looking for area in east tn to call home (Knoxville: real estate, homes)

[Joanie]

Hello! I am new to this. I hope I'm posting correctly. I am in search of a friendly smaller town that my husband and I can make our retirement home. We currently live in Ohio but long for a home in the mountains. Can anyone give me any names of towns that you are familiar with that you could tell me about?
Thank you very much. I do appreciate your help.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by Joanie

Hello! I am new to this. I hope I'm posting correctly. I am in search of a friendly smaller town that my husband and I can make our retirement home. We currently live in Ohio but long for a home in the mountains. Can anyone give me any names of towns that you are familiar with that you could tell me about?
Thank you very much. I do appreciate your help.

What do you plan to do with your time when you retire so people can suggest a place you might like?

[Kal-Torak]

More informaion on hobbies, interest would help

google the following towns , Oak Ridge, Kingston, Harriman, Rockwood,

Kingston is a particular favorite. where the Clinch , Tennesse and Emory
Rivers converge and Dont forget Watts Bar Lake..

[meishatab]

yes, you need to list hobbies, the town i am from in tellico, nothing to do except look at the mountains. very quite. i live in athens now, and there is still not that much to do, but a much bigger town, tellico does have stop signs but it is so small, no red lights, just the beauty of the mtn's and river

[mbmouse]

Another suggestion is to look back through the pages here and read what others have said about their likes and dislikes of the different areas talked about here. If you scroll to the bottom of the main TN page you will see a list of previous pages (numbered).

[AppalachianAngler]

Greeneville is a pretty nice little town (pop around 15,000). Mountains all around and it only takes 15-20 minutes to get to them. There is a lot of history - Andrew Johnson is from there, and Davy Crockett is from Greene County. Downtown is nice & in great shape. And if you ever want to go to a bigger city & do shopping or something there are plenty of options a short drive away: Johnson City is 30 minutes away, Asheville, NC 1 hour, and Knoxville 1 hour.

More info: Check out

http://greenevillesun.com/
and
http://gcp.xtn.net/ (broken link)

Jonesborough (20 minutes up the road from Greeneville, right outside Johnson City about 5-10 minutes) may also be another option for you. Smaller than Greeneville (pop is around 5,000), but it is an incredible little town (oldest town in TN). You are still by all the mountains, the drive is about the same as Greeneville, although maybe a little longer. The downtown is even nicer than Greeneville's with lots of nice little shops and restaurants. There is a huge storytelling festival here every year that draws lots of people.

http://www.jonesboroughtn.org/

Like mbmouse said, try searching around these past few pages for more info. I believe there is a couple other similar threads. Good luck!

[Brittanylace]

I am in the area of Monroe County. Sweetwater is a great place to be. It is close to the interstate to get to Knoxville for shopping and about 25 mintues away from the Cherokee National Forest. It is also a historic town with lots of antique and village shops. Homes are cheaper and cost of living is less. Sweetwater is growing, but for now the price of real estate is inexpensive. [moderator cut]

[Joanie]

Thank you very much for your replies.
I have been reading the forums and will continue to do so. They are very helpful.
You asked about hobbies. We would need high speed internet, a home outside of town, fairly close medical facilities. We spend free time with computers, our dog, possible AKC training/tracking, genealogy research, gardening and home improvement. I will be retiring from public school teaching in June but I would like to teach part-time or spend some time volunteering in a school or library setting. I've taught music for years and am also teaching computer classes now.
My husband will be looking for a job. He is currently a bio-medical technician in our local hospital.
Thank you very much for all of your ideas. We are planning a trip to the area just after Christmas and appreciate your help.

[hiknapster]

Signal and Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga come to mind. Pretty expensive, though.

LOTS of hospitals in Knoxville. That's where we are. Knoxville isn't very mountainous, though. Well, you might think so. My husband is from Chicago. We live in north Knox County and my husband thinks he is in the mountains!

When we moved here, a year ago, there was a teacher that had just moved from Fort Lauderdale. She volunteered in my daughter's elementary school as the science teacher. She is fantastic. The school's are very relaxed here. You don't have to be certified in the state to teach as a volunteer. We don't have a lot of regulation. We just do what is right for the kids. I hope that never changes.

[Joanie]

Thank you for the information on teaching. I hadn't thought about investigating licensure in TN but it might be helpful to know what is permitted, what isn't permitted. Maybe I could continue teaching. I always wanted to teach a class at the college level although I do love teaching elementary kids as I do now. Licensure in Ohio has made big changes since I began.

One more question? My husband really wants to leave Ohio due to the cold and snow. And because we are in "sinus valley." Any ideas on whether folks have a lot of sinus troubles in east TN? He has already had sinus surgery twice. Headaches, etc.