Discovering Your Chattanooga Home, Work, School, Commute and Community Balance

Discovering your Chattanooga home, work, school, commute and community balance. Juggling life in 2013 is a challenge. We live in a busy and loud culture. We long for a quiet and peaceful refuge for home. Home represents security, nurture and relationship. At breakfast this morning the conversation turned to finding the “right’ area to live.

Chattanooga is a unique patchwork of communities. I wrote about that in this blog for new comers. People who are new to town have a challenge as they consider different geographic areas and townships.

I attended a men’s conference at church this weekend. Men were discussing where they lived. One young man commented on his commute time. He lived less than a mile from work. He commented on the fact that he filled up his car every 2 months. He was truly saving a lot of money in his budget because of his short drive.

Another guy commented that he moved because he cut 45 minutes from his daily drive time and he was thankful to have additional time at home.

The counter opinion was offered by a friend of mine who decided to move to the country. He has a farm and a 40 minute drive each way to work. He plans time to return phone calls on his blue tooth and listen to certain audio tracks for teaching and encouragement. He commented that he really wants to separate his work from the peace and quiet of his slower lifestyle on the farm away from the office.

Men are concerned about protecting their family. School and community play an important role.

The neighborhood that sold the most new homes in 2013 was Prairie Pass in Apison. That is East of Colledgedale, TN. Apison Elementary, East Hamilton Middle and East Hamilton High School are the schools that are zoned for this community. All the schools are very new and young. The “community” is a subdivision. 24 homes sold in the first 9 months of 2013 in Prairie Pass. The sales prices range from $189,000 to $295,000.

Most of the men agreed that new construction was more desirable than “old” charm. The men were saying their wives liked the charm of older houses. So it is not surprising to me to see new homes being built with an old craftsman style, open eave look. The trade off for this newer home and younger school building is a lengthy commute.

What is your choice of lifestyle? Discovering your Chattanooga home, work, school, commute and community balance can prove challenging on your journey in life.