Relocating Soon to Northeast Atlanta...Help Please
 

My family and I (husband and two daughters, ages 8 and 13) will soon be relocating from Memphis, TN to Northeast Atlanta. My husband's office will be located in Duluth. Can anyone give me some direction as to where we might want to look for a home? We don't want my husband to have a very long commute, but we want to be in an area where there are good schools and neighborhoods. His office is on Sugarloaf Pkwy, which is just off interstate. We've thought about looking at Cumming and Dacula. Any advice would be much appreciated.

I used to live in Roswell in Fulton county, They had excellent schools. But I know you don't want to go that far. I would suggest calling a realtor..I am certain your local realty has some contacts in Atl. Friends of ours live in Suwannee....check out that area.

My aunt has lived in Dacula for several years & loves it. My brother-in-law is moving to Alpharetta in a month. From all that we hear that is an excellent area of homes & schools.

Good luck!

The schools in the northern arc are generally good. That would include north Fulton, Forsyth and NW Gwinnett. Many of these schools are excellent - basically private school quality in a public school. Coming from Memphis you will be very pleased with the schools (in the northern arc). The east-west commute can be very long - there are limited routes and LOTS of cars are on what used to be very rural roads. Your husband will really need to test the commute if you choose the Alpharetta/ Roswell area - although those are some of the best schools. Judy's suggestion to check with a realtor is very good. Depending on where his office is on Sugarloaf will make a big difference.

Have lived in GA all my life-thus-far and have always heard good, good things about Alpharetta and Dacula. Excellent "small town" feel but so close to Atlanta.

Alpharetta is not "small town" anymore ... but yes, very nice. It is very "upscale."


My brother is a police officer in Duluth :) (He also does home inspections on the side) so if you need a home inspection, let me know. ;)

Sorry, had to get in that plug, he needs the $$ - he is a cop, his wife is a nurse and they have a BEAUTIFUL 11month old baby girl!!! (I am a PROUD auntie!! :)) )

My husband and I are building a new home in James Creek, in Cumming. They have a web site. Though it has been months since your post and you probably are already settled in somewhere!

Hi Wanderlust5,

My family is moving to the Alpharetta area. I will be working at the Windward Park area. How is the commute from James Creek? How do you like the community?

Thanks,
Amy

Amy, so sorry it took me forever to answer this post. The commute from James Creek to alpharetta would be between 10-15 minutes I should think. They just lowered the speed limit on 400 to 55 mph because of construction work. But there are many ways to get to alpharetta without even getting on 400, though it is likely the fastest.

wanderlust5, our family may be moving to Atlanta and I recently heard about James Creek and noticed that you were building a home there. How do you like the area, builders and neighborhood? Are there any other neighborhoods that you would recommend for us to consider? Our price range is low 300's. Thanks.

Travel,
We just visited last weekend, and our house is nearly complete. We love James Creek. We did a ton of upgrades to our house, but you could buy something quite nice in JC in your range. We got a full basement and had them finish and went with many other upgrades which pushed the price up a bit.

We have already met several of our neighbors and I think we are going to love it there.

We are closing May 26. If you check out James Creek, you'll speak to Rebecca or Melanie. I've known Rebecca over 12 years, and Melanie is a sweetheart.

Perhaps we'll be neighbors!

Thank you for the response, Wanderlust5. What builder did you go with? Also, we definitely would want a basement on a private lot and when I called JC it sounded like those were limited. My father-in-law may move with us and we would like to have a walk-out basement with full bath in the basement. Is this what you did and to have the builder finish it was it very expensive? We are looking forward to visiting JC if things work out for our move to Atlanta.

Yes, we chose a basement lot, and there are some still available I believe. Our builder is Venture Homes. www.venturehomes.com

Thank you for the information. Did you also look at the Ryland homes? In your opinion, what was the advantage of the Venture homes, if you did look with both builders? I am really looking forward to visiting JC.

Because I feel that you get much more house for the same amount of money with Venture. Plus I liked Venture's Customer Service. They have really worked with us. We made dramatic changes to the plan, for instance put french doors in the family room rather than have a triple window, as it just made more sense. We have made lots of changes, and the builder is very flexible. The only thing they balked on was my 48" refrigetor and even that wasn't a "MUST" so I ended up scrapping that and going with a normal fridge, though I upgraded that as well, just kept it the normal size.

We chose, BTW, the Ashland home plan. To the basement, we are building a library (26x14), a clubroom (approx 19 x 18" and a home cinema (cinema..that is to say a 103" screen...and 7.1 surround sound), as well as a bath and a store room, and a wine cellar.

I also chose Venture because the lot sizes were considerable smaller that Ryland, and I didn't want that huge lawn upkeep. I am allergic to bees, and we didn't have any huge desire to do tons of yard work. The house sizes with Ryland are approximately the same in square footage, but cost a lot more because their lots are HUGE.

If you are looking for a huge lot, that is great and you should look at Ryland. But they are also priced nearly $100-$150,000 more than Venture, and I just don't think the construction value and what you get is comparable. Our house is built with 2x6's instead of 2x4's, and the studs are 12" centers, instead of the standard 18" or 24". It is extremely well built. Again, all just one person's opinion. You should look through the model homes of both though, if you want to make an informed decision based on your needs and interests.

Hope to have you as our neighbord!

WOW! Thank you so much for the inforamtion you shared about JC. Your home sounds awesome! I look forward to sharing all of this with my husband. It definitely sounds like with Venture you get more home for your money. I don't mind about the lot sizes being smaller, I would just like to have a wooded backyard with some privacy. I called both Venture and Ryland earlier this week and hope to get some information in the mail today! :-) Thank you so much for sharing with me about your home and the community. My husband works for Delta Airlines so we are just waiting to see how things unfold. In the meantime I am gathering information if we are to move. By the way, where are you moving from? We live in Cincinnati. Thanks again it has been a fun way to hear more about JC.

We are living in Seattle, but only for two more weeks. We are really looking forward to the move back. Our lot is #529 on the lot plan (you can see on the Venture Site)...it looks out on the greenbelt, creek and hiking trail.

Hope things work out and you are able to make the move. The community center for JC is awesome, we have walked through the clubhouse, seen the tennis courts and the fitness facility and the pools. I think you would love it there.

I'll cross my fingers re your husband's future with Delta. We are so hoping things work out and Delta stays afloat.

Wanderlust5, thanks again for all of your help and encouragement with our possible upcoming move. I hope your move goes smoothly! I am sure you must be very busy these days getting ready for the move to JC. If we wind up at JC I will look forward to meeting you! Thank you again for sharing with me the details of JC and your thoughts on the area.

Hey Travel, travel, travel:
We closed on our house last Friday and we are in James Creek now! It is nice to be back in Atlanta.