Visiting Chattanooga and Knoxville...need advice please (Cleveland, Athens: homes, rent)

[hiknapster]

TriDad:

You have no idea how fun your travelogue is to me! I heard you say you were heading to Dayton. SPLIT lives there!!!!!!! Did a telemarketer call you? That is so funny!

By the way, I love your accent! Are you from Minnesota?

[TriDad]

uh oh! I feel so self-conscious now

I've lived all over the place....

colorado, california, upstate NY, DE, SC, NC, but currently living in South Florida for the last 21 years. Actually, I was born in FL so I'm a native of that state. But I'm really digging TN right now

today we're going to East Brainerd and over by Ootlewah. If anyone has other neighborhoods in that area we should check, please let me know

[hiknapster]

Oh, I am such a dork! I guess you have a 50-state accent!

I think you are hitting all the 'hoods. Have you tried Signal Mountain? That might be expensive.

Have you gone downtown. It is gorgeous!

[MomsTn]

Oh TriDad,
I'll never get any work done today
.... LOL...
too busy watching your videos.

[TriDad]

we may drive up Signal Mountain tomorrow, if not today. Downtown is gorgeous! If anyone is interested in seeing all our pictures PM your email address to me.


btw...I have many relatives in MN so perhaps it's a genetic thing

[SPLIT]

What a rip. Your Video was on my street. I thought Trees look familiar. Our house on top of hill.,. New construction, was in yard planting bushes last 2 days. Come up top of driveway for 30 mile view.

[jkmewright]

Excellent! "Mom" has great taste as she loved North Chattanooga! Thanks for posting your videos and sharing your journey w/eveyone. Did you notice all the SUVs? It's not for all the snow we get so don't get worried lol We need those big trucks for a fall-out shelter in the event of attacking rabid soccer balls.

[TriDad]

we're back! Today started out not being as productive
we went over by East Brainerd to look at some apartment complexes. Carriage Parc was very nice (a little pricey for Chattanooga, but still much more affordable than South Florida) 3/2 apt with sunroom is $995/month.

We then drove over to Hamilton Place. The mall, surrounding shops & restaurants are definitely the happening place to be. I can't imagine what the traffic is like over there on the the weekends. The area reminded me very much of Southern California style malls, restaurants and strip mall areas. If anyone is familiar with the Northridge Mall in the San Fernando Valley...you know what I mean.

we ate at Famous Dave's for some good BBQ, and then proceeded back on 75 up to exit 11 to check out Ooltewah. We've heard & read that this the up & coming area of Chattanooga and that lots of families are moving there. We saw lots of subdivisions, new construction, and future construction sites. This area, combined with East Brainerd (shopping/strip malls/box stores/restaurants is really exploding with growth. The traffic was bustling during the day, and I didn't really see how the roads, at present, can handle the growth. Looking into the future, (cuz I've seen it before in parts of Miami) by the time they (government) realize it's time to do something about expanding the current roadways it's already a nightmare, and then with the added delays of year-long construction as they start to expand it will turn into a nightmare for sometime.

With that said...I really like north Chattanooga, Red Bank, and now Signal Mountain area. We received some tips on where to look for apartments on Mountain Creek Road. Fontaine Woods has nice units. We looked at a 2/2 (1275 sq feet) for $715 with fireplace & sunroom (glass-enclosed patio with windows & ceiling fan) there's no where near the traffic as over in East Brainerd/Ooltewah, and the views are nicer (IMHO)

Funny story...when we were looking for Fontaine..I accidently turned on W Street at the rotary instead of continuing on Mountain crk Rd. That was some of the scariest road I've been on in a long time!!! My knuckles were white and I had about 10 cars right behind me. Those hair-pin turns were freaking me out! This South Florida-flat land driving boy isn't used to roads like that!

Anyway...we've got some video of our experiences I just mentioned, and hope to post it up tonight for everyone's enjoyment

[hiknapster]

Wow. The rentals have really gone up in the past year and a half.

The traffic is the same in Knoxville. You can see that they are not prepared for what is coming. Of course, in Knoxville, they are going to put a connector in. It will effectively wipe out my little Heiskell general store and all the beauty around it. I think Knoxville is going to get really ugly, really fast.

Anyway, once again, TriDad, thanks so much for sharing your adventure. It reminds me of when we did that.

[TriDad]

here's a clip from our drive down "W" Street on Signal Mountain. going up was very freaky...and the video doesn't nearly show how scary it was for us. We're both fine now though