The Reserve Club at Woodside, located in Aiken, SC
Woodside Communities has captured the nation’s attention- again! In America’s 100 Best Places to Live 2021 Edition of ideal-LIVING Magazine, you will find not one but two interviews from Woodside residents that highlight some aspects that helped them make the choice to relocate from the Greater Washington DC area to Aiken, SC, a place often cited to be “where the charm of Mayberry meets the sophistication of the Hamptons.” Our location, in addition to our low cost of living, access to world-class healthcare, broad range of amenities, and more, also contributed to our second honor in the publication: once again being named to the one of ideal-LIVING Magazine’s “Best Places” list! Hear for yourself what makes Woodside and Aiken so special directly from two of our neighbors in their exclusive interview with the editors of ideal-LIVING below.
Woodside Neighbors Lou Ann and Doug Brossman at their First Home in Woodside
Relocating from D.C. to Woodside in Aiken, SC
Excerpts from “Working from Home and Loving It,” published in ideal-LIVING Magazine: America’s 100 Best Places to Live 2021 Edition
“Being able to work from anywhere has been one of the biggest benefits of COVID. My business went totally remote. Even as things are opening up, people are re-evaluating their lives because they can work from anywhere. Like people in Washington, D.C., they are thinking, ‘Let’s get out of the rat race,'” said Lou Ann Brossman.
In 2018, the Brossmans bought a house they had never seen in a town they’d never been to and hadn’t looked back. They had purchased the home in Woodside to eventually retire to while maintaining their residence in the northern Virginia area. Lou Ann and Doug would visit Aiken periodically, but when COVID hit, they decided to stay. Lou Ann says, “We had planned on keeping our house in northern Virginia because I have a business there. But when COVID hit, and when everything started to close down in March 2020, we decided to go to Aiken and stay for two weeks and never left. Doug was a financial advisor for Wells Fargo and was able to work from home (he just retired last week). We kept thinking we were going to go back, but everything kept getting pushed back month after month.”
The Brossmans then received an unsolicited cash offer for their home in Virginia with one caveat – they had to be out within three weeks. So they packed everything and moved to Aiken full time. “This was kismet; it was meant to be,” continues Lou Ann. “The number of people we have met, even during COVID, and the level of engagement has been great for us.” Both Doug and Lou Ann are very active in the community. They are both avid golfers, Doug wants to learn how to play pickleball, and Lou Ann has developed a new routine of working out at the Village Fitness Center three mornings a week like clockwork.
Don’t worry; even if you haven’t been very athletic, Woodside allows you to create new routines to help you live a healthier lifestyle. Lou Ann is a prime example of this. She says, “I hope to retire sometime soon, but my goal is to come into this new phase of life healthier than I have ever been…mind, body, and spirit. I am learning to breathe and slow down. I’m eating healthy and walking all of the time.” And she has been encouraging others to do the same. She has brought several of her friends with her to Woodside, including Scott and Theresa Hoyt.
“It felt absolutely perfect the moment we drove into Woodside. We bought a lot here the weekend we visited,” said Scott. “We wanted a unique, warm, and friendly community to call home. Theresa works for the federal government, and she is planning on working for another four to five years. COVID accelerated our plans by a few years. Ironically, the pandemic forced us to make the move since my wife could work from anywhere. We are renting for a year while we are building a new home (with Designer Builders).”
“I may be 66 years old, but my mindset is still 46. I did not want to be in a retirement community, and Woodside is definitely not that. It has everything you need, from health and medical facilities in Aiken to eclectic restaurants and shops located just outside the gates in The Village at Woodside. There is never a dull day for us. You will stay active and be as busy as you want with all of the amenities Woodside has to offer from their USTA-certified racquet sports to hiking the 21+ miles of paths and nature trails, and the 36 holes of championship golf, and so much more. The Southern hospitality is off the charts. You just don’t get that in the big cities. It was the perfect storm.”
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