Couple buys spacious Dogwood Creek home to get their children in Germantown schools

The main motivation for Tadd and Jennifer Willcox to consider a move was that they wanted their children to attend Germantown municipal schools. Also, they wanted more space for hosting gatherings, as they love having people over and they have family who live out of town.

The couple contacted Kaylee Oaks, a real estate agent with Hometown Realty, to assist them with their house hunt. “Kaylee has been a close friend since college and she is an excellent realtor,” said Jennifer. “She has helped us purchase two homes and has so much patience and a wealth of knowledge about the home-buying and selling processes. She helped us through the negotiation process and made excellent recommendations to help us get a great price on our new home. When we sold our last home, Kaylee was incredibly strategic with the entire selling process. Our former house was only on the market for three days and we had 11 offers. She was not only very thoughtful, but her attention to detail and strategic approach to the home-buying and selling processes made it as seamless and smooth of a process for us as possible.”

This time the Willcoxes said they found their house “by accident.” “It was down the street from some close friends who jokingly said ‘Let's be neighbors,’” recalled Jennifer. “It was the second house we looked at and it clearly checked off all of our boxes. It was in the Germantown Municipal School District, had plenty of living area and was located in a safe neighborhood. Moreover, it had our requisite four bedrooms.”

Tadd and Jennifer paid $425,000 for a home, c. 1977, in the Dogwood Creek subdivision of Germantown. With approximately 3,000 square feet of living space, the home featured two bedrooms down and two up. There was a large family room and the living room had a fireplace.

“We love the layout and open floor plan of our new home,” said Tadd. “There’s lots of usable living area, which is great for having small children, and also great for hosting. We love how much natural light our house gets. It always feels warm and bright.”

Jennifer added, “This house has more space, more bedrooms and bathrooms, and is in a nicer neighborhood than where we lived previously. We didn’t have a garage at our last house, so that’s a major upgrade here. We personally love that we have a garage underneath the house. Another plus is that all of the main rooms and bedrooms are bigger.”

The couple’s new home offered many amenities. There were easy-to-maintain tile floors throughout most of the first floor. And plantation shutters on all of the downstairs windows. The appealing kitchen was set up perfectly for anyone who loved to cook. The feel was classic, with a fresh look. The built-in, stainless steel appliances included a microwave, a dishwasher, a six-burner gas stove and an oversized refrigerator with plenty of storage. It also featured updated cabinetry, some with glass fronts. And, the warm tones of the tile backsplash complemented the granite countertops. The open floor plan encouraged conversation between the cook and family or guests in the adjacent great room.

“We did a ton of renovations when we purchased our house,” explained Tadd. “When we bought the house it had two-and-a-half baths. We completely renovated all of the bathrooms and added another full bathroom to make a second bedroom ensuite downstairs. Now we use that bedroom as the guest room. We put in a large double walk-in shower in the primary bathroom. We replaced some of the flooring downstairs with LVP (Luxury Vinyl Plank flooring) which is beautiful and durable, perfect for small kids. We added a beautiful fireplace to our great room. We also did smaller upgrades, like replacing light fixtures and painting parts of the interior. And outside we did some significant tree work and are still working on landscaping. Additionally, we converted the workshop in the garage into a home gym that we use almost every day.”

Also, the home has a two-car garage with a large storage room/workshop. A large deck overlooks the well-maintained, fenced backyard.

“Our house also sits up on a hill, so we have a really pretty vantage point from our house to look at our neighborhood,” said Jennifer. “People in our neighborhood spend a lot of time outdoors, either going on walks, working in their yards, or playing outside. We've met a lot of our neighbors that way, which has been really fun. We love having so many kids in the neighborhood that our kids can play with, and all of our neighbors have been so welcoming and friendly. Dogwood Creek also has an active homeowner's association that puts on fun holiday parties and events. We love the location and accessibility of our neighborhood to stores — it’s really easy to get around Germantown from where we live.

Emily Adams Keplinger is a freelance reporter who produced this feature for the Advertising Department.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Couple buys spacious Dogwood Creek home to get their children in Germantown schools