Ok, ok, I don’t want my Pittsburgh friends to get mad at me.  This topic made me think while I was at the beach recently in New Jersey with a sorority sister from college.  I had such a great time and so enjoyed seeing her, my brother, sister-in-law and their children that it makes you think about where you live and wish that you could see them more often.

Twenty years ago via a job opportunity I moved to Atlanta, sight unseen.  I remember my first real estate agent.  I think I drove her crazy looking all over the city.  We settled on a rental on Moores Mill in Buckhead back in 1992.  It was a great house – (no longer there, torn down a few years ago) with a pool and large back yard. I’ve always had a dog, so a yard was important to me.

The house on Moores Mill was less expensive than my townhome in Washington D.C., where I had moved from. …a townhome was about all I could afford there. The housing values were definitely different in Atlanta and still are!

I would say the first two years were quite an adjustment and then I spent so much time traveling for work that I didn’t really get involved in things locally as much.   At first the thing I noticed in Atlanta was that people didn’t talk about national news here.  Maybe it was the circles I was traveling in at the time, but it was a big change for me coming from working across the street from the White House.

As my year-long rental came to close, my agent helped me find new construction on Log Cabin (in the neighborhood Chapel Hill of Vinings), and that was the first place that really started to feel like home.  We had neighborly Friday drop-bys, neighborhood holiday parties, and actually a group of us went on a ski trip together.  I’m still in contact with many of the group from Chapel Hill of Vinings.

The railroad tracks that run through Vinings, a unique four-square mile area in metro Atlanta, that I call home.

As a matter of fact, it was the movement of this group of people from our “starter homes” to the bigger lots across the railroad tracks into Vinings that got me wanting to make the move as well.

So in 1998, I bought the lot/house that I now call home in Vinings.  I’ve been building and remodeling since it seems, with the last major work being done in 2005 –   landscaping and an addition of a pool.  I think I’m “done” now, but being in the real estate business has taught me that you are never “done” with your home.  The updates keep changing and of course there is always maintenance that I keep up with monthly through the help of a great handyman.

Vinings Village, an exceptional shopping resource in Vinings.

Now almost twenty years later from that first move to the South, our Vinings home is truly our home.  This is the only home my little boy has really known and the sidewalks, Vinings Village, the walking ability and the amount of long-time owners here makes the four square miles known as Vinings very unique.

I think many of the young families moving to Vinings now grew up here and have always considered it home and have finally reached the point where they can afford to step up to the bigger house as I did 13 years ago.  And I have a funny feeling that – God willing – we’ll be here another 13 years in the same house…

Click here to see homes for sale in Vinings.

Tina Hunsicker

Prudential Georgia – Buckhead Office