Diary of a Transplant (San Diego to Asheville/Hendersonville/Brevard) (Monroe: real estate market, buying a house)

[Loves mountains]

Originally Posted by djc1949

We checked out St Andrews. And yes it is a terrible one-way road. For the most part of the road it looks like a wagon rd. The next closest is St Eugene, behind Ingles on Merriman rd in N Asheville btw exits 24 and 25 on I-26.

The road is not really an issue - I have a 4-wheel drive vehicle - how was the congregation - did they participate? do they sing? Is the bulletin interesting? Any input would be helpful - thanks

[djc1949]

We did not attend a Mass there. We were looking for another Church other than St Eugene's in N Asheville. We decided to stay with St Eugene's b/c we don't have a 4 wheel drive.
St Eugene has a large congregation that participates in the Mass.

[Loves mountains]

Originally Posted by djc1949

We did not attend a Mass there. We were looking for another Church other than St Eugene's in N Asheville. We decided to stay with St Eugene's b/c we don't have a 4 wheel drive.
St Eugene has a large congregation that participates in the Mass.

Thanks DJC I will check it out next time I am in Weaverville - which - lucky for me is early November!

[RSMTN]

the Parkies

I'm new here and have been reading your diary with much interest. We used to live in Hendersonville (English Hills off Kanuga Rd) many years ago and moved because of job requirements. Now we are both retired and are thinking about moving back to the area. We, like you, will probably rent until we make up our minds about where to buy.

Somewhere in all this I believe I read that you are glad you didn't buy in Weaverville. Was there something in particular you found out about Weaverville that lead you to that decision or just that you really didn't know where, in the area, you wanted to live?

Thanks,

Roger

[the Parkies]

Originally Posted by lovesMountains

Hi Jan, I too am enjoying your posts, keep 'em coming! Just my 2 cents, I think you should definitely check out Black Mountain - somehow that seems more "you" than Weaverville to me (though I'm sure you are laughing at this as we really don't know one another!).

lovesMountains, I continue to be IN AWE of your insight into people you've met only on this board! Your comments only serve to reinforce for us the sense of family we feel here. THANK YOU AGAIN!

[the Parkies]

Originally Posted by gypsychic

Hi Jan! I've never visited Hendersonville, but had heard it had turned into mostly a retiree haven. Like you, we are almost seniors ourselves, but enjoy a mix of ages. You may remember that we only get to enjoy our home in Asheville on a part time basis, but believe me, there is FAR more action and happiness to be found in Asheville. If you don't want to live in the city, or need something more affordable, you could look to Weaverville to the north or Black Mountain to the east - I love Black Mountain and it's only 15 minutes from downtown Asheville. You mentioned St. Lawrence Basilica, I think this is such a beautiful church!

While Asheville itself has a lot of newer residents, I think you will find less of a "transient" quality of life there, although I know it does get really quiet in the winter.

Please keep posting your thoughts, I find them very interesting!

gypsychic, everything you said has had increasing value to us as the days pass. THANKS AGAIN!

[the Parkies]

Originally Posted by vandemusser

If you really like quality produce, you really need to buy as much of it at the Farmer's Market as possible - local produce for the most part (unless it's out of season), much better quality, bought directly from the farmers who have grown it (usually), and WAY cheaper than any of the grocery stores. I like Greenlife and Earthfare as much as the next person, but decent prices isn't something they are very good at, especially regarding produce. I have calculated that the same produce at the grocery stores is about 3 to 4 times the cost and not nearly as good.

If you haven't been there before, it's right off I-40 in West Asheville - take the exit for Route 191. This time of year, the place is fantastic - the fall produce and seasonal crafts are really amazing.

As an aside, welcome to town - I wish all of the transplants were as enthusiastic as you about being part of this community instead of trying to make it into the community they just left.

