Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
So my wife and I are thinking of making the move from Southern CA to NH within in the next 2 years. We're in our early 30s, no kids (schools aren't a factor), we both work in the medical field so a hospital within 15-20min max would be ideal. We're tired of the tract-home living where your neighbors house is 20 feet from yours so we'd prefer rural living with a few acres. Having a mall/movie theater/restaurants within reasonable driving distance would also be nice. We also like shopping at Walmart believe it or not, lol. Looking for suggestions on a town that fits our criteria and doesn't have outrageous property taxes. We love the outdoors. Fishing, kayaking, hiking, mountain biking, snowboarding. Love it..
Any input would help us greatly. We are also liberal minded and love the idea of Live Free or Die. Not to mention it looks so beautiful up there!
Thanks,
Andy
I'm surprised that none of the conservative minded NH-ites picked up on this!! They tend not to be welcoming of libs wanting to move to their state. The liberal agenda = more government = more taxes... so less living for free.
Yes, heating your home is required Oct-May (in fact, we feel lucky is we can hold off until Oct.) Wood is probably the cheapest and most available resource, but that kind of heating has issues of its own: unbalanced heating in the house (some rooms very warm; others cold,) soot everywhere, hauling wood in (and all the junk that comes in with it, including cold air,) keeping the woodstove burning all night long, etc. We use forced hot water -- it's not cheap, but nothing is. The worst option is electricity (which will also be a big bill due to the dark nature of our state.)
I'm surprised that none of the conservative minded NH-ites picked up on this!! They tend not to be welcoming of libs wanting to move to their state. The liberal agenda = more government = more taxes... so less living for free.
Oh well in that case my mistake
We think less is more when it comes to government and taxes, I'll put it that way!
Yes, heating your home is required Oct-May (in fact, we feel lucky is we can hold off until Oct.) Wood is probably the cheapest and most available resource, but that kind of heating has issues of its own: unbalanced heating in the house (some rooms very warm; others cold,) soot everywhere, hauling wood in (and all the junk that comes in with it, including cold air,) keeping the woodstove burning all night long, etc. We use forced hot water -- it's not cheap, but nothing is. The worst option is electricity (which will also be a big bill due to the dark nature of our state.)
If we're gonna be burning I'd rather do pellets. Less messy. How do you heat your water? Electricity, propane?
That's why I'm on here. To ask questions and learn. We're spoiled in CA with the natural gas running our dryer, stove, water heater and furnace. What we we be using to run all those things in NH? Or what are our cheapest options to run those things I should say..
Yes, but the predictable weather does get old. Hot and sunny every day. Never rains, no snow, and no thunderstorms
The lakes out here are crowded and traffic jams on the launch ramp can get hectic. Even IF they allow you to launch your boat after being quarantined and/or inspected for literally even a drop of water or moisture due to these invasive quagga muscles that have even caused lake closures in the past few years. We have 2-3 man made canyon lakes (small compared to the rest of the country) here in the LA area that 99% of the time get so windy and treacherous to navigate not to mention are always infested with what we call "lake lice". Rude, obnoxious, steroid intoxicated meat heads that are holier than thou speeding around like bats outta hell on the lake blasting 3 doors down 'Kryptonite' on their skank boats that mommy & daddy bought them totally ignoring no wake zones and having no courteously for others. Most times it's more stressful than pleasurable to take your boat to the lake. It's not fun or peaceful. Too much commotion. Here it's all hustle bustle. We want peace and quiet!
The lack of bugs IS nice. I think mosquitoes and the humidity are going to be the biggest downsides to moving out there. There is one bug I'm looking forward to though... Lightning bugs!! Hopefully those little guys are still around
It's not a problem if the mountains in NH aren't as tall as the ones here as long as we're able to snowboard on them
The Angeles national forest really isn't all that great to us. Hiking in the oven hot, dry, dusty desert scrub with a really good chance of running into a bear, mountain lion, illegal marijuana grow or a dumped corpse isn't too appealing, especially since we're not allowed to carry a firearm for protection around these parts. We want to be in a REAL forest!
Good points, that's why I like living in NH I do like visiting LA though, I think living there would get old fast though.
