For the Chastain family, finding a home in Dilworth was about more than the right house. It was about putting down roots, raising their children and becoming part of a community.
Chapman and Blaire Chastain and their four children have called Dilworth home for just over a year. The goal was far older than that.
Back to Charlotte
Blaire was born in New York, moved to Charlotte with her family at 2, grew up here and attended Charlotte Catholic. Chapman grew up in Montgomery, Alabama. Blaire went on to the University of Alabama and Chapman to Troy University, and after college both found their way to Colorado.
They met in Breckenridge the year after graduating, where Chapman was working at the ski resort and Blaire was living in Denver for commercial design; mutual friends from her college years brought their paths together on the mountain. In 2016, expecting their first child, they came back to Charlotte. "We wanted to put down roots in Charlotte and raise our family near family," Blaire says.
They bought first in Fourth Ward and later lived in Wilmore, but Dilworth was always the neighborhood they hoped to call home. They found that home in July 2025. "Every single thing about Dilworth spoke to us," Blaire says.
Close to everything, and everyone
What makes the neighborhood special is community and convenience: children growing up surrounded by other families, neighbors who know one another, everyday life close to home. They walk to coffee shops and restaurants, visit Latta Park, take the trails, get to the grocery store, attend church at St. Patrick's and reach activities and friends' houses without much time in the car.
Family is quite literally around the corner. Blaire's brother and his family live in Dilworth too, with three children and another on the way.
Life with four
Every morning, Blaire puts the baby in the stroller and walks with their 3-year-old son to Latta Park. He rides his bike and has already decided he wants to be a BMX rider.
In the evenings the streets become an extension of home, with the children playing outside with friends and neighbors. Inside, the two older girls often help Blaire make dinner, and with the front door open, neighborhood kids wander in and out.
The girls do dance at Jolie South and Charlotte Junior Soccer; their brother is in Soccer Shots at Latta Park. Even so, Blaire says home is where the children are happiest.
Careers built in Charlotte
Chapman is a commercial real estate broker and partner at Ascent Real Estate Partners, where he has worked for 10 years, helping local businesses and developers find and lease retail space in neighborhoods including Dilworth.
Blaire is a commercial interior designer and general contractor who founded Chastain & Company five years ago; it designs and builds office, fitness, restaurant and retail spaces.
Food, F3 and Italy
Chapman does early morning workouts with the Dilworth F3 community, and the family loves good food: celebrating at Dolce, walking to Dozo for date night, weekly takeout from Yafo and Thai Taste, and pizza at Inizio after soccer victories.
Blaire's family is Italian, and every other summer her extended family, her parents, four siblings and their spouses and children, gathers in Italy. The Chastains plan to go back in summer 2027.
Home
Back in Dilworth, the everyday rhythm of neighborhood life is the new tradition. Their 11-year-old Lab and golden retriever mix, Aspen, rounds out a household that is rarely quiet.
After years of dreaming about Dilworth, they have what they were looking for: cousins nearby, friends in the neighborhood, trails and parks outside the door and four children growing up in the middle of it all.
"We hope to live here forever."
This story appears in the October 2026 issue of Stroll Dilworth.