When Lexie and Hollis Landreth visited Walsh for the first time, they thought it was too good to be true.
At the time, the newly married young couple were living and working in Dallas and were beginning their search for the perfect first home. They were hoping to find something within their budget that was close to the city so they could be near friends. But so far in their search they hadn’t found a house that felt like the right place for them.
Then, on Memorial Day of 2017, Lexie’s Fort Worth-based parents took them on a tour of the model homes at Walsh.
“It was a scam to get us to move to Fort Worth, but they say it wasn’t,” Hollis explains.
“It totally was,” Lexie agrees with a laugh.
The “scam” worked, in part because of the value that a Walsh home offered. Here was something the Landreths could afford, and it was close to downtown Fort Worth. It also came with more amenities than they had seen anywhere else.
“From the second we got there, we just felt like Walsh was too good to be true,” Lexie says. “It’s awesome, really just the whole package. We felt like we didn’t have to compromise on anything.”
Both Lexie and Hollis were a little sad to leave Dallas, mostly because it meant moving away from the friends they’d made there. They knew they’d eventually make friends in their new location, but they assumed that might take some time.
“When we first moved into our home in May of 2018, we were some of the very first people there. We knew zero people there, and we had zero friends. That was a thing we were kind of freaked out about,” Hollis says.
But those fears quickly dissipated when Lexie and Hollis began to connect with neighbors in their new community almost immediately.
"We thought we would meet our neighbors, of course. But we didn’t expect to make such great friends. The couples we’ve met at Walsh have become our core friends in Fort Worth.”
“The friendships we’ve made at Walsh in our first year of living there have totally exceeded our expectations,” Lexie says. “We’ve never actually had neighbor friends like this. It’s kind of unreal. We thought we would meet our neighbors, of course. But we didn’t expect to make such great friends. The couples we’ve met at Walsh have become our core friends in Fort Worth.”
Those friendships came about in part because of the thoughtful way Walsh is designed to foster community involvement, Lexie and Hollis say. For instance, while they expected to utilize the Athletic Club, they had no idea they would end up regularly attending yoga classes with their neighbors.
A neighborhood book club is another way Lexie made friends in the community. Hollis makes regular use of the Makerspace, where he enjoys building things for himself and hanging out with neighbors while they work on projects. The couple also frequently runs into friends at the Market, where they often stop to grab lunches on the way to work or ingredients for dinner on the way home.
“The Market is so thoughtful and convenient,” Lexie says. “It has the highest quality foods and brands, and is like a convenience store right in the middle of our neighborhood. I feel like there are new products there every time we go, like they really listen when someone suggests they carry something. They have community events there, too, so it is yet another way to meet people.”
The Landreths love the accessibility of their community, and enjoy exploring it with Juice, their energetic yellow lab is happy living at Walsh, too. Spend time in the community, and you might spot him riding around with Lexie and Hollis, headed to a neighbor’s house party or community event.
Lexie and Hollis still commute back and forth to Dallas for work during the week. One of the things they were worried about when they moved was that Juice would be home alone for long stretches of time.
“Here’s a fun neighbor story,” Lexie says. “One of the friends we’ve made at Walsh works from home and doesn’t have a dog. Juice is pretty hyper, so sometimes during the week when we’re gone all day, it’s kind of tough. Our neighbor likes to go on walks throughout the day, and asked if we would mind if she took Juice along with her. So now she walks our dog three times a week. She has a companion on her walks, and Juice gets to play outside. He loves her and we totally trust her. How cool is that?”
Juice is living a pretty great life, the Landreths say. He plays with neighbor dogs, enjoys his yard and even swims in the nearby lagoon.
Juice is living a pretty great life, the Landreths say. He plays with neighbor dogs, enjoys his yard and even swims in the nearby lagoon.
“It’s pretty incredible,” Lexie says. “When we have friends our age visit us from out of town, they’re always blown away like, ‘Wow, you live in a utopia! How is this real?’ We feel the same way.”
As much as they love their new neighborhood’s many convenient amenities, it is the friendships they’ve developed there that really made the Landreth’s first house feel like a home.
Once a month, the Landreths and several other couples from Walsh go out to dinner together.
“There’s about 12 of us and we all like to try new restaurants together. We’ll carpool and then after dinner, we always go back to someone’s house and talk until late at night,” Hollis says.
Lexie adds: “A lot of our friends are our around our age –– we’re both 28 –– and some have kids and some don’t. Some have dogs and some don’t. But we all get together for dinner or book club or yoga. Every time Hollis and I get home, we just look at each other and say ‘I can’t believe this is where we live!’”