OH MY, vandemusser! You proved us totally wrong (oops, ha ha) when we said "you get what you pay for" in groceries! We've been buying produce at "that" local grocery store chain that seems to have a monopoly here, and have been very disappointed. So couple of days ago we went to H'ville's "Curb Market" on 6th St. (I think it is). LOL!--We arrived at 1:15 PM (they close at 2:00) as two older couples were folding up. One couple kindly unwrapped their farm-fresh produce just for us and acknowledged that the tomatoes have just about shot their wad by now, given it's autumn--we bought their tomatoes anyway to make pasta sauce. The other couple were still cheerfully selling "canned" goods. I had forgotten that my mother used to "can" goods (in mason jars, not cans). We bought that couple's "greasy beans" (string beans that look greasy but aren't and it's pronounced "greaZy" here, BTW, as it was all my young life in PA) and their homemade "canned" vegetable soup. So we can't tell about the quantity of produce or vendors there, but we were favorably impressed with the quality and price, especially given that we were getting "the bottom of the barrel" at that late hour.

THEN we went yesterday to the (State) Farmers' Market located roughly at the intersection of Highways 191 and 26. We had a field day (gotta love that pun, don'tcha?)! I bought a ton of fresh produce and didn't have time within an hour or so to see half of what they had to offer! Sweet Bill has been eating huge quantities of produce for breakfast, produce for lunch, and asks around supper-time, with a laugh, "Are we still hungry?????" HA HA!!! Okay, lesson learned: Gotta watch out for those farmers' markets!!!

Many thanks, vandemusser!

Jan

[the Parkies]

Originally Posted by a2zmom

Hello Parkies! We are finally here...living amongst a maze of boxes, but here. I love reading your posts about living in H-ville! I haven't had the time to read this entire thread (just found the monitor to the computer yesterday :P) but I feel like we are still in the honeymoon phase of Hendersonville living. Perhaps it's the difference in personal circumstances, or difference in places we formerly lived, but hubby and I are THRILLED with this place! Forgive me, we are coming from a city that is rougly the same population but about 1/3 of the business and 1/8 the charm. Haven't noticed the retired folks too much, but then again we are coming from Florida! Can retired folks be "white noise"??? LOL! We finally got our oldest enrolled in school and couldn't be happier with the welcome that they gave us! We are also committed to working on the boxes and mess for only so long per day, and then taking some time to check out our new hometown. Silly, I know, but I feel so at home here, even knowing not a soul. Moutain-life is new to us, coming from the plains of the Midwest (where hubby and I were born and raised) to the sandbox of North Florida...we were just amazed at the view from the Target parking lot in Arden! LMBO!

a2zmom, we shopped in Arden yesterday and thought of you as we drove into the Target center and happened to notice the mountains. Okay, we dropped whatever we happened to be holding because, well, that's pretty distracting stuff. But don't you think, a2zmom, that it's just the artificial backdrop for an upcoming Hollywood film? You didn't actually buy that, did you??

Jan

[the Parkies]

Originally Posted by gypsychic

Thank you, Jan, for that thoughtful reply. I love what you said about no regrets because you could move back if you wanted to. I am hoping we will be able to hold onto both places for a long time so that we can have the luxury of making that choice. While we are pretty happy in our new town in Florida, we don't want to make the mistake of letting our Asheville home go too soon, as we are convinced that it will continue to become more and more expensive to buy over time and we would be priced out.

As a Florida native, my entire life I longed for hills and mountains, woods, wildlife and four seasons (I love the cold!). Asheville (and all of WNC) has all that in spades. Here in Lakeland, we have some of that - beautiful lakes, bird sanctuaries, unique fauna and flora (I'm a garden lover), but it is a completely different vibe.

Well, we are years away from having to make a choice, but I asked because sometimes I wonder if we should be owning the two houses, we can afford it (believe me they are two small VERY modest homes) but if we sold the one in WNC we could pay off the one in Florida.

Bottom line, I guess I should heed my own advice I give to people, that "when in doubt, DON'T!" lol Thanks again, Jan, I just love that you are so happy and excited! I wish I could see your little white "Sugar!"

gypsychic... One of our other mantras (besides "When in doubt, DON'T") is "LIVE WHERE YOU ARE." We remind ourselves of it often, often with chuckles. Trivial example: Needed a bathroom rug this week. What color? Blue--because we are blue/green/purple people, and blue had fit our San Diego bathroom. Okay... so we bought it, thinking it will "go" with our future house purchase, and we certainly don't want to buy stuff for a temporary rental place. But--oops--that little blue rug clashed with everything else in our rented H'ville bathroom. We laughed as we scratched our heads. "What were we thinking??"

"LIVE WHERE YOU ARE." We can buy blue for our next bathroom--if it fits there--but maybe it won't. So LIVE WHERE YOU ARE, we constantly have to remind ourselves.

