Just got back from 2 weeks of probate stuff in TN. If one should ever want to get back at their kids , leaving without a will is probably the best "paybacks" ever devised by human beings!
That is a pretty place. Still close enough to Knox and Maryville, etc for medical if needed. There is huge turmoil over east TN right now in the rural regions. Up by Big South Fork (BSF), I have seen land for $2,000 an acre and $4,000 an acre and asking $20,000 an acre! There are so very BIG mansions - not just McMansions! - going in around there! It is truly psychotic right now! East of BSF is scorching hot area, while just a little bit west, maybe around Allardt and Armathwaite seems a little more calm.
I guess the Grimsley area did work out? Biggest problem I can see with all of the above areas is the absolute medical care desert they are in! Not really sure what I would recommend - I am more familiar with areas I would NOT recommend! I like Clinton, Oak Ridge. Gentrified almost to death though!
Coal Creek, aka Lake City, aka Rocky Top has some beautiful areas but man what a meth mess in some of that area!
Jacksboro, LaFollette, etc - also pretty but getting further away. It is a pretty straight run down I-75 to Tennova North and Tennova Turkey Creek, etc. LaFollette has a Tennova hospital but neither I nor family have never had any experience with it. I don't mean to keep harping about health system stuff - your priorities for a place are your own but just want you to have what little info I do know...
Bottom line for me and SWMBO - we love the place and have a land presence, but will never move there. The changes are just to wrenching for us.