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Really thinking of relocating back to NH from the west coast. Travelled a little bit through the state going to Maine. Really found the state beautiful. For a family of 5, high school thru college, I’m curious what would be the biggest challenge for us? Would be leaving Northern CA. Things that we’ve enjoyed out west were climate and 4 seasons, access to good schools, small town feel. What should we expect?
Never lived there but have relatives in New England.
I think your OP saying "back to NH" threw some folks off.
Where is your family located and do you want to be in the same state?
What do you do for a living and does the job translate to a New England business?
What are you looking to get out of this move? Less of Kalifornia(the state that ruined gas cans forever), a change of scenery, what?
You're going to have the 4 seasons, small towns, and decent school access throughout most of northern New England, some of western Mass as well. As a note, I don't really know what a "small town feel" is. There are plenty of small towns though.
Both places have 4 seasons, but unless you're in the CA mountains, winter here is going to be a shock, partly because of the snow and cold but more due to the length and darkness of it.
What do you consider a "small town"? We have "cities" here with a population of 12-15K.
Small towns of less than 10K would be teriffic. I currently live in Northern CA in the "Gold country" in a town of 2k. What's wrong with CA.....the list would be shorter to say what's right with CA. Job would be the biggest challenge, but believe I could make that work. Weather is important and would like to find that region that offers some of the 4 seasons. Would like a town that has a compact downtown that is easy to walk through, not spread out where a car would have to take you from end to end. If anyone has pictures of the downtown streets, that would be neat to see. And we would want good schools and medical facilities within a reasonable distance.
Living in NH without a winter-rated car would not be a good time
Quote:
Originally Posted by family first
Small towns of less than 10K would be teriffic. .... Job would be the biggest challenge, but believe I could make that work. Weather is important and would like to find that region that offers some of the 4 seasons. Would like a town that has a compact downtown that is easy to walk through, not spread out where a car would have to take you from end to end. If anyone has pictures of the downtown streets, that would be neat to see. And we would want good schools and medical facilities within a reasonable distance.
Of the towns of less than 10k, for the ones that even have a downtown, "compact" is a generous adjective to describe a main street that is shorter than my driveway.
That said, you really need to own a car (with all wheel drive) to live in a small town in New Hampshire, usually towns are spread out enough that you wouldn't want to regularly walk to "downtown".
So I'm that guy that the meme "I had fun once-I hated it" is directed towards.
I really don't get the walkable downtown desire in New England. Towns are too spread out and you're probably going to have to drive to this walkable downtown to begin with.
The town I live in has about 300 meters of walking with a post office, a realtor, a marina, some sort of store, and a restaurant. The one just south of me is the same size with a restaurant, two stores, and a bank. Other smallish(big to me)towns like Plymouth(college town) and Littleton(tourist trap, but in a good way) have walkable downtowns with multiple restaurants and shops.
OP, you're going to have to take a trip and see what floats your boat. Do some map recon via google earth and then drive around. Grab a laminated map and some dry erase markers or alcohol pens and circle the areas you like. Go home after seeing the state and do some more research. If you choose to move, I recommend renting before buying as buying from a distance is something of a pain and can lock you in something you may not be totally happy with.
So it seems many of the towns/cities we've driven through between NH and ME are spread out with downtown businesses. What towns would be good places to focus on for looking to start home searches. The best thing about the town we currently live in out west is the weather here has 4 seasons and very beautiful during the year. A house with a couple of acres would be optimal, but not a deal breaker.
The seasons here are winter (5+ months), mud season (about a month), summer (3 months if you're lucky), tourist season (another month), and 2 months of misery devoted to replacing flashlight batteries, buying ice scrapers, and cursing the world's worst precipitation.
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Living in NH without a winter-rated car would not be a good time
