Madeleine and Jason Jarrett bought a bungalow in Kirkwood several years before their daughter Eulah was born. The intown residents decided in 2015 to find a home with more space inside and out, and move before Eulah, now 2, started her school years.
The priority
The Jarretts looked for a home with at least four bedrooms, an established neighborhood and a school district with a strong academic reputation. Their must-haves were additional square footage, a pool at home and a backyard with space for their dog, Sophie, to play. They were willing to make renovations.
The search
They started searching in Decatur, but couldn’t find the home sizes and amenities, such as a pool, in their price range. The Jarretts expanded their search outside of the Perimeter, first to Dunwoody and then to Roswell.
When the Jarretts saw the listing for a five-bedroom home in Brookfield Country Club (priced from the low $400,000s to high $600,000s), they immediately liked the traditional brick home. The day they planned to view it, however, they found out it was under contract. When they saw it come back on the market, Jason emailed their agent, Ray Hutto with Engel & Volkers Buckhead Atlanta, to view the home. Hutto helped them negotiate for repairs to the kitchen and floors in the contract. The closing process was smoother than they expected.
“I last bought a home in 2002, and the process is much different now with paperwork,” said Jason, who obtained a loan through Quicken Loans. “Everything you need is online now, and you don’t have to go through filing cabinets to find W2s or a loan office to fill out paperwork.”
The home
The five-bedroom, four-and-a-half bath home was built in 1980 and has 4,500 square feet. “We lived in the same house for 12 years, so this was a bit of a shock when we first moved,” said Madeleine, 35, a stay-at-home mom. “We basically doubled our square footage.”
The Jarretts lived in the finished basement while renovating the upstairs. They gutted the kitchen, refinished the hardwood floors, installed new carpet and replaced the fireplace.
The lifestyle
“We went farther than we wanted, but it had everything we were looking for,” said Jason, 43, a national sales representative for Toshiba. “As an added bonus, we’re now closer to [our parents].”
The family enjoys the privacy of the backyard and having a pool. Since buying the home in May, they have enjoyed the parks, greenways and bike trails in Roswell. “It’s where you want to be if you’re raising a family,” he said. “The neighborhood is a mixed bag of homeowners, including young families and original families who are now empty nesters.”
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