The CPA and I often talk about our retirement plans. He officially retires from the government in a few years and after that, the sky’s the limit. While we will most likely stay in the Washington, DC area for a few years after that, we can’t help but keep a list of the places where we could possibly settle down one day. My eyes grow big and I start drooling when I think of buying a new house in a place where we can actually get what we’re paying for. (Remember my fascination with looking at houses? Well, that doesn’t help.)
So we recently took a little trip. We spent three days driving to a few separate places so that we could either check them off the list, or move them to the top five. Our first stop was in Boone, North Carolina. Now if you’ve never heard of Boone, don’t worry, you’re not alone. My dad apparently attended college there when he was but a wee lad, and I still hadn’t heard of it.
It’s actually a very pretty place in the mountains in the western part of the state.
This is the main part of town. As you can see, it’s a little small.
Which is why we enjoyed our visit, but then scratched Boone off the list. Not that we have anything against small towns, we just want a place that’s a tad bit bigger.
Next we made our way two hours south to Asheville, NC. We had visited the area back in March and spent a day at the Biltmore Estate, but had not taken time to visit the area.
First I have to say that the drive to the area was amazing. THIS is why we want to live in the mountains.
Beautiful, no?
We made our way around the city which, I am happy to report, is about four times the size of Boone.
There was an interesting mix of the old and the new.
Asheville even had the things that I definitely want in a town: a Target, a mall, and grocery stores a plenty. I was very impressed. So impressed that we decided to check out the residential areas. We saw some houses on the mountain and thought it looked like a good place to start.
So we headed toward the mountains, or hills, if you’re from the West.
We didn’t know where we were going, we just knew we had to head up, so we kept driving until we were surrounded by trees. And then we started to see houses.
The houses up here were amazing and the view was incredible.
And that was before we found my dream house.
It was in a neighborhood called Grove Park Cove located high on the hilltop.
It had everything we wanted (at least from the outside). Lots of space,
and great neighborhood.
The only thing we didn’t like was the price tag. At $2 million, it’s just a little bit out of our price range. Oh well, maybe we’d have to go a little further down the mountain. Like at the very bottom.
Of course we could go for a smaller house like this one.
It’s not as big, so it’s probably not as expensive. The only problem is, I’m not a fan of the stilts. There’s something a bit unsettling about having a foundation that’s basically a few poles. But it seems to be a popular thing in the mountains, so maybe it’s not unsafe?
Hmm… I don’t know. I think I’ll stick with a traditional foundation of cement and stones.
Overall, it was worth the drive and we loved the area – it is definitely in our top five. The town was the right size, the residential areas were promising, and the mountains were amazing.
Even Oscar seemed to like what he saw.
Then again…
Maybe he was just humoring us.
What about you – what area(s) is on your list? If you could move anywhere at all, where would it be?
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