Relocating in a month or 2 considering these NH towns, advice please! (Portsmouth: movers, houses)

[twinmum]

I did mean a walk TO downtown place, but drive a bit, park & walk is fine with me to - as long as the drive & park part is not 20 minutes to everything - coffee, gas, groceries, schools etc.

[Annabelle]

Exeter and Dover are more spread out. You'd be lucky to find a nice home within easy walking of those downtowns

I live just over a mile from downtown Exeter and walk on sidewalks into town often. There are plenty of very nice homes for sale on the main road as well as in neighborhoods along the way. I don't think saying you'd be lucky to find a home within walking distance to downtown Exeter accurate.

[rmcewan]

Originally Posted by Annabelle

I live just over a mile from downtown Exeter and walk on sidewalks into town often. There are plenty of very nice homes for sale on the main road as well as in neighborhoods along the way. I don't think saying you'd be lucky to find a home within walking distance to downtown Exeter accurate.

Fair enough. I was thinking more of Dover. And also of nice being: nice price, nice condition, nice looking, nice size, nice # bathrooms, nice road. A nice house can always be found if money is no object

[maestramommy]

We just moved to Bedford from SoCal, and you'll want to know that it has everything on your list EXCEPT a walkable downtown. In fact, the town is not really walkable, there are virtually no sidewalks. If you drove to the town "center" and parked at the town hall, you could walk to the library and a couple other city offices, but that's it. Really too bad, because in just about every other way it's so family friendly. Our children are not yet in school, but their schools are one of the reasons we moved here. The other, was proximity to the airport, very close to DH's office.

The difference in price of housing will leave you chuckling. It sure did for us. We just looked up a house that was and is still for sale when we moved. 1500 sqft, 3 bd, 1/5 bath, tiny corner lot. $700k.

[twinmum]

Maestramommy,
how do you like NH? Having lived both here & there (and by no means am I trying to compare the two - nor am I saying I like it here) just kind of curious to hear your experience....

[NH2008]

We also moved from CA (northern) and love Portsmouth. Nashua doesn't do much for me. Ultimately, though, we chose Hollis because the school system was so good all the way through, the prices were good (and getting better!), and there was a real small town feel with a town square surrounded by old houses whereas a lot of the Seacoast is more congested. Had we moved to the Seacoast, we would have been committing to private school for at least some portion of our children's education, and we didn't want to do that. So far I've been using Nashua only for convenience (doctor, stores, etc) and not for a jolt of big-city energy - but we're close enough to Boston that that's fine. I do feel like we have the best of both worlds here. Good luck!

[cableguy0521]

The bear brook state park area, in Allenstown is a great place to look, i think has everything you are looking especially that down town, everybody know everybody feel, nice shopping, easy commute 20 mins to airports you can get a new house there under 350k with land, and be in heaven, plenty of room , its kinda like the forgotten paradise....you will thank me!

[maestramommy]

Originally Posted by twinmum

Maestramommy,
how do you like NH? Having lived both here & there (and by no means am I trying to compare the two - nor am I saying I like it here) just kind of curious to hear your experience....

So far, I like it a lot for the reasons I heard before we moved. The people are friendly (actually friendlier than I was expecting!), the values/culture are much closer to how we want to raise our kids, and even though this is a really small state (relative to CA) it still feels widely spaced. Probably because it's not nearly as densely populated. Bedford is a suburb by any definition, but in certain parts it still feels quite rural to me.

Now, we just got through an unprecedented power outage, in which our basement started to flood before we were able to borrow a generator. So we are experiencing some learning curve and winter is just getting started. However, so far the cold isn't really bothering us, and my kids are loving the snow. We really moved because of them. We wanted a house with a yard, decent schools, different pace of life, and less Hollywood influence. We couldn't afford any of that by staying in SoCal. It was worth giving up the great food, diversity, and mild year-round weather. Besides, Dh has this THING about wanting his kids to grow up experiencing some harsh weather so they don't grow up to be weather wimps, afraid to go anywhere in the country/world because it's "too cold."

[twinmum]

Originally Posted by maestramommy

So far, I like it a lot for the reasons I heard before we moved. The people are friendly (actually friendlier than I was expecting!), the values/culture are much closer to how we want to raise our kids, and even though this is a really small state (relative to CA) it still feels widely spaced. Probably because it's not nearly as densely populated. Bedford is a suburb by any definition, but in certain parts it still feels quite rural to me.

Now, we just got through an unprecedented power outage, in which our basement started to flood before we were able to borrow a generator. So we are experiencing some learning curve and winter is just getting started. However, so far the cold isn't really bothering us, and my kids are loving the snow. We really moved because of them. We wanted a house with a yard, decent schools, different pace of life, and less Hollywood influence. We couldn't afford any of that by staying in SoCal. It was worth giving up the great food, diversity, and mild year-round weather. Besides, Dh has this THING about wanting his kids to grow up experiencing some harsh weather so they don't grow up to be weather wimps, afraid to go anywhere in the country/world because it's "too cold."

wow, thanks! It sounds just like NH might be the right place for us....

Here we have a "large" lot for SoCal standards at 10,000 sq ft & the homes I am looking at online are 1-5 acres...it is a little nerve racking thinking of how we are going to maintain that much landscape....I guess that will be part of our "learning curve" (in addition to freak storms & such)

Only 6 more days & we will be there...I hope the weather is mild enough so we can drive from one part of the state to another....we are crossing our fingers that we find the right place so we can move soon after my husband leaves for his new job... we are still in love with Portsmouth, but I think it is only because we have not yet been to places like Bedford & other towns.

thanks so much for sharing!

[notdancingqueen]

Originally Posted by twinmum

wow, thanks! It sounds just like NH might be the right place for us....

Here we have a "large" lot for SoCal standards at 10,000 sq ft & the homes I am looking at online are 1-5 acres...it is a little nerve racking thinking of how we are going to maintain that much landscape....I guess that will be part of our "learning curve" (in addition to freak storms & such)

We're recent transplants from Annapolis and from what I've seen over the last 6 months, in general not all of one's land is landscaped in the sense you are probably thinking? We have 12 acres but only 2 of those are (or will be!) "landscaped/cleared". The other 10 are forest. We still plan to clear brush and debris so that the close-in forest parts look nicer and we're planning to clear some hiking trails and build a tent platform.

Welcome to NH - it is absolutely gorgeous at the moment!