Dragon legacy draws dad
Jason Guy knew Collierville was the place for his family
Jason and Beth Guy have had a lot of backyards.
He grew up in Warren, Ohio. She grew up in Brewster, Massachusetts, near Cape Cod. After the pair met and married in northwest Arkansas, they followed Jason’s career back to Ohio, then to Pennsylvania, then back to Arkansas, then to Virginia.
By the time Jason’s employer — ServiceMaster, where he works as a product director for Terminix — moved the family to Memphis in August 2015, he and Beth had two kids and a strong knowledge of what they wanted in a house.
“We wanted to find either a house or a yard that needed no work,” Beth said, adding that they were willing to spend renovation money on one or the other, but not both.
Moreover, they wanted an outdoor area that felt less like a yard than a retreat.
“Jason works so hard,” Beth said. “This house was the perfect spot to give him his dream backyard.” Finding it was no simple task. The Guys had learned about their Memphis move suddenly — two weeks before Jason’s relocation, with one of those weeks taken up by the family’s scheduled summer vacation. As soon as they returned home, Jason packed up and headed South, moving into an apartment while he searched for a house and waited for Beth and the kids — Hailey, 13, and Hayden, 9 — to join him in Memphis.
Linking up with Realtor Chris Peaks of Crye-Leike’s Olive Branch office, Jason began scoping out homes in Collierville, where he’d moved with his family just before his senior year of high school. He graduated from Collierville High.
“I really wanted Collierville just because of my history here,” Jason said. “There’s something special that one day we can say to Hailey or Hayden, ‘I wore a Collierville Dragons jersey once, too.’ I’d love to see Hailey or Hayden wear one.”
“For him, it was the history,” added Beth. “For me, it was the schools. The schools are always the biggest thing for us with all our moves.”
Though Beth, Hailey and Hayden visited and joined the home search over Labor Day weekend, they didn’t find a house on that trip. And so, for the bulk of the three months Jason spent living in the apartment, he was scouting houses on his own.
“We tried to view six or seven every time, and I think (Peaks) and I went out four times or so,” Jason said. “So we saw about 30 houses.”
Back in Virginia, Beth provided input by studying online listings and asking detailed questions.
“She was pretty good about eliminating some from the list,” Jason said.
It wasn’t the first time he’d done the viewing and bidding on his own. In one of their previous moves he’d found, viewed and made an offer on a house Beth hadn’t seen in person. That one didn’t go over too well.
“She hated it,” he said. “I missed one time. I didn’t want to miss again.”
Finally, Jason and his Realtor came across a house that seemed to check off all the boxes. With four bedrooms,
two-and-a-half baths, and an existing backyard pool, it had the potential to be everything the family wanted. Though the backyard needed work, the inside was move-in ready, with an updated kitchen and even a color scheme that appealed to the Guys.
As soon as she saw the listing, Beth had a feeling it was the one. She sent Jason on a viewing mission, and he loved it, too. His parents went back with him to check it out.
“I had detailed questions,” Beth said with a laugh. “So I was glad his mom came with him to look at the details. We made an offer and I never actually saw the house until the day we closed on it.”
That happened in late October, just before Halloween. The family bought the 2,900-square-foot house in the Crosswinds area for $308,000. Meanwhile, the Guys’ home in Virginia sold in three days.
As soon as they were settled — doing no more than moving in their furniture and hanging artwork on the walls, since the house was turnkey — the Guys began to contemplate ways to turn their backyard into the outdoor retreat they envisioned. They called Rich-Way Landscape, where they met landscape designer Brian Hendrix.
“They already had the pool,” Hendrix said. “It needed a new liner, and they just wanted to freshen up the whole thing. They love to grill, love to entertain. I wanted to give them a space for that.”
In their planning sessions with Hendrix, the Guys decided that along with landscaping and pool updates, they’d extend the roof above the back patio — which previously had been little more than an overhang above the back door — and add an outdoor kitchen.
Hendrix mocked up a space plan, and during the process he learned that Jason had been collecting bottle caps for years, always figuring he’d use them somehow, someday but never quite sure where. Hendrix designed an angular bar with a stone base that matched the new stone surrounding the pool. And then he designed and built a wood bar top that enclosed and showcased Jason’s collection beneath a layer of glass.
“It turned out to be one of my favorite projects,” Hendrix said.
Inside, the family’s Cape Cod-inspired décor and furniture fit perfectly with the home’s existing beachy color scheme — sandy beiges and browns throughout, with a sea foam blue kitchen that happened to be one of Beth’s favorite colors. She even kept some of the previous owner’s window treatments in place.
The only interior change the Guys plan to make is to paint the kids’ rooms. They’ve already replaced a few light fixtures. But they concentrated most of their efforts outside, and they’re thrilled with the results. Beth especially loves the color they chose for the pool’s new liner: a soft aqua that’s reminiscent of tropical waters.
“We just look over there and we think we’re in the Caribbean,” she said. “Tropical plants and turquoise water — we’re good.”
Even better, the kids are happy with their new town and new house, and the family feels more settled now than with some of their prior moves.
“The kids love this move,” Beth said. “They love their new schools, love their friends, love the area. So this is a great move for them.”
On a recent afternoon, she and Jason worked in the yard while Hailey hung out at a friend’s house and Hayden took a nap. After they finished the yard work, they hopped in the water.
“We were out here in the pool by ourselves, loving life,” Beth said. “Every afternoon I say, ‘Thank you, Jason, for my pool.’”