If you cant get natural gas or geothermal/passive solar, the best heating situation I have had is a house with a good layout for a wood stove and electric heat for back-up/supplementing.
Everyone says electric heat is the most expensive, but as a backup its IDEAL, practically costs nothing to maintain doesn't take much space and each room typically has its own thermostat (for supplemental heating)
Right now were running a wood stove as primary heat with force hot water/oil backup. Without using the heat at all we still use about 2 (350gal) tanks of oil a year for heating the hot water. (at 3-4$ a gallon that can get pricy, plus we need to have the boiler cleaned every year.
Good points, that's why I like living in NH I do like visiting LA though, I think living there would get old fast though.
If you cant get natural gas or geothermal/passive solar, the best heating situation I have had is a house with a good layout for a wood stove and electric heat for back-up/supplementing.
Everyone says electric heat is the most expensive, but as a backup its IDEAL, practically costs nothing to maintain doesn't take much space and each room typically has its own thermostat (for supplemental heating)
Right now were running a wood stove as primary heat with force hot water/oil backup. Without using the heat at all we still use about 2 (350gal) tanks of oil a year for heating the hot water. (at 3-4$ a gallon that can get pricy, plus we need to have the boiler cleaned every year.
So the boiler is the oil tank? I was too young to remember when I lived back east and didn't have to worry about any of that. Now it's a different story!
And yeah it gets old. Moved from NJ (2 blocks from the beach/Monmouth marina) when I was 14 and I'm now 33 so almost 20 years in the Southern California desert now and it's really old. I need to get back to my element. I'm a east coast guy all the way and NH looks most appealing to me and my wife at this point in our lives.
I believe we heat water with propane (sorry, DH's department!) Also, we use propane for gas stove, dryer, etc. We used to heat with it, but not anymore.
So the boiler is the oil tank? I was too young to remember when I lived back east and didn't have to worry about any of that. Now it's a different story!
And yeah it gets old. Moved from NJ (2 blocks from the beach/Monmouth marina) when I was 14 and I'm now 33 so almost 20 years in the Southern California desert now and it's really old. I need to get back to my element. I'm a east coast guy all the way and NH looks most appealing to me and my wife at this point in our lives.
We have a boiler which runs our force hot water heat (pipes and baseboard radiators) but it also heats our hot water. This includes a furnace and a 350 gal. oil tank in the basement.
Some people have forced hot air that also runs off of oil, this does NOT heat water, but still has a furnace (probably larger with lots of duct work as well as an oil tank) this requires separate water heater, typically electric or propane.
I would hope any thinking person would be somewhat conservative if they are escaping CA after seeing what modern American liberalism has done to that once great state. That said: welcome aboard
Be prepared not just for cold, but the fact that the cold doesn't go away. Most of us get used to chilly fingers, toes and ears for a couple months, rather than waste cash on keeping the thermostat past 65. It will also be harder to get outside cone winter, unless you ski, snowshoe, or snowmobile, and those you can only do so long, so you'll be stuck inside a lot.
LP is king in Southern NH for heat, wood stoves a good backup, electric is nice to have, but generally costly, and bad if the power goes out (it does, every year, usually for less than a day, but we had a week-long power outage a few years back), so don't make it your main heat choice. You'll dry out during the winter, too, so lots of tea and keeping a kettle on the wood stove.
The summers are okay, usually a week or two of terrible, muggy weather, with rainstorms to break the heat, but expect to be forced inside around twilight by hordes of mosquitoes and black flies. If you go camping or hiking, be smart. Just like going hikingbin the southwest with no water is deadly, so too can be going out in New England without a jacket, except in the dog days of summer. It's easy to get lost in unfamiliar bwoods, stick to trails and learn a bit of woodlore and you'll be fine.
Last, but not least, unless you're a mass transplant, or one of the hipster types in Portsmouth, Liberal is a dirty word in NH. We're jot exactly libertarian, more like very introverted, unmotivated commne livers. We like having some services, but damned if we don't resent having others tell us we need them. So library book fairs, garden sakes and church spaghetti dinners will be popular, while political events will look like a convention of folks whose cats peed on the antique rug. Do what you do, keep your yard and your nose clean, and expect at least a decade before your neighbor asks how your day was.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I do like visiting LA though, I think living there would get old fast though.
