Forest Lake takes care of details

But when the children moved on, the couple decided to move into Lois' smaller home in Forest Lake, a gated community straddling the line between Simpsonville and the Eastside.

Lois, 58, had built her home with retirement in mind. She wanted a place she could easily keep up, walk around in with no stairs, surrounded by close neighbors and protected by security gates.

The reasoning now, Lois says, is to live in her retirement home so that the transition to an unfamiliar home isn't as abrupt on down the road.

Willis, a country boy who grew up plowing acreage on a tractor, wasn't sure he was ready for neighbors spaced only 7 feet on either side.

Boy, has he become a believer.

"It takes me longer to hook up the electric cord than to mow the back yard," says Willis, 68.

"Back yard" is a subjective term in Forest Lake. There typically isn't much of one, whether the residence is a townhouse or a patio home.

The idea is to keep any extra work to a minimum and leave it up to the landscapers to manage the back yard everyone shares - the common areas.

"I got tired of doing yard work," says Clay Hooper, 47, who moved into Forest Lake two years ago from Butler Station.

Hooper, who is a real-estate agent for Patt Smith Realty on Pelham Road, says townhouses range from $94,500 to $130,000 and patio homes from $130,000 to $250,000.

The 147-home community - set in a convenient location off Woodruff Road at State 14 - features both young and older residents who enjoy tennis courts, a swimming pool and clubhouse, a small lake, and extensive trees and common areas.

Regime fees - $128 a month - cover just about any maintenance needed, except for work on a house itself.

The community, he says, was "ingeniously designed."

Each house has its side windows on only one side of the home, so that no one is looking through his window into another's.

The streets are winding so that, in addition to the gates that cut down on transient traffic, speeding is generally under control.

And the closeness of the homes provides its own security.

That was especially important for Jack McCall when considering where he and his 12-year-old daughter, Lauren, should live.

The quality schools of Mauldin Middle and Mauldin High are nearby.

And, McCall says, the gates, while not a fail-safe, are a deterrent to crime.

McCall has come to know his neighbors well enough that he has "a strategically placed group of people" who watch out for his daughter.

Lauren feels completely comfortable, and she particularly enjoys the lake in front of the family's townhouse.

"I like the ducks because I'm a real animal lover," she says.

McCall says the only improvements he has made to the 10-year-old house have been minor - painting, replacing a parquet foyer with hardwood, new carpet.

The townhomes, he says, are spacious enough so that "she has her own bathroom."

In C.R. and Becky Bauer's patio home, there is plenty enough room to accommodate the couple, C.R. says.

The two were more than happy to downsize from their 3,500-square-foot home in Stratford Place to their current 2,175-square-foot home, which, C.R. says, "feels like more than that."