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....
No comments:
Post a Comment