Berea Kentucky (Jackson, McKee: mover, home, buy)

[kimmieyky]

Originally Posted by Kichenwich

Once settled, we'll either have a good old fashioned cook-out, or meet up for a nice dinner somewhere!

Sounds good to me - looking forward to it!

Another Kentucky conversion - I love it!!

[suncoastman]

Hi everyone interested in my ( and Donna's) continuing saga regarding our search for our Dream Home in the Berea/Richmond & surrounding areas....

We just got back from Kentucky late this afternoon & I will tell everyone about it on this post tomorrow. Need time to unpack & unwind from one hectic week in travelling to & from Kentucky (12-13 hrs. each way)...BUT
I WILL say one thing....We DID find our Dream House !

Will give details on Sunday....Too tired tonite for more info.

God Bless you all.

Joe ( & Donna too)

[Putty]

Joe, I have also been praying for you to find a home there in Ky. I am also searching for something there myself!

The people in Ky, and on this forum are AWESOME!

I am hoping to get back there myself in the coming months, and cannot wait to hear what u have found.

Please get some good rest, I know how that is to drive all that ways, since I have been doing that myself some.

Gnite, and God Bless

[suncoastman]

Hi again everyone. Well...this last week was really eventful for both Donna & I. We left Florida very early Mon. morning & arrived in Berea about 4PM later that day. We even got our same motel room !

Prior to our trip, we had emailed info on 6 houses to our R.E. agent that we wanted to see & to set up appointments for us. You just HAVE to have a Real Estate Agent that lives & knows the areas you are interested in, & working for you.

That being said, there was only 1 place that we really, really wanted & had visited it on our previous trip earlier in Feb. Donna & I just couldn't get that place out of our thoughts. We KNEW this was THE place we were searching for & wanted to call home...but had to be positively sure.

Just in case things didn't work out with that one, we wanted the option to look at other possibilities while we were in the area.....there are SO many nice places, culling out one from another can be a daunting proposition.

We thought we'd do a drive-by of the 6 houses in question on Tuesday before going with our agent on Wednesday for the scheduled appointments. That quickly changed Tuesday A.M. as we were drinking our coffee at Mickey D's... Our agent called & said his meeting at work was cancelled & he'd be free the whole day to drive us around the area. Naturally we said, "Let's get going...NOW."

Since we were so awe struck by the house & property we had looked at previously, we asked him to take us there & for us to look at it more thoroughly...in case we missed something or to verify it was to be OUR future home. Since it was vacant, there was no problem in going there & staying as long as we wanted. We also felt if it indeed was as we remembered, there would be no need to look at the other 6 houses. I even remembered to bring my digital camera.

As soon as we pulled in the driveway, we KNEW this was the future home of our dreams. It met all of our parameters: Fairly new; brick; 2 car attached garage; paved driveway; 3 bedrooms - 2 baths - nice kitchen w/lots of cabinets; All electric house; Decent acreage - 2 1/2 acres; Rural but not secluded. This place had it all, & then some. It has a large storage shed and a Sun Room too.

It's located at the far end of a paved Cul De Sac road & only has another 9 houses on the street...all with about 1+ acres themselves. The reason ours has over 2+ acres, was that it is on 2 lots. Another plus. They just keep on coming. It also butts up to the Daniel Boone National Forest....in beautiful Jackson County !

Jackson County you say? I know, I know. All my knowledge gathering has been about Madison County, & Berea & Richmond in particular. In fact, we almost bought a beautiful new house in Richmond....but it was too secluded.
You just have to let the Good Lord guide you....he knows what's best for us all. It is only 6 miles to McKee & 17 to Berea (20 minutes - I timed it) Not bad.

We drove back to Berea, our agent treated us to a great lunch, then we proceeded to write up our proposed offer. Since it involved 2 different R.E. Companies, & it was getting late in the day, we were advised that our bid would be submitted to the sellers agent & we'd probably hear something back the next day. What a long night that was.

Early Wednesday morning our agent called & said our bid price was rejected, but a counter-offer was made. Somewhat dissappointed by the bid rejection but uplifted by the counter proposal, we in turn, countered with another bid & stipulations....& it was ACCEPTED. Praise The Lord.

I immediately called a housing inspector to look at the place...An appointment was made for early Friday morning. My agent contacted the owner & asked if he could meet with me the next day at the house to go over some details. He agreed & we spent about 3 hours together. What a great Christian man. He not only had lived there, but he & his sons built it too. This was on Thursday.

Friday morning the house inspector arrived there about the same time I did, & spent the next 3+ hours looking everything over very thoroughly. He was amazed he couldn't find anything really wrong, & even asked me if anyone had ever lived in the place. He said I'd be hard pressed to find even a new house as well built & fault free as this one.

We close on April 30th. If our house in Florida doesn't sell by then, we will simply pack up & move to Kentucky. We'll place everything in God's hands.

Sorry for the rather rambling description of all our dealings, but I'm very excited (Ya Think?) & hope all that have followed this thread will get some info from our experience.

If I can be of any help to anyone out there, please advise. A lot of the knowledge I gathered was by Googling (Is that a word?) just about anything that came to mind; printed out all the info for ready reference; & followed through on our dream. That & all the wonderful info I got From Kimmie & Joanna & others.

