HOME & GARDEN
By Susan C. Nieman
Whenever Memphis attorney Sheree Hoffman needs a break she heads towards water.
Most weekends you'll find her with family and friends at her three-story retreat on Pickwick Lake. There, she, and her partner, Jeff Bloomfield, her children, 20-year-old Jenna McDonald, and 16-year-old Kevin McDonald and anyone else they can round up, kick back, relax and enjoy the lake.
"I've always been a water person," said Sheree. "I think it has a healing quality."
For years she had rented places at Pickwick. But in 1999 when they opened the Northshore, Sheree jumped at the chance to grab one of the first properties built, seeing it as a desirable investment opportunity. "It was a Mother's Day present for myself," she said.
The 2400-square-foot Boardwalk condo, with four bedrooms and two futons, sleeps up to 14 people. With three balconies overlooking an inlet and the dock a few steps away from the back door, there is always someone ready to get out on the pontoon boat or Seadoo.
Sheree often looks at the new homes being built all along the Northshore and has passed up the opportunity to get in on some really good deals. But she is very happy with her place. "Everyone at the Boardwalk knows each other," said Sheree. "We always have fun, and it is so beautiful and peaceful here. I try to get here as much as I can."
About five times a year, when she has a little more time to get away, Sheree and the clan head to the Florida Gulf Coast, where she has been vacationing since the early 1980s - when she and her now ex-husband raced Hobie Cat sailboats at Ft. Walton Beach.
"I always dreamed I would have a place on the ocean," said Sheree. "But I kept resisting taking the financial plunge." Then in 1995 right before Hurricane Opal, she bit the bullet and purchased her 1700-square-foot condo with three bedrooms and three baths at The Breakers on Okaloosa Island.
"On our first trip, we flew down with our two small children and ended up in the middle of a mandatory evacuation," explained Sheree. "We tethered the plane and drove to Birmingham. At the time, I wondered if it was a bad sign."
After two weeks they were allowed to return. "We are on the sixth-floor, so we had some water damage due to the force of the rain. And there was some damage to the plane," she said. But it didn't scare her off.
With views of the ocean and the bay, she is perfectly content. "I love to look at new properties," said Sheree. "Even though mine is older, the rooms are larger and I haven't found anything I like better. I'll never sell it."
