Got any Towns like "Gilmore Girls?" (Minneapolis, Rochester: rental, houses) - Minnesota (MN) - City-Data Forum

kbug3 · 07-19-2011, 07:42 PM

Hello there!!! Hope you can help two lost souls!!!

We have been searching this forum for awile..My husband and I have been looking to relocate out of Maryland for some time now. We are just so stuck...trying to figure it all out...we have looked at Western North Carolina, Tennessee (for the mountains) Minnesota and WI . We are leaning towards your great state mostly because the schools seem to be better, the income higher, and the economy seems better in my husbands field,we want 4 seasons, and all the lakes. A bit about us,we are outdoorsy, my husband is an avid waterfowler,in our 40's and have three kids (10,6,4). We now live near both of our families but really want to at least try something else.

My husband is in construction (superintendent) but with this economy he is back to being a carpenter, I am a stay at home mom, but looks like I need to get at least a part time job. Basically what we are looking for is a small town, (say 6000pl.) with a town square, coffee shop, warm, friendly to outsiders population, safe area, parades, farmers market and all that small town charming stuff! Now the hard part...say if this town could be an hour or less from an area that is larger for work?
We would be renting (long term) as we own a house in MD, want rural, say a farm house with some land.
How is the economy really in MI? With him being a "jack of all trades" would he have trouble finding something, say if we moved up without a job>? This is NOT ideal of course but it is hard to get hired when you are not a resident of the state..

so...

Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions you can offer. I hope we are not shooting to high...

Oh, we plan on renting our house out here..so we can move as soon as we find "the town". and of course based on when school starts...need to get rolling!!

Radical_Car · 07-19-2011, 11:03 PM

I don't recommend moving without a job lined up, but again, it's so hard to get employed when you live several states away.

As far as recommendations for towns... when you mean you want to be an hour away from larger work, does that mean you want to be an hour away from the Twin Cities? The majority of the work is definitely going to be in the Twin Cities.
But I think Redwood Falls sounds like a good fit for you(though it's definitely much further then an hour from the Twin Cities) I don't care for it much but my mother was born there and have relatives who live in and around there and they all LOVE it, though the only thing is I'm not sure if you'll be able to find carpenter work within an hour from there. I have no clue what jobs with carpentry are like so hopefully someone else here can help you.

But anyways, Good Luck whereever you go

And hopefully you'll love it wherever you end up, whether it be Minnesota or Tennessee.

Marshall and New Ulm sound good too, though they both have a lot more then 6000 people.
Golfgal, one of the moderators on this forum, is from Marshall and she can give you tons of good info. on it, much better then I can for sure.

golfgal · 07-20-2011, 05:47 AM

I would say that you would have better luck finding jobs in Marshall then you would in Redwood Falls. As for construction, does he have commercial construction experience--or highway construction experience? The nice thing about Marshall is the very low cost of living given the amenities in town. There are several smaller towns around Marshall that are fairly easy commuting distance if you want even smaller (Ghent, Russel, Tyler, Ruthton). Some of these towns you can buy a NICE house for under 10,000 even

.

Another town I have driven through that I think is lovely is Spring Valley south of Rochester. It is a very well kept town, close enough to Rochester to commute so employment opportunities are good (Rochester has a very stable economy).

kbug3 · 07-20-2011, 06:25 AM

good am! I meant to add that if we could find a place that gets a bit less snow totals that would be good too! (Minn and WI) I will look into Spring Valley does it have the town center, small town goodies I described? Also, my husband has both commercial and residential experience along with being a roofing project manager and estimator. He also grew up on a farm...told you "Jack of all trades" hahaha thx any other suggestions?

golfgal · 07-20-2011, 06:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kbug3

good am! I meant to add that if we could find a place that gets a bit less snow totals that would be good too! (Minn and WI) I will look into Spring Valley does it have the town center, small town goodies I described? Also, my husband has both commercial and residential experience along with being a roofing project manager and estimator. He also grew up on a farm...told you "Jack of all trades" hahaha thx any other suggestions?

They have a downtown area-I don't know if they have a town celebration or not but you could probably find that information on a town website. It's just a very nice looking town, lots of big Victorian houses that are well kept up, big yards, etc.

I think you will find what you want in SW MN quite easily though. All of those towns have a smallish downtown area, finding a rental is fairly easy, they all have some kind of town celebration, etc. Marshall is about 12,000, most of the towns around there are 2000 or less. One of my favorite LITTLE towns in that area is Lucan, pop. 200. They have a fun St. Patrick's Day parade every year, a cute downtown area, a REALLY good brewpub even. All of these SW MN towns are places were the town shows up for the high school sporting events, etc.

Our town, Rosemount, is similar to these towns too-20,000 people though so I don't know if you want to go that large. We have a week long town celebration with a large parade, we get about 5000 people at the high school football games, it's a place where you will run into people you know at the grocery store, etc.

Radical_Car · 07-20-2011, 12:38 PM

My grandma is from Lucan, and the brewpub is fantastic. Theres also a park, and when I was little along with my siblings and we visited my grandmas house we all went to the park, and since its a very small town and very safe your kids would be very safe walking by themselves.

There used to be two pop/soda machines in Lucan in two different places, though sadly they aren't there anymore

It'd be about an hour, maybe slightly less(?) and you said you wanted to be within an hour. And keep in mind, you're in one of the most rural parts of the state, driving from two places is easy, and traffic is non existent, pretty much. So keep that in mind too, it's a lot different then driving from Minnetonka into downtown Minneapolis, for example.