Moving to Ohio

[momto2girls]

In Gahanna it's St. Matthews, not St. Michael's. There is the "Gahanna Christian Academy" which I think has been shortened to "Gahanna Christian" for the locals. There's also St. Pius in Reynoldsburg, and lots of area Christian High Schools- Bishop Hartley, Bishop Ready, Bishop Watterson, Worthington Christian, St. Francis DeSales.... there's also an all-girls private school in Bexley called Columbus School for Girls (CSG), and a local co-ed private school called The Columbus Academy (also in Gahanna).

Hope that helps some!

Oops! That's right! St. Michael's is the church in Worthington. I'm not terribly familiar with St. Matthews. I only have one friend who sends her children there. She is really happy with it though.

Now I am much more familiar with CSG and Columbus Academy. Many of my friends and neighbors send their kids to these two schools. (My kids don't attend school, but would likely go to CSG themselves.) They are expensive, but excellent!

 

[KCMiller]

If you're looking at living in Powell, but you'll be working in Columbus, be aware that traffic to and from downtown can be AWFUL. Especially if you take 315. The Powell area has grown so explosively over the past decade the highway infrastructure hasn't been able to keep up, and the backups at rush hour can be fierce.

Personally, I live in Dublin, but in the 'cheap seats' - my home is actually in Columbus, but my kids went to Dublin Schools. You may want to Google 'Columbus public schools win win' to learn more about this - several suburban school districts take in kids who live in the Columbus city proper. Regardless, if you're plannning on sending your kids to a private school, you should seriously consider looking in Columbus, as there are some REALLY great neighborhoods (Clintonville springs to mind), and if you aren't going to be tied to the Columbus Public schools, they are great places to live. I'm moving closer to downtown as soon as we can sell our place in Dublin - I've had it with suburbia!

KC

 

[aaarcher86]

Although they are pricey I highly recommend North Face jackets. The one I had lasted several years. I actually found it at a TJ Maxx down in Cincinnati, so you can find them cheaper than retail value (6pm.com also has them). A winter coat in Ohio is definitely not where you want to cut corners! And a nice pair of winter boots is a must - particularly with good traction!

 

[disneyismyname]

Welcome to Ohio!! You will love it! Lived here all my life!
And you love our winters here, too

 

[veraletta]

Welcome to Ohio! I live 3 hours south- east of Columbus, Ohio now.
In 1973 for 4 years we did live in outside of Columbus, Ohio, while my husband was in the Air Force base. We lived in a small town called Ashville which was closer to the base. We loved living there as there are lots to do in Columbus.

I hope you enjoy your move.

 

[disneychic2]

Welcome to Ohio! Hope you enjoy living here. We're in the Akron area, so Columbus is just a short trip away. Makes a nice girls outing for my friends and me. Maybe all the Ohio DIS people can plan a "meet" at Easton Park sometime. That would be fun!

 

[Good Ol Gal]

another Christian school in the area is Northside Christian .

We drive down to WDW and it takes us about 15 1/2 hours of straight driving. It can be a long drive, but we've gotten used to it.

while I would love the extra time at WDW, we have 6 people in our family, so it's cheaper to drive than it is to fly down.

 

[kydisneyfans]

Bring a gun, some mace, snow tire chains, and your blood pressure medicine.
Just kidding.......

We used to live in Canton and thought Columbus was a nice visit. The zoo is the 2nd best we have visited behind St Louis, COSI is neat. We like the Polaris and Easton areas. There are many, many events at the fairgrounds too.

On the flip side, much of Columbus has gotten pretty rough. There are pockets inside the bypass that are fine, but I'm not sure I would want to live there. The job market in Ohio isn't great, that's why we moved. I "retired" at 30 from a buyout in Ohio and landed a job in KY. My wife tripled her salary from $9/hr to $26/hr by moving to Kentucky.

Enjoy your stay in Ohio. At least you can shop at Meijer now.

 

[Fire14]

Thanks so much for all of the school info. Here are a couple of stupid questions but where do you buy snow blowers and what are the best winter coats that aren't too expensive? Can you get like a yard service to clear your driveway for you or is this not available or crazy expensive? Sorry- I have no clue about these things. Also, for all you Columbus people, I'll try to let you know before I go off driving in the snow!
Looking forward to checking out the auto train too!!

Snow Blowers can be bought at just about any big hardware store Lowes, Menards, Home depot, local ace Hardware, TRue value. For that matter Walmart carries em. I personally love my Columbia one but North face, Lands End are biggies around here. You can get yard service but prices vary and some are better and cheaper than others.

 

[CarrieR]

Another Columbusite checking in -- I can't believe how many of us there are! I am in the Dublin/Hilliard border area.

Budget-wise, we have CVSes, Krogers that double coupons, and Giant Eagles that have FuelPerks. I just paid off my summer vaca last week by getting Disney gift cards at Giant Eagle and got a free tank of gas out of the deal, lol!

