Rural house hunting near Oak Ridge (Knoxville, Farragut: to buy, schools, calculating)

[piedmont]

We are investigating moving to the Oak Ridge area. We'd prefer to buy a home with acreage (at least 15+ acres) that would work for horses and is within a 30 minute commute of ORNL. What areas/towns would you suggest we look at?

Many thanks.

[cyrece]

Oak Ridge is a nice city, close enought to Knoxville, etc. Try searching Realtor.com for land or property with land. Good luck!

[piedmont]

I am finding some interesting property in the area, but it is hard to know how far in driving time things really are from each other.

I am such a flatlander at this point, that calculating distance around hills and rivers is a bit confusing!

[bbkaren]

If you're finding large lots, list 'em here--I just got back from a similar trip and have seen most of the lots of 4+ acres in the harriman/kingston area, as well as a few in Knox county.

[piedmont]

I am just using the Knoxville public MLS (search for it) site, and this seems to return a fair number of hits.

There seem to be lots of properties which are 3-6 acres and close to west Knox/Oak Ridge, but fewer that are truly horse-able and more of a decent small farm size (15-30). But this conclusion is only from search online at this point.

I meant to ask, how bad of a commute is it from Harriman to ORNL?

[bbkaren]

Not bad at all, potentially. We were looking at Harriman and Kingston, assuming we'd work in West Knox/Oak Ridge area.

We were looking at some land off Blair Road in Harriman (Woodcutters' Paradise--if you see that listed, cross it off your list. Why? Search this forum, there's a whole thread dedicated to it! lol).

Well, at the end of Blair Road, a couple miles further, is the East Tennessee Technology Center, part of the whole Oak Ridge thing.

I know there are different divisions of the ORNL, right? So I'm not sure about exact distances.

But I'd say from Harriman downtown, it'd be about a half hour, give or take? From the upper end of Harriman, considerably less; Harriman's pretty big, or at least struck me as such.

Anyone live in the area and have more precise info?

[vcol]

Hi -- I don't know if you're still looking for places since this thread is a couple months old, but in case you are, I'll throw in some other suggestions. You definitely want to concentrate on Roane County or Anderson County or the far western edge of Knox County.

I would avoid Harriman, because while the distance from Oak Ridge isn't insurmountable, it's awkward to get from Harriman to O.R. -- I think if you chose to live in Harriman, you'd end up hating that commute.

I also would avoid Kingston, because although it's my favorite city in the area, there aren't many horse-friendly properties -- residential lots tend to be steeper and smaller sizes on average than the rest of Roane County.

You also won't find anything to satisfy you directly within Oliver Springs.

You definitely should consider properties in Roane County outside of Kingston but still in striking distance of Highway 58 or Interstate 40, either of which is a fine way to get to Oak Ridge.

You also should consider the Anderson County area heading down Highway 95 toward Lenoir City, an area just starting to boom so lots of shopping, schools, and easy access to Oak Ridge and Knoxville but still with plenty of older farms and space that hasn't been snatched up by developers yet.

You definitely should consider some back areas of Clinton which are not directly in downtown Clinton and not directly in Marlowe (Marlowe is where you'd find Woodcutters Crossing which others rightly suggested you avoid based on what you're after)... I hope if you get down here you'll take a drive on the back roads which connect downtown Clinton and Hwy. 62 going towards Oliver Springs (drive out of the backside of downtown Clinton on the tiny street which the police station is on, take a left when you reach a T and then take a right at the first (only) traffic light where there's a tanning salon, and stay on this road as it winds around for a couple miles until it reaches Hwy. 62--this whole stretch holds nothing but the types of properties you're looking for, including quite a few horse farms).

Also take a look at rural properties in the Heiskell area, which is on the opposite side of Clinton heading back toward Knoxville, and in easy striking distance of Oak Ridge down Edgemoor and/or Raccoon Valley Road.

Another area to look into is the off-the-beaten-path portion of Solway -- most people think of the Solway community as nothing but the busy main drag of Pellissippi Parkway (I-140) connecting Oak Ridge with West Knoxville, but there are a few side roads leading out of Solway (use a map to find the roads which wind around and connect Solway with Steele Road leading up towards Hardin Valley) and along these roads you can find unexpectedly large and reasonably priced homesteads that are flat and secluded (and some of which are gorgeous!) and would accommodate horses well.

