As requested, here is a thread about places to live. Where we want to live, where we actually live, and why.
More to follow from me...
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As requested, here is a thread about places to live. Where we want to live, where we actually live, and why.
More to follow from me...
We actually live in Michigan. OUr kids moved to Maine and have been asking us to follow. While we like it a lot, it seems to be in a housing bubble right now with prices flying upward and inventory going down.
I am also tempted by Virginia, over near the water, which is about six hour drive from my elderly parents in Va. That seems close enough to get out there to help,but still an area I like.
My husband likes mountains and I like ocean, so that is one problem.
I currently live in central Massachusetts. I'm adjacent to a state park (with one lot between, but no houses on my side of the road). On a dirt road. I like this location because so many of the activities I like to do are literally outside my door (bike riding, hiking..)
I'm here because I had lived for 10 years (8 longer than planned) in a condo that had been overpriced, so no one could resell and so it became mostly rental units in a town where residents don't typically take care of their things. I'd had enough of noise, both on the other side of the wall as well as outside where people would run their cars for 20 minutes early in the morning. I wanted a little house on a larger property so I wouldn't have to deal with people in such close proximity.
My dream location (ie when retired so I don't have to think about long commutes to a job) is in coastal Maine. I like being near the ocean, and I imagine Maine folks to have more simple living types than the Boston and suburbs area. I recognize that some of the simple living may be necessity and not choice. I don't need much in terms of "culture", I like being outside and having simple pursuits. Winters I'd like to RV it for a few months, likely the Carolinas or South Florida (family there).
I really enjoy visiting different parts but love where I live right now - southern Ontario has a wonderful 4-season climate; great gardening opportunities; access to convenient amenities, Lake Erie, Shaw and Stratford festivals; travel from Toronto is easy; fantastic food production and down-to-earth people that I have come to know and love.
This is a cool thread!
Enjoying it so far. :)
Speaking as a baby boomer who is reading McFaddens' book Aging Together, "the search for a good community" is not just a matter of finding a salubrious geographic location, but also tapping into communal engagement and connecting with people who can be friends. The next time I move, I hope it will be into something like cohousing, or something that approaches Dr. Martin Luther King's ideals of the Beloved Community.
I have lived in WI, KS, TX, Upstate NY and now NV. I love northern Nevada. It has a mild 4 seasons climate and since I have been here 20 years I have lots of friends, etc. WE did move into town and downsize 5 years ago and it is nice to live in a walkable neighborhood. We are also about 45 min's to the mountains. So we will not be moving.
I absolutely LOVE it here on the Seattle Eastside, and it would feel like ripping off a limb to leave here, but most of my friends and family live in Oregon, and as I'm getting older...Ideally, they'd all just move up here, but practically speaking, that's a no-go.
I've been revisiting my old condo complex lately. I found a nice updated 2br 2bath unit a few weeks ago. If I weren't so risk-averse, I would have just made a down payment and started scrambling to get this house sold.
Attachment 1967
Massachusetts is home but it would be nice to be in a town with a municipal utility.
I found both Toronto and South Florida congested and overpriced. I remember a little about Charlottesville and its racist climate and was not surprised by its recent violence. It"s important to me to live in a progressive area.
That is really tempting and cute. Is it calling you to come home?
Quote:
Originally Posted by JaneV2.0
Pipe dreamin' place I would live: Tel Aviv!
Somewhat realistic place I would live? Florida or the Left Coast, probably up in the PNW.
The thing about where I live now -- Columbus, OH -- is that it is just a solid place to live. The economy is good. While the winters are cold they are not nightmares most of the time. Housing is still reasonably affordable compared to other major cities. There is a fair amount of bike lanes and the people are mostly nice folks here, though rather provincial. I have a stable job here, my sister and her family is here. I could go on and on -- nice metro parks!
But ultimately, I don't want to live out my days here.
Amen!Quote:
Originally Posted by Yppej
This is a cool idea, and in my opinion, when done well, it can be another form of social security.Quote:
Originally Posted by dado potato
It is evasive and elusive though. Here in ColumbOhio I was part of, and in some senses a leader, in an group that was trying to put together a co-housing, cooperative living community. We met for a year, watch documentaries, had guests speak about there time on communes, and we checked out big houses in neighborhoods, old hotels, old apartments, etc.
What I came to realize is this:
1. It usually takes some cash! And the more complicated your dream, the more cash you need.
2. Most people come in with some wild-eyed pipe dreams about 10 families buying a city block and turning it into an ecovillage. This, in my experience, goes nowhere.
