s throw away from the model. To top it off, you’ll get to wear a Schell construction hard-hat so you look the part! What more could you ask for?

Not the only big anniversary at the beach this year

I couldn’t conclude this blog without mentioning another big anniversary in the beach area – Funland. I’m not sure you can go to Rehoboth or Lewes and miss out on Funland. Can you miss it? Would you want to? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Opening night is a big event for all locals no matter how many times you’ve visited before. It’s a must. A bit like the Mulberry in many ways.

The Funland season begins Mother’s Day Weekend and runs through Labor Day. Do I need to tell you about the flying frogs or the silver goblet? If I do then you definitely need to spend more time at Funland.

Check out The Funland Story video on YouTube and 50 Years of Funland photoset on Flickr.

Tara said:

“We have moved here from Long Island, which seems like a simple thing when you say it, but to us it was a very big adventure.  We felt like pioneers.   We love the New York area and yet, as our family was growing, we realized we wanted a change.  We were looking for someplace that still had all the things we loved about Long Island – the beaches, good schools, great restaurants, the arts, and access to a big city – but with lower property taxes, more room to breathe, and the opportunity to build our dream house within our budget.  Southern Delaware fit the bill from our very first visit, but it took us two years from making that first decision to move to buying our home in the Villages at Herring Creek.

We moved here in July of 2010 as renters, enrolled our kids in the schools, and began our search for the perfect home.  We had first seen VHC in March of 2009 on a visit here, and it made a big impression, but we wanted to be sure we had seen everything that was available in the area.  We looked at so many communities and homes in the two years after that first visit, but we kept going back to VHC.  The natural beauty and character of the neighborhood just felt like home, and in February of 2011 we finally told the Schell Brothers to start building us our Henlopen model!  Working with the Schell Brothers was a great experience.  There were so many models and floor plan options that we really felt we were constructing a home that would be unique to our tastes and needs as a family.  Everyone from Josh and Adam who helped us through the sales and purchase process, to Larry who helped us pick out every fixture and floor tile, to Johnny who managed the construction, was a pleasure to work with, and you really felt like they shared in your interests in making sure everything in the home was going to come out perfectly.

We absolutely love our home.  Our kids have enjoyed making their rooms into their own space, and we have already created wonderful memories enjoying cooking with family and friends in our beautiful kitchen and relaxing in the sunroom.  I recently had a moment where I stood in my driveway after a long day at work and stared at the sky in amazement – there were so many stars!  In a densely populated area like Long Island, the light pollution really dims the night sky, but here we have gotten a lot of pleasure from stargazing with our kids since our move.  We have also enjoyed the pool and the clubhouse, especially my teenager who uses the fitness room nearly every day.

You know, it’s also kind of hard to describe why our community is special.  It just feels special, and people have to visit it and compare it to the other communities in the area to really get a sense of that.  We had been moving away from buying in a community, right up until the week before we purchased the lot; we thought we wanted a home on a private piece of land because the communities felt a bit sterile and cookie-cutter.  On Long Island we would have called them Levittown communities (Google this!).  But VHC didn’t feel that way, it felt like a real neighborhood and the homes felt like they were a part of the natural landscape instead of on top of it.

We look forward to all the memories we still have to create here, and we could not be happier with the service and the product that the Schell Brothers delivered to us in the construction of our dream home!  Thank you!

Here’s what I heard from Sharon and Brian:

We stumbled across VHC community quite by accident as we had been looking at resale homes nearby when we saw the Schell Brothers sign at the end of the road.  We had decided some time ago upon the Lewes/Rehoboth Beach area as the place we wanted to retire and had settled on Schell Brothers as the builder if we bought new.  We liked the elevations, finishes and the quality of construction.  The value we received at VHC was better than any of their other communities in our estimation and we were fortunate to find a very nice wooded lot, so it made the decision all the easier for us.

Our home is in the construction stage at this moment and we’ve had the opportunity to be in the area at the early stages to see it go up.  We’re still very impressed and now very excited to see the progress.  We brag to all our friends who can stand to listen to us drone on about how happy we are about our new home and the Schell atmosphere.  Seriously, what other construction manager hugs his customers other than Johnny?

Jim and Eileen provided their feedback in the form of a list:

• quiet, waterside, private community
• wonderful builder; friendly, helpful employees—feels like a family
• energy-efficient, ‘sexy-looking’ homes
• open floor plans/lots of windows
• located near but not ON busy roads; no thru traffic
• constructed without artificial delays

Joyce and Steve had this to say:

Steve and I looked at lots of houses and builders in the area over the course of 2 1/2 years.  We had looked at the Mariner model first at another Schell subdivision.  We fell in love with it but knew there wasn’t enough land with the houses there.  We started looking at lots of houses both online and in person in the area.  We have another house that we knew we were going to down size from and wanted to be near the water-too much land and too big of a house at our other place.  We are getting close to retirement and wanted to make a gradual transition.  We kept going back to see the Mariner online and then discovered the Mulberry.  We wanted to see it in person.  By the time we met you and discovered the Villages of Herring Creek, we knew we wanted a Schell Brothers home.  The quality was not anywhere else.  We had eliminated all of the other builders in our search but we had the decision to make whether we wanted to build a Mulberry home or a Mariner home.  Once we realized we could have a half acre lot, along with a lot that could have a basement and a 3 car garage, we knew we had to build the Mariner here.  Now that our home is completed we just love it!