Please keep Donna & I in your prayers.

God Bless you all.

Joe

[Putty]

Joe,........PRAISE GOD for he is SOOOOOO Good isn't he? U just knew it was the one, wow! I like that statement.

It is unbelievable how everything fell into place for you, but expected when u have a personal relationship with God.

I am ecstatic for you, and I can feel your excitement!

WAY TO GO JOE!

[ghog69]

Joe (and Donna )

Congradulations!! I am so happy for you both. It is nice to see good things happen to good people. It is funny, when I logged on and saw you had posted, I got a little nervous/excited just waiting to see how your trip went. It sounds like you both really knew what you wanted and were able to get it. That is always a blessing. I am shocked to hear you didn't end up where you thought you would (closer to Berea), but as you say, put your faith in God's hands and let him lead you to your new home. I am happy your week went well. I unfortunately may have hit a wall with our relocation and right now I am a little depressed. At least your news put a smile on my face. Keep us informed how things progess.

Best wishes
Steve

[margoa78]

Hi Joe and Donna
I really enjoyed reading all your info on how your week went, Congratulations, sounds just like what we are looking for, 2 + acres.
Hopefully when we fly out there we will find exactly what we are looking for also.
Good Luck to you both selling your home in Florida.
Best wish
Margaret

[suncoastman]

Originally Posted by ghog69

Joe (and Donna )

Congradulations!! I am so happy for you both. It is nice to see good things happen to good people. It is funny, when I logged on and saw you had posted, I got a little nervous/excited just waiting to see how your trip went. It sounds like you both really knew what you wanted and were able to get it. That is always a blessing. I am shocked to hear you didn't end up where you thought you would (closer to Berea), but as you say, put your faith in God's hands and let him lead you to your new home. I am happy your week went well. I unfortunately may have hit a wall with our relocation and right now I am a little depressed. At least your news put a smile on my face. Keep us informed how things progess.

Best wishes
Steve

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi Steve....I laughed when I read on your last post that YOU were nervous/excited just waiting to see how your trip went. That was funny.

On the other hand, I'm sad when I read that you may have hit a wall with your relocation. Please don't be depressed for long. Whatever problem(s) that may have appeared, just put in the Hands of The Lord. He'll be there to help you.

I know my situation is a lot different than yours, insofar as Donna & I are retired & don't have the Schools & Jobs situation to contend with. It was easier on us as to where we could live, not having those things to think about.

You & your family are in our prayers. We truly hope you can climb that 'wall' and find just the right area to live that will give you a good school & a good job.

I'll do anything in my power to help you in this project.

You aren't the only one that was shocked when we finally decided on a place in Jackson County....as virtually all our groundwork was in Madison County. As an aside, if you'd like to see what I saw about the County, you can go to this link: http://www.eastky.net/jacksonco/location.html
& the other 7 links on this page. I think you'll find it very impressive.

God Bless.

Joe

[suncoastman]

Originally Posted by margoa78

Hi Joe
Kimmiey told me that you would be a wealth of information for moving to the Berea area.
My husband and I currently reside in the High Desert of S California, his family are originally from Kentucky, me from England. We are also preparing our home to sell this Spring and retire in Kentucky. I have been looking all over for places that are quiet and private for us and our 5 dogs, approx 2 or so acres, so far have looked from Stearns, jamestown, russell springs, leitchfield, richmond and berea. I see it looks as though you will be moving also very soon to Richmond or Berea, maybe you could share your thoughts with us as we would really appeciate it. Did you find your dream home yet? I see from your post that you think you found your home?
Any way would appreciate any info from you.
Good Luck with the sale of your home in Florida
Best Regards
Margaret

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Margaret....
Here are some links concerning Berea:

http://www.snapp.net/directory (Berea Directory)
http://www.berea.com/welcome.htm (Welcome Center)
http://bereachamber.com/newcomer.htm (Newcomer info)
http://www.kytourism.com/ (Welcome to KY)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berea,_Kentucky (A lot of good info)
http://www.thinkkentucky.com/KYEDC/QualityOfLife.aspx (Living the good life)


Copy & paste these into your browser. There is a wealth of info on all these.

God Bless

Joe

[Kichenwich]

I am SO happy for u 2! There's nothing like finding that place that's "just right", and it sounds like you did just that. Of course, we would have been glad to have you here, too. You are now a Jackson-tonian!LOL

But, seriously, I am sure you'll love it there. Did you buy in the Big Hill area or Clover Bottom section? There's a creek not too far into Jackson called Indian Creek that is full of trout. You'll have to test your fly fishing skills! When you and Donna settle, and are looking for something to do, check out S-Tree tower. My hubby's family held their reunion there for many years. It's part of the DB forest, with amazing views and hikes. I'm not sure if the old fire look-out is still standing. It was the last time we went.

There's also the String-Bean festivel held there (you'll have to ask around for the day) which has some of the best bluegrass/bg gospel around. People come from all over the nation to this. I remember going once, quite a few years back. It was wild to hear those banjos and mandolins echoing around the mountains. You all are in for a treat!

All the best ~joanna~