Good morning all!
I've been wading through the coastal threads because I've narrowed my forever home to the coastal Carolina area. I've posted before, in the general threads, but that was before I truly decided where I wanted to move after retirement. My background - I'm a divorced mother of 2, daughter is in the Army reserves as an operating room tech, currently deployed. My son is in the Marine reserve, actually currently at Courthouse Bay for the summer, and has one more year of college. I don't expect either child to move with me, but one never knows. They aren't big into social nightlife so not a requirement. Plus that's on them
. I was born at Camp Lejeune, and have wanted to move to NC for many years. Actually, I've just wanted to move from the VA winters, but since my folks are still here, NC is my compromise. I'm still working on getting them to move to the same area I settle in, but it's a work in progress. I'm not a partier, although I like the occasional drink, so not a teetotaler. Just don't like going out to party. I'm looking for a nice neighborhood/subdivision that has small lots, sidewalks to walk my small dog, water because he and I like to go out on our sit on kayak (not the white water variety - my current subdivision has a couple of small man made lakes - we like to go out and paddle around). We are NOT serious kayakers, but love to piddle. I love taking him to our local historic downtown to walk and maybe get a bite to eat outside (so he can be with me) if possible. Problem is that area is over 20 minutes away, and I don't like having to drive that far just to walk around. I'm looking for a single story home with 3/2, and a small backyard that is either fenced in or am allowed to fence in so that he can play around outside. We are right now sitting out on our front porch while I'm surfing the web and looking at places. HOA's don't bother me, because I currently live in an HOA community.
I'm very drawn to the New Bern area, but am totally open to other areas in that part of NC. I'm looking at $150K - no more than $200K. I currently live in a wooded community, which is nice, but we don't have sidewalks and the people drive like they are fleeing a fire so can be a little dangerous. Speed limit is 25 but I think I'm the only one that drives that.
I am actually coming down to NC in 2 weeks on my vacation to look around. Initially, I was looking at three different areas - New Bern, Salisbury, and Oxford. Unfortunately, I had already made non-refundable hotel reservation in Salisbury, and have since decided it's probably too close to the mountains and too far away from the water. And I've totally decided that Oxford is too close to VA, which means more winter than I want. I will go ahead and go to Salisbury and spend a few days, and may just drive around Oxford for the day as I'm driving home. I'll be in New Bern for about 4 days, so will have plenty of time to do some initial looks at several areas. I've talked to my daughter about taking a few days to visit when she gets back from deployment, which should be in the Jan/Feb timeframe. I'd like to see what the winter feels like also. I won't need a job after I retire, but I would love to either get a part time job to get me out of the house, and/or volunteer work, especially with animals. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
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