[giselle]

JViello,
When we lived in CT, I remember hiking an old railbed during the winter, I think it was in Bolton. It was just beautiful. And we weren't alone - there were others doing the winter trek too. Once we hiked up a small hill, the trail was cleared (except for snow, of course) and you could see so far on a clear day. No traffic, of course! That got us interested in the Rails for Trails organization, which is national.

[JViello]

Originally Posted by giselle

JViello,
When we lived in CT, I remember hiking an old railbed during the winter, I think it was in Bolton. It was just beautiful. And we weren't alone - there were others doing the winter trek too. Once we hiked up a small hill, the trail was cleared (except for snow, of course) and you could see so far on a clear day. No traffic, of course! That got us interested in the Rails for Trails organization, which is national.

I've walked that trail myself, very nice! It's been expanded a bit and still growing. They are about to tie it to another 30 mile trail.

When people b*tch about the Winter - I don't get it. Yea it's not beach weather ( but even that will return as well)... get on a coat and head out to the outdoors - it's a lot of fun! Snowshoe, CC Ski, Hiking etc and if you are into powered sports, Quads, Snowmobiles (Or Snowmachines as they say further North. lol) whatever you fancy.

Nothing like ice skating on a local pond and then warming next to a bonfire and some warm liquid on a chilly day to warm up the insides.

Thanks for sharing.

[BigHouse9]

JViello -

You took the words right out of my mouth. Being outside in the winter is so much fun. I always found that the cold made people warmer in terms of how they behaved whereas the heat just makes people crazy and cranky.

Not to mention when I hear people b*tch about the snow, aside from one or 2 years that I can remember, I think we used to get about 10 storms a year. As I have posted in other places, you can put a coat on a go outside in the winter but there has been some heat here in NC where you cannot even think of going outside.

[CT-Guy]

Originally Posted by stormweary

Question: Could a person live reasonably on $38,000 a year up there?

Not wanting to sacre you off...but 38K per year is peanuts...and wont give you a quality lifestyle. I make 68K working as a software developer...my wife makes about 35K at her job...and between mortgage and car payments on out run down home in Bridgeport, we dole out roughly $3k per month!

Private schools for our two kids (public school in teh big cities (hardford, New Haven, Bridgeport) are horrible)

There are lots of rich folks in these parts...which is why my wife and kids will be relocating to NC shortly...for me jobs down that side pay the same as jobs here..i can now actually buy a brand new house ...2400 square feet for less than 250K....and send our svhools to public schools in one of the best school districts in teh nation. compare that with our current 1200 square feet home, where we pay $5K per year for prop taxes...increased utility bill, $500 per year for car taxes (2 cars ) etc

[JViello]

Originally Posted by CT-Guy

Not wanting to sacre you off...but 38K per year is peanuts...and wont give you a quality lifestyle. I make 68K working as a software developer...my wife makes about 35K at her job...and between mortgage and car payments on out run down home in Bridgeport, we dole out roughly $3k per month!

Private schools for our two kids (public school in teh big cities (hardford, New Haven, Bridgeport) are horrible)

There are lots of rich folks in these parts...which is why my wife and kids will be relocating to NC shortly...for me jobs down that side pay the same as jobs here..i can now actually buy a brand new house ...2400 square feet for less than 250K....and send our svhools to public schools in one of the best school districts in teh nation. compare that with our current 1200 square feet home, where we pay $5K per year for prop taxes...increased utility bill, $500 per year for car taxes (2 cars ) etc

If you can't survive on 103K income a year - something is wrong or you live a life the rest of us don't. Then again, you live in fairfield county.

Where I live, you don't need 100K a year to live well. 38K is tight, but it can be done up here in the Hartford metro. Not everyone is a gotta have new cars, big house, kids in private school kind of person. To each his own.

Enjoy NC and your 2400sf house. I hope it works out for you. (You do know that 2400sf generally includes garage space, doesn't have a basement and barely an attic right?) It will also be on a postage stamp in the middle of strip mall hell with clogged freeways and nightmare traffic. (Oh that's right you already live in FF County. Nevermind. )

I've lived in Charlotte NC and ran out of there with my hair on fire. Looks great on paper but wasn't for this New Englander.

