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Oh and another vote for Vinings/Smyrna/Marietta.
And of course, GO DAWGS (Law School Alum)!!! -
@TrailRunner: small world indeed! The middle school I attended fed to ohs and mceachern - we moved for HS. I'm sure we lived pretty close to each other....
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@MrsYellowJacket: are you talking about smitha??
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: I live in Woodstock now. It's a great place to live and they have made great strides to become this cute city with a great downtown area with good restaurants and family activities. They have won some awards lately and now consistently make a lot of "top places to live" type lists. The only real drawback is you have to be flexible with your commute times or accept that traffic is going to be a bitch. A side note about Woodstock--stay more towards the Towne Lake area if you are really considering that city.
As far as Decatur, part of that city has made a revival. There are nice areas there now, but also areas that you should def avoid. My grandparents lived there for 30 years, and to watch it decline the way it did was sad. On that note, metro-Atlanta is weird in the sense that you cannot always tell you are in a shitty neighborhood just by looking at the houses around you, etc. There can be some cute and nice looking houses in less than desirable areas. If the price seems too good to be true for a house, then it is prob in a shitty area.
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@TrailRunner: yuuuup!!!! Hahahaha. What year did you graduate hs? Do we know each other IRL?
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@MrsYellowJacket: ha that is so crazy! I graduated hs in 2004.
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@TrailRunner: 07 here. That is crazy!!
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We live in Marrietta, on the outskirts of the East Cobb area. We bought an older house but there is tons of new construction. The schools are good and I agree with having a few alternate routes to work.
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We also live in Marietta/East Cobb and love it here! Tons of parks and things to do with the kids and the schools are some of the best in the state. DH and I both grew up in Gwinnett and the schools apt here are wonderful, too.
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@jodyblair: We're still trying to find people that send their kids to public. Seems like everyone purchases in a good school district to keep property values up, but they send their kids to private. Did you attend public schools? Do you plan to send your kids to public?
@Bluemasonjar: Cobb is looking better and better every day plus it's closer to my dad than Fulton.
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@TrailRunner: we took Woodstock off the list, but put Kennesaw on the list. It wasn't mentioned by HB, but DH's coworkers suggested it. I'm hoping to take a peak at the area myself. It's one of those things where DH and I disagree about what we're comfortable living around. ETA: example DH chalks this up to jist being in the South - this is near MIL's http://www.tampabay.com/news/nation/in-hillsborough-county-a-tribute-to-confederate-south-endures/2234563
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I'm in East Cobb, but I love Woodstock. I feel like I live in Kennesaw sometimes though (hello, Costco and Buy Buy Baby). The outskirts of Kennesaw has some beautiful, newer subdivisions. I'm not familiar with the quality of the schools there though. The quality of schools near us isn't stellar, so we will either move to a nearby suburb or do private if we are still living in GA when our kids are old enough. Overall though, Cobb schools are excellent. Good luck!
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: Kennesaw is a good place to live too. I lived there for a long time growing up (as well as Marietta). My parents own property there, and coming from a property value stand point if you look at hwy 41 (also called Cobb pkwy) as a dividing line in Kennesaw you will want to focus your search on houses on the OPPOSITE side of the mall and KSU. (The lines in that are of what is called Kennesaw, Marietta, and Acworth are really blurry so don't get hung up on being in one city vs another.)
To answer your question about private schools, in the Kennesaw/Marietta are most people use public. You will find that the wealthy people districted for Marietta City Schools send their kids to private. Cobb county schools overall are decent with a few that are not so great.
I think as far as the confederate stuff you pointed out with the article, it's hard to explain. We have the battlefields and the museums here, but overall it's not a city that is all "the south will rise again" or anything. The Kennesaw/Marietta area is pretty diverse, and while there are def rednecks around it's something that is easily ignored. (Or maybe it is to me bc I'm just so used to seeing it?) Despite Kennesaw Mtn being a landmark for the civil war, it really is an awesome thing to have around and tons of people hike the mountain daily.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: Almost all of the people I know with kids send them to public schools! And DH grew up in the public schools in the area. We are planning to use them for our kids as well.
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@Mrs.KMM: yay! All in Gwinnett?
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: Ugh. that flag gives off a bad impression. I live in Tampa and I definitely don't feel like that represents the Tampa area as a majority at all! Sorry, off topic from GA, but had to chime in!
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: Yep! Tons of people I went to college with (at Georgia Tech) graduated from the Gwinnett county public schools.
There were a decent number from Lassiter and Pope high schools in Cobb too.
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@Mrs.KMM: I'm going to fill DH in. He thinks highly of Georgia Tech and Emory. I'd rather send our kids to public schools and supplement with outside academic extras where needed. We want three kids altogether so three in private would be alot! DH has already decided that I'll join the PTA to help us get the pick of the best teachers. Lol
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: Tech and Emory are great schools! DH and I both graduated from GT and I worked at Emory for 3 years before becoming a SAHM.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: I realized I never answered your questions! DH and I both went to public school in Gwinnett County. Wonderful schools! The school district we live in now in East Cobb is great and we will definitely be sending our kids to public school. How has the search been going?
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@jodyblair: the home search went very well. Our GA relo realtor did a fantastic job narrowing homes down for us to maximize the ONE day I was able to travel to look at houses. We are moving into new construction in Cobb.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: That's great! So exciting! What part of Cobb will you be in? We've been here for 4 years now and love it.
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Wait, no one talks about Dekalb County??? That's where I am! We are in Brookhaven / Dunwoody / Sandy Springs. The neighborhood is lovely and so easy to get into town. Oh well, but I see you already picked.
We should have an Atlanta bees meetup!
Didn't realize there are so many GA bees.
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@irene: I live in Dekalb county too but further south. I'm just below I-20 off Moreland.
Our area is more up and coming than Dunwoody, but we really like it.We're actually zoned for Atlanta Public Schools, and will probably send our daughter to our local public elementary, but she's 8 months old, so a lot can change by then. I graduated from Henry County public schools, and my husband graduated from Rockdale County. Those were decent schools back in the 90s...
@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: I think you'll be happy in Cobb County. I lived in Cobb for 13 years and really enjoyed it.
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@irene: I *loved* Brookhaven and the Perimeter area as well and lived there for several years. Only reason I moved was that DH is in education and picky about school districts. If DeKalb Co could get it together for schools, I would definitely be convincing him to move back!
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@krispi: @peachykeen: Hmm... very true about zoning for school. To be honest we bought our house / moved into this area many years ago, and didn't really know or think about if we would have kids. Then many years later we had our DS, and then realize oh the school here is not too good. Instead of moving, we are going to go the private school route.....
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@irene: I would be down for a bee meet up!
We picked our house based on the school district. I at least wanted the option to send my children to public school. Congrats on finding a house!
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@Bluemasonjar: I would love to and I probably might have time next week...! I can probably only do lunch on a weekday.... I was gonna say play date on the weekend is possible too, but that would be very hard to organize with all of our kids at different ages.
Where could we go? Anyone else interested?
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: " I'm going to fill DH in. He thinks highly of Georgia Tech and Emory."
yay! My hubby went to Tech and I went to Emory. and I grew up all in public schools. GA gets a lot of flack for being lacking in education but I don't buy it
Hope you found a great area and house!
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