Saturday, May 5, 2012

Figuring out where to live--my new online obsession.

For nearly all my life, I have not had to face making a big choice about where to live.

When I was a kid, my parents made those decisions.  Their reasons for choosing what city to live in, or what street to live on, or which specific house to live in were way over my head.

When I was nearing graduation from College, a friend and I decided--somewhat whimsically--to relocate to the North Shore of Boston upon graduation.  A gaggle of loose-knit college friends had decided to migrate to that area, and he and I joined in that migration.

In time, the North Shore of Boston as "home" gave way to a sequence of 'home addresses' for me, in places as diverse as Aruba, Netherlands Antilles and Dubuque, Iowa.  

As the years passed, I identified more of a 'career path' for my life.  I got jobs.  Became engaged and married.  We started our family.

The answer to any question of "where we lived" became a detail dictated by bigger life concerns: jobs;  opportunity to build 'resume weight'; and, most importantly, opportunity for income. These became the big influencers of where I called "home".  

Eventually Colorado became the long term "home address" for our family, which was just fine with us.  We love the people, the weather, the topography, and the economy.  Big city amenities were available, with small town sensibilities.  While we've had our share of ups and downs, Colorado has been, for us, a wonderful place to call home.

But now we have arrived at a point in our lives where we have sold "the big house".  Our life's accumulated possessions have been secured and are locked away behind barbed wire and cyclone fencing in Colorado Springs.  The storage facilities and movers await further direction from us on where we would like said possessions delivered--i.e. our 'new home address'.  

However, at this point, we have no idea where that 'new home address' might be.

Will attempt to figure that out over the next six months to a year.  We're thinking anywhere from Maine to Florida, Beaufort SC to Boston MA.  Somewhere on the water is preferred, but not mandatory.  There are different advantages and disadvantages to each of the locations we've pondered.  

Without the gravitational influence of 'relocation for job opportunity' or 'relocation for income opportunity', we debate if we should be guided by "proximity to grand kids" or "proximity to warmer weather" as we ponder the potentials.   Right now, we have neither.  And we would like to have both.

And so I spend too many of my waking hours, online, eyeballs affixed to my flickering computer screen.  I search out different locations...look at street views on google maps...and check trulia.com, zillow.com, and realtor.com for housing.  I look at economic data and weather data and what churches and restaurants are available in proximity to different locations (acknowledging, no doubt, a need for both spiritual and physical food).  We want to relocate to a nice community, walkable, private, close to amenities, restaurants, grand kids, at least temperate weather and nice views of the sunset over water.  And maybe a few other niceties we haven't yet considered.

And, so far, I just keep on searching.   Got any ideas?

Stay tuned.


    





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