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Thread: How to decide where to live

  1. #11
    Geila
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    I like to visit the country, and even vacation there. But I like to live in a city. It would be nice to have some more space so that my neighbors wouldn't be so close by, but I find that gardening has not been restricted by having a small lot. For me anyway. I just have to be more selective on what I choose to have. Where I live, I could probably go car-free. The Costco trips (about 3 miles away) could be done on weekends or evenings with Dh and his car (or just the car!) I'm not a biker, so I'm not going to lug stuff home on a bike. Everything else is within walking distance or serviced by public transport. But I'm lazy, so I drive. But it's nice to have the option. And it's nice to have errands by a quick little thing instead of a multiple hour endeavor.

    Catherine - what about a small place that has access to a community garden?

  2. #12
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    Across the river is a town I think is decaying, which is why I reject it as a place to move to, yet I hover around it because it has a neighborhood of fabulous old houses sitting on more than an acre. This one makes me weep, it is so beautiful! I have been watching it since it was listed in the $400,000s, now the price is dropping. But we wouldnt buy it, taxes are a horrific $8,000 annually.

    http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...2_M82572-73024

  3. #13
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Geila View Post

    Catherine - what about a small place that has access to a community garden?
    Burlington has The Intervale, a nationally-known organization/community garden network. If I had bought that house I looked into, I would have been within a couple of miles of one.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
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  4. #14
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by iris lilies View Post
    Across the river is a town I think is decaying, which is why I reject it as a place to move to, yet I hover around it because it has a neighborhood of fabulous old houses sitting on more than an acre. This one makes me weep, it is so beautiful! I have been watching it since it was listed in the $400,000s, now the price is dropping. But we wouldnt buy it, taxes are a horrific $8,000 annually.

    http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...2_M82572-73024
    Wow, that's a beauty! Alton is a nice town--I was there when we were in St. Louis.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
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  5. #15
    Geila
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    Catherine - do your kids need an incentive to visit?

    And how about if your new lifestyle included visiting them for the day or weekend? Maybe they would really enjoy that. They get to play host and you and dh get to have fun adventures!

  6. #16
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    To me the choice(s) come down to how you value simplicity. The house and the land (however much you have of either) will require maintenance in proportion to how much you have. Only you can determine how much time and money you'd want (or be able) to put into that. You likely won't take care of a 3-acre site with a push mower. Living lakeside implies at least a dock that is put in and taken out and maintained every year. A big house still has to be heated and repairs kept up. Would the place that's "out there" come with city water and sewer and gas and high-speed internet? Or do you even care about any of those? Millions of people don't. Millions of people do. What does resale look like? Again, do you care?

    As even our outer-ring suburb friends age, they're seeing more and more value to the model we pursued: small house close to the city (and hospitals/doctors, mass transit, necessities [food market, drugstore, etc.] and interesting things to do that don't require getting in a car). We don't need to have one of every tool there is, we have choices when it comes to buying something (not just the food market in town), we aren't looked at askance if we don't attend the church in town or our daughter of color shows up with her family for a cookout. Then again, even though we're major introverts, we can be social enough to overlook the neighbor that thinks his leaf blower is History's Greatest Invention and we filter out the house that's 15 feet from one of our walls. That's the tradeoff we made. I would not suggest it works for everyone. But it seems to have more appeal to folks as they get older and less willing/able to reach their bootstraps.
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  7. #17
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    Oh, also--
    I am unable to live in a house constructed after 1970. My eyes explode or something from the ugliness. Haha, but it limits further my options. Theoretically, it is possible to build new a house that wouldnt make my eyes explode, but that would be a very expensive house indeed. On a positive note, I do not mind "dated" kitchens and the like, and I actually have developed a real fondness for original kitchens in circa 1960's ranches.

  8. #18
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    We live in the country- only 1 acre, but the other properties have more acreage so we see houses but aren't right next to them. The closest town with grocery, bank, library, barber is 10-15 minute drive over the mountain.. 2 larger towns are 30 minutes, Baltimore and DC are 90 minutes or 300 depending on traffic! I often think of moving to "town" but we have decided to age in place as much as possible until driving is impossible. We will hire lawn mower people and snow blowing people but as of now- 68yrs. old- we seem to be doing OK. I cannot move farther south than MD - and have no desire to move farther north either. The beach calls me and we have a condo there- 4 hours away- but we don't go and stay long. I think if I were alone I might go and stay all winter there. In the meantime I am doing some clearing out of stuff. That itself is never ending, but I do it knowing sometime we will need to downsize and just what exactly is the point of keeping so many things. We had the house interior painted which resulted in many items put into the attic and not returned to the freshly painted rooms. A good move, now to get them out of the attic and GONE.

  9. #19
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    IL, would you ever consider Galena, Illinois, or is it too far from your peeps?

    I fell in love with this miner's cottage last week, at 312 Gear st, Galena:

    https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...84_rect/11_zm/

  10. #20
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by iris lilies View Post
    Across the river is a town I think is decaying, which is why I reject it as a place to move to, yet I hover around it because it has a neighborhood of fabulous old houses sitting on more than an acre. This one makes me weep, it is so beautiful! I have been watching it since it was listed in the $400,000s, now the price is dropping. But we wouldnt buy it, taxes are a horrific $8,000 annually.

    http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...2_M82572-73024
    Amazing how much prices--and values--differ from place to place. Very stately from the outside, and apparently vast from inside!

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