Stuck with TemplateDoesNotExist at /

Hi I am new to both Python and Django. I am studying various tutorials and now I am following the tutorial from http://gettingstartedwithdjango.com where the author walks through the creation of a simple microblog.

I tried to follow the tutorial to the point but I keep getting TemplateDoesNotExist at /. Then I tried to modify few things but still I keep getting the error. Right now the configuration is like this.

My project tree:
microblog/
├── manage.py
├── microblog
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── __init__.pyc
│   ├── settings
│   │   ├── base.py
│   │   ├── base.pyc
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   ├── __init__.pyc
│   │   ├── local.py
│   │   └── local.pyc
│   ├── urls.py
│   ├── urls.pyc
│   ├── views.py
│   ├── wsgi.py
│   └── wsgi.pyc
├── requirements.txt
└── templates
    ├── 500.html
    └── index.html

My settings/base.py which is essentially equivalent to settings.py
import os
...
PROJECT_ROOT = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
...
TEMPLATE_LOADERS = (
    'django.template.loaders.filesystem.Loader',
    'django.template.loaders.app_directories.Loader',
    'django.template.loaders.eggs.Loader',
)
...
TEMPLATE_DIRS = (
    os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'templates'),
)

My urls.py

from django.views.generic import TemplateView
...
urlpatterns = patterns('',
...
    url(r'^$', TemplateView.as_view(template_name="index.html")),
...
)

and I added a views.py just in case
from django.views.generic import TemplateView

class HomepageView(TemplateView):
    template_name = "index.html"

Always I get the error message "TemplateDoesNotExist at /"

Django tried loading these templates, in this order:

• Using loader django.template.loaders.filesystem.Loader:
  • /home/voger/PycharmProjects/microblog/microblog/templates/index.html (File does not exist)
• Using loader django.template.loaders.app_directories.Loader:
  • /home/voger/blog-venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/contrib/auth/templates/index.html (File does not exist)
  • /home/voger/blog-venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/contrib/admin/templates/index.html (File does not exist)
• Using loader django.template.loaders.eggs.Loader:

If it would try the first two lines the file is sitting right there so what is wrong with it?