Request For Help - Retiring To Tennessee (Cookeville, Lewisburg: neighborhoods, theater)

[CrochetCrazy]

I hope someone can help me with regard to retiring to the Nashville, TN area.

In a year or so, my husband will be retirement age (he's 10 years younger than I am so it will be early retirement from the work force for me).

We are looking for a small, rural community where we can look out the window and see farmland. Perhaps about 5 acres in a rural community within say 5 - 10 miles of a town that
has stores for groceries, hardware store, etc., as well as a hospital that is big enough to have specialists like cardiologists, etc. (just in case).

Where does the rural areas begin outside of say, Nashville? How far out? Jobs are not a factor so we do not need to be near any metro area. We are from the Chicago area and looking in the price range of about $200,000 or a little more. Does anything in Tennessee fit our description?
If not Nashville, somewhere else perhaps? Am open to any suggestions -- have no idea where the rural areas are in TN.

Any information or suggestions on small, rural towns would be most welcomed and appreciated.

Thank you.

[JMT]

Originally Posted by CrochetCrazy

I hope someone can help me with regard to retiring to the Nashville, TN area.

In a year or so, my husband will be retirement age (he's 10 years younger than I am so it will be early retirement from the work force for me).

We are looking for a small, rural community where we can look out the window and see farmland. Perhaps about 5 acres in a rural community within say 5 - 10 miles of a town that
has stores for groceries, hardware store, etc., as well as a hospital that is big enough to have specialists like cardiologists, etc. (just in case).

Where does the rural areas begin outside of say, Nashville? How far out? Jobs are not a factor so we do not need to be near any metro area. We are from the Chicago area and looking in the price range of about $200,000 or a little more. Does anything in Tennessee fit our description?
If not Nashville, somewhere else perhaps? Am open to any suggestions -- have no idea where the rural areas are in TN.

Any information or suggestions on small, rural towns would be most welcomed and appreciated.

Thank you.

The Nashville area is definitely lively and beautiful. There's lots to do.

When you say you want 5 acres for $200,000, I assume that needs to include a house? If so, you'll be hard pressed to find that in the immediate Nashville area.

Is it important that you're near the airport?

The state of Tennessee has initiated a program where 9 cities in the state have been identified as top retirement areas. The two closest to Nashville are Cookeville and Lewisburg. Of those two, I prefer Cookeville. And here's why:

1) It's a college town (Tennessee Tech). As such, it offers all kinds of things to do that non-college towns don't have, things such as classes, lecture series, art galleries, concerts, live theater, sporting events, etc. And don't worry, Tennessee Tech is NOT a party school, so you don't have to worry about being surrounded by drunken frat boys.

2) It's on the Cumberland Plateau. That means that the weather is a bit more moderate; it's usually a few degrees cooler in Cookeville in the summer and slightly less humid than it is in Nashville.

3) It's a straight shot to the Nashville airport on I-40, an hour total.

4) It's got a huge hospital, the largest rural hospital in the state, with one of the 5 busiest cardiac centers in the state.

5) As the hub of the Cumberland Plateau, it has shopping and restaurants that most towns its size around here don't have: Sam's Club, Kohl's, TJ Maxx, Red Lobster, Outback, Starbucks, and a lot of independent restaurants clustered around the university and around the historic downtown neighborhoods.

6) Cookeville is surrounded by beautiful terrain, including 7 state parks, 1 national park, 3 large lakes, and several waterfalls. And now they're constructing an 18-mile bike trail going up (and down) the mountain between downtown Cookeville and downtown Monterey.

I'm sure others here will have other suggestions for you. You should just come on down sometime and spend a few days wandering around.

Good luck!

[jguillot]

Hi CrochetCrazy,

I concur with JMT's recommendation of Cookeville, TN. My wife and I visited the area 3 weeks ago and we loved it. We purchased a 4 acre lot in Cumberland Cove, between Cookeville and Crossville. Cookeville offers all of the goods and services you could ever need. The whole area is beautiful. Good luck in your search for that special place.

[LeeB]

We are going to retire to Portland in March of 2008.... You might check it out also.....

[linda.hall]

How about Portland TN. it is 45min North of Nashville.

[countrybabe]

There is NOTHING in TN where you can have land and be close to "shopping". We tried that and it didn't work. We have to drive 45 minutes to get to any "normal" shopping. If you are hermits then you would be fine here and if you don't mind driving ALOT of miles on your vehicle then you would be good here!!! Otherwise, I would look in other areas of the country!!

[goodbyehollywood]

There are ABSOLUTELY places in TN -- and almost any other state in the union-- where you can have land and be close to shopping. If you're looking for 5 acres of land in a lovely pastoral setting, right down the block from Nordstrom's and Starbuck's, ummm no, that's not gonna happen. But if you're looking for a pretty piece of land within a reasonable distance (and, yes, much less than 45 minutes), all you have to do is look around a bit.

Negative, embittered people who make bad choices, then rant on and on about them, are generally of little help to optimistic people trying to make a positive life change.

What you're looking for exists, CrochetCrazy. Talk to a realtor and come see for yourself. Good luck!

[countrybabe]

"Negative, embittered people who make bad choices, then rant on and on about them, are generally of little help to optimistic people trying to make a positive life change".

HONESTY is what I have found in life to work best for me!!!

[JMT]

Originally Posted by countrybabe

There is NOTHING in TN where you can have land and be close to "shopping". We tried that and it didn't work. We have to drive 45 minutes to get to any "normal" shopping. If you are hermits then you would be fine here and if you don't mind driving ALOT of miles on your vehicle then you would be good here!!! Otherwise, I would look in other areas of the country!!

That's one of the most ridiculous posts I've ever read. Of course you can find affordable land in rural Tennessee that's much less than 45 minutes away from "normal" shopping. Remember, for most people, "normal" means a grocery store, a hardware store, and a Wal-Mart. That describes pretty much all of rural Tennessee.

As far as Tennessee not welcoming "outsiders" (as you've ranted about in other posts) that's simply not true, either. For crying out loud, our very popular governor is from New Jersey. The governor before him (also two-termed) was from Illinois. If we hate outsiders so much, why do we keep voting them into office?

I'm originally from Florida and have NEVER felt unwelcomed in Tennessee, and I've lived all over the state. About the only people who are unwelcomed here are smarmy know-it-alls who start complaining as soon as they step foot on Tennessee soil.

[countrybabe]

Maybe if my husband had moved here the "Governor" instead of a "WAR HERO" then we may have felt alittle differently. LOL
These are our experiences here that I think since my husband spent 2 terms over in the Iraqi War (fighting for freedom), gives me the "RIGHT" to be honest with others about our experience. This is partly the "attitude" I see here in TN that IF you don't like something about it here...people get defensive and seem to want to "jump down your throat" (taking it WAY TOO Personal)!!
We looked ALL over TN before moving and found it difficult to find what "most people" would consider "normal shopping areas" within a "reasonable" distance from home. Everyone here drives ALOT of miles to go to dinner, shopping, etc. And we have found that just because your town has a Walmart...does not mean that you can find the "basic's" that you are used to. The people here have admitted that people from TN are "very standoffish" and they are not good with what they call "outsiders".
Please don't be ugly on the internet...we are ALL entitled to our opinions. Obviously we disagree which is fine. We don't plan to stay in TN because we don't like what we've seen so far being here.