Hey, didn't we just see David Chandley on TV a few hours ago? He's the weather guy in Atlanta who told us late last night what kind of sky to expect today, and here he is, relaxing at Reynolds.
"We get that a lot," says David's wife, Lynn.
With the morning's first cup of coffee in hand, David and Lynn are ensconced in one of their "zones" at Reynolds. They've found quite a few of these zones: on the lake, on the golf courses, in the Richland Pointe Fitness Center. This one is on their back deck, where the two of them slowly rock in a swing with a commanding view of a quiet Lake Oconee cove. They're so locked into the atmosphere that they barely speak, a rare break from their naturally ongoing personalities.
After a minute or so, Lynn prompts David the husband into providing a sample of David the Fox 5 Storm Team Chief Meteorologist, as if to prove that he's really here.
"It's sunny and mild," he says with the enthusiastic voice that viewers know so well. "Another perfect day for golf here at Reynolds."
For a guy who claimed maybe five hours of sleep, David exudes an impressive amount of positive energy. You would be hard-pressed to find anyone happier to be home.
[David] On Friday nights we finish up the 11 o’clock news, and by the time I walk to the parking lot it’s around midnight. I’m wide awake. There’s no traffic. I can either drive 20 minutes to our home in Atlanta or drive out to our place here at Reynolds. It’s an easy choice. Every time I pull through the gate, it’s … ah … an exhale. And I sleep great when my head hits the pillow.
[Lynn] He walks through the door at 1:20 a.m. and then the dogs wake him up around sunrise. It doesn’t bother him. He’s like everyone we meet at Reynolds: glad to live here or work here. For him, there are a lot of incentives to be here first thing in the morning. [David] A tee time is usually one of those incentives.
[Lynn] His ideal morning is to be the first one off the tee. Whenever he plays a round of golf, he comes home knowing every fact about the people he just met. That’s the reason we hit it off in college — he never meets a stranger. [David] It isn’t just me. Lynn is as easy to talk with as anyone you’ll ever know. But it is true that in college a professor told me to consider doing weather on TV because I have “the gift of ad-libbing,” and weather people don’t use a script. I’d been studying broadcast journalism with plans to get into sports, but the sports market was flooded with former athletes. I took the professor’s advice and studied meteorology.
[Lynn] We moved around a lot, which happens when you’re growing a career in TV. Albany. Macon. Columbus. He finally got to break into the big market of Atlanta in 1988. [David] Over the years, we’ve experienced city living and suburb living. But as kids we each grew up in less-populated areas with open spaces — places where you could relax and really get to know people. I guess that was always a part of who we are.
[David] I had some early insight about the plans the Reynolds family had for a community. In one of my first jobs, I doubled as a reporter and weatherman. The news producer sent me out to cover this human-interest story about The Jackson House being moved from Greensboro into what is now Reynolds Lake Oconee. For years, the talk in Atlanta was, “How is all of that going to work out there?” But I had a feeling this place would be special.
[Lynn] We found out Reynolds is a magnet. One time we came for an anniversary getaway — just to stay a couple of nights, play some golf, and go back to Atlanta. [David] We wound up buying a cottage at Great Waters. [Lynn] As we spent more time here watching the sunsets, being active outside, and meeting people, we began to reevaluate our long-term plans. Do we want to settle for the city life in Inman Park (a neighborhood on the east side of Atlanta) or make Reynolds our forever home?
[David] Here’s our answer. We’re looking out at the water from the deck of our dream home. [Lynn] We have two grown daughters, Lauren and Leah. Leah likes to take credit for finding this lot while we were out exploring in 2020. When I showed it to David, we both loved the location. But even better than that was the idea of having enough space in an active community for our family to come and enjoy.
[David] We weren’t even boaters. We weren’t really lake people either. But we bought a boat before the house was finished so we could cruise around with the kids and grandkids. And as good as the golf was a few years ago, it keeps getting better. So now we have this lifestyle where we can take a five-minute boat ride over to the golf course at Great Waters. I never saw that coming.
[Lynn] I’ve gladly switched my beach card for a lake card. This is a different kind of nature — the trees, the wildlife, the relaxing sounds. The most important difference, though, are friendships. At the beach you tend to wave and say “hi” and that’s about it. Here, people want to hang out and have meaningful conversations. [David] It goes back to the small-town feel we experienced growing up.
[Lynn] We’re still in awe. We sit in this swing and think of how God’s hand has led us through all of our moves, all of our steps, so we could continue our life story in this spot. [David] It makes us humble and grateful every single day. We don’t deserve this. And that’s why, while everyone is sleeping, I’ll gladly get in the car and drive — there’s no other place where I’d rather wake up.
