Wade and Jenni Tucker traded Midtown for Mableton after their two-bedroom condo started feeling too cramped.
“For seven years I lived in Midtown and loved it but it just wasn’t the right thing with the family. You have to change your priorities with a kid,” said Wade, 36, co-founder of SnapSurge, a mobile phone charging kiosk company.
A Cobb County location provides a more spacious single-family home for the couple and their 1-year-old son, Pax, while living just outside the Perimeter is still close enough to Atlanta’s Piedmont Park and sports events at Turner Field, the Georgia Dome and Philips Arena.
The priority
A yard topped their checklist. “That’s the main reason why we moved out of Midtown,” Wade said. “We lived in a 1,200-square-foot, two-bedroom condo with no yard. I had a little balcony but what are you going to do when you’re growing up? Where are you going to play with your toys? We wanted to have a little front yard and backyard.”
They also wanted a home with enough bedrooms for Pax to have his own room and to have a guest room, plus high ceilings and a floor plan that didn’t separate the living room and kitchen. A swim-tennis community also was on the checklist.
The search
At first, the couple looked for condos and townhomes in Midtown, hoping for a bit of a yard. “I was dead set on I want to stay in Midtown. My wife (had) a lot more of an open mind about getting out of the city,” Wade said.
After looking for a couple of months with their real estate agent, Retta Christoforatos of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage-Midtown, the couple almost settled on a home in Vinings. “It was a perfect house, just the yard was lacking,” Wade said. “We went back to the drawing board and found a few more. We came across this place and was like, man, this is awesome.”
The home
The five-bedroom, four-bath home boasted a backyard with a deck and 6-foot fence, which was better than any others they had viewed, Wade said. Several trees at least 40 feet tall added to the wooded, private feel. They added a sandbox for Pax, and Wade built a fire pit. The yard still hasn’t felt crowded, Wade said. The home, built in 2003, also had a front porch.
The home is near restaurants in Smyrna and Vinings. The Vinings Place neighborhood, which has homes from the $270,000s-$290,000s, is a mile outside the perimeter, with I-285 about five minutes away, Wade said.
“The reason why I moved to Atlanta in the first place is the access to everything big cities have to offer. The cool thing about living here is I hear crickets in my backyard instead of horns. But I can be down in Midtown in 15 minutes … maybe 17 minutes if I get caught by a light,” Wade said.
In their home, a Jack-and-Jill bathroom connect Pax’s bedroom and playroom on the second floor.
“Now I don’t think he really appreciates it. He doesn’t know any better. But when he becomes 4 and 5 years old and his friends come over, I’m probably going to get him a little mini fridge. He’s got it all up there,” Wade said.
The lifestyle
The Tuckers were happy to see elementary-age kids playing in the yards and riding their bikes in the neighborhood. Since buying the home during April, the couple has made friends, and they sometimes hang out with neighbors after kids are in bed. “My neighbors played cornhole the other night until 2 o’clock the other morning,” he said. “We ended up finding a cool place with awesome neighbors and a great community feel.”
