[deerstar]

I will be leaving Calif. headed for New ENGLAND. approx. April 4th. The closing day of escrow is March 31st. I have been trying to figure out what state to start my stay in. My plan is to rent a room, so I can travel around and find the right place for myself. I am a female. My children are in their 20's and go to college in Calif.. My son will be driving with me to my new location...I have 2 pure bred persians, who will reside in the room with me. I would like to find a large room with my own bathrm. I lived in Massachusetts as a child.
This has always been my dream to come back. I will not know anyone. I plan on doing a lot of outdoor activities, biking, hiking, tennis in the summer, swimming, taking classes and finding a supplemental type of job later on.
How do I find housing from here? I am reading Craigs list but unable to reply.
Are their other websites for rooms to rent? I would like to keep costs down at the beginning, are there nice people with nice personalities with nice housing?
How trusting should I be about sending a deposit. I would love living by the water. I will be an excellent roomate, but I would like to meet also exceptional people too. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

[Connecticut Pam]

If you want to stay closer to the ocean, I would suggest Fairfield County area. It is expensive there but they do have nice towns and nice properties from what I have seen. You could also look into places like Madison, Clinton, Killingworth..all nearer to the ocean/Long Island Sound.

Personally, being a woman alone, you should go through a Real Estate Agent to help you find what you want. It is far better to have a second set of eyes look at property and areas for you to live in. In the meantime, welcome to Conn. and I truly hope you will like it here.

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by deerstar

I will be leaving Calif. headed for New ENGLAND. approx. April 4th. The closing day of escrow is March 31st. I have been trying to figure out what state to start my stay in. My plan is to rent a room, so I can travel around and find the right place for myself. I am a female. My children are in their 20's and go to college in Calif.. My son will be driving with me to my new location...I have 2 pure bred persians, who will reside in the room with me. I would like to find a large room with my own bathrm. I lived in Massachusetts as a child.
This has always been my dream to come back. I will not know anyone. I plan on doing a lot of outdoor activities, biking, hiking, tennis in the summer, swimming, taking classes and finding a supplemental type of job later on.
How do I find housing from here? I am reading Craigs list but unable to reply.
Are their other websites for rooms to rent? I would like to keep costs down at the beginning, are there nice people with nice personalities with nice housing?
How trusting should I be about sending a deposit. I would love living by the water. I will be an excellent roomate, but I would like to meet also exceptional people too. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Are you going to need to work? If so, at what job? If you want to be near the water, I would recommend the shoreline towns east of New Haven. Branford, Guilford and Madison are very nice with a lot of wonderful areas. It is also convenient to New Haven and Fairfield County (by train) to work. Plus it is not as pricey as fairfield County. Good luck, Jay

[deerstar]

Thank you Pam for your input. Do you have a recommendation for a realtor? Are you a realtor? Is this a service that is provided by a realtor, who charges you?
It would be somewhat comforting to find some one to start this adventure with, since I will not know anyone...but I have to begin somewhere.....sandra

[deerstar]

Hi Jay,
Thank you for your imput. Eventually I will land a job. I am retired from working in the Post office, but
I am not a senior citizen. I worked for 22 years there, started at 18. The heavy lifting caused me to blow my C5 & C6 DISC OUT in my neck, in which I underwent very intrusive surgury. I have bone from my hip fused into my neck.....so there is no heavy lifting in my life anymore....but I can have a job that supplements my benefit, that does not violate the work restrictions regarding my neck. I am a very good worker, I enjoy people and have a super repoire with most everyone who has worked with me or who I have served in the different companies I have worked for. I do enjoy being a server in fine dining and my last job was on a golf course for a major hotel, which I loved. But this is my dream to live on the east coast and I will be flexible and adaptable to the area in which I seek employment. But I will be an excellent worker, because I take pride in what ever position I have.

[JayCT]

Deerstar - Since you do not have to be near a major city for employment, I would recommend the lower connecticut River Valley. This is a beautiful and charming area with wonderful towns that are somewhat tourist oriented. I say somewhat because they are not towns that fully rely on tourists, they just have some second -homes and places for day-trippers to visit. It is very nice. Consider towns like Old Saybrook, Essex, Chester, East Haddam and Lyme/Old Lyme.

As for realtors, most do not charge the person looking for a home. They usually charge the seller or renter. Good luck, Jay

[missionhill]

Craigslist is pretty good for finding rooms to rent in people's houses and apartments, even though most of the traffic is very young adults. Still it's as good a resource as you can find. Check the listings under "shares". You say you wonder which state to start your stay in. If you're looking all over new england I wonder why you'd start in CT; it's not a very central location within N. E. Boston would be the best, being the hub of the regional highway system and having a very active Craigslist board, especially if you're at all interested in checking out Maine for your permanent residence. If you want to be near New York City then of course Fairfield County is a good choice; otherwise I'd look elsewhere. Hartford is a pretty good location for investigating Conn, Mass, and parts of Vt and N.H. Maybe look there.

[watchoverme]

If you want more beachy, I definitely suggest the same as poster #6, or the other section of the coast- Clinton, Madison, etc.

If you don't want beachy, I'd say West Hartford definitely. Beautiful sized city, old and charming, and plenty to do (for CT that is). People from out of state think it's part of Hartford, but it's actually its own city and 100 percent different.

I don't know why anyone would tell you to choose Fairfield County if you don't have to be there for work. Fairfield County is incredibly incredibly expensive (one of the most expensive in the country) and generally very snobby. I work in Fairfield County and am not a fan.

[deerstar]

Hi Everyone, today is March 6th...and I have just read some of the new posts left for me to read.
Is there a way to get new posts other than coming to exactly this letter I wrote? I just wrote Jay a reply in some other letter and then I left him my actual email so I would be able to hear his response....soon
I will now take the new places you have all recommended and begin looking on Craig's List.

In reponse to why I chose Connecticutt? I have been at this since I put my home up for sale in Jan.
I have family in Massachusetts, Uncles and cousins I have not seen in years, but Mass is too busy....I will be going to see them though....then I hunted around in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, liked all the
messages from the people there, but couldn't seem to find what I have in my mind...however once I land, I will be going to find my place after I get my bearings and have some rest after the extensive
3,000 mile road trip...haha oooooboy..........Connecticut was my first pick years ago, I drove from Massachusetts to New York about 9 years ago, the drive was beautiful, no signs, no towns, not hardly any real traffic, just beautiful tress, rivers and woods loved it, ....I love school, so being near a college is a must, perhaps even some employment, classes to enroll in, swimming and tennis courts to use, plus nothing like a College Library to research in and just spend hours wandering through all the different topics, and magazines etc. and you can always find something to eat or a fresh brew of coffee!!! I also like to converse with the educated sort, not that I am overly educated, but I do enjoy good, meaningful, and fun conversations....I enjoy young people very much too, I listen to a lot of music styles and part of me runs with them and the other part runs with people my age, they got the energy I need and the older crowd has the wisdom on how to use it!!! I love both worlds very much....
I hope I will meet nice friends when I get there, like all of you. sincerely sandra

[JayCT]

Sandra - I replied to your post on the other thread you posted on, so read that for some of the informaiton you are requesting. To answer your question about getting these replies without going back to the thread, you can subscribe to the thread so that you will get an email notification with the replies to that thread. If you scroll down from the Reply to Thread box, there is a box called Additional Options. It has a box in it called Notification Type. If you scroll through those options, you will see one that says Instant Email Notification. Clicking on that will get you the emails with the reply. Jay