First challenges in narrowing the search for coastal property- David Sobotta
The 
hardest battle that we faced was deciding where we actually wanted to get serious about looking for a coastal place. The houses we've saw ranged from the tiny houses on Chincoteague to some of the giant beach houses that are so much in favor on the Northern Outer Banks.
The areas we investigated were from over seven hours to about five hours away from our home. We quickly learned that all driving time is not created equal.
Some trips such as the ride from Raleigh, NC down to Beaufort through all the stop lights on US 70 seem to take forever. We also found that while the trip to Wilmington down Interstate 40 was quick and boring, the trip from Wilmington to Southport was much more challenging than the number of miles suggested.
Driving to Nags Head always seemed to take six and one half hours and then Hatteras was still over an hour away. It was hard to accept, but living in the mountains meant that the coast was going to be a fairly long drive no matter how we sliced it.
Many of the towns we visited had considerable charm, but it didn't take us long to narrow our search area. We ruled out Chincoteague because it was one of the harder areas to get to from Roanoke. While the ride across the Bay-Bridge Tunnel is beautiful, we were exhausted by the time we got there.
We also were not very enthusiastic about the housing market which seemed to be very expensive. The beach was beautiful but required a National Park Pass to enjoy. Also the growth in the area seemed to be glacial which is something to think about if you're looking for jobs as we are.
Next we visited the part of NC's Outer Banks that most people know, Kitty Hawk-Nags Head. We had already written off Duck and Corolla because of overcrowding. The Kitty Hawk area is experiencing a lot of growth. Unfortunately we just couldn't find an area which gave us the feeling of a tight knit year round community, so we moved on down the Banks to Hatteras which obviously is almost by necessity a very close community.
Unfortunately Hatteras is just a little isolated. The thin strand of asphalt that keeps the community tied to rest of the world has a habit of getting washed away or having winds that keep you from driving it. We felt that isolation was enough reason to pass on Hatteras even though it is one of my favorite spots to visit. Knowing in our minds that Ocracoke would be even worse in terms of isolation, we gave it a quick look and decided that having only one restaurant open through the winter might get a little old.
It was not long afterwards that we took a trip to Beaufort, NC for our anniversary. We found Beaufort to be a wonderful spot with many of the characteristics that we were looking for in a place to put down some temporary roots. Yet we felt we owed it to ourselves to visit Southport. We had enjoyed some wonderful time on Bald Head Island in the early nineties and by all reports Southport was becoming a retirement mecca.
For some reason Southport just didn't click with us, the limited number of restaurants when we visited in 2004 and the drive to Wilmington for real services were enough to discourage us. We did visit Oak Island and enjoy the beaches there but saw nothing to make us want to put down roots.
At that point, we decided to get serious about looking in the Beaufort area. After a couple of frustrating summers trying to find an affordable place there, we happened on the western side of Carteret County which is tucked in behind Croatan National Forest near Swansboro. It was there we found our spot after lots of looking.