Good luck.

[kd83]

Originally Posted by JViello

If you can't survive on 103K income a year - something is wrong or you live a life the rest of us don't. Then again, you live in fairfield county.

Where I live, you don't need 100K a year to live well. 38K is tight, but it can be done up here in the Hartford metro. Not everyone is a gotta have new cars, big house, kids in private school kind of person. To each his own.

Enjoy NC and your 2400sf house. I hope it works out for you. (You do know that 2400sf generally includes garage space, doesn't have a basement and barely an attic right?) It will also be on a postage stamp in the middle of strip mall hell with clogged freeways and nightmare traffic. (Oh that's right you already live in FF County. Nevermind. )

I've lived in Charlotte NC and ran out of there with my hair on fire. Looks great on paper but wasn't for this New Englander.

Good luck.

lol I like your hair on fire statement haha. Seriously tho I am moving to charlotte in May and I can understand why you feel like that about certain spots b/c they are developing outrageously in some places. Obviously you're looking at smaller properties and closer neighbors in the city but if you look at certain spots of concord, huntersville, and other surrounding towns you can find some houses that look as good as they do on paper. Jviello is that really how they measure sq ft in NC..by including garage space? In ct they only use livable space so your basement and garage dont get included unless they are furnished with rug and something else that I cant remember right now. The houses outside of atlanta and charlotte that I've been to made me go "wow" when I saw them and granted they're not rural connecticut plots of land but like I've seen you agree, to each his own. I would rlather have a smaller yard myself b/c I'm lazy and dont like yardwork. I dont make much use of my yard which is an acre right now other than letting the dogs go **** and rarely playing horsehoes in the summer. I also agree with you on the 103k salary thing. Bridgeport is more expensive but even then you should be fine on 103k. Granted I live in a cheaper part of CT but I made only 32k last year and still managed to save a good 5k of that in a savings account. I dont need a high car payment like the rest of the world and I'm not compelled to eat out and go to the movies and do expensive things all the time. It can be done, as long as you keep yourself busy with inexpensive activities and employement.

[stormweary]

for clarification: 38k would be for me alone. My kids are grown . i was looking for a ball park figure for monthly expenses assuming a mortgage/rent around 1000 and utilities and such... I also have money set aside for a down payment for a house and "emergency" needs.

kid83: thanks for explaining the square footage thing. Here in Fl. they sometimes say things like so many square feet under air Also thanks for letting me know someone can live on 32k, it can be done!!

I hear y'all about the weather but this recent storm sounds pretty icky! the biggest thing for me is driving in all that.... from what I understand after the storms they are out pretty quickly plowing the roads but having to drive in it doesn't sound like fun

[JViello]

Originally Posted by kd83

lol I like your hair on fire statement haha. Seriously tho I am moving to charlotte in May and I can understand why you feel like that about certain spots b/c they are developing outrageously in some places. Obviously you're looking at smaller properties and closer neighbors in the city but if you look at certain spots of concord, huntersville, and other surrounding towns you can find some houses that look as good as they do on paper. Jviello is that really how they measure sq ft in NC..by including garage space? In ct they only use livable space so your basement and garage dont get included unless they are furnished with rug and something else that I cant remember right now. The houses outside of atlanta and charlotte that I've been to made me go "wow" when I saw them and granted they're not rural connecticut plots of land but like I've seen you agree, to each his own. I would rlather have a smaller yard myself b/c I'm lazy and dont like yardwork. I dont make much use of my yard which is an acre right now other than letting the dogs go **** and rarely playing horsehoes in the summer. I also agree with you on the 103k salary thing. Bridgeport is more expensive but even then you should be fine on 103k. Granted I live in a cheaper part of CT but I made only 32k last year and still managed to save a good 5k of that in a savings account. I dont need a high car payment like the rest of the world and I'm not compelled to eat out and go to the movies and do expensive things all the time. It can be done, as long as you keep yourself busy with inexpensive activities and employement.