3. The other issue is that everyone is very finicky about their living space, so finicky that no one wants to live with them and they don't wanna live with no one either. All this despite their desire for communal living.
What I kept advocating for was something realistic and doable on a budget.
We find a big house, rent it, then live together with a mission statement and some reasonable ground rules. And we make a focus of the whole thing saving money and being there for each other for support.
Again: Went nowhere but Nowheresville.
Not really--though it holds up well, and Beaverton has grown into--I read somewhere--the most diverse city in Oregon, which makes it an attractive place to settle. It's more the people who are calling...:welcome:Quote:
Originally Posted by razz
I wanted to experience a lifelong dream of living in Colorado which is where we are now but alas alack, things have changed and it is not the same place I once knew when my grandparents and parents lived here. Progressive it is not and that was not really something I really gave a lot of thought to when we were looking. The place we left was innovative and fun and way too expensive so I was looking for affordable - a place we could buy a house for cash and where there was a lot of natural beauty. I love the mountains and the beautiful skies here but I so miss my home state of Texas. The food, the people, the birds, flora and fauna. But here is where I find myself now so am trying to make the best of it. I deal with homesickness a lot as I had no clue how strong ties can be to the geography and culture of the place we have spent so much of our lives. The grass is always greener somewhere else so be careful what you dream about...
Some places actually have greener grass. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by pinkytoe
Thinking about getting back together with my posse feels really good. And then I think about leaving here, and the lackluster landscape I will be inhabiting, and I'm overtaken by a sinking feeling...Quote:
Originally Posted by pinkytoe
If money were no object, and the legal paperwork were easy to get, I'd say my two choices would be Santiago, Chile, and Montevideo, Uruguay. Without going into a laundry list of complaints against the US - I will spare all by simply stating that these two places offer a lot of what I am looking for - and I like the easy access Santiago has to the mountains. Rob
Dude! Yes! Uruguay is very high on my list of places to visit!Quote:
Originally Posted by gimmethesimplelife
Just curious....what works for you about Uruguay? (I'm sure at this point we all know what works for me about Uruguay so I'll skip such) RobQuote:
Originally Posted by Ultralight
Consistently nice weather. Beaches galore. Safety. It ain't too touristy. The pace of life is reportedly way laid back. Pepe Mujica (the former and most celebrated president) is a practitioner of voluntary simplicity. They really have their values in order in ways that I admire -- renewable energy, healthcare, and enjoying life.Quote:
Originally Posted by gimmethesimplelife
And I am sure I could do some fishing too.
My son's best friend's family was deported back to Uruguay. The friend said the country is not doing well and once she was old enough she made her way back to North America, as have her two older siblings. And she did not face the language and cultural barriers most Americans would. The grass is greener indeed.
We downsized to a condo in Pasadena. Grocery store across the street, light rail one block away that will take us along with other lines to the major areas in Los Angeles. I like rural, but that would get boring to me after a while. I love variety and getting around without a car
We moved to SW Florida three years ago. We looked at many places and this looked the best. It is hot in the summer, but we just take vacations then. We thought about doing the snowbird thing, but it looked like to much trouble to me.
I lived in Kirkland/Redmond for 42 years . !4 of them was in Bridle Trails . I had a cute 1900 sq ft house with a small barn on one acre. DH and I moved to Chehalis in 2003 . I just was up there a bit ago to ride with my friend who still lives in Bridle Trails. I nearly needed a GPS to find my way around. I was shocked to see how many of the horse properties have been subdivided. My house and three others next to it was bought last year and was bull dozed to make way for a housing development . I looked up on Zillow and was shocked for what the developer paid for it.... 1 million... I should have stayed thereQuote:
Originally Posted by JaneV2.0
DH and I are at a decision point for change. We have lost two sets of friends here in our neighborhood and soon we will lose two more. Our neighborhood organization is barely functional because no one volunteers anymore, the computer crowd only knows how to type things on a keyboard, Apparently. I am tired of constant race politics in this town. Oddly, crime doesn't bother me much, and it is hard for me to know if crime is up here or if there's just a lot of noise about it. The murder rate going up here doesnt affect me much.
It would be hard for me to give up a city or even a town of size. I won't live in the country, I will not drive every time I want to go someplace.
