mayland, we're going to start trying in the next couple of months, our doc says, "all signals are go!", we "shouldn't have any problems", so we're keeping a positive train of thought - "soon" and not "maybe if". sorry for the ambiguity, hope it wasn't misleading. granted, it's a few years before our kid(s) will start school, but we've already researched and started planning so we can get involved, try to ensure that these opportunities we're seeking out are still around (or are even better) when they're ready to start. i've seen amazing things happen in our area (schools and community transformation) in the ~5 years since my wife and i met, and it's getting better and better week by week. it's proof that, as a community, a small number of individuals can stand up and potentially make anything happen with some effort and support. we are fortunate to have a lot of parents nearby that are willing to work towards building something amazing, tons of neighborhood parent organizations (groups) to join and collaborate, amazing eclectic bunch of people! i'm really active in the nearby community with volunteer work and public safety. i strive to ensure things continue in the positive direction they are headed, and there are plenty of others right there with me. i've recently started diverting my attention towards schools nearby, trying to decide on which direction we're going, what opportunities exist now, what preparations to make to ensure our kids go where we want, etc. there are a lot of choices within 2 square miles of our house...some are up-and-coming, some are well-rooted. my neighbor is a music teacher and has a young boy that has started school recently, so that helps a lot for insider info, nobody seems to know schools better than a teacher that is also a parent :) on the community topic...i have a lot of friends who've moved up here from FL and down from NY, and they've moved a little of everywhere, inside and out. AAMOF, my best friend lives OTP, less than a mile southwest of the Holcomb Bridge exit on 400 (Exit 7?) in a "nice" neighborhood (subdivision), and we regularly engage in discussions about what living out there is like. he is a very social person, but none of his neighbors really care to befriend anyone. they never have block parties. they never have neighborhood cleanup days. they never organize any kind of community building events. they don't have any parent clubs, organizations that he's aware of, and they've been seeking this out nearby for the last 3 years they've been up there, but ... it just doesn't seem to exist. there aren't any parks within walking distance of his house. because of heavy traffic, it's not safe for kids to venture outside of the neighborhood. because nobody really knows or talks to anyone, a burglar could come in with a moving truck and clean out someone's neighbor, and they'd never be the wiser. i personally feel spoiled rotten... we have the zoo just a couple blocks away, a huge park (Grant Park) next to it, they're talking about cutting our main throughfare down to 2-lanes (Boulevard) which should make walking even safer than it already is, work is slated to begin on another 27-acre park a couple blocks south/west of us that will have sports activities, a skateboard park, basketball courts, dog park, large open area for events, walking trails, etc., we get together as a neighborhood all the time, i know and talk to every neighbor 4-5 houses in any direction from us. we have at least 3-4 community building events per year. we regularly have cookouts or get together for drinks with our immediate neighbors, and i know if i ever need anything - whether it's lugging furniture up stairs, working on digging beds in the yard, or rebuilding part of the house, i can call a neighbor and they will help. i let all of my neighbors freely pick our veggies when they're ripe, and we have a community garden with the same policy. it's a night-and-day difference... i'm not saying their case is "everywhere OTP", because there are plenty of places OTP that are more like what we have here in southeast Atlanta. nor am i saying that our case is "everywhere ITP", because we bad/non-community-oriented areas ITP also. i have other friends OTP in Roswell and Sandy Springs with a strong community similar to ours, and they love it - i'd definitely live near them. after living in the city, in our neighborhood - which is far from urban-looking or urban-feeling, and if you couldn't see the skyline through the park, you wouldn't know any better - i just can't fathom the OTP lifestyle some of my other friends have bought into, and, from a purely numbers perspective, i'd say 4/5 of my OTP friends see the same (absence of) community i just described near Holcomb Bridge, whereas 2/3 of my friends from all over ITP have a community somewhere in between ours and theirs, and the remaining 1/3 ITP have the same type of community environment i do now. almost all of us are late-20- and 30-somethings with a few 40-somethings in the mix, very social, very family-oriented, very community-oriented, good 'ol grass-roots kind of people that just ... care, you know? i like to think we're the "norm" of what you'll find in inner-city neighborhoods (although i don't really like the term "inner-city" because it seems to have acquired a negative