You beat me to it! Thanks for dropping the link!

Is that why I haven’t heard a periwinkles fine jewelry ad for the better part of a decade? 😂

I don’t know anything about working at NVRH, but St. Johnsbury is a great place to live! We’re about 10 minutes outside of town and the downtown has had multiple great new businesses opening every year.

Correct. It's super depressing. I've got 3 kids, 2 of them not far off the age when "moving out" generally becomes a thing and since we aren't independently wealthy uh...I figure they will just be at home longer than "usual" or move out of state. Bc rent is absolutely out of control here.

Have you looked into concrete counter tops? There are a ton of 'how to' videos on YouTube, and there are also kits available. Personally, I think they look great, a lot of room for adding your own flair also.

I don't know where you are, but apparently they're tearing down the bowling alley in Bennington. That lane wood is usually super high-quality rock maple, and you might able to get some as salvage. (There are probably other sources, too, of course, so look around!)

I only know about this because a friend of mine used salvaged wood from a bowling alley when he built his house, and it's held up over the years far better than my expensive custom butcher block!

Thanks for the numbers, that's what we couldn't seem to put a finger on. It's crazy that it would take a six figure income to live a simpler, slower life comfortably. Although I keep hearing that's the price people will pay for the Northeast.

Larger cities influence a larger area, don't understand what's difficult to understand about that. NH is included in the Boston MSA in the Census.

Ugggg. That's a tough one. I just came back from the kids vacation in Florida. Its crazy and over populated, but I still love it there. Warm, sunny, lots to do. Knowing that I am writing a $2300 check once a month for what is free or cheaper in Florida.

I love my wife and kids.

Thanks so much for the detailed run down. My husband is a furniture maker and I'm a graphic designer. I could work remotely, but my husband can't, and there's not much to pick from as he's been looking the past 6 months. The lifestyle change is honestly what we want: slower simpler living and closer to nature. We won't be leaving for vacations, because we'd be living exactly where we'd escape to when we lived elsewhere in the US. So in some ways, we could make it work. But we'd love to buy a house within the next few years and the renting costs in VT seem to leave very little for a savings account. The pros and cons list is extensive on both sides.

Top 20% in Florida is 2.3%

Hey I grew up on the seacoast too…went to Winnacunnet. My family from Boston proper, I wousltn necessarily say the seacoast is a “Boston suburb” but I digress

What's the prize for winning? Because if it's over the cost of the fine and tow, I know what I'm doing with a truck come spring!

We use T-Mobile home internet and we've had good luck. We usually fall into up-speeds of 25-30mbps, which is pretty good. Both my wife and I work from home and regularly stream meetings at the same time with no issues. It's cheap and has been pretty reliable for the 2+ years we've been using it. T-Mobile has a service map where you can see if service is available for your address.

Being a coddled delirious soyjock whose economy would crumble if government subsidies stopped is not a perk, neither is not having the local will to build things when the tit finally runs dry.

Good lord, that's depressing. Our goal if moving here was to rent for 1-3 years to save and then buy a house. But it sounds like renting and saving don't go together in VT.... yikes.

I’m in the 30% fed and top VT tax bracket. I moved from Florida pre pandemic. My extra cost to live here is $26k a year.

My wife is from here and the schools are great, so I eat it.

being batshit libertarians who just want attention is generally not a perk

Correct!

De-growth mindset pervasive throughout Vermont, anti housing, anti any industry. Not even pro low income housing

Totally fair, although I can see in all the bitterness that there's some hard truths that people who've never lived in VT would not know otherwise.

My husband is looking for work as either a furniture maker or timber framer, and I'm a graphic designer. We're both seeing very little available, sadly. I am able to work remotely but have always preferred working locally if possible. We definitely don't live paycheck to paycheck, but the housing costs make it look like our house buying goal will get pushed much farther down the road. We've been traveling to the NE for vacation for years, so living there means we won't be traveling elsewhere because we're not "escaping" the southeast anymore. To me, the tradeoffs sound worth it. But I'd hate to get there and find out we romanticized it beyond reality.

admittedly besides the economic prominence it's very easy to forget that any of that coastline is actually in NH

Depends on how much you make. I can't link directly but if you go here and select NH you'll see that if you're in the bottom 20% of income you pay 9.1% of family income.

In VT in the bottom 20% it's 8.7%. Which isn't a huge difference, but is a difference.

As you get more wealthy, NH looks better for taxes.

I had 2 Haier units put in in October (separate 2 ton compressor for each head unit). Cost me about $10k and took 2 days. Did not connect it to existing heating systems, didn’t run any ductwork as I have a fairly open floor plan.

No complaints with the units. My electric bill has gone up, of course. The electric increase plus my payment is about break even for the winter months compared to using fuel oil. I do turn my furnace on if the temp are staying in the teens, but I’ve only used half a tank this winter.

I'm in Essex, I'll get his name later today. He is a one man operation so that's why he was shower, but he's very detail oriented and his prices were on par.