I don't like warm weather places. I want four seasons (and I was horrified by the traffic in Florida when I visited there. ) We don't need mountains or oceans, and honestly, we are flatlanders. We like agricultural potential. Mountains and oceans are pretty, but we can visit them on vacation.
I wrestled with buying a second house in tiny Hermann, MO and decided against it, it would be just too much work and would be hard on our marriage. Hermann is very German, neat and tidy. no protestors, no riots! Haha. But most importantly it has the civic organizations I require: garden club, historical society, library, festival committees. We could easily throw ourselves into these volunteer efforts and keep busy. But it still isnt big enough to live there full time, not enough cultural things and I would have to drive too far to get to St. Louis for activities of my garden club.
So, we have to decide if we will stay here or move. We had better start cultivating new friendships if we are going to stay. While we know a lot of people, we arent terrifically close to them. And if we stay I will have to buckle down and work for our neighborhood organization in a bigger way. i have been on the Board several times but that was decades ago.
Yeah--a million dollars sure doesn't buy what it used to. :help: Bridle Trails is/was lovely. Really, I'd be hard-pressed to find an area on the Eastside that isn't outstanding. But I'm biased.Quote:
Originally Posted by boss mare
I'm pretty happy where I live now, on one of the larger islands in the San Juan Islands, which are right on the US/Canada border on the West Coast.
~22 years ago, my wife and I intentionally sought out a community to raise our daughter in. We had a complex spreadsheet looking at a variety of parameters. Important to us were a temperate climate; access to oceans, forest, and mountains; a community of involved people; low crime rate; isolation from cities/crowds but with the possibility of accessing them within a few hours' travel; local agriculture and food production; and a dozen other things.
We spent a few years investigating places - top contenders were areas in the Pacific NW, parts of California near Monterey, Montana, Colorado, Hawaii, and overseas.
We arrived here to spend a month investigating carefully the dozens of habitable islands in the county, but the day after we arrived, the ferry from the mainland crashed into the ferry dock, disabling it for a month or more, so we were sort of stuck. Watching how the community reacted to this disaster - the near-elimination of their lifeline to the mainland - quite impressed us. We bought a house here during this time, with the intent of moving here with a year or so afterwards. In reality, we moved back in just 2 months later.
We haven't regretted the decision. There are some significant problems here, as there are in any community, and the community has changed over the ~20 years we have been here - and not always for the better.
Recently we have been casting our eyes towards the Nordic nations, or just across the border to the Gulf Islands in Canada or Victoria/Vancouver BC, as some of our parameters have changed. Further-off contenders are the Channel Islands, but I have to do more on-the-ground investigation there. I would love to live in Iceland or Norway, or Canada.
As many of you know, the Green Mountain State is calling my name! Specifically, I love Burlington. It's so walkable, vibrant, lots of community, the Intervale (a huge community farming network--it was profiled in The Omnivore's Dilemma), sunsets on Lake Champlain, great restaurants, airport just 15 minutes from the center of town with sleepy TSA agents who are just WAITING for someone to come through to give them something to do, lots of things to do outside like hiking, biking on the city bike path, and thanks to Bernie, it has a beautiful city waterfront park.
Plus three of my kids live there. Who could ask for anything more?
If not Burlington, Southern Vermont is also beautiful.
I think one would certainly have had to travel more then I have, to make any kind of informed decision. I remember saying something to Sparta about the traveling bug, as we really didn't when I was a kid. (one trip to Iowa, gave my allergies and asthma such fits, I changed the trip)
Other then jaunts into KS and AR, I haven't even been to most of this state, let alone others.
A friend asked me the other day, how long have I lived, where I live. I told him and his jaw dropped, as it was my age. I've been to other area's of the metro, and know even in the good area's, bad things happen and a lot of times people have no idea what is going on around them. So I may very well, just end up back here, if I did travel, out of comfort.
I try to think of living somewhere else. I traveled a lot when I was younger but settled in to a generational farm operation and now it is hard to even think of moving. Periodically I ask my husband where he would like to live someday when he retires and he always says ‘right here’. My choice would be the mountains of North Carolina.
Yesterday, at work, I ran into someone from another department. She is about 28. She has been working for OSU for about 5 years -- really nice gal.
Anyway, we started talking in the hallway, then on the elevator ride, etc. on our way back to our areas of work (which are next to each other).
I asked her: "So are you doing life without parole here?"
She said: "No... no way. I love the ocean and beaches too much! I want to move to somewhere near the ocean."
