Rick and Connie Harlow both grew up in Biloxi, Miss., the Gulf Coast city known for its waterfront resort casinos and shallow, sandy beaches. Not long after their wedding day, they left for New Orleans so Mr. Harlow could begin his career as a special agent in the United States Secret Service. For the next three decades, Biloxi stayed in the rearview as Mr. Harlow’s career led them to Washington D.C., then to Memphis and finally to Chicago.
After seven years up north, the couple felt ready to get back to their roots. They wanted to be closer to Mrs. Harlow’s parents in Biloxi, and they wanted their two adult daughters — one lives in Omaha, the other in Italy — to be able to come and see family.
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“We spent the last 10 years in an apartment — eight years in Chicago and now two years here,” said Mrs. Harlow, 67. “And that whole time, we’ve had what I call a ‘one-butt kitchen,’ where you can’t walk past each other.”
They thought about buying a lot and building their dream home, but doing it from Chicago would have been too difficult. So in 2022, the Harlows returned to Biloxi, found an apartment, and plotted their next steps to a bigger space.
“The whole idea was to have enough room so that if on the off chance everyone came at the same time, they could all have their own bedrooms and baths,” said Mr. Harlow, 65.
From the start, the weather factored into their decision. Biloxi is regularly hit by tropical storms and hurricanes; Mrs. Harlow’s childhood home in East Biloxi was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. So they looked exclusively in North Biloxi, which is farther inland, nestled in the woods along the Tchoutacabouffa River. But it came with other challenges.
“The homes in North Biloxi don’t come up on the market very often, because it’s a level-five school district and so they go fast,” said Sallie Lawson of Fidelis Realty, who worked with the Harlows. “Most houses do 10 days at max on the market and they’re gone.”
The couple tried to find a four-bedroom house, with a bathroom for each bedroom so there’d be plenty of room for their daughters to visit with their families, or for Mrs. Harlow’s parents to move in, if need be. They also love to entertain. High on their wishlist was an open gourmet kitchen. They also wanted an office area for Mr. Harlow and, ideally, a pool, but not a lot of land. “I really wasn’t looking for a big lot and yard work,” Mr. Harlow said.
Their budget stretched up to about $720,000. Among their options:
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