Kid-Friendly Living
After living in a “dungeon” of an apartment in Sandy Springs, Jeremy and Amber Hood were ready to move into a new home. Nine months after their daughter, Everly, was born in March 2011, they found a Cumming home with room for themselves and their growing family (they learned after buying the home that Amber is pregnant with their second child).
“We bought the house anticipating we would have more children,” said Jeremy, 34, a software engineer.
The priority
Their apartment experience taught them they needed a home with an abundance of natural light.
“We were in a dungeon of an apartment, so we lived without light for two years,” Amber said.
They also needed a home with a basement or guest wing for Amber’s mom, Coleen Medin, who lives with them. Other must-haves included an attached garage and a playroom near the kitchen. They also wanted a “big stretch of land,” Amber said, but they realized that may not be possible in new suburban Atlanta neighborhoods.
The search
The couple had been looking casually for about a year, Jeremy said, viewing homes outside the perimeter in towns such as Buford, Sugar Hill, Suwanee, Canton and Cumming. They narrowed their focus to Cumming, focusing on new construction. “We’re both originally from California,” said Amber, 33. “It has more of a California feel up here because it is flatter and less wooded. You’ve got the open fields with the horses roaming around them.”
The home
A new six-bedroom, five-bath home in Forsyth County’s Evans Farms neighborhood. The builder, KM Homes, finished part of the basement, which created a living area, bedroom and bathroom for Amber’s mom. They moved in during December.
The floor plan had an option to add a bedroom on the first floor, and they used the space for a playroom. “I wanted a playroom for kids that was close to the kitchen so that I could cook dinner, but I could put them in the playroom and still hear them,” Amber said.
Another kid-friendly aspect about the floor plan was that the room they chose as the nursery had an attached bathroom. Jeremy said it’s convenient when changing diapers at all hours. “They obviously thought about families when they designed the home,” he said.
The lifestyle
A pool, nature trails and a tennis court are among the amenities in Evans Farm neighborhood, priced from $280,000-$380,000. Their home is on a quarter of an acre, but the location was a plus. “We were able to get the house that we wanted that backs up against a 2-acre park,” Amber said. “It’s not our land, but it’s kind of the best of both worlds because we get to use it anytime we want, and we don’t have to manicure it.”
The tip
Consider the pediatrician’s location, especially for those frequent visits with newborns. “I knew that we wanted to come to Cumming when I picked the baby doctor,” Amber said. “I made sure that I found a pediatrician with an office in Alpharetta and one in Cumming.”
