This weekend, we visited a home in Jackson’s Eastbrook community.
Just off Lakeland Drive, Eastbrook is hidden from public view by thick pines and cool ferns. It’s in the heart of the city, right next to the Interstate, with easy access to the best of what both Jackson and Flowood have to offer.
The home we visited was graciously appointed: a Japanese garden out back, large rooms, a small but functional kitchen, a downstairs bath decorated with jewel-tone mosaic tiles. We felt so at home in that space — in fact, while discussing our visit later, we both remarked how unusual it was for a strange space to feel so familiar, so right.
We didn’t see these houses when we first moved back to Jackson — even though they were in our price range. Why? Fresh from a bad experience with a bad Neighborhood Association in Atlanta (the builder screwed everyone over, leaving insufficient funds in place to keep the grounds in order) I absolutely, totally, and completely refused to consider a home in a neighborhood like Eastbrook.
I’d had enough, I said, of homeowner association fees, go-nowhere meetings with irate neighbors, and common property. Give me a stand-alone home, unattached to others, where my yard and my affairs are my own!
We got that … and we love our current house (though it’s really too big for us and is fairly expensive to maintain). We enjoy our nights here — watching t.v., bobbing in the pool.
But had I been more open-minded, I could have seen other options — including homes like those in Eastbrook, hidden away in the mossy pines. Lesson learned!
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