The same perspective may apply to your infinitely bigger decision about keeping your NC residence. Where will you be in your head and your finances in ten years?? Oh my. Trust me--that's a long time. By that time, everything could change!!

Our advice to anyone asking would be: LIVE WHERE YOU ARE!!!

But another of our favorite mantras may actually conflict and may deserve an even higher place in your thinking:

LISTEN TO YOUR GUT. If you've longed for something your entire life and now don't quite know how to value that longing, just LISTEN to your gut and RESPECT it. Your GUT knows more than your mind ever will!

Just my two cents, of course!!!

Jan

[the Parkies]

Originally Posted by RSMTN

the Parkies

I'm new here and have been reading your diary with much interest. We used to live in Hendersonville (English Hills off Kanuga Rd) many years ago and moved because of job requirements. Now we are both retired and are thinking about moving back to the area. We, like you, will probably rent until we make up our minds about where to buy.

Somewhere in all this I believe I read that you are glad you didn't buy in Weaverville. Was there something in particular you found out about Weaverville that lead you to that decision or just that you really didn't know where, in the area, you wanted to live?

Thanks,

Roger

Hi, Roger.... Welcome to the board!

You asked a question others have asked, too, so this time I’ll be more detailed than I was months ago when it was still too painful for me to discuss:

We thought--and still think--that Weaverville is one of the best places for retirees in this area, especially those who wish to be active in UNCA (“Center for Creative Retirement”) or in a church or other organization located in the north of Asheville. There’s not much in Weaverville itself—it’s quaint and cute but really tiny. However, its location is only about ten minutes from town and yet is relatively far from any heavy traffic. It has much to recommend it!

And so we DID buy in Weaverville, last August, in a development, after eight rather intense months of negotiations with the two (buying and selling) realtors, who were terrific people to work with, BTW. Three days AFTER all the papers were signed—AFTER all those months of hard work, time, and a ton of money (our last trip cost $6K)—we were finally celebrating, showing our Black Mountain friends our big rectangular lot and our prospective floor plan (in a model home), and preparing to fly back to San Diego the next day, tired but SO happy!

To our horror, we were suddenly told that the majority owner of the development wanted to talk to us—and only us. Within five minutes, eight months of dreams were shattered. He insisted on getting $8,800 more money to build a retaining wall—after clear and thorough and repeated agreement for months with his authorized representative—his realtor!—about the nature, placement, and cost of that wall. Our options? We could give him that additional money, or... he was “sorry” but he would have to move our house to the opposite end of the lot where it would cost him less to build that wall—but we knew it would be ludicrous to locate the house there!!! He also let it “slip” as a casual observation that if our house were placed in that ludicrous location, there would be a public walking path about eight feet from our huge “private” covered porch. This was news to us—no one had ever told us there would be a walking path anywhere near our property. Apparently he “forgot” to tell his own people.

And we were to work with this company for the next eight months while they built our dream retirement home?? We were to TRUST them??

We instantly UN-bought. We cancelled our purchase contract within the hour and got all of our money back within two weeks. (Both realtors made sure that happened, God bless them!) We will never buy anything in any of that man’s WNC communities.

Unfortunately we weren’t the only ones in shock that sad day last August. So were both realtors. After this happened, they had a very long talk with that man. Those two wonderful ladies had become our friends. We have missed them.

Our experience in Weaverville obviously doesn’t reflect on the community. Weaverville is a very nice place to retire, Roger. Better luck to you and all of those on this board!!

We “ran away” to a rental in Hendersonville, where we are currently truly ecstatic. We probably do not belong here permanently (we’re considering Black Mountain now), but Hendersonville is a wonderful temporary home for us in these mountains. Our house is nestled right in the woods, a balm for battered psyches. The stress of trying to sell for nine months in San Diego, the trauma of Weaverville, and now all the Southern California fires that feed our anxiety and sense of permanent loss—well, small wonder we give thanks for these lovely Carolina mountains and these precious rains that cleanse and soothe our spirits!! We will live here in God’s second home until GOD makes us leave.......

Our “resident” white squirrel, “Sugar,” brought around her older sister today!!! We named her “Pepper” because her hair is graying and her tail is sparse--but she’s every bit as sweet!!!

Jan