But she also told me she grew up two hours from Columbus in a small city and that she went to college in a small town about an hour from Columbus.
My point was that she hasn't left yet. Then I got the distinct feeling that despite her love for oceans and beaches and her expressed desire to leave Ohio she never would. She is a lifer.
I think that some folks have something in their personality to just up-and-leave and try some place new -- very new. And others are like alligators. They never leave their swamp.
Now, I think there are good things to be said for both the leavers and the stayers. But I am curious about the stayers who exist in a perpetual state of wanting to be leavers.
Interesting point. My ancestors go back 300 years to the founding of the town in CT that I grew up in. My brother still lives there and will never leave. Lived there every day of his life except for the few years he was in the Air Force.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultralight
I've lived here in the same house in NJ for 32 years (doesn't seem possible). Yes, the muck of the swamp has a grip on my ankles, but I have faith that I'll be able to pull free and fly away. I sometimes get warm fuzzy feelings thinking about living in CT again, but I would rather be near my kids. Of course, my kids could always cut loose and leave Vermont, but I know that one of them is probably now a lifer. He just loves his life up there, his wife was born and raised there, and he is of the temperament to not rock the boat. My DD will probably get itchy feet.
My #2 choice would be to move back to the Connecticut shoreline. I may have thought I was a bit more adventurous, but I know myself well enough now that I will never leave the Northeast.
I've lived in Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles, and am currently in a small city in southeast Wisconsin. When I've reached the point where jobs are not an issue, we will most likely move to a small city in northeast or western Wisconsin. I like four seasons. Even winter serves a purpose: it keeps out the riffraff and maybe also gives you more time to slow down and reflect. I like the culture here too. I think you see less of the desperate status anxiety here than you do in other parts of the country. Few people seem interested in keeping anywhere weird or or funky or faux-bohemian. Outside a few enclaves in Madison and Milwaukee, people tend not to wear their politics on their sleeves. I like that.
One of the nice things about Wisconsin is that there's a lot of variation in the terrain. You can see bluffs, forest, great and small lakes, rivers, green rolling hills, prairie and farmland in the same weekend car trip. There are village squares on the New England pattern, repurposed industrial and port cities, quiet college towns and farming communities. There are at least a dozen places here I wouldn't mind living in. I tried to interest my wife in building an underground or earth berm house in the side of a hill with a terrific view, but she "refused to live like a badger". Ideally, we'd like a small house in one of the cities with a cabin or cottage within a couple of hours drive. That's probably still within financial reach here.
And don't get me started on the cheese.
I like many things about Northern midwest states, but I have said : we arent moving back to snow land ever again! Still, it has attraction. New Hampshire is very attractive even though I have not been there. The winters, though....Two of our friends will be moving there, independantly.Quote:
Originally Posted by LDAHL
I love Iowa City and know there are other college towns of 50,000+ that we would probably like and there are always scads of cultural things taking place in college towns. But any student protesting, and probably student centered culture, might bug me too much.
There are so many things I like about Missouri, my adopted state. Due to the Mississippi river it has several very old settlements and they are interesting. It just has a richer and varied history than my home state of Iowa, and even the topography is. Ore interesting with The Ozarks and mighty Mississippi.
I think we all know people who stay where they are despite a (sometimes very public) longing to be elsewhere. Sometimes the pull is provided by a lack of finances, sometimes by familial obligations (caring for an elderly parent, etc.). But many (most?) times I believe it's that it's far easier to express the interest than it is to plan the logistics of a big move and to find a new place to live, miss family and old friends, work at making new friends, learn which radio and TV stations have the programming you like, investigate new grocery and hardware stores, etc. It takes emotional energy and that sometimes can be in short supply.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultrallight
I live in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and am happy to be here.
Winters can be tough -- whenever I think of living elsewhere it's usually in the middle of a long gray February -- but, as LDAHL mentioned, it keeps the riff-raff out. :) Enjoying four seasons is important; it really would warp time for me if the only weather change were that a few months were more rainy than others. I also don't do so well in heat and humidity. 90-degree days here typically can be counted on the fingers of two hands. The snow is measured in feet (usually 4-5 feet a winter) but we dress for it and have the tools we need (snowplows, snowblowers, winter tires, etc.) to manage it better than places further south.
