Tennessee Mamas & Papas, good area advice needed.

[sbjf]

My BIL and his family are considering moving to Hendersonville, TN in Sumner County. Him and his wife are flying there next week to spend 4 days looking at subdivisions/neighborhoods. Does anyone here know which schools and subdivisions are the best, which ones should they look at while there?

Any other input would be very much appreciated! THANKS!!

[sbjf]

Isn't anyone from Tennessee? Hendersonville is very close to Nashville, anyone familiar with that area?

[jennjenn7905]

I live in TN, but in Knoxville and we're about to move to Richmond, VA.

Wish I could help more, but I just don't know that area.

If you want info on the schools though, try the Tennessee Department of Education, all the kids here take standarized tests.

Jenn

[sbjf]

Thanks Jenn!

Good luck with your move to Richmond. My parents lived there for about 8 years in the 90's. Very pretty area, nice little city, too.

[Mommy_Again]

OK...sorry for the late reply but I had a total brain fart about Hendersonville.

I actually lived there for a few months when DH and I first moved to Nashville, but apparently have blocked it from my memory! We rented a room from an older couple while we house hunted. We ended up buying in a suburb south of Nashville, but we did look in H'ville a bit. There are some big, beautiful homes there, many on a nice lake, if I am not mistaken. In the end, it was just too far away from the city. I think it was a solid 30-40 minute drive, and at the time there was a ton of construction on I-65. I knew I'd be working in Nashville and all my friends lived down there, so I didn't want to be so far away.

I can't speak for the schools, but H'ville in general is much more of a rural atmosphere. I think it is definitely growing in population, and many new shopping areas and housing developments are being built, but my honest opinion when we first arrived was that is was kind of run down and, well- just old and unkempt. I felt like I got dropped in the middle of a poor southern town that hadn't changed in 50 years. NOW - I will caveat that I really did not explore much- basically just made the drive from the interstate exit to our house. Any shopping or errands I mostly did in Nashville because I already knew that area. There really seemed to be a lot of families in H'ville, though, so I definitely think the area will continue to grow and prosper. And my experiences there were at the end of 2001. I know many people live in H'ville and work in Nashville, but I think it's a little too far away to be considered a suburb. You could definitely exist in H'ville by itself.

You can get a great house for your money there. We saw several that we really liked - older homes with lovely character. Sorry, can't remember any neighborhoods. I can't even remember the exit we lived off of- but there was a great little place we would go to breakfast on the main street called The Blue Goose Cafe. They had some sort of breakfast burrito that was fabulous.

If your BIL has any questions about the general Nashville area, I am glad to answer. There is another BBB Mama who lives in Franklin (south of Nashville), and I used to live in Brentwood (just north of Franklin). Also very familiar with the city itself as I went to school there.

Good luck to them!