connotation over the years) so, i'm rambling :) there was a point to the last four paragraphs, and that point was to tie back to what so many others have said above, and tie back to my original post: it's different everywhere, ITP and OTP. within a square mile, you can go from bad community to amazingly good community. as everyone has said, rent first in an area that appeals to you, then drive around and check things out in the months to follow over the 6-12 months of renting, visit local communities that "look" like areas you'd be happy with. drive around during rush hour, and decide if the stores and shops locally are easy enough to get to. try to find community organizations (ask a realtor, any realtor worth a damn knows about neighborhood email lists, etc.) use those to interface with the people that live in the area you want to move to. i think you'll be amazed at how many people will talk to you, Atlanta/Greater Atlanta is overall a pretty friendly place. if you find a dwelling you're interested in, go to the local police precinct with the property address and find out what zone# and beat# the house is in, then request some crime stats for the area over the past 12 months, or hit the crime stats map interface at www.atlantapd.org (it appears down right now), or ask to sit down and with a beat officer for that zone over a cup of coffee and talk to him/her about the area and what you can expect for crime, local activities, surplusses and deficits. nobody knows better than a cop. you may ask one or two, some of our men and women with APD are overworked and a bit jaded - you may inquire who is most knowledgeable, friendly. if you have kids, talk to nearby parents and neighbors, or hit the internet and try to find parent groups - hit your local YMCA or boys and girls club to find parenting groups in that area to get advice of other parents. you could also visit any of the better local schools and try to find parent organizations that way. more than anything, keep your ears peeled for "absolutes". when you hear people speaking in "absolutes" about anything, especially blanket statements about crime/people/schools in an area, take it with a grain of salt. i say this because there are a LOT of misconceptions that have become totally outdated in the last 5-10 years, but people continue to hold on and purvey this info as "fact" to newbies and visitors. this is all assuming, of course, that you plan to stay in the Atlanta area for a decade or two....if you don't, all of this is overkill. even if you aren't planning to stay, hopefully all of this info will be of use to someone out there :) ps - mayland - i love Decatur. we'd have moved there, but my work is in Midtown, my wife works nearby next to Coca-Cola HQ, and traffic to get from Decatur to both areas in the morning was too much. the Grant Park area was our compomise...but i couldn't be happier with the outcome. i still dream of Decatur, and i swear it's not just because you have a Taqueria Del Sol nearby ;)

Flow throughs sound neat. But I don't think that with a new place to make livable, an old house to clear and sell, and a new garden, that I can be playing with my worms as much as I like. I know that you don't like pre-processing, and boy, do I get it. But I've been thinking: since your setup is small, and knowing that you built it from gathered worms, which I imagine took a lot of time to get to a good number, that you probably DO need to pre-process. Or, of COURSE bigger is nice, if it can be done! What I learned when I went crazy several years ago and filled up my whole laundry room with worms (and made my house unlivable) is that anything that makes it go faster is pretty much worth it IF compost is your goal. I hate to use the electricity (and the time washing the machine, whatever it might be, AND the energy to do that too) to process it. But I found sticking baggies that I use and reuse and reuse into the freezer does a really good job of breaking things down. Or any container that you might have. I like baggies because I can mold them to fit whatever space there is. If your bin is too moist, you can even drain the liquid from the baggies on the yard or flowers so as not to waste it. I freeze all mine now, except yard stuff. It's worth the guilt about power for the time savings. Because, well, I'm gettin' up there! I don't have all the years left that I used to! I had lots of patience back when. But now, if I'm growing black gold, dammit, I want it sooner rather than later. :D

Wow, this post sounds really familiar. OMG! Its mineÂ.. First of all, everyone who responded was really helpful to me. I appreciate all your support and great advice. Your words and thoughts all brought me a lot of comfort. Thank you - all you very kind people. And hereÂs what happened. To get to the end first, as I myself hate waiting for the punch line, I did not move. I did put my house on the market though. But first I spent money fixing it up in various ways, such as finally finishing a bathroom. Fixing up all the electrical things I always had intended doing. $$$$. So after 8 years of living with the intention of having a front entryway light, and splitting the outlet/light switch which had been combined, I did all those things. Plus a lot more electric work. This made it nicer for me, but $$$$ which I