Possible move to Augusta area (Evans: HOA, homes, living)

[Southernmommy5]

"We are stressing out. The move has been confirmed but we really have no idea about what school and neighborhood we want to live in. We have to register my son for school and feel like we will be rushing this important decision. I have a ton of research to do."

We moved here from Jacksonville, Florida almost a year ago. My hubby and I are both originally from the NYC area, so I understand the kind of change experienced when moving from a big city to a Southern lifestyle. Hubby works downtown Augusta and we also moved here for his work. We live in Evans. Evans is a "bedroom community" to the city of Augusta and is part of Columbia County. It's about a 30 minute commute to downtown. Evans is one of the safest areas of Augusta and has little to no crime according to crime statistic websites. I can also vouch for that, being that I live here. Evan's also has award winning public schools. Columbia County schools are rated much higher than Richmond County schools. The magnet schools in Richmond are good, but if you don't apply early enough or you don't make it into their "lottery", then your stuck with the local public school.
Evans is very family friendly. We have five young children. Evan's town center has two beautiful parks with playgrounds, walking trails, a pond and a fabulous library. The restaurants are all family friendly and every where you go there are ton's of kids.
We are currently renting a home- but love the area so much we just recently purchased a 5 acre lot of land and are building a home.
Evan's is clean, safe, pretty, friendly and has fabulous schools.
Don't stress out, sweetie. Y'all are gonna be just fine.

[DrTesla35]

Originally Posted by Southernmommy5

"We are stressing out. The move has been confirmed but we really have no idea about what school and neighborhood we want to live in. We have to register my son for school and feel like we will be rushing this important decision. I have a ton of research to do."

We moved here from Jacksonville, Florida almost a year ago. My hubby and I are both originally from the NYC area, so I understand the kind of change experienced when moving from a big city to a Southern lifestyle. Hubby works downtown Augusta and we also moved here for his work. We live in Evans. Evans is a "bedroom community" to the city of Augusta and is part of Columbia County. It's about a 30 minute commute to downtown. Evans is one of the safest areas of Augusta and has little to no crime according to crime statistic websites. I can also vouch for that, being that I live here. Evan's also has award winning public schools. Columbia County schools are rated much higher than Richmond County schools. The magnet schools in Richmond are good, but if you don't apply early enough or you don't make it into their "lottery", then your stuck with the local public school.
Evans is very family friendly. We have five young children. Evan's town center has two beautiful parks with playgrounds, walking trails, a pond and a fabulous library. The restaurants are all family friendly and every where you go there are ton's of kids.
We are currently renting a home- but love the area so much we just recently purchased a 5 acre lot of land and are building a home.
Evan's is clean, safe, pretty, friendly and has fabulous schools.
Don't stress out, sweetie. Y'all are gonna be just fine.

Augusta and Evans are as nice as anywhere else. My uncle is, or maybe used to be the Tub Doctor there. It has an above average downtown and above average suburban area. It's mall seems bigger than anyone in South Carolina and more people there, if you like malls.

Somebody mentioned golf, I'd say majoritity of people who live in Augusta don't play golf much if at all. You can do pretty much any sport or hobby in Augusta and find others who do it as well. The fact Masters is here is only reason why anybody associates it with golf being the driver of everything that goes on there.

[DrTesla35]

Originally Posted by Chuck_G

Thanks DrTesla35! I didn't know that!

No problem, I'm not sure if SC Life Scholarship = Hope Scholarship, but I received the Life scholarship when I went to Clemson for maintaining a 3.0 GPA or higher and it was a decent chunk of money.

[nortonguy]

Originally Posted by Southernmommy5

"We are stressing out. The move has been confirmed but we really have no idea about what school and neighborhood we want to live in. We have to register my son for school and feel like we will be rushing this important decision. I have a ton of research to do."

