Originally Posted by Sweetlady71
hi all, we currently live in TN, right outside Knoxville, and thou we love it, looking at moving for job. we have various locations to choose from, want to stay "south" for warmer weather and lifestyle. My husband is retired AF, 49(acts 12...lol) and im 37(pretending to still be 36..lol) and we have 3 kids, 14, 13 and 7. my hubby is from MI and im from Ok with family orgionally from TN, why we moved here. one of the places we are cosidoring is fayetteville NC, we like that its smaller, we dont like big cities, and we love that its military mined, given our time in AF.
ive read thru the forums/post, and still have questions and look forward to everyones responses, now before everyone gets to down on fayetteville cuz they are military and stuck there, hence hate it, we havebeen down that road and understand, our final base at retirement was mtn home idaho....it SUCKED, but we learned to live withit, as we all do when stationed somewhere. in our minds, all military will hate where they are at cuz it aint where they are from.
we would prefer to hear from more locals that have been there awhile and give us both sides. we are not looking for utopia, we are quiet, laid back, have friends over for bbq/sweet tea and cards or etc. we do ride a harley, and would love to hear back from other riders on places to ride, make friends, etc.
ok...questions we need answers to. we have been looking thru the craigslist ads, and usually, craigslist ads tend to be higher priced rentals, but compared to here in east TN, your alot cheaper!! a plus for us. we noticed alot of homes allow pets, another plus, here...forget it, we have a cat, nuetered and declawed and it was sooooo hard to get him allowed, i think Tn hates pets, unless they are runnen the streets poopen in your yards and tearing up your trash....lol
also, we noticed alot of homes had security systems...now, the homes all appeared VERY nice in pics, nice yards, so got impression that in ood neighborhoods, so is security systems just the fashion or seriously needed there?? we have read alot of post about crime there, but so far, i dont see i anymore of a problem then dealing with here in knoxville area. we used to live outside oak ridge to(west of knox) and crime there was BAD, you get robbed in daylight in walmart parking lot, but we did ok. so if anyone especially there has lived here once, and can compare, we would appreciate it, or was ever stationed at mtn home, and can compare, great!
we read that most think fayetteville is boring...well, thats in the eye of the beholder, we are content with firworks display, seasonal parades and festivals/farmers markets, to us, thats enough, we dont require the "nightlife" bar scene, we enjoy walks in the parks, but mainly hitting the back ****ry roads and sightseeing, hitting a state park, hiking, fishing. so anyone that can tell us what there is to offer for outdoor rec, we would appreciate it, all we read is "boring, no night life", we are curious about outside the box...lol
next...we like the idea of a shorted drive to the ocean then we havenow, we like to fish, camp, or just take a weekend at the beach, input on the drive(traffic) and beaches along that part of coast???
next...and gosh hope we dont step on an toes here...we notice fayettville is marked as 50/50 black and white, and we saw post in regards to it being racesist(spell?) we are white, and wonder if racisim is truly a issue, we wouldnt think sogiven the bases, but is it?? we travel to charleston SC for vacation, its more black, but i found them to be sooo friendlier then most of the whites we ran into, which was a relief. we dont want to tick anyone off, but dont care for racsism, so does every one get along or is stick to your own side of town mentality there???
also, how is gang activity there? we would prefer our kids be in a area where there is no gang influence, any ideas on that?? my hubby was a MP and will probably continue in police type field, so very against gang crap, as am i, so dont want to live in heart of it.
ok...(breather..lol) food choices, as in resturants, my hubby and oldest sone have taken a fancy to our great southern food choices, right down to greens and fish, good places to eat around there? we still love our chinese buffets, so any of those(good ones)
umm...oh yea, we rather prefer to live in outskirts, not right in fayetteville, again, we are not downtown city people, i was a farm girl, but want to be withen 20 min of base(bragg) what is folks thoughts on areas for us that still offer basic needs(walmart and gorcery....lol, and a few good second hand shops to browse in), leaving fayettville for more of a weekend thing, like here, we rarely go to knoxville...uggg.
ok....i hope this isnt to long, but these are questions we didnt see really addressed here, all we saw was "fayetteville sucks, crime, boring, bla bla bla....lol, we have differant things we look at and needed answeres.
this would be our last move, as job will be permanant, and want to make right choice, hubby isnt all to thrilled at headen to OK, so lets have it folks, lets hear about things we really need to know...lol
also, is NC in general southern based, as far as lifestyle?? i know at the base you will surely loose that southern charm given fact you have folks from all over, but is it there in general around NC?? i need my smily faces and sweet tea....lol. and as you can tell, we are fun loven people, we DO go outside and meet our neighbors,(it freaks folks out here in east TN, they tend to prefer to watch newcomers from windows), and we DO meet parents of kids our kids play with, we will give the shirt off our backs if needed, but dont like being taken advantage of. we will wave, smile, let you in in in heavy traffic, something they do here alot, and noticed people sayen in your forum, that traffic is rude and crazy, that worries me, i lived up north and hated that...i like being waved at verses flipped off an cut off.....lol. any one want to share their thoughts on that???
ok....that about does it, we have basically 2-3 months to make this descision, maybe sooner, so will check this often for replies...PM's are great to if prefered...
OMG....biggest question of all...what, if no one minds my asken, is peoples electric/water/sewer bills, heating/cooling costs there...omg, thats important, we moved 45 min across town here and ours rates doubled on elect and went up 4 times in water/sewer. soooo...if anyone doenst mind, again, ya can PM us to keep that private, whats your utlity bills like?? thsi will help us also decide, as lower rent wont matter if higher on those things. we would need avg cost for 1200-1500 sq ft home, lights on alot(thank the kids...lol) and family of 5.
we soooo look forward to hearing back from everyone, and hope to make a few new friends while we are at it!!! smile everyone...recession sucks...and things are hard on all...but it only wins if you let it, smile and chin up!!!! big hugz to all!!!!
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