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My wife and I recently got word that we are able to transfer jobs from our offices in Massachusetts to offices in South Charlotte (Ballantyne area). We have decided that we would prefer to live either in Fort Mill or Tega Cay and the school system played a large role in our choice. We are planning a trip in the next month to come down and view housing options with a real estate agent, but I was hoping to get thoughts on a good Pre-K for our 4 year old daughter and also a good vet. We have 2 dogs. Our older dog is 11 years old with Cushing's, so she needs routine testing and medication.
It would also be helpful to get an idea as to how much Pre-K/daycare costs in SC. We're paying just under $300 a week right now in Massachusetts and that doesn't include an additional $40 a month for a once a week computer class and $50 a month for a once a week tumbling/gymnastics program.
Also curious how bad traffic is in the morning and afternoon to get from areas of Fort Mill and Tega Cay over to the Ballantyne, NC area. My commute is currently at least an hour, and my wife's is approximately 30 minutes.
Any other wisdom you would care to impart on me now would be very appreciated. We visited the South Charlotte area 3+ years ago, but didn't spend much time over the border except for a trip to Carowinds.
Thanks in advance!
Last edited by AlexfromMA; 09-10-2014 at 12:33 PM..
We have been going to Veterinary Medical Center of Fort Mill since they opened a few years ago. They are FABULOUS and have extended hours during the week, which is convenient for those of us that work fulltime.
The commute to Matthews will be heavy right now because of ongoing construction on 485 heading in that direction. However, once they get it done it shouldn't be too bad. But depending on your hours, you might be on the road for an hour to get to Matthews until construction is done.
As for Pre-Ks, there are plenty in the area to choose from, mostly good. As for cost, my kids are long since out of daycare, so I don't know current day costs. But if you are currently paying $400 a week, that's a $1600/month budget - you should definitely be able to find daycare for less than that here. Not too much less though - daycare is expensive even in Fort Mill.
The commute to Matthews will be heavy right now because of ongoing construction on 485 heading in that direction. However, once they get it done it shouldn't be too bad. But depending on your hours, you might be on the road for an hour to get to Matthews until construction is done.
Perhaps I'm missing something, but I didn't see anything regarding Matthews in the OP's post.
If you are working in Ballantyne and want to live in Fort Mill, I would suggest looking in the S. Doby's Bridge area (Massey, The Forest at Fort Mill, Dominion Bridge, Riverchase, Oxford East and West and Beckenham). I currently live here and I can get to Ballantyne in the morning in about 20-30 minutes depending on the day and time of day. Your commute time will be significantly less than what you have now.
I'm sorry that I can't comment on the price of daycare as my son is in elementary school. But we do love the schools here.
I'm sorry to hear about your dog with Cushing's. We use Curtsinger Animal Hospital and love them. I have taken three dogs to them and their treatment has been outstanding. Our second dog developed cancer before her third birthday and Curtsinger Animal Hospital took wonderful care of her. They gave us so many options for her treatment and supported us in every way. Unfortunately, she did die but they did everything for her that we asked them to. For health reasons, we have chosen not to spay our current dog and they have been very supportive of that decision as well.
Good luck! I think you'll like it here.
Last edited by zetaetadg; 09-10-2014 at 01:48 PM..
Reason: Adding additional information
To be fair to Girl, my original unedited post said Ballantyne/Matthews, but on further review, the offices are most definitely in Ballantyne, so I edited my post. She must have read it before I made my edit.
I appreciate both of your comments.
Sorry to hear about your puppy that passed from cancer. Previous to adopting our newer puppy, we lost a 4.5 year old beagle to lymphoma after 3 rounds of chemo over the course of a year and a half. He did so well during the treatments, but he too passed once chemo could no longer help. They are absolutely family, so getting the best help possible means a lot to me.
