We are really interested in Cookeville, will we fit in? (Signal Mountain: rental, home)

[ClassicStyle]

Hello, my original post was deleted and merged into the Nashville area so I am trying again. We are seriously considering moving to Cookeville, so local input is very important to us. Here is our original post. Please let us know if your town is the place for us.

Hello.

We are a small family of 4. My husband took early retirement (really early) and we have a teenage son who will be going into high school in the fall of 2012.

We are looking for a community that is safe. That is our number 1 priority. A great High School Education for our son is next on our list. My boy does well in school, loves sports, especially football and will be going to college.

We want a relatively modern home (for rent at first) and a nice community to raise our son. We like to go to movies and sporting events. We do restaurants and like shopping. We love fishing and camping and hiking. We love to walk on trails and go bike riding. I love to get my hair and nails done and hang out with girlfriends. We are animal lovers and very kind people, we are trusting and helpful.

We are Irish/catholic. We know that catholic churches are rare, and it is not an absolute necessity, but we would sure like to fit into a welcoming community.

I mentioned before that safety is our 1st priority. We don't want to deal with Gangs or Drugs. We are from Chicago and there are parts of town here that you would not be caught dead in. (You would really be dead if you went through some of them.) We don't want to be anywhere near the ghetto or the "hood". We worry about drugs just like all parents do. I have heard that "meth" is a problem so we are worried about that, some communities up here are rampant with it.

Our son is a clean cut, blue eyed, blond haired football star, with his whole life ahead of him and we want to keep him safe at all costs. He loves sports and his family and we want to give him the best life we can. We are hoping that TN is the right place to do just that.

Our income is such that an ideal rental for us would cost about $1500 for a 3 bedroom/2ba home. We are considering Signal Mountain but we are worried it will be hard to find a rental home there.

Please give us some info on the communities you think we should look into.

Thanks, CS

Thanks again,

[JMT]

No, it was moved to the main Tennessee forum. Posting the same question in multiple forums ("cross-posting") is not allowed.