Escaping the People's Republic of California (Lexington, Louisville: real estate, houses, buying)

[Allinodad]

Hello all,

We are a family of four (husband, wife, 12 year old daughter, 10 year old son) who are ready to leave the lunacy of this place for a slower, more community oriented place to call home.

We originally were looking somewhere south of 36°30' but the homeschooling laws were too restrictive and we thought Kentucky was close enough culturally .

After some initial research we have decided to concentrate our search between Russellville and Russell Springs and south of Elizabethtown because that's where it seems to have the best land price/weather combination for our family. We are looking to farm our land and homeschool our children so being in town is not an option for us. However, we would like to be within 20 minutes or so of the convenience of the staples of town/city life, eg., Home Depot, TSC, Wal Mart.

Our plan is to buy some land ( >15 ac/< $40 k)and build ourselves unless we find a deal on house with acreage we just can't pass up (< $100 k) so we can finish raising our family in a farming environment.

The one question I seem to not be able to find an answer to is, "are there many churches for those of the reformed tradition in this area?". There seem to be many churches here but a number of them don't have websites with their statement of faith on it so it is difficult to discern from 2000+ miles away.

Any comments as to our choice of this area are welcomed both positive and negative for when we make our trip out there this spring we would like to consolidate our searching to some specific areas in Kentucky so if you have recommendations you think we may be overlooking fire away.

Thank you for your input and God Bless.

[beilart]

I live in Russell Springs and love it here. We are out by the lake, however. I have no idea what a "reformed tradition" church is but Russell County has about 17k people and over 100 churches so you can probably find some church to your liking. You might want to be sure you can live in a rural area, near the lake, no place to shop, no malls, lots of farmland. If you are used to having lots of places to choose from for shopping, Russell County is not the place for you. There is a KMart and and Krogers here for groceries. There are some deals to be had on houses but I think finding something with 15 acres and a house will be difficult for 100k, depends on whether or not you can live with a fixer upper. There is a place down the road from us that has 7 acres and a neat looking house on it for about that amount. Wal Mart and Lowes are about 30 minutes away in Somerset, KY. There is no Home Depot here that I know of. The hospital here is really good and the people are friendly if you are friendly. Hope this helps.

[Crazee Cat Lady]

I'm not sure what a reformed Church is either, but many people home school their children in Kentucky.
Statistics bear out that they usually test out better when home schooled or even sent to Private schools, last I checked.
Just be prepared for a bit of cultural shock. Real Estate is usually much less expensive here than in many other parts of
America. Welcome to Kentucky.

[censusdata]

Spent my early childhood in and around Russell Springs. Very nice small town. There isn't a ton of shopping unless you want to drive to Somerset (30 mi), Lexington (75 mi) or Bowling Green (75 mi) although you do have the basics there. There aren't a lot of good paying jobs down there, but then a again the cost of living is lower too. Houses down there are insanely cheap compared to Louisville or Lexington,and houses in those "cities" are cheap compared to CA

[beachestoboers]

Hi! We basically did just what you are wanting to do almost 4 years ago. We moved from the craziness of South Florida to Somerset, KY. We live about 10 miles out of Somerset. We purchased a large piece of acreage in the price range you were looking to buy at. We homeschooled in FL when our kids were younger but now they're both college aged, but there is a good homeschool support system here. We are about 20 minutes from most of the stores you mentioned, yet out far enough that we have room to do whatever we want.
I'm not exactly sure about the reformed churches but there are many very modest families and what seem to be family integrated churches around. I'm sure you'd find something that would work for you.
Feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions that I can help you with.

[NativeKY]

Everything in life is a trade off, they say. If you get within a reasonable drive of Lexington or Louisville, expect to pay a premium (by our standards) for the land. I live 23 minutes from Bluegrass Airport in Lexington, and inherited quite a bit of acreage. The land I inherited is valued at $9,000 an acre. There's no way I could afford to buy the farm now, as I inherited almost a hundred acres.

Go one county further away from Lexington (just enough to nudge commute time over the one hour mark) and suddenly, land is cheaper (think $1,500 per acre or less). As with all places, proximity to an urban center drives up land values.

If I were moving here now, and buying property, I'd gladly buy out in the undeveloped areas, the boondocks, just to get more land for my money. But, that's my value set, and may not reflect yours...

Mercer County (where I live) is wonderful. I consider it the perfect medium, 20 odd minutes to the airport (and the edge of Lexington) but removed from clutter, noise, and neighbors. The people out here are the very best. : )