DI Families: Meet the Pitchford Family
There’s no better way to recharge your enthusiasm and appreciation for living on Daniel Island than to see the community through the eyes of families who have just relocated here. Families who remind us about the how lucky we are to live here, with such incredible quality of life, in our unique “island town.”
So if you’re feeling the least bit jaded, we invite you to chat with the Pitchfords, brand new residents who are super-excited to call Daniel Island home. Meet David, Melissa and children Hannah (a rising freshman at Hanahan High School), twins Sophie and Bailey (rising sixth graders at the Daniel Island School) and dogs Gracie and Beckett.
Where are you from originally?
Melissa Pitchford (MP): We moved here from New Freedom, Pennsylvania. It’s about four miles from the Maryland border. I’m originally from Maryland and David is from Pennsylvania.
David Pitchford (DP): I was a defense contractor for Textron Systems. Right now, I am looking for work in a similar arena. I would welcome any leads or connections from residents in the community who are familiar with this industry; You can see my profile on Linkedin (http://www.linkedin.com/ln/DavidWPitchford).
MP: I’m a CFO for a healthcare consulting company based in Baltimore; I’m fortunate that my company gives me the flexibility to work from home anywhere in the U.S. So now I can be home every day when the girls get back from school.
What brought you down south?
DP: We’re campers and outdoors people who were getting tired of being stuck indoors during the winter. Every time we took a camping trip down south, we’d explore the area a little more each time. Pining for warmer weather year-round, we began toying with the idea of moving south. Last Christmas break, we went on a road trip to Myrtle Beach and took a day trip to Charleston. We all fell in love with the area.
MP: We were just smitten.
Why did you/your family choose to make Daniel Island your home?
MP: We were initially looking in Mt. Pleasant. Our realtor showed us a number of communities there. We fell in love with the David Weekley homes in one community. But we didn’t want to live that far up Highway 17 and have to deal with traffic every day.
DP: The last time we moved (to our house in PA), we moved to have more house and yard, farther out in the country. Most of the time, we had to drive about 40 minutes just to get to restaurants and other places we wanted to go. This time our decision was based on location, location, location!
MP: We looked at a gated “golf-cart” community in Myrtle Beach and loved the feeling of security and the easy access to restaurants and things to do. We figured we could find something like that in Charleston.
How long have you lived on Daniel Island?
DP: Just over two weeks. We’re living in an apartment community on the island while construction on our house is completed. We expect to move in by the end of October or early November.
DP: Living on Daniel Island, we get to be centrally located with access to everything!
MP: There’s so much to do here! It’s a permanent vacation spot.
What drew you to live in the neighborhood you chose?
MP: Our new house will be Edgefield Park, the newest neighborhood just past Smythe Park. It’s being built by David Weekley Homes. We’re super excited to be able to work with a builder we wanted to have. We chose the only lot available for a 4-bedroom plan in our price range and worked with the builder to come up with the design option that was perfect for our family.
What does your family love best about living on Daniel Island?
Bailey Pitchford (BP): Riding bikes along the streets and looking at all the beautiful houses.
MP: Bailey’s not interested in riding the trails just yet. She’s more interested in at all the beautiful houses here on the island than trees along the trails.
BP: The biggest difference here is all the people I see walking around. Back home, there was nobody; my best friend Kylie was the only person I’d usually see outside my family.
Hannah Pitchford (HP): I like riding to Blondie’s Cafe in the morning for breakfast. But I also love going to Sullivan’s Island. We take the dogs there for early morning walks sometimes. It’s just so peaceful there and the beaches are so clean.
DP: The girls love the freedom to be able to ride their bikes safely and go just about anywhere they want by themselves. Riding down the street to get coffee, like we do here, was unheard of back home. There were no sidewalks to ride bikes on. And it was really hilly, which made it hard to ride.
BP: The cup holder on my bike has a bird’s nest in it! With three little eggs! I kept cleaning out the grass but the bird just kept putting more back and finally made a nest so I left it alone and now there are three tiny blue speckled eggs in it. I have to be very careful when I’m riding my bike.
Do you miss anything in particular about Pennsylvania that you can’t recreate here?
MP: It’s tough moving a family. Even though you know your kids will make friends over time, it’s hard to see them crying, missing their friends, and you can’t fix it. That’s the hardest part for me.
Sophie Pitchford (SP): I miss my friends the most. I would like to meet someone here who likes the same things I do, like soccer and art.
BP: I miss my gymnastics place; I don’t know where I’ll be doing gymnastics here yet. But I do hope I will make friends who like writing stories and making short movies with a video camera as much as I do.
HP: I can’t ever recreate or replace the special friends I’ve had from elementary school, but I’m sure I will make really good new friends here. A lot of my old friends were really upset that we were leaving Pennsylvania. They couldn’t understand why we were so excited to move. They thought we were choosing a new place to live over our friendship with them. I wanted to tell them, if only they could see the new place we were moving to, then they would know exactly why we were excited.
Does your family have any special traditions?
We go camping a lot, including a weeklong trip every year. We used to tent camp, but were tired of getting rained out every weekend, so we decided to get a 5th wheel RV and we’ve been going on family vacations in the vehicle ever since. We’ve explored Disney, Niagara Falls, and Massachusetts to name a few. But now we’ve just decided to leave the RV in Myrtle Beach. It’s for sale if anyone’s interested.
HP: Mom also makes a special back-to-school cake every year. She’s made them in the shape of a pencil or a school bus or even high heels. They’re always decorated with a lot of detail - and they’re delicious to eat.
What are you reading right now?
DP: Reading is really important in this family, especially to Hannah, who reads as much as she sleeps. We got our library cards the first day we were here.
HP: Right now, I’m finishing “Truly. Madly. Deeply,” a mystery by Hannah Jayne. I love mysteries.
SP: I just got started on “Framed” (Frank Cottrell Boyce). I can’t really say much about it yet.
BP: I’m not really much of a reader, but I do like Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Jeff Kinney) and the A-Z Mysteries series (Ron Roy).
What are some of your favorite restaurants on or off DI?
MP: We don’t really have a favorite yet, but we love Ali Baba’s and we enjoy Sermet’s and Laura Albert’s.
HP: Last night we got all dressed up and ate at the Oyster House in downtown Charleston. That was fun.
Is there any special information about your family that would like to share with the community?
HP: I love photography. I also enjoy babysitting, and I would like to let parents on Daniel Island know that I am available to take care of their children. I am very responsible and have excellent references. I was a youth group leader in church and a gymnastics coach…I’ve spent a lot of time working with kids.
BP: Sophie and I are also available for dog walking! We are really good at it since we walk our own dogs every day.
If you could describe your life on Daniel Island in three words, what would those three words be?
HP: Active
SP: Awesome
BP: Relaxing.
DP: I’d like to add a few words: it’s great for exploring!
MP: I guess you could call our move to Daniel Island ‘The Pitchford Family Adventure.’ Every day brings something new and wonderful. We couldn’t be happier.