We moved here from Jacksonville, Florida almost a year ago. My hubby and I are both originally from the NYC area, so I understand the kind of change experienced when moving from a big city to a Southern lifestyle. Hubby works downtown Augusta and we also moved here for his work. We live in Evans. Evans is a "bedroom community" to the city of Augusta and is part of Columbia County. It's about a 30 minute commute to downtown. Evans is one of the safest areas of Augusta and has little to no crime according to crime statistic websites. I can also vouch for that, being that I live here. .Evan's also has award winning public schools. Columbia County schools are rated much higher than Richmond County schools. The magnet schools in Richmond are good, but if you don't apply early enough or you don't make it into their "lottery", then your stuck with the local public school.
Evans is very family friendly. We have five young children. Evan's town center has two beautiful parks with playgrounds, walking trails, a pond and a fabulous library. The restaurants are all family friendly and every where you go there are ton's of kids.
We are currently renting a home- but love the area so much we just recently purchased a 5 acre lot of land and are building a home.
Evan's is clean, safe, pretty, friendly and has fabulous schools.
Don't stress out, sweetie. Y'all are gonna be just fine.

Columbia County schools do better overall, but not individually compared to Richmond County schools.. I see you mentioned the magnet schools, but Freedom Park in Richmond is better than almost every elementary and middle for example in all of Columbia County. The post also sounds like a few other posters with only 1-2 comments on here. Like the person Expatriado, Par4ham, etc who has multiple screen names.

[nortonguy]

Originally Posted by earthlyfather

OP is on one end of spectrum. We're on the other end, retiring at the end of the year. Neither of us play golf. We were told if you don't golf, you won't fit in in Augusta. Any truth to that?

This is false, because the majority of people here don't play golf

[ILtoGA]

Thank you Southernmommy5! It's nice to hear from someone who is a mom and was in a similar situation recently. I appreciate your input. All this discussion really gets me to investigate more, so thank you everyone. My main concern is my children's education as we currently live in a top ranked district, a place with lots of kids and us fitting in. I look forward to the southern lifestyle and will embrace it but just some nerves about the process of finding friends and people I will have similar interests.

[nortonguy]

Originally Posted by ILtoGA

Thank you Southernmommy5! It's nice to hear from someone who is a mom and was in a similar situation recently. I appreciate your input. All this discussion really gets me to investigate more, so thank you everyone. My main concern is my children's education as we currently live in a top ranked district, a place with lots of kids and us fitting in. I look forward to the southern lifestyle and will embrace it but just some nerves about the process of finding friends and people I will have similar interests.

I would be careful of relying on this person due to their comments sounding exactly similar to a person with multiple screen names. The person said Evans had award winning schools, but I'm trying to think of some. The best high school in Columbia County is Lakeside(not award winning)and the best elementary is Stevens Creek. Both of them are located in Martinez, but good schools do exist in the Evans area though. We continue to see threads bumped up with 1/2 post about moving to Columbia county. Anybody calling the magnet schools in Richmond County good, but Evans has quote award winning schools makes no sense. The same person comments always hype up Columbia County specifically Evans all the time.

[earthlyfather]

Thanks to those who responded to my 'golf concern'. Some of my best friends are golfers. The game just never grabbed us. We'd like too live in town. Thinking Forest Hills, Summerville, maybe Laney-Walker or Old Towne. We do not believe we want to take on a rehab at this point. Any suggestions for other neighborhoods or subdivisions are appreciated.

[ILtoGA]

We did consider Aiken. It looks really nice. I don't mind small towns at all. Our concern with that is my husbands office is near Booby Jones exp and I20. Being that we know no one at all, we want the commute to be short 15-25 min so if I need him (we have young children) he might be able to help out. I look forward to going and checking it out for dining and such.

I would hope everyone is trying to be helpful in some way and not try to lead someone in a bad direction. Everyone has their opinion on what is a nice neighborhood, schools and entertainment. If we were all had the same opinion, the world would be a pretty boring place. Just looking for the best match for a northerner new to a Southern city with a family that wants the best for them.

A teacher in GA, gave me this link to a new rating system for GA schools. This might be helpful to someone else. It is much more detailed than great schools. www.ccrpi.gadoe.org

Thanks again for all the input, it's very valuable.

[whitmans77]

Yes overall Columbia county schools are better. Your child will succeed if you stay involved and on top of things. Don't let the school system raise your child. Be involved and you probably won't go wrong with the Columbia county schools. Also there are quite a few quality private schools in the area.