Looking into Excelsior Springs, Liberty, Pleasant Valley area. (St. Louis, Gladstone: how much, buying a house)

[thunderhead]

We are considering moving to the Northland area to semi-retire in 2-5 years. Would like to live in a house secluded enough to see the Milky Way on clear nights, but within 20 minutes of Liberty.

I love to garden: vegetables, flowers, and some landscaping. How well do the weather and the bugs cooperate for these interests? Prone to droughts? Grasshopper plagues? High winds?

Also enjoy hiking and camping, but see few options in the area. Please prove me wrong.

What are the most common problems in maintaining a home?

[northbound74]

Pretty much everything grows well in this region, at least as much as the length of the growing season will allow. Droughts aren't too common, but do occur. It's certainly not a dry climate. It does get very windy at times, but I don't know how much that would affect your gardening.

I haven't had any problems with my 50 year-old house, but keeping water away from your home seems so to be a concern, especially in the lower-lying areas. A sump pump is a must if you have a basement. Those high winds occasionally uproot trees, and cause roof damage, or might even blow the gutters or siding off or at least damage them. If those are in good shape to begin with, you shouldn't have any problem with them.
Our house had termite damage at some point before we bought it, but once it's treated, there doesn't seem to be too much of a problem with that.

Ahh, hiking and camping. KC's weakest link. There's several state parks in the area with campgrounds, some not far at all from that area you're considering. They have walking trails around lakes and the like, but I wouldn't exactly call it hiking.

The area around or just outside of Liberty is a very good place to look for what you're wanting. It seems to be one of the more isolated parts of the metro, and there's plenty of open spaces just outside of town. The best part is, I doubt the city would encroach on you anytime soon out there, especially if you find the right spot.

[Samantha S]

I think you will find many good options that fit your description.

It would help to know from where you are coming though.

[thunderhead]

Originally Posted by Samantha S

I think you will find many good options that fit your description.

It would help to know from where you are coming though.

We are coming from Alaska. It's been a great adventure for 21 years, but time to find some less extreme weather and be closer to services, health care, our grown children, etc. We lived in Topeka awhile, and I lived in St. Louis awhile, so the midwest is not completely new.

[Samantha S]

Originally Posted by thunderhead

We are considering moving to the Northland area to semi-retire in 2-5 years. Would like to live in a house secluded enough to see the Milky Way on clear nights, but within 20 minutes of Liberty.

I love to garden: vegetables, flowers, and some landscaping. How well do the weather and the bugs cooperate for these interests? Prone to droughts? Grasshopper plagues? High winds?

Also enjoy hiking and camping, but see few options in the area. Please prove me wrong.

What are the most common problems in maintaining a home?

We do see wide swings in the weather, but overall it's not too bad. Since you are familiar with Topeka and St. Louis, it's the same type of weather patterns. We see all four seasons, although the worst of the winters and the summers are not usually more than a few weeks long.

Are you looking for acreage? Or just a large lot? You can find both within 20 minutes of Liberty. If you want a suburban life with a nice big lot, you will find lots of good options in and around Liberty, Gladstone is nice too. If you want more of a small town, you could check out towns like Plattsburg or those around Smithville, like Gower or Trimble. It just depends on how secluded you want to be. Small town living is different than suburban living, so be careful to be sure you are getting the lifestyle you want if you have not lived in a small town before.

And you can find camping and hiking in the area. There are lots of small lakes to explore.

[kcmo]

I would look into Kearney.

But rural Clay County is quickly being developed with large lot developments. Most of the houses going in between Liberty and Kearney are on massive lots and cost over 500k. Anything west of Liberty is going to be suburban on a small lot and if it's rural now, don't count on it being that way in ten years. The areas north and west of Liberty are projected to gain an additional 50,000 residents over the next ten years.

So try Kearney, and areas around Smithville lake north of 435 and east of 169. There would be quite a few places in that area that would fit what you want and it would be much closer to recreational activities than say Excelsior Springs which isn’t really near anything. That’s why is stopped growing about 40 years ago, not to mention I-35 bypassed it. But Excelsior Springs does have some nice small town historic homes if you like that sort of thing.

[Samantha S]

Originally Posted by kcmo

I would look into Kearney.

Kearney! Thank you! That's the other little town I was trying to think of.

Similar and close to Plattsburg. But both are pretty much bedroom communities. Not a lot in terms of local commerce. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but for most of your shopping and eating out, you will have to venture South to Liberty, NKC, etc.

[kcmo]

Plattsburg? Huh? I had to look that one up. That place makes Kearney look big and it looks like it's 40 minutes from Liberty .

Kearney is a fast growing outer exurb, similar to Gardner, Platte City, Grain Valley etc. Major retail etc is coming there. Plattsburg is a tiny farming town far away, although it appears to be close to the northern portions of Smithville Lake.

Maybe you were thinking of Platte City? Platte City would actually be closer to Liberty than Plattsburg.

I just thought I would help you out Samantha .

[northbound74]

Plattsburg is actually a neat little town. There's not much to it, but it was surprising how well the little downtown area was kept up. It's at the northern tip of the Smithville reservoir, and is also the county seat, I believe. It is a bit further out but not too much so, and there's no chance any major development would encroach anytime soon. Seems like it's within the 20 minute range of Liberty, certainly not much more if any.

[Samantha S]

Originally Posted by kcmo

Plattsburg? Huh? I had to look that one up. That place makes Kearney look big and it looks like it's 40 minutes from Liberty .

Kearney is a fast growing outer exurb, similar to Gardner, Platte City, Grain Valley etc. Major retail etc is coming there. Plattsburg is a tiny farming town far away, although it appears to be close to the northern portions of Smithville Lake.

Maybe you were thinking of Platte City? Platte City would actually be closer to Liberty than Plattsburg.

I just thought I would help you out Samantha .

No I meant Plattsburg, for the reasons northbound74 gave. I get up that way with some frequency (we seriously considered buying a house in Plattsburg at one time, it's a nice little town) and know people who live there who commute to Liberty. It's about a 25 minute drive. But thanks for the "help"