The debtor may elect to take the personal property and homestead exemptions provided in Article X of the Constitution of North Carolina instead of the exemptions provided by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1C-1601 If the debtor elects to take his constitutional exemptions, the exemptions provided in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1C-1601 shall not apply and in that event the exemptions provided in this Article shall not be construed so as to affect the personal property and homestead exemptions granted by Article X of the Constitution of North Carolina. If the debtor elects  to take his constitutional exemptions, the clerk or district court judge must designate the property to be exempt under the procedure set out in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1C-1603 The debtor is entitled to have one thousand dollars ($1,000) in value in real property owned and occupied by him and five hundred dollars ($500.00) in value in his personal property exempted from sale under execution. If the value of the property in which the debtor claims his constitutional exemption is in excess of his exemptions, the clerk, in an execution, may order the sale of the  property with the proceeds of the sale being distributed first to the  debtor to satisfy his exemption and the excess to be distributed as ordered. (1981, c. 490, s. 1; 1981 (Reg. Sess., 1982), c. 1224, s. 8.)