There's lots of fun stuff to do, cool festivals, interesting culture in the area. I actually think that the traffic isn't too bad for a major city -- of course if you're used to rural, it will be a lot, but for city traffic, it's passable. There's definitely a huge sense of community pride here, some (but not all) of it centered around OSU and the Buckeyes. This town bleeds scarlet and grey, lol. As one who couldn't care less, it's not too hard to tune it out, though (although I should note that the proper answer to "O-H!" is "I-O.")

I love, love, love Dublin and Powell. With older kids, the zoo might be a bit passe but Zoombezi Bay will be a hit, and you're two hours give or take from both Kings Island or Cedar Point. Also, we have Magic Mountain, which has go karts, laser tag, minigolf etc, and plenty of shopping/malls. Not sure what your 6th grader is into.

Someone already mentioned it, but Burlington Coat Factory is great for coats (and all kinds of other clothes, too.) Bit less expensive than department stores. And in addition to Jeni's, we also have Graeters, mmm, Graeters...

I grew up in NE Ohio, but I have really grown to love this city. I hope you will, too!

 

[GADisneyDVC]

It is so great to be connected to so many Ohio people and get such great answers. We are north of Atlanta so any commute that is less than 1 1/2 hours will be great!! My DH is already there and started work yesterday. We will come up sometime late June. My daughter is into gymnastics and we heard from our gym owner about Buckeye Gymnastics. If anyone has info on this that would be great. We have also seen some nice homes in Lewis Center. Is this a good area? Would love to have a DisBoards meet up with other crazy Disney fans. We are DVC members and just bought annual passes again in February that won't get as much use as they should! (This was a crazy quick move decision---so lots of questions!!)
Thanks all!!

 

[shortbun]

Does Bobbi still own Buckeye Gymnastics? She was a client of mine years ago and was really dedicated to getting her kids into competitive gymnastics but protective of them too. You need to get up here and find a house; there are so many on the market and it's competitive now. Everywhere I go, I see signs. Lewis Center is nice and/but it's far from a lot of things central. Definitely a bedroom community.

 

[emma'smom]

We live about 1/2 way between C-Bus and Cleveland and drive down to Columbus for great shopping (and an occasional work meeting). I love to shop at Easton and Polaris. We also fly out of C-Bus to get to Disney on SW. It's the fastest and least expensive option (and long-term parking is cheaper in Columbus than in Cleveland).

 

[Gantu]

Were in Lancaster.

Sounds like we should have a dis meat up at the Disney Store!

 

[kfeuer]

As a fellow former Southerner who moved to a snowy place, I just wanted to add that you might need to budget for snow tires. I hate driving in the snow, but snow tires do help a lot. There will be people who say you don't need them, but they're used to driving in the snow and we're not . I just had to buy a set this past winter and they were $800 The tire place said they should last 4 years, though. Maybe you won't need them, but just wanted to warn you because it's one of the things we didn't think about before we got here.

 

[minniebeth]

Another welcome! We also live in the Dublin/Hilliard area and we love it~ we call it "candyland" because there are so many great ammenties.
It is an awesome family oriented area and offers a great quality of living.
We feel like the taxes are high here, and that's growning up in NJ and living in California. The positive is that "you get what you pay for" the schools are great, many ammenities and the city services are the best anywhere. Dublin just built a brand new hospital and the medical care in the Columbus area is fantastic.
It is a homebuyer's market in this area right now which is a positive for families coming in from other areas.
Good luck with your transition!

A lot of areas do Dismeets~a meet for Ohio dissers would be fun!

 

[Fire14]

I'm up for a meet and yes as a bonus we do have a disney store at Polaris Mall I personally find it on small side and selection lacking compared to other Disney stores I've been in but Hey least I can get my Mouse Fix.

To bad you won't be up this was way this weekend Towncrier ( diser/DVC Owner) has a Dis gathering at his house ervery year on Sun of Memorial weekend He lives up closer to Cleveland.

And I Swear there was a disney person in front of me this am at drive thru, White van, Disney license plate frame, Tink sticker on back, who's gonna fess up.

 

[Good Ol Gal]

you'll know me when you see me... WEDVC is our license plate

 

[GADisneyDVC]

you'll know me when you see me... WEDVC is our license plate

That is a great one! I love it!!

 

[humalexis]

Welcome to the great buckeye state! Born and raised in Ohio. Started out in Lima OH and moved to C-bus to go to OSU. Now my family and I live in Westerville. I love it so much!

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is our great Columbus metropolitan library. They have branches all over Columbus and several in the suburban areas. Our recreation centers are nice also and most of the suburbs have rec centers as well. The westerville one is really nice.

I would wait on buying a snowblower. They can be great but they become annoying during warmer weather since they take up so much room in your garage. If you get a house that has a shed then it may be worth it. You can buy them at Sears and other home improvement centers.

Good luck with moving and enjoy all that Ohio has to offer.