Do you miss massachusetts? (Boston, Braintree: renting, townhome, buying)

[puffle]

Originally Posted by webfootma

This was an interesting thread to read. I went to college in Boston in the laste 70's. LOVED it. Loved everything about Boston, being a student in Boston, etc. I came from Philly and was SO glad to get out of there. But as soon as I'd graduated, I left for the west coast. I guess I felt as though I didn't belong there, once I was no longer a student. I lived in the Bay Area and the Pacific NW as well as some other places in the west for almost 20 years. Then we came back 10 years ago. My husband loved visiting here (he's a west coast native) and when offered a job here, jumped at it. While I haven't minded it here--we found a great little town with a wonderful school system and the kids seem happy here--my husband HATES it here. For the past 2 years we've talked about leaving. We kept throwing different areas on the table: Seattle--would go back in a NY minute--never wanted to leave, but it's so expensive and congested now. Portland--pretty much the same thing. San Francisco: Not with kids. And talk about expensive! And so on. The place that kept coming up over and over again was Raleigh, NC. So we put feelers out. I immediately got some strong bites--even 2 job offers that I turned down. I'm on job #3 interview now and this one feels really right. I was in NC a few weeks ago, I've been phone interviewed to death and I have another in person interview coming up.

Here's the rub though. My oldest is in high school and I'm SO conflicted about moving him. And I don't handle change very well myself. Even though I know I wouldn't miss too much about MA, just the thought of yet another relo (and they're all corporate relos so we're talking a pretty easy move) makes me want to throw up. I wish I could fast forward the clock and have us all down there and settled.

Reading this thread offered some interesting perspective. thanks!

Not that you are asking, but couldn't you wait a few more years until he graduates before you move? This is the worst time in a kids life to yank him out of school and whatever niche he has found and for what...change of scenery or more money? I speak from painful experience, for what it is worth. Wish you the best though.

[surfingatwork]

Originally Posted by Lisa_from_Debary

NOW I am missing Massachusetts even more. I am 40 now but still in contact with the people I went to grade school with in South Lancaster, if you can believe it. We have been exchanging emails, many of them still live in the area...they are planning a meet up for the 30th of June which is what they do whenever someone from out of town is in the area..

One of my best friends has moved out of the area and is spending a couple weeks down on Martha's Vineyard and will finish up her stay at this meet up...can you think of anything nicer then a couple weeks on the Vineyard??

We have been catching up, sending around new pictures of our families and I have been scanning old pictures from grade school and sending them out...amidst loud protests from some who would rather forget the hair and clothes of the 70s...

One of these days I am going to load my car on the auto train...ride it all the way to Baltimore...its a pretty reasonable drive from there to South Lancaster...

I want to walk up Kilborne Hill again...you can see for SO far from there...there are so many people and places I want to visit...Mount Waschusett where I first learned to ski in grade school. There was a restaurant called The Old Mill up off route 2 above Leominster that was a gorgeous setting no matter the weather, the wheel was always going and ducks and geese on the pond around the whole place.

I used google satelite images to see the houses I used to live in, its surprising how much is the same...I had expected to see more homes built on the vacant land.

My closest and dearest friends are my childhood friends and high school friends. I've known some of my friends for over 30 years. My dh and I are planning to move to ENC (just waiting on the job) and I know I'm going to miss family and friends and my home (the first home dh and I bought). Oh The Old Mill is still there and just as beautiful (and the food is great).

[avalugg]

I know live in Atlanta and sometimes I do miss Mass. I don't think I would want to live there again, but I do like to visit.

[findingmesomeday]

Originally Posted by puffle

Not that you are asking, but couldn't you wait a few more years until he graduates before you move? This is the worst time in a kids life to yank him out of school and whatever niche he has found and for what...change of scenery or more money? I speak from painful experience, for what it is worth. Wish you the best though.

Yes, it's a real problem. And I'm working on maybe having him finish out up here. If my husband has to stay behind until he finds work and my son works in NH again all summer as he is doing this summer, then I just need to find someone or maybe 2 families he can live with his senior year. The problem with waiting, if we decide to go, is that once he graduates, my next one is in 10th grade. And so on. I have 3 kids.

[puffle]

Originally Posted by webfootma

Yes, it's a real problem. And I'm working on maybe having him finish out up here. If my husband has to stay behind until he finds work and my son works in NH again all summer as he is doing this summer, then I just need to find someone or maybe 2 families he can live with his senior year. The problem with waiting, if we decide to go, is that once he graduates, my next one is in 10th grade. And so on. I have 3 kids.

Again, do you have to take the relo or do you want to? We have moved every year since 2002 to try to do better financially since my husband insists on working for himself. That means my son has been uprooted and changed schools as well. He handled all of the moves just fine until we moved back to where he spent the first 8 years of his life and found after trying to make a go of it, that is was just to expensive and my husband's work suffered. Now we are hopefully, temporarily living at my sister-in-laws house while she is in India to save money and to hopefully move on back to the East Coast again. Here is my rub, if my husband does not close any deals during the summer my son will have to start school here in glorious Bakersfield and then go to yet another high school if we move to Boston. How do you spell STRESS???

[missionhill]

Love Crystalmoon '79's message! Not only a fun comparison of the west with New England but great insider's perspective on city life--what a lot of suburbanites don't get or realize as they seek that paradise on 2 acres.

[findingmesomeday]

It's a financial issue, Puffle. Husband had a long period of unemployment/underemployment and we're way behind the 8-ball, financially as a result. There's no way we can play catch up here. We need to find a place where we can live on one income and bank the other and still be happy. When we threw it all against the wall, NC kept coming up. If I wait until my 16 year old graduates, then I have a problem with the next one, who will be in 10th. Then after that the next one.

[livinak]

I miss the family and food. I was born and raised in Pittsfield. Wasn't much around then and from what I've seen and heard not much more now. Not a whole lot of choice of jobs. I try to get back every year or every other only because some family left there and one friend which I haven't really kept in close contact, but wish I had. Just wondering if anyone else was from there or around the area.

[puffle]

Originally Posted by webfootma

It's a financial issue, Puffle. Husband had a long period of unemployment/underemployment and we're way behind the 8-ball, financially as a result. There's no way we can play catch up here. We need to find a place where we can live on one income and bank the other and still be happy. When we threw it all against the wall, NC kept coming up. If I wait until my 16 year old graduates, then I have a problem with the next one, who will be in 10th. Then after that the next one.

Going through the same here except I don't have the kind of employment history to support us being a stay at home mom most of my son's life and basically just having retail experience before that. Is it that much cheaper in NC than the outskirts of Ma.? Heard anything on living in Virginia? Hate these stomach twisting decisions. You're damned if you do and damned if you don't. Right now, living with my mother in law, I just feel damned.

[findingmesomeday]

I lived in Northern VA before we moved to MA 10 years ago. Crowded, expensive and too many cookie cutter housing developments for me. We're not much better on the housing front. We had to sell our house before the bank took it away from us and were lucky to find a rental in the same town, but it leaves much to be desired. If we move, we'll be renting for a while in NC, too--we've really been cleaned out.