A Real Forever Home in Steelwood

After two decades in the Spanish Fort and Daphne area, Terri and Jerry Nowlin thought they had found their forever home on Pensacola Beach. They were willing to trade a longer commute to Daphne, where they own Jubilee Flooring, for life on the water, but four years later Terri realized that as wonderful as the beach was, it just wasn't home.

Jerry had his heart set on Steelwood in Loxley. Terri had never seen the community, but she was open to anything that brought them closer to Daphne. Online searches turned up very few houses and none matched their taste. Both were certain they did not want to build again after Jerry’s earlier career as a home builder, then they drove through Steelwood. Passing through the gates, across the bridge, and around the lake and golf course, Terri immediately understood why Jerry had been so sure.

A single lot pulled them back. It sloped off the rear and sat between the first and ninth holes. Instead of walking away from the challenge, they imagined a walk-out lower level that would turn the grade into a feature. Their “we're not building” line softened into “if we build, we know exactly where to start.”

That starting point was Bob Chatham Custom Home Design. Jerry first met Bob in the 1990s, and Chatham has drawn the plans for every home the couple has built since. Terri says they walk into his office with a scribbled floor plan and a description, and walk out with their ideas refined and sketched into reality. It feels to her as if he “gets inside your head and puts it on paper,” explaining what will and won't work while still honoring the way a family wants to live.

With plans in hand, choosing a builder was clear. Through Jubilee Flooring, the Nowlins had worked with Pickering Builders and Renovation for years and trusted the quality and attention to detail Jimmy Pickering brings to a project. This was their first basement home, and Jimmy’s steady communication and clear explanations gave them confidence at every stage reinforcing this was a team effort: Chatham on design, Pickering on construction, and the Nowlins, through Jubilee Flooring, as their own interior designers.

The finished home reflects this collaboration. Visitors often remark that the floor plan feels different, and Terri takes that as a compliment. One of her favorite spaces is the oversized craft room with twelve-foot ceilings and built-ins that let projects stay out without taking over the rest of the house. Jerry’s favorite space is the living room, where a cypress-clad cathedral ceiling rises more than twenty-two feet and a wall of windows frames the pool, backyard, golf course, and lake.

Downstairs, the walk-out level becomes a second life of the home: a recreation and theater area opens to the terrace and what Jerry calls “the oasis,” a pool and hot tub not part of the original plan, but now feels essential. A bunk room designed with their grandchildren in mind, where cousins, siblings, and friends can pile in together, branches naturally from that space.

Since moving in, Terri has been asked many times how she likes the new house and life in Steelwood. She still fights back tears when she answers. What began as a plan to downsize evolved into a place big enough for all their children and grandchildren to stay, a house that feels comfortable, inviting, beautiful, and timeless. She loves the neighbors and has even come to appreciate the fifteen-minute drive to town as a quiet bridge between work and home.

For the Nowlins, Steelwood is no longer just a pretty neighborhood on a lake and golf course. It's the place where design, craftsmanship, and intention converged to create what they now call their forever home.

ACCOLADES

Home Designer:
Bob Chatham Custom Home Design

Builder:
Pickering Building & Renovation, LLC

Interior Designers:
Terri & Jerry Nowlin of Jubilee Flooring & Decorating

Pool Designer:
Blue Haven Pools