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Just wanted to thank all of you for posting your thoughts about living in N.C. We are looking for somewhere to relocate with milder weather...I am sure you hear that all the time! lol. My only concern is just how humid it may get because I have slight asthma and I can't take really high humidity very well. However a winter without snow and subzero temps isn't good either..so I am very willing to give it a shot! From most of your comments I do believe Raleigh..Durham area may be perfect for us! Most of you paint a picture that puts my mind at ease in many ways.
Does anyone have any knowledge of Elon or Welcome NC?
This is a great thread; I've really enjoyed reading replies from people on both sides of the issue. It's good to get a better sense of the irritations that every area has as well as the things that satisfied residents really cherish. Thanks to all of you who have shared your thoughts on these topics.
My family moved here almost three years ago. We moved by choice from the SF Bay area in CA. We loved it there, but I had moved there as a single woman. We got married and, voila, we had four sons and needed a different kind of life-style. We needed to move closer to my parents ( on the same coast). We found jobs and liked the schools. We are all very happy here. My kids love it too. We have plenty to do. We like its size, not too urban, not too rural. We also appreciate the increasing cultural diversity of the triangle. We have always believed that you must learn many different recipes for lemonade, but we do insist on drinking it, no matter where we are! Make the best of what you've got!
Its great to hear all the opinions on the triangle area and I hope my family and I find ourselves on the (loving it) side of the fence ater we settle in there.Its kind of scary when you read the extreme love and the extreme hate.I think we would be happy if we could fall in the middle somewhere and work our way up.
Its not that we are moving down there to get away from anything(other than the friggin snow).The wife has a good opportunity for work in NC and I was getting sick of my job of 25 years that was getting me nowhere .We look at this as a fresh start and if we dont like it,we can always move somewhere else.That is why we are renting first,to get a feel for the area.We have visited the area many times and each time we liked what we saw.As far as the friendliness factor,I dont think that NC natives are as unfriendly as some people on here make them out to be.Every town and every part of the country has their jerks and the people that go out of their way to say hi
We will move down there with a positive attitude and try to make as many friends as we can to help us in our transition.We are a family and as long as we have each other ,then we will be happy.The rest is just icing on the cake.
I hope that this post will survive being mauled(lol)
Marc
The Triangle area is just like any other area. You get out of your community what you put into it. We moved down here from New Hampshire back in December of last year and have been very happy. We are the parents of two younger children and have been pleased so far with the Wake County school system even it is IMO a bit sub-par to the schools in NH. We have found that the people that live here are as warm as the climate and have found it very easy to navigate and find what ever it is we are looking for. I can say as a word of caution though that if you are looking for a party lifestyle then you will want to stay out of the suburbs like Cary/Apex and move closer to Raleigh.
The Triangle area is just like any other area. You get out of your community what you put into it. We moved down here from New Hampshire back in December of last year and have been very happy. We are the parents of two younger children and have been pleased so far with the Wake County school system even it is IMO a bit sub-par to the schools in NH. We have found that the people that live here are as warm as the climate and have found it very easy to navigate and find what ever it is we are looking for. I can say as a word of caution though that if you are looking for a party lifestyle then you will want to stay out of the suburbs like Cary/Apex and move closer to Raleigh.
no party atmosphere needed..we have a 5 year old starting school in the fall.We are more of private partyers in our older years,love to sit around with a six pack or a bottle of wine with good friends.I am 46 years old and those days of burning the midnight oil are few if any and far between.
I moved here without too many expectations. My husband lost his job and had an opportunity here. After a pretty horrendous winter in IA when my husband asked if I would relocate to NC, without any hesitation, I said yes. In hindsight, I wish I would have explored it more before we moved here because I never would have moved here if we had. I've lived my whole life in the midwest, born and raised in WI, then the last 13 yrs. in IA before moving here last fall.
I naively thought that people would be friendly here, that there wouldn't be trash all over the roadsides, other paradigms too. I grossly underestimated how much traffic there would be. Granted there is zero traffic in IA but the traffic here just sucks. The winter was bad here too. I know it doesn't compare to the midwest but its still cold and dark and dreary. I haven't experienced the full effect of summer yet as I didn't arrive here until the end of August and I was dying then, so I'm very worried about surviving the heat.
It took me 5 months to find a job here (scientific research) and I took a 50% pay cut. That hurts. But there are many people out of work, so even with the pay cut I feel fortunate.
