Possible relocation?

[Babina's Mommy]

I see this forum doesn't get a lot of traffic but what the heck, I'll try anyway. :) I was considering moving to NH or VT. I am currently living in southern New England as I have all my life. I was considering moving to somewhere in NH but possibly close to VT, as I have two second cousins in VT, in the Northeast Kingdom and it would be nice to have some sort of family nearby for us to keep regular contact with. I like the White Mountain area of NH as well.

A little background. My husband and I built our house and took out a mortgage for it back in 2006. It's a long, long story but for reasons that had to do with me getting a chronic illness and having to leave work, then me becoming a stay at home mom, and not knowing how much of a struggle it would be and my husband not really advancing in his career, we have fallen behind. A lot. Mostly in the mortgage. It's heartbreaking the way things pan out, but it just happened.

We're considering a couple of different options. One would be to claim bankruptcy and repay all the debt we owe to keep the house. The other is to sell the house or just give it back to the bank and move which is really tempting to us. Where we live is very very expensive. The taxes are through the roof for the house, almost as much as another rent, and they are not in our mortgage. The cost of living is just out of control. We don't particularly love our house, though we love our land. So we could claim bankruptcy but either I have to work or my husband has to get a second job to make the payments for it. Well we know that anything I make wouldn't even cover daycare costs. And the thought of my husband working twice as much as now and missing out on the kids is sad to think about. We just want to make a better life for ourselves and our kids 4, 2 and 7 months.

We visit NH and VT a lot and really like what we see. We see that they regularly win "best state" awards...you know, healthiest state, most livable state, richest state, etc.

Can anyone recommend anything? Similar experience? A town they recommend to live in? One thing is that we'd probably have to rent. How about jobs? In construction?

Thank you so much!

[Psmythe]

The cost of living here in Vermont can be steep too.  Definitely do your homework depending on where you narrow your search to!  We're considering moving to the St. Johnsbury VT area because housing is drastically less expensive over there compared to Burlington.  It's near Littleton NH, there's a hospital, some retail and trucking jobs.  I haven't noticed any construction jobs there, but I wasn't looking for those.  Culturally there is a lot to offer there.  There's a state college nearby in Lyndonville, St. J has a private highschool that has students from around the world, a small museum etc...  It's got some of the touches that make the North East Kingdom awesome, and some crunch, and some 'out of towner' amenities being near some resorts.

I have cousins who live in the Plymouth NH area and they love it!

I need to build some kind of chart that plots the pro's and con's here in VT.  Diversity VS Cost VS Crunchiness VS Religious Zeal VS I don't know what.  I want all of the good parts of my little home town with all of the open mindedness of Burlington.  Tricky.

[Babina's Mommy]

Thanks for the info!

It's hard to pinpoint an area and even decide on which state. My cousins are in Sheffield. It's beautiful but I know they 'rough it' in some ways too.

Here in RI we are being taxed within an inch of our lives and the economy here is just terrible.

[calapitters]

Hello from a former RI-er!  

We moved to VT from RI three years ago for similar reasons-we would NEVER have been able to afford living in a nice country-ish area there!  Though steep compared to some other parts of the country, living in VT is definitely cheaper than living in RI.  We live in the northern central part of the state, which is very touristy and a little pricier than other parts.  But we got very lucky and have super cheap rent in an awesome area.  

There are TONS of construction (at least, road construction) jobs around the southern and central parts of the state for at least another two/three years because of all the damage done to roads and structures along rivers from Hurricane Irene.  There are roads in my town that are still closed to through traffic and a tons of hiking trails are out of commission.  

In general, the school systems are better up here, too.  

Good luck!

[Babina's Mommy]

HI!! So glad to hear from you. Especially since you've been here, lived here, and experienced exactly what I am talking about! Did you live in RI all your life?

Yes. Exactly! No way could we have ever afforded this land and house in a million years except this land was given to us. The house we built wasn't, so we have a regular mortgage on that and the taxes...oh the taxes...they are in one month what a lot of the rest of the country pay in a whole year. I am on the CT line and in the woods/country...and it is nice...but not nearly nice as it is up north.

So are you technically in the Northeast Kingdom as well?

A big concern for me is internet. I need internet, and where my cousin lives...there is virtually no internet. Sometimes people use some dialup, but to my cousin, it's not worth it, so she doesn't use the internet. Ahhh. I love internet. I'm assuming you have internet, LOL.

I'm going to tell my husband what you have said about the construction, that is very good to know.

He thinks if we are going to make the move then we need to wait until spring because between now and then, no one is going to be hiring for that sort of thing.

He wants to try just a little longer to save our house in RI, but if it doesn't work, off we go...because renting a place or living in a cheaper area here in RI...well you know how that goes. I want to do what's right for us and the kids. I don't see much of a future here for us. I want to be able to do things with my kids and my husband. We want me to continue being a sahm. Kids are more important than the house. We love it up north. It all seems pretty simple when I write it out. We shall see.

Thank you again!

[calapitters]

I hope you guys are able to work things out with your house!  I grew up over the border in MA, but lived in RI for 4 years with DH, who grew up in South County.  We now live in the Washington County (there's one in VT, too) area, but more of the northern part of it and yes, we have internet :)  But, in the town 5 miles from me, there are many places that do not.  It's like that all over the state.  Lots of tiny dirt roads with houses pretty far apart on big hills. The more south or near Burlington you are, the better chance you have for an internet connection.  But places like St Johnsbury in the NEK do have internet, so it's sort of a hit or miss thing. If you're close to a city, you should be fine.  

[Koalamom]

Another mom fro the NEK. We love it here! Work can be hard to find sometimes, but I will say that it is hard to find everywhere right now. If you end up this way, post and we can all get together.

[Babina's Mommy]

Yes! We should do that! :) Good to know if I move there, there would me other MDC moms around. My cousin is a crunchy-ish mom too, but like I said, no internet for her, haha. I am almost wishing for the moving north thing to go through. We are still trying to work things out with the bank, it's still up in the air, so we'll see, but I am for the move as long as there's a job to be had and a place to live. I actually cross posted this topic in frugality and finances but it was a little less of the NH/VT angle, it was more, "Should we give up our home" type of a post.

[Babina's Mommy]

As far as work, I wonder if we'd have more luck over the line into NH? But still not be far from VT...