Scott, Colleen and Family

We have met a lot of really nice people and we are gradually making the Villages of Herring Creek our home.  Schell Brothers’ family of wonderful people have become our family too and everyone we have met have just been fantastic to work with.  Our home here is almost exactly like a drawing I sketched, when I was ten years old as my future “dream Home”.  We are very happy here and expect this to be our dream home for the rest of our lives.  Thanks so much.

Scott and Colleen summed things up with my favorite quote of all:

We bought there because Sean loves your accent!  (Sean is one of their three children.)  I always knew I liked Sean. 

Dan and Kathy Cochran, our first buyers at The Avenue, recently shared this special story with me, and I wanted to pass it along to you.

Dan’s Words:

“In 1972, a few months before we were to be married, we pooled our savings and put down $1,500 on what was to be our first of many homes together. Although it was being built for us, at $19,999, the selections available to us were few: color of carpet, color of appliances, and color of counter tops. Period. A few years later corporate life put us on the road, and in five more cities we bought new but already built homes in traditional suburban developments.

Now, exactly 40 years later, we are building our retirement home at The Avenue. The location is perfect for walking to the beach, library and restaurants; the home design is well conceived, affording us first floor living with generous second floor guest space; the high quality of construction gives us peace of mind; and, yes, we were able to make personal selections, finally making this OUR home. We are thrilled with The Avenue and the Schell Brothers team.”

It all came about with one of my recent new homeowners in The Villages at Herring Creek. He’s a super chap and we had a chat about colors that would suit his home with the environment being the biggest factor for him. At the Villages at Herring Creek we’ve got every different environment you could possibly choose. Wooded homes, waterfront homes, water view with woods and wetlands, open homesites and a few other combinations.

Does a wooded site suit certain colors compared to a setting on the water?  It’s the first time I’d thought about it but it got me thinking about the huge decision new Schell Brothers family members have when they go to their selections appointment with our style-gurus Larry Gee and Karen Ryan.

Here’s what I do know; our Selections Center staff are the very best (apart from my good self of course and give you homework to make sure you’ve toured our communities and looked at other happy homeowners’ choices in this department. They also share their knowledge and crazy-good style about what looks good. And, I’ve not seen one of our homes that doesn’t look awesome so you’re in the very best hands.

I would love to know what color you would choose and hopefully you’ll be making that decision real soon with us!

Would you choose: Regatta Blue? Lighthouse Red? Greystone? Cypress Green? Clay? Wheat Yellow? Aspen White? The list goes on. Does the color depend on which community you choose? Does it depend on a flip of a coin?

I’ll be the first to admit having had reservations about how home colors look on paper and then being amazed when they come together in real life. Hey, I love color; don’t get me wrong. Anybody who knows me or has seen any of my clothing will tell you that. My pinks shorts are well-known in Schell Brothers ranks! I would love to have all of them, but not all on one home!

If you’ve made this decision recently or in the past how did you finally decide what the dream exterior of your new home would be? If you’re making this decision soon, what will impact your choice?

Up, Up, and Away!  Check out Sunset Harbour from our cool “balloon cam”!

Watch the video on YouTube

Click to view larger

In the past year, 10 homes have been sold, a brand new section was released, and we’re offering showcase specials this month! Wow, that’s a mouthful!

Check out our Showcase Homesites of the Month (marked in yellow): These special homesites feature premiums that have been significantly decreased – but ONLY for a limited time! If you’ve thought about buying a home in Sunset Harbour, but were waiting for an amazing value – here it is! Take advantage of these savings now!

Other buyers have realized THIS IS THE TIME to buy their dream home at Sunset Harbour, and taking advantage of these homesite incentives can make your dream come true faster, too.

Call or email us to get the scoop behind these special homesite premiums! Receive up to 30% off the premiums in addition to the March incentive!

The fountains are on in the Breakwater ponds! This can only mean one thing: WARM WEATHER!

Although it’s been a relatively mild winter…it’s still been winter. You know for sure spring and summer are coming when the fountains are turned on in our community ponds.

Daylight savings is less than a week away, days will be longer, energy levels will be up, and, as always, the beach will be the beach!

We went back to the drawing board and crunched our numbers to offer you the best possible incentive at The Ridings. We’re definitely priced to move you!

Right now, you’ll get $10 off per base heated square foot on your new home. So, if you’re considering a Heron at 2,137 heated square feet, you save $21,370! In addition to that, we’re giving you a free gourmet kitchen upgrade with 42″ cabinets. If you haven’t seen all the cool details that come with your gourmet kitchen, come by our new model and we’ll show you.  Personally, I love the full extension, cushion-close drawers!

Make sure to mark your calendars for our “Momentum” event April 21st! That weekend, we’ll officially have our GRAND OPENING at The Ridings! You’ll be able to tour homes under construction, enjoy food and refreshments from local businesses and meet your future neighbors! It will be an absolute blast! Deloris and I hope to see you soon!!!