'Goosefoot' Spreading On Whidbey Island
Leslie Jackson had been renting her home on Whidbey Island. "We lived there for five years until the house went on the market," Jackson recalls. "They wanted a half million dollars for the house."
She and husband Tim tried to figure out how to buy it. "We played the lottery, but that didn't work," Tim Jackson told KOMO.
Their house was sold, but the new buyers only wanted the property, not the structure. Instead of tearing the house down, the buyers donated the home to the Goosefoot Community Fund.
"They (Goosefoot) came to me just before Christmas, shook my hand, and said 'I have a wonderful Christmas present for you,'" Leslie recalls.
Through Goosefoot, the Jacksons were able to keep their home. It just needed to be relocated.
Goosefoot Community Fund Program Manager Debbie Torget says the donated houses are moved, restored, then given to families who only have to pay moving and restoration costs.
"Goosefoot" is actually a plant variety that moves and spreads very rapidly. The program is doing the same thing, already finding homes for over a dozen Whidbey Island families.
When Ken Stull was approached about Goosefoot, it just sounded too good.
"Not believable," Stull recalls. "Too good to be true."
He and his family were given a 750 square foot beach house. The house was put on wheels, and it was quite a ride to the Stull's property.
"They cut it in half, and then got it stuck in a tree," remembers Danielle Stull.
The Stull's 7-year-old Kevin remembers getting to "camp" in their home before it was finished. As for watching it being moved, "I was really worried," Kevin says.
So do you like your new house, Kevin?
"Yeah, there's a lot more room," the boy says.
"There's no way we could have done it on our income," says a thankful Tim Jackson.
Not only are the houses recycled, the money to move them is as well, making it available for the next person.
"It was a dream come true," Jackson says with a smile.
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