Yea don't get me wrong Charlotte had it's good parts too, I guess I'm just sick of hearing the same old consumerism mindset where nothing is "good enough" and we need bigger bigger bigger badder more more more...

The traffic in Charlotte (I lived in the Mathews area) was simply out of control. It took me 45 minutes to go less than 10 miles to work in the BOA building downtown. I used to pull my hair out.

Then not having "backroads" and everything being a strip mall lined Blvd just wasn't for me. Some people are fine with it though.

I also found it to be a bit of an island. You have the city center, burbs and nothing for a long while vs an area like this where you have cities, smaller cities, towns, villages and "villes" left over from the horse and buggy days all intertwined.

It's also pretty flat. The mountains are a good hour drive away at least. No rolling hills.

As for the SF...yea the newest trick is to stick an HVAC vent in the garage and now call it "heated/cooled" space and include it.

The other thing to consider is, when you have no basement and not much if any useable (Remember all the HVAC stuff and whatnot is upstair in the attic!) attic space you NEED a 3 car garage and 4-5 bedrooms just to store things. For instance. I have a very large walkout basement in my house with windows and doors on the backside. I have a nice spacious workout room down there, am building a family room and a game room and have tons of storage down there. I have a full attic the length of the house. That means the formal dining room, 3 bedrooms, formal living room, kitchen etc can be used as intended.

If not you need an excersize room, a spare room for an office, storage etc and THEN bedrooms for kids etc.

That's what I meant by it's not all that meets the eye when you see this big house on paper and then actually live there.

Good luck on your move, if you don't like it there - remember "who says you can go home."

[JViello]

Originally Posted by stormweary

for clarification: 38k would be for me alone. My kids are grown . i was looking for a ball park figure for monthly expenses assuming a mortgage/rent around 1000 and utilities and such... I also have money set aside for a down payment for a house and "emergency" needs.

kid83: thanks for explaining the square footage thing. Here in Fl. they sometimes say things like so many square feet under air Also thanks for letting me know someone can live on 32k, it can be done!!

I hear y'all about the weather but this recent storm sounds pretty icky! the biggest thing for me is driving in all that.... from what I understand after the storms they are out pretty quickly plowing the roads but having to drive in it doesn't sound like fun

Storm, my mother survives just fine on a small rental lake cottage in Middlefield making about 25K a year. She's just winding down and enjoying her later days.

As for the snow...DON'T WATCH TV! My God, I thought the world was coming to an end! LOL They show the worst parts of upstate NY, Ohio etc and everyone thinks it's that way all over the Northeast.

Here in CT we didn't get much at all. Maybe 5 inches. The roads are clear and fine.

As for driving in it...I LOVE IT. I have more fun driving around in the snow than you can imagine. Granted I have a new full size truck but still. lol

Worst case, you have a down day where you don't go out doing things. The plow drivers make their extra money on snow storms so believe me, they are on it. lol

[kd83]

Originally Posted by JViello

Storm, my mother survives just fine on a small rental lake cottage in Middlefield making about 25K a year. She's just winding down and enjoying her later days.

As for the snow...DON'T WATCH TV! My God, I thought the world was coming to an end! LOL They show the worst parts of upstate NY, Ohio etc and everyone thinks it's that way all over the Northeast.

Here in CT we didn't get much at all. Maybe 5 inches. The roads are clear and fine.

As for driving in it...I LOVE IT. I have more fun driving around in the snow than you can imagine. Granted I have a new full size truck but still. lol

Worst case, you have a down day where you don't go out doing things. The plow drivers make their extra money on snow storms so believe me, they are on it. lol

lol hell ya! last year when I had my evo and a set of blizzaks on there I looked foward to going driving in the snow haha AWD + winter tires = FUN FUN FUN!


Ya I hear the commute downtown to charlotte is rough..I was interested in working at BOA too but now I dont know maybe I'll just waiter or something haha. We have pretty much narrowed it down to concord and university area only b/c my girlfriend will be commuting everyday to UNCC as well as working full time so the 50 minute commute from matthews or south charlotte is a no go.