Last but not least, my sleeper pick for which area might hold exactly what you're after is the outlying areas around Norris and Andersonville. These communities are still within very reasonable driving distance of Oak Ridge (much closer than Harriman) and are loaded with the kinds of acreage you're seeking and land which is perfect for horses. I know several people who work in Oak Ridge and commute from the Norris area and the commute is easy for them. Most own acreage up there similar to what you're considering getting.

Best of luck! This is a gorgeous area, but there are some significant personality differences among small towns here, and sometimes businesses and people actually use your town of residence as a factor to make decisions about whether to do business with you, etc., so make sure you actually visit and enjoy the specific feel of whichever area you choose before you move here. We moved here from Indianapolis 14 years ago, and we highly recommend the Oak Ridge area, which is among the nicest sections of Tennessee.

[piedmont]

Originally Posted by vcol

Hi -- I don't know if you're still looking for places since this thread is a couple months old, but in case you are, I'll throw in some other suggestions. You definitely want to concentrate on Roane County or Anderson County or the far western edge of Knox County.

Thanks for the very helpful post. We actually are still considering a move to the area. From a visit earlier this summer, we came to the same conclusion as what you noted above. We also liked the Norris/Andersonville area. Heiskell is very pretty and has some nice property.

The one thing that struck us, though, is that for the most part the little towns in these areas are not especially, well, distinguished. We'd love to live outside a little town with a library, coffeeshop or lunch place, and some type of arty or recreation presence. Clinton seemed very depressed and not like a place to go on a summer eventing (I know they have first Saturdays or some such, and we did miss that). Norris is like a suburban postcard out of time, but it not really a hang out place. Any other ideas? Really, just a general store/feed store/diner combination is enough for us!

Thanks again for your ideas---they absolutely match our conclusions after looking at properties in Anderson and Roane.

[jmarkey]

I lived in Clinton for a year and loved it. If you want a town that's distinguished, a town with a recreational presence, or somewhere that presents itself as arty there are probably plenty of places that fit that description. I agree downtown Clinton didn't make me whip out the camera. There's not a whole lot going on there, either. The antique stores are talked up alot. That's about it.

Now get off the main road. Clinton has some of the most beautiful back roads and countryside I've seen. We came down from New England (no slacker in gorgeousness) and fell in love with that area. We looked at log homes, old homes, farm homes - just about any type of set up you want is there. We found a two year old house on two acres, totally surrounded by woods and all the good things that come with that kind of setting - lots of wild visitors, privacy, and a sense of peace at the end of the day. It sounds corny, but not a day went by that we weren't struck by how beautiful our surroundings were.

I'd drive to Knoxville, Oak Ridge, Farragut or wherever for shopping, events, dining, etc. Clinton is very convenient to all of those areas and the drive is beautiful all year. What a pleasure it was to come back to my hideaway and relax.

The town is made up of a mix of blue collar, blindingly white collar, old, young, and eccentric. Everyone seemed to get along just fine.

Everyone's looking for something different, but that's my idea of perfect. I think Clinton gets a bum rap and more than once I've heard it described as depressed. It's small and much of it is old. It's sure not flashy or arty, though Farragut is just down the road and may be more what people are looking for these days. Clinton is not a "go to" place. It's more of a "go home to" kind of town. It's probably not for young people. We're in our mid 50's. Maybe that's why it suited us. The schools may be lousy. I couldn't tell you, as we're past that point in our lives. But we found Clinton to be a wonderful little town that suited us just fine, after living in many different places. I'd recommend it and I really think it's worth more of a look than just driving by on the main drag.

[piedmont]

Originally Posted by jmarkey

The town is made up of a mix of blue collar, blindingly white collar, old, young, and eccentric. Everyone seemed to get along just fine. ..Everyone's looking for something different, but that's my idea of perfect. I think Clinton gets a bum rap and more than once I've heard it described as depressed. It's small and much of it is old.

Thanks for sharing your observations. I can understand the comment that Clinton looks sort of depressed (reminded me of some towns outside of Pittsburgh). I do agree that surrounding areas are quite peaceful, but of course I'm used to that now living in North Carolina.

It would really be ideal to have a town within 10 minutes that had a feed store (Clinton does), a diner (? I've seen the chains) and a library. Much more than that and it starts getting busy!

Would you mind explaining the "blindingly white collar" description/impact on the area?