I work in Ballantyne, on Community House Road and live in Regal Manor (near regent Park) in Fallbrook. My commute to work is 15 - 20 minutes in the worse of traffic after dropping off my son. From the direction I go, I'm going against the flow of traffic.
As far as daycare, we were paying about $980 per month at Field of Dreams, they have two locations, one in Baxter Village and one in Indian Land. This included lunch and snack, but doesn't include additional classes like Spanish and "Gymsport". They were really nice and my son liked it, but I feel that they really need to step up their academic program. My son lost a lot of what he had learned in his prior daycare in NJ. He's in Kindergarten now and time will tell if he's at the same level as everyone else. You can PM me if you want more info. In NJ we had him in Bright Horizons which is a whole different level of daycare, but it also cost $400 more per month without including lunch.
The good full-time daycare that I heard from my neighbor that is really good is Goddard School on Pleasant Road ( about the same price at Field of dreams , lunch not included.Good Luck
From what I've heard from others, you can expect to pay around $300 a week for quality, full- time day care. That price might be a little higher if you choose a center in the Ballantyne area. The center you choose will depend greatly upon where you find a home. For example, if you live off of Doby's Bridge, you are quite close to Ballantyne and would not want to commute the opposite direction to Fort Mill to Goddard or Field of Dreams. That would be a nightmare in morning rush hour/school traffic.
There are many good preschools in the Fort Mill/Tega Cay area. Most are church run and will not feature full day programs. Look into St. Philip Neri, Good Shepherd Methodist, or Lakeshore Christian. These prices are significantly lower. Prob under $500 a month.
For what it's worth, even though they are CMS, the schools in the Ballantyne area are excellent and rated as highly as Fort Mill schools. There are excellent housing options there as well. Not to be negative, but the traffic and growth in Fort Mill/Tega Cay is a little exasperating right now, due to the lack of foresight in planning from the local government. I'm not saying it's not a good place to live, I'm just saying explore all options!
Indian Veterinary Hospital is awesome! They just switched their location to the corner of 160 & 521. I actually had a bad experience at Veterinary Medical Center, but know people who love them. Baxter Veterinary Hospital is really good, too. They are my alternate vet. I can't say enough good things about Indian Land Animal Hosp. & Baxter Vet. Hosp. I think bad experiences can happen anywhere, though, so I wouldn't rule out Vet. Med. Center. Like I said - everyone I know who uses them loves them.
As far as daycare, I think you will find it cheaper than Massachusetts. Carolina Kids is really good. My friend's child goes to Goddard and they sing their holy praises! There are a lot of child care options.
If you're going to be working in Ballantyne, I would buy a home on that side of Fort Mill as traffic can get nutty on the 160 and other areas during rush hour. Doby's Bridge Road has some VERY nice communities going up - Riverchase, Massey, The Forrest - and there's nice established communities as well. Your commute to Ballantyne would be pretty sweet from that area. Field of Dreams has a location on the 521 not too far from Ballantyne. I used the Baxter location - pre-school was good, after school care was horrid since they switched the older kids to a location in a plaza / business park. I did not care for that at all.
Good luck with everything! Fort Mill is a great area. A word of caution, however - it has EXPLODED here over the last 10 years. I personally wish they would stop all the building going on. Traffic IS starting to become an issue. They are building a Bypass to help - part of it has opened, but I find it had made traffic worse on Fort Mill Parkway in the mornings. But that's in another direction that you probably won't have to worry about.
Field of Dreams has a location on the 521 not too far from Ballantyne. I used the Baxter location - pre-school was good, after school care was horrid since they switched the older kids to a location in a plaza / business park.
That's where my son was, in FOD on 521. It was an easy commute to Ballantyne from there. We stayed in an apartment until our house was built and I pretty much avoided the bad traffic by doing as the PP mentioned and staying on the East side of 77.
We live on the border of Pineville in the NE corner of Fort Mill and have no traffic issues -- unless we're going to the other side of town for whatever reason - which we rarely find the need to.
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