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One more thing - you all are right on the money with the roads, access and amenities such as trash and firetrucks, etc. being an important part of the equation. I will look for a location that has easy access and on or near roads that are plowed and iced.
From experience, we have been shut down from hurricanes for almost two weeks and one of our first purchases will be a whole house generator running on a gas line or propane tank!
Thanks for all the responses. I married a Yankee and he is not good with "roughing it" so that is what I meant by not being mountaineers. He wants his internet access and his cable TV (with FoxNews and the Soccer Channel) and to enjoy the view out the windows. We want to be able to drive to our vacation home within 12 hours so that puts Asheville in the circle.
We currently live in God-forsaken South Florida (and I am a Mississippi girl) so you can surely understand my desire to get back to the cooler weather, woods, hills and friendlier folks! There are a couple of properties up on Town Mountain and Sunset Mountain that we will look at when we visit at Xmas.
I think, like marriage, we will have to compromise -- I want, at a minimum, the illusion of being in mountains (by being on the outshirts of Asheville at at high an elevation as possible without seeing my neighbor next door) and my husband gets to keep his sanity by not actually being in the woods.
Don't get too remote .... folks make a big mistake coming here from crowded areas like L.A. wanting to be "alone", and find they are isolated. Read my prior post about High Vista near Arden off Rt. 191 (average about $300K and NICE) ... I think you woud love it there; Cliffs at Walnut Cove are much more expensive though. Over $700K average. Check out the area near Cane Creek in Fletcher, Fairview areas. Beautiful. Town Mountain is nice too and close to Asheville. You should also check out Weaverville or MarsHill, north of Asheville, some nice elevations there. You really need more than one weekend to look around here though, more like a full week, and a Realtor who has lived and worked here for a long time.
QuilterChick, I agree with your suggestion - but for now, I am doing the preliminaries of what is possible (cool summer, elevation and city views) in the way of real estate prices (and narrowing down some potetial areas) as well as measuring my husband's tolerance for the "woods".
And for Christmas, We will be up for a week to see family coming over from Cary, see xmas lights at Biltomore, snow-tubing, and then to explore Asheville and surrounding areas. If all goes well, we will be back for a week at spring break and then an extended summer vacation.
But L A I will add just for fun sake that in this same community in ONE day our crew performed ;
lawn maintenance in the lower elevation , landscape and fall leaf removal in the middle elevation , and snow removal in the upper elevation . It was about the strangest day as a outside worker I have had in the 22 years of being in business .
Sounds like a good plan... you will find this area is nicely spread out and you could easily spend 3 or 4 hours just driving around areas because there are many areas that you could fall in love with outside of Asheville. From one Yankee to another, say hi to your hubby. Can relate.
If this is going to be a seasonal home, you may also want to consider some of the many beautiful condominium communities around Asheville. Just off the top of my head, for proximity also, one great viewing site is from the top of the "Park Avenue" over 55 community off Sweeten Creek Road. You can lock and leave it with relative peace of mind. I mentioned High Vista Golf community also earlier on and the views toward Asheville are nice. Carriage Park in Hendersonville has high views (not as high as 3000 ft. of course) but you will find around here you don't need to be that high up. Fairview is beautiful too. How about up on Black Mountain, looking back on Asheville? In Hendersonville, you can go to the top of Laurel Park and see the most spectacular views of the mountain ranges from Fleetwood. 360 degree views. It is a condo community on the top of a mountain, and there are some awesome views from single family homes up there as well.
We also left also God-forsaken South Florida after 30 years and relocated to Cincinnati but just bought a vacation home on Town Mountain. We spent quite a few holidays scouting out possible locations and like the fact that Town Mountain is minutes from town but still feels like you are up in the woods. It is a very nice area and I suspect you will see quite a few renovations when the ecomony comes back.
I have a suggestion for you, but as it's not about Asheville I've sent you a dm
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