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I currently live in Southeast Texas (born and raised in Louisiana) and am considering a move to New Hampshire, specifically Berlin. I am trying to find out what kind of differences I can expect to run into. I know the weather is a big one, especially in that part of the state. Other than that I am at a loss. I find myself wondering if there are things I havent thought of such as monthly (utilities) or other expenses that are commonplace in NH that are unknown here in the south.
Berlin is very small and isolated. You are in for a huge culture shock. Why Berlin?
Culture shock is the least of my worries if you're talking about the people. The part that slightly freaks me out is the weather. Considering that it rarely gets below freezing down here I doubt I even own appropriate clothing for northern New Hampshire.
Culture shock is the least of my worries if you're talking about the people. The part that slightly freaks me out is the weather. Considering that it rarely gets below freezing down here I doubt I even own appropriate clothing for northern New Hampshire.
GORETEX gear is good for mountain hiking and LL Bean has good winter gear as well. It's all about layering and using common sense if you're outside for a long period of time. Usually, NH doesn't have to contend with as much wind as other areas during winter so that makes the cold temperatures much more mangeable. If you move out to rural NH I would suggest snow tires and a winter emergency kit as well as a bucket of sand for traction. A used AWD Subaru in good running condition is a great vehicle for dealing with winter driving.
My current vehicles are a 2wd Chevy trailblazer and a Ford Taurus, I keep getting mixed signals with some people saying I need to get rid of them and some people saying it'll be fine.
I moved from southern California to NH in 2005, and have posted a few times regarding my experiences being a newbie at winter and NH in general. Here are some of them:
My current vehicles are a 2wd Chevy trailblazer and a Ford Taurus, I keep getting mixed signals with some people saying I need to get rid of them and some people saying it'll be fine.
Good snow tires are usually just fine, particularly if you mainly do most driving on paved roads. The AWD comes in handy when dealing with more gravel and dirt roads.
I lived just a little bit south in york county ME, I had a 2WD ford ranger and found with four good snow tires I could get out and drive in any weather as long as the snow wasn't past the bottom of the truck. keep sand (a bag of cat litter also will work), a shovel, a tow strap (I carry a super heavy duty ratcheting strap, I used it to pull a guy out of a snow bank once) and a good flashlight.
you'll want a generator, get one sized larger than your loads, this makes the gas and generator last longer as it isn't working as hard. look for a large fuel tank on the generator, those little lawn mower size tanks will only last an hour or two, very annoying on a freezing cold night to go out and refuel that often. My generator has a 4 gallon tank that has lasted 8 hours at the longest I let it go before refueling. Events that knock the power out seem to be happening more often.
Wood heat is the way to go to save money, Pellets are still cheaper than oil and much easier to deal with than wood. I heated my home with an outdoor pellet boiler tied to my forced hot water heat system. I currently use an older woodstove for heat and would love to rip it out and go to pellets instead.
Property tax is high, but the lack of sales tax or income tax is nice.
You mentioned plugging your car in, I use synthetic oil (Amsoil) which does not gel in cold weather (no need to warm up the car) and with the 25,000 mile oil change I do my oil when it is warm.
We are moving to Berlin as well, and have done a ton of research. But research can only give you a small picture of what is really there. The weather is a BIG concern for us but we lived in WV for 3 1/2 years. I am hoping that there are some positive replies to your question. But one thing is that they do not have natural gas ( propane, fireplaces, wood burning stoves etc...but once you get used to that you should be fine. One person said that you will need to have a winter time hobby to make the winter go by quicker. And being from SE Texas the first sign of 30 degree weather sends everyone in! (we lived there too) oh and a 4X4 car, truck or whatever will be a must!
Culture shock is the least of my worries if you're talking about the people. The part that slightly freaks me out is the weather. Considering that it rarely gets below freezing down here I doubt I even own appropriate clothing for northern New Hampshire.
The weather was the biggest shock from me. I moved from South West florida where our winters sometimes stay in the 80's with lows in the 60's so when I moved there in 07 and they had one of their worst winters in a while its safe to say I FREAKED THE HELL OUT! I was NOT expecting that kind of cold. The hurts to breath hurts to blink hurts to walk outside cold! Imagine walking to your car and its so cold the rubber on you snow boots freeze before you open the car door. I had winter gear (I love LLBEAN and its where I bought most of my stuff) but coming from the south there is no way to prepare for something like that. It was a learning experienced and I'm sorry to say I high tailed it outta there after 11 months (moved in May back to fla and it snowed the night we moved I was like whhhaatttt). Came down to Florida and it was 95 degrees where as two days earlier it was snowing.
You must stick it out the first winter and enjoy the spring and then after that when the next winter rolls around you won't be as shocked. I can say it is probably harder for us southerners because during the winter down south everything stays green and we don't get the dreariness and bare trees and no grass/color that they do up there. I mean in Jan I have flowers blooming on my porch so it was hard to adapt. I wish I had stayed longer , thankfully we are moving back next year. NH is peaceful and quiet (don't move to a freestater run town if you want peace!) and since having a child my priorities have changed as far as what I want in a community/state.
My advise is to visit in the winter. The dead of winter like Jan and Feb. Drive in the snow and ice and really try and run errands and imagine living your daily life in the cold cause you know you can handle the heat. If you find its not bothersome and you're okay with it then go for it. If 3 days into your vaca you're like this is cool but I'm homesick and cold then imo rethink and evaluate because you can sometimes have snow from Oct- May in certain parts of the state!
Also a lot places up there don't have A/C I can say with all confidence that in south NH you NEED a/c ... It was hot humid and hazy and all I had was a window unit and it was miserable! Look for a place with A/C..
As far as cars go I'm not an expert I can barely tell a jeep from a lexus but I will say that A LOT of people drove Subaru's up there. The Foresters mostly and infact thats what we'll be trading in one of our Sentras for for winter driving. I'd recommend snow tires but I suppose they're not completely necessary we had all season tires and seemed to get along alright in some big snow storms and up and down some big mountains
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( propane, fireplaces, wood burning stoves etc...but once you get used to that you should be fine. One person said that you will need to have a winter time hobby to make the winter go by quicker. And being from SE Texas the first sign of 30 degree weather sends everyone in! (we lived there too) oh and a 4X4 car, truck or whatever will be a must!
