Friday, October 5, 2012

Proverbs 24:27 Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.


The Great Search

(Continued from my July 1 post)…As I made my many notes and lists, I narrowed and prioritized my list of “must-haves” so I could consistently judge the places I was taking a second look at.  Of course, everyone will have different criteria, but this ended up being mine:

1.    Community.  I want to live with others, not apart from.  You know what I mean; many places are gorgeous and fun with lots of things to do, but you would always be a visitor.  You might be a resident, but, without a lot of really hard work you would never be an “us” you would always be a “them.”  Every community has neighborhoods.  The neighborhoods I looked for were not geographic, but social: arts, town, and church.
 
2. Affordable housing.

3.    Artistic opportunity and acceptance.
 

4.    Within 2 hours of an ocean.
 

5.    Close to a major airport. 
 

You know how, when faced with a stack of resumes, your first pass is eliminating those that don’t meet your criteria?  I did it with locations, based on #2, affordable housing.  The list was based on artistic opportunity, so housing would cut the widest swath through the list, and boy, did it!  Truthfully, I did not expect “affordable” to be as affordable as it actually was.

Reconnaissance 

I was browsing on Trulia when I input Oil City, PA.  Oil City has a well-publicized artists’ relocation program.  The program’s description includes low-interest loans and notes that there are many available inexpensive homes that need a little TLC.  This is an understatement; livable, sizable houses are available for less than $50,000.  Really!  If you move up to $75,000, you get more livability and less to do.  What’s the catch?  Bathrooms.  For this price you generally get one.  On the other hand, for this price, you can add a second.  More money, more house of course.

So, it was time for my first field trip.  I made contact with the artists’ relocation program and in a few days I got a package in the mail.  Stay tuned for the next installment and make sure you have your permission slip signed....

 

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