I do think the locals do not like outsiders and I don't like feeling like an outsider one bit. I will not stay here forever, I want to move back to either WI or IA. The problem is that my husband who grew up split between FL and NJ simply loves it here. He loves everything about it. He seems to be in love with Durham big time. It seems like people who move here from the Northeast love it here, I guess the traffic is much less here than what they are used to, even though for me coming from IA, its a lot more.
By moving here, I've compromised my lifestyle more than I ever realized I would. Its too densely populated here for my liking. As soon as I get my plan together I'd like to be outta here.
I don't know why exactly, but I think you might like Virginia, and it would still hit your husband's "between NJ and FL" criteria. The Roanoke Valley is gorgeous, diverse, and there's plenty to do and great restaurants to enjoy. The people are really friendly and the area is right off the Blue Ridge Parkway. You still get all four seasons and there isn't nearly as much traffic since it's not the capital city. And it's still relatively convenient to both mountains and beaches.
I have to agree with you, particularly on the first issue. The old "they wouldn't be happy anywhere" spiel is just a lame cop-out unless you can refute the specific reasons that are given.
As a NC native, I had been trying to move back to NC for about 10 years when I finally got the opportunity right before the crash hit Wake County in late 2008. My reasons for moving were: A) Family in NC, B) property in NC, C) I'm a huge history buff, particularly NC history and Southern history, and NC has more to offer, and D) Florida sucked.
I have found that the Triangle is not quite the paradise that I saw it promoted as, but it's generally an improvement over Florida. Rent, car insurance, rental insurance, food, and utilities are much cheaper than SoFla. On the downside, I had to take a drop in salary, somewhat offsetting the Cost-of-living.
People here usually do not have the aggressive, confrontational attitudes of people in South Florida. Even in "affluent" neighborhoods in Sofla, people would be milling around the apartment buildings 24 hours a day. You could take your trash out at 2AM and be hassled. Here, I see my neighbors in the morning when they lave for work, and in the evening when they come home. Except for the occasional sc_mbag, there is usually no problem with neighbors.
Traffic in the Triangle, though, is beginning to approach SoFla proportions, especially on the beltline. Driver aggression is on the increase. I have seen a difference even in the year and a half I have lived here. in five years I predict it will be as bad as Sofla. You do, though, sometimes have the option to drive routes like 64 instead of the interstate.
I was in the underground music scene in Sofla. Here, I have found that there is quite a diversity of music, but is scattered out and it is hard for a working person to attend many events, which are usually centered around Chapel Hill/Durham. Pittsboro has a good local music scene, but that's even further west. The Goth/Industrial scene in the Triangle is pretty stereotypical, with the usual boring electro/dance fare. There is the Clockwork cabaret Steampunk hour on a Chapel Hill radio station, though, and and the Eccentrik Festival in Chapel Hill, though 2009 may have been it's last year.
Shopping is sort of problematic. I have to drive over to Cary or Raleigh to find a Whole Foods. There are few convenient gas stations where I live. Crabtree Mall is a horror to access, and the Cary Mall is mediocre. I stay away from the Cary Towne Center unless I can go at off-peak times. I prefer to go to Grocery stores in Clayton than in Garner, where I live. I have to drive drive further, but they are easier to access.
There are many historical reenactments in the area, which is nice , since it's my "thing".
In the along run, while the Raleigh area is an improvement over Sofla, I will probably move further west in NC when I have the opportunity. I can see the Triangle eventually turning into the sprawling kind of metropolis that I sought to escape in Sofla.
Just a note about moving further west. I know there's much "west" between here and the Asheville area, but I wanted to give you a warning if that's the area you're referring to. We moved here from Asheville. We LOVED it there...great art, music, food, festivals, things to do outdoors, great weather...but the cost-of-living compared to salaries is horrid, housing is ridiculously expensive, and in way too many areas, the trees are being stripped to make way for high-end housing developments (no developers are interested in building middle-class housing either). We worked in downtown Asheville and that was awesome, but the drive to and from everyday became very depressing because of all the construction taking place everywhere.
I firmly believe that it is up to you to make the life you want to have. .
I agree with you 100%, Funky Chicken. Now if only I could convince my 80-year-old mother of that. She finds fault with every place she moves. The previous place is ALWAYS better. Live in the present!
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