Husband and I are thinking of moving...to IDAHO! Shocker (Sandpoint: how much, house)

[atjedimom]

Toyman,
Thank you. You touched upon the questions I was trying to ask.

If we don't want to buy right away are there places to rent out of town? Places that are not vacation homes?

Maybe a better questions is is there an website I can look to find rentals that is not realtor.com?

I am enjoying reading real people's perspectives. Thank you.

[Toyman at Jewel Lake]

Originally Posted by atjedimom

Toyman,
Thank you. You touched upon the questions I was trying to ask.

If we don't want to buy right away are there places to rent out of town? Places that are not vacation homes?

Maybe a better questions is is there an website I can look to find rentals that is not realtor.com?

I am enjoying reading real people's perspectives. Thank you.

There are rentals in the rural areas, but I don't have any real recommendations as to who to try. You might google "property management" in CDA. I did rent a vacation home (off season, SE-early MY) first year out here. If you do so off-season you can find some good deals (well...20 years ago you could, maybe not now).

If you get the chance, come on out on vacation and get a feel for the area. I love it here-take it for granted and see the negative too much after a few decades though. But reading some new-comers posts brings it all back into perspective.

One thing I would add after re-reading your OP. Winter days do get "oppressive" due to the short daylight hours. It's not dawn till ~7:00 or later and dark around 4:00-4:30 in late December. Bummer when you're working and go in and get out in the dark. Weekends make up for a lot of that though. And winter daylight hours in your area aren't that much longer.

[Cnynrat]

Our home on 20 ac. was rented by the prior owners before we bought it, and we continued to rent it until close to when we were ready to move here, so yes it's definitely possible to find homes for rent in the rural parts of NID.

I'll second Toyman's suggestion that you check on various property manager's websites. I know Sandpoint Property Management has listings of homes for rent in the general Sandpoint area, but there are other property managers that operate out of Sandpoint, and I'm sure others in CdA as well. The downside of this approach is all the listings won't be consolidated in a single location, but will only show up on the site of the property manager the owner of the property has selected.

You might also set up a search on Craig's List since many people advertise properties for rent there also.

Dave

[atjedimom]

I am soaking in all the info guys. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions.

[atjedimom]

I thought of another question. what is the price of a ton of coal? I see that a lot of people prefer to heat with wood, but is there an availability to buy coal to heat with?

[javatom]

Originally Posted by atjedimom

I thought of another question. what is the price of a ton of coal? I see that a lot of people prefer to heat with wood, but is there an availability to buy coal to heat with?

The 1860's called. They want their heat system back.

[mistyriver]

Originally Posted by atjedimom

I thought of another question. what is the price of a ton of coal? I see that a lot of people prefer to heat with wood, but is there an availability to buy coal to heat with?

I've never heard of anyone heating with coal out here. In fact, I don't think I've heard of anyone heating with coal since my cousins were shoveling coal into their coal furnace in PA in the early 70's.

We opted not to be tied to wood so have individual (and beautiful!) Jotul ivory propane log stoves in each room the main room has an Irish Waterford) The cabin grew a little at at time so it worked out well for us and we love sleeping by firelight. Also nice to have each stove on individual thermostats.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by mistyriver

I've never heard of anyone heating with coal out here. In fact, I don't think I've heard of anyone heating with coal since my cousins were shoveling coal into their coal furnace in PA in the early 70's.

We opted not to be tied to wood so have individual (and beautiful!) Jotul ivory propane log stoves in each room the main room has an Irish Waterford) The cabin grew a little at at time so it worked out well for us and we love sleeping by firelight. Also nice to have each stove on individual thermostats.

I'm going to purchase one of those for my living room's gas fireplace.
I have a huge Fisher as a wood-burner backup on downstairs, but it's too big. I plan to replace it with a little Jodul woodburner that will fit inside the now-unused built-in fireplace and get it out of the middle of a room that is presently almost unusable.

I don't know what a former owner was thinking when he bought the Fisher. It's one of their biggest, and was intended to heat a big open space like an entire cabin. the room it's in doesn't allow the hte massive heat it puts out to be distributed throughout my house, and the thing doesn't heat worth a damn unless it has a full load.

It was a very expensive mistake, for sure. Might be almost as expensive if I have to go rent a cutting rig and cut it up just to get it through the door. The stove has enough steel in it to make 10,000 jack knives.

And they burn so dirty I break the law every time I light it up.

[mistyriver]

Originally Posted by banjomike

I'm going to purchase one of those for my living room's gas fireplace.
I have a huge Fisher as a wood-burner backup on downstairs, but it's too big. I plan to replace it with a little Jodul woodburner that will fit inside the now-unused built-in fireplace and get it out of the middle of a room that is presently almost unusable.

I don't know what a former owner was thinking when he bought the Fisher. It's one of their biggest, and was intended to heat a big open space like an entire cabin. the room it's in doesn't allow the hte massive heat it puts out to be distributed throughout my house, and the thing doesn't heat worth a damn unless it has a full load.

It was a very expensive mistake, for sure. Might be almost as expensive if I have to go rent a cutting rig and cut it up just to get it through the door. The stove has enough steel in it to make 10,000 jack knives.

And they burn so dirty I break the law every time I light it up.

That does seem to be a common mistake. Too much heat is about as bad as too little.
We do have a beautiful Waterford wood cook stove in case of a propane emergency but those gas stoves put out a nice soft heat. We love them. And we don't have to worry about putting up firewood every summer...just hay.

Though we do have the old loafing shed chock full of nice seasoned firewood if needed.

[Toyman at Jewel Lake]

Originally Posted by mistyriver

That does seem to be a common mistake. Too much heat is about as bad as too little.
We do have a beautiful Waterford wood cook stove in case of a propane emergency but those gas stoves put out a nice soft heat. We love them. And we don't have to worry about putting up firewood every summer...just hay.

Though we do have the old loafing shed chock full of nice seasoned firewood if needed.

There is something to be said for that. Guess what I'm doing this weekend??? Could be worse-with the tractor to haul it and a hydraulic splitter the manual labor is fairly low...still a bit time consuming though...when I'd rather be riding!