I like it here. I like the seasons. I like having the benefits of an urban area without enduring the extremely high density of larger metro areas. I like that urban Minnesota is quite progressive (though the rest of the state is not quite so progressive). I like living somewhere with a growing economy. I can identify with the largely-Nordic/German cast to the demographics here. Though taxes are relatively high here, I do see what they're buying (something I did not see in my native New York). Though some Minnesotans are quite xenophobic about some of the newest ethnic groups moving here, I am proud that many Minnesotans were concerned enough about the welfare of groups like the Hmong and eastern Africans (Somalians, Eritreans, etc.) to have done the work to offer those groups refuge here and to help them get established.
Interestingly, most people I know here have iived here their entire lives. Even those who leave for university or a job promotion aim to come back. Sometimes living someplace one's entire life implies an insularity. Indeed, I find that the Minnesotans who complain the loudest about life in Minnesota typically have not lived anywhere else to provide a comparison (good or bad). But I think it speaks well of life here that folks can move elsewhere, sometimes for decades, and want to come back.
If I lived somewhere else? Seattle has always been tempting, but I think that entire area is becoming a victim of its own success, with a growth rate that has outstripped the ability of infrastructure to keep up. Portland, maybe, though I've only been there a time or two and I see some of the Seattle experience there. What I've seen and heard about Sweden and Norway interests me, but not seriously enough to even consider a move. What would be more likely would be moving to a smaller city with a good-sized university there, like Duluth, Rochester (MN), or Ames, Iowa. A little less of what I like about the Twin Cities but probably still enough.
Some long-time friends of DW's (now my friends as well) have long talked about co-housing. I notice the requirements changing from when the topic first came up a decade ago. A third- or fourth-ring suburb was the ideal choice for the "compound" before; now I hear that proximity to mass transit is a requirement because, well, we're all getting older and who wants to get stuck in some outer-ring suburb because driving is difficult in the ice and the dark? The general plan has been to have rooms for each couple off a common kitchen/dining/living area, but discussion gets bogged down by the fact that some of us will be able to get there sooner than others but the financial arrangements would have to come early. A cooperative form of housing seems to be the best approach, though that leaves the issue of what happens when one couple sells -- who moves in? The idea is co-housing with these folks, not just co-housing in general. As Ultralight mentioned, it's tough to arrange the details.
My roots in this country go back to New England and Virginia. I've lived or visited several of the places where I later found I had ancestors, such as Massachusetts, Virginia, Vermont, and the Cherokee Nation of North Carolina. I have loved them all and felt recognition of the place at some cellular level. I think if the kids were not in the equation, I would live in Bennington, Vermont,and summer down in Southern Coastal Georgia, where I was born.
But those grandchildren--Ireally, really want to be in their lives. They are such a blessing.
ETA: oh , if I couldalso live outside of this country,then Yorkshire or Lucerne.
I like the area I live in. I like my little cabin in the woods, I like my access to the lakes within minutes. I'd probably be more interested in staying here if I had more friends (people tend to move in and out of this area).
I wouldn't mind moving home to the farm (5 hours north of me). My brother and I will inherit it but I doubt he'd move back from OR, he'd come home for spring and fall hunts.
If I could pick anywhere and had an unlimited budget....outside of Santa Fe. I look forward to going out there 1 to 2 times a year and haven't had my fill yet. I lived there in '85 and have wanted to return since.
I cannot emphasize especially to older folks how difficult a big move is. Looking back on ours, I am amazed we got through it at all. The remembrance of culling stuff, leaving our house 0f 15+ years for the last time, driving 800 miles with two cats in a cage in the back of the car, all of it...makes me shudder now. And as mentioned, the practical aspects of finding everything again takes a toll. Recently, I read a book about the various families who left Missouri to travel west during the great expansion back in the 1800s. Traveling for weeks in wagons full of their stuff and enduring all the hardships along the way. There must be something in our DNA that propels us to continue searching for a better place. I do know there is another chapter in our future but I don't want to ponder it just yet.Quote:
it's far easier to express the interest than it is to plan the logistics of a big move and to find a new place to live
I plan to stay pretty much, the only thing that says otherwise is not buying property, and maybe I'll do that (but trust me no other decision I could possibly make has the power to ruin my finances and make my otherwise financially stable and financially quite safe existence the complete opposite than committing to buying property here - plus make life more difficult in other ways as well ... but I think A LOT more about making that crazy commitment than I do about leaving). But even though I doubt I make such a high income as to make it really a no brainer rather than a risky affair, I do wonder if I should just looking at pulling that trigger, now maybe that is a question for a financial planner.