Thank you Bonjourliz! It's nice to hear from someone that lives in Atlanta. The job would be near Fulton Industrial Blvd. I've read the best schools are east Cobb? I was thinking east Cobb would be a brutal commute - so we were considering west Cobb (Harrison High school).
FYI, I'm a metro Atlanta native.
First of all, when you say Fulton Industrial Blvd do you mean the North end of it, near I-20 or I-285, or the South end of it, near Campbellton Road (GA Highway 166)?
I don't think West Cobb is the right place for a Mustachian. The schools aren't good -- Cobb's good schools are all in East Cobb -- and the "suburban wasteland"-style development isn't appropriate either.
The best combination of schools and commute to (the north end of) FIB might be Vinings or the part of Smyrna very close or inside I-285. Commuting southbound on I-285 in the morning / northbound in the evening is a "reverse commute," so it's not that bad.
However, that part of town is both expensive and suburban, and thus not mustachian either. You're not going to be doing a lot of bike riding and such there because you'll need to be on 6-lane arterials to get anywhere. (Oh yeah: it's also relatively hilly.)
I have some better (and perhaps, "less conventional") suggestions:
The first suggestion would be to live in the City of Atlanta proper, in particular, in the
Ormewood Park / East Atlanta / Kirkwood / East Lake neighborhoods (which is the part of town I currently live in, by the way). Although most City of Atlanta schools are pretty bad, this part of town has some decent charter schools (in particular, Drew Charter School and Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School). They're also relatively affordable: although a fancy Victorian might be half a mil, a 3 bed / 2 bath / no "character" house like mine could be found for maybe $150k. Perhaps most importantly, they're just urban enough to be walkable / bikeable. The commute to FIB would be straight across downtown on I-20: about 3 miles of congestion, then clear sailing once you got west of the Downtown Connector (I-75/I-85).
The second suggestion would be to live in the
City of Decatur. It's just northeast of the area I just mentioned above and has many of the same characteristics. It has its own school system, and Decatur city schools are actually good (in contrast to Dekalb County's). Downtown Decatur is a great walkable town, and it's right on a MARTA line. The main disadvantage of it compared to the previous suggestion is that it's somewhat more expensive.
Third -- I hesitate to call it a "suggestion" -- if you're "adventurous" you could consider the Riverside neighborhood in extreme northwest [City of] Atlanta. It would have an easy commute and cheap houses, but there aren't any grocery stores or other services in biking distance. I'm not sure which schools it's zoned to; if it's in the North Atlanta High School cluster that might be decent; otherwise they'd be really bad.
Fourth, if you're even more "adventurous," a neighborhood in Southwest Atlanta along the Beltline, such as Adair Park, might fit the bill. It's got cheap houses, a very easy commute (since you're already west of downtown), and walkability/bikeability, but the schools would be terrible (unless you got into one of the Southeast Atlanta charter schools) and the crime rate might not be so great either.
If your job is on the south end of FIB (near Campbellton Road), disregard everything I said. In that case, I don't know
what to tell you since I probably wouldn't ever consider living anywhere near there. Being near Sweetwater Creek State Park would be nice, but that appears to be the only redeeming feature of the area.