did not recoup. Based on a post in Buying Selling House forum, I spent oodles of time trying to get grass to grow in my full sun, scorching Maryland climate, red clay front yard which was a major flop. Nevertheless, I spent months doing this and it became a minor obsession. You have no idea. I also spray painted my rusted chain link fence a silver color  major improvement. Then I put my house on the market, kept it pretty clean, rented storage, lived on egg-shells. Of course this was right during the Real Estate flop of last spring/summer. I also occasionally traveled to North Carolina and checked out amazing housing prices there. BUT my little, very nice on the inside, 2 BD/2 BA house did not sell. I would have had to drop the price much lower as the inventory in my area was huge, and 2 bedroom houses would not sell before 3 or 4 bedroom ones. I didnÂt need to move, and saw no reason to cut so far into the "profits dancing in my head" that a move would no longer be financially beneficial. Driving back and forth between Maryland and North Carolina, I also started to understand the value of the family and friends I have in the area. After nearly 3 months on the market, I look my house off. I almost donÂt remember where I planned to go. In September I realized that a co-worker and I could start a creative business which I had always dreamed of. I approached him and we formed a business partnership. We are working on this all the time, and that is my current focus. I am doing things which I hadnÂt planned to do before, such as writing childrenÂs stories while he creates the online characters. There are still many aspects of my life which probably would make me as impatient as I was when I wrote my original post. I mostly donÂt have time to think about them. I am pretty busy with launching a business and learning about all that  itÂs a real baptism by fire. I did get rid of a negative "friend" which has improved my life greatly. And I am a "convert" to The Secret which truly works. The business was totally unexpected, and perhaps if it didnÂt materialize when it did, I would happily be living in Raleigh or someplace in that area. I look forward to enjoying my house and yard this spring and summer. The lovely screened porch, the quiet neighborhood, the improved house, a soon to be successful business (fingers crossed). Life is certainly unexpected.

Oldhousegal, I understand what you mean about getting more done! My DH was a GC & carpenter by trade. He was exhausted & often worked 18 hours a day, 7 a week. He had lots of house dreams, but everything was "good enough for now." I amost made a sign and put it over the door that said, "Welcome to the House of Good Enough For Now." I couldn't hire anyone because of $$, and of course, because he could always do it better, right-er, safer, cheaper. So NOTHING got done. But me being patient and understanding got me a kick in the bummy. I lived for 3 years with no plumbing. I still dream of finishing the tile in the MBR and putting in a shower in the front/guest bath. Just this last summer I've been paying someone by the hour & beer to put electricity in. I have only 2 rooms to go and it's done, but with everything I've done, I've had to re-do a major part of what was done. The electrician had to check EVERY wire DH ran (that he never hooked into the fuse box) because they were loose, not grounded, or in 2 cases, hooked in, unmarked & scorched up the wall behind my storage boxes. I've had to have the plumbing redone in the crawl space and all the sinks he did put in (but didn't plumb into the system) leaked so I have mold and floor warping issues. The electrician killed the ants nests in the attic, removed the snake skins, & chased out the racoons. (I miss the snakes, but they still come up thru the holes in the floor.) The siding man, bless him, screened the vents in the attic so the birds don't come in and thru the pot light holes in the ceiling. Cats go nuts. The roof had no drip edge, so when he enclosed the soffits 2 years ago, the water tension ran rain under and into the front house walls. He had to remove 4 courses of shingles, put the drip edging on and replace the shingles. If you name something in this house done, and to date, there isn't a single thing that is COMepletely done, I will tell you what had to be REdone due to "good enough for now." Even my floors, which are beautiful, need 3 boards in the closet and aren't nailed in place in 2 rooms. I think it was a completion phobia. Not only in his own home, but with every client I remember in 18 years. So I am doing it alone & often feel I'm fighting the tide. DH has cost me so much heartache, but he's cost me $1000s in re-do-dollars. If he'd have done NOTHING, it would have cost me less. I'm sorry. I really seem to be letting off steam this last day. Sprayer: I don't, but I don't mind the painting. It gives me the opportunity to patch holes or damages I didn't see. I am in love with this STIX primer and Cabinet Coat. The whiskey bottles I laughed at. Those were DH's. I sent those with him when he bailed. Don't miss them or him. I'm a single wino, myself. :) I wish you all were closer just for advice & encouragement. No one even needs to help!! Just talk to me while I'm working. I'll trade yoga for someone making me laugh. Sound like a deal?