For those who came and never left..
 

I wonder if you wouldnt mind telling of how it came to be. I know how my Husband and I feel I was curious about others...
How did it happen that you came and just stayed...

Huh?? Came to this site, moved physically to NH?? What are you asking?

I've pretty much documented my relocation story here, so if you click on my name you can read some threads back in early 2011.

But in a nutshell, I think the reason most people move here from other places is because they love it and figured out a way to make it work for them.

Yes catep I have read as you went along and trying to find a place, Im sorry if I wasnt clear, yesI mean to NH, to the site??? lol lol silly.
I have read so many interesting stories over the years, everyones stories are very interesting.
Thanks Catep!!!

We bought a dock down at Quayside YC, several years back. Brought the big boat from Point Judith RI by transport. Liked the area a lot. A friend who is in Real Estate knew of a Woman selling a house up in Suissevale, in Moultonborough. Bought it to rent out during the Summer. Did that for a few years. Almost paid off the mortgage with the rentals we made. Figured if we could pay off the Mortgage early, then we could also get a town house down in Myrtle Beach, SC for our retirement years. So we could Summer up here, Winter down there for a while. So far the plan is working out even with the economy. But the renters did a number on the house so I moved up here and fixed it up. I had just been let go from where I was working for 20 years, my father had just passed away and left me some money. Not a lot but enough to take some time off and put some cash into new fixtures for the house, redo the kitchen, bathrooms, pave the driveway, etc. After that I got a job up here and that is the story. Liked it so much I just stayed. 9 years later....Haven't left yet! :laugh:

A dream finally realized....
 

....ah.....Plumber's Wife....you make it sound so easy!! .....but for most of us we don't just show up and never leave. It takes a lot of planning, saving and dreaming as evidenced by Lakesrider, MAXUM's recent thread and Cate P's well-chronicled adventures. We had to give up our place up at the lake last summer due to the "downturn" in the economy after 24 years. So now I am in the dreaming and saving mode. Retirement is not far off and the house down here is almost paid for.....so.....I'll be BACK!!

Making the move
 

I started comming up here when i was a kid and fell in love with the area. My wife and i talked about moving full time here but it was never in the cards. About ten years ago i was up fishing the ice derby and saw a house for sale in center harbor. It needed a lot of work but the price was right so i took the leap and spent every dime we saved and bought it with out telling her or the kids. Trust me it was the gamble of a life time. After all was said and done i opened up and explained to my wife what i had done and boy was she mad.The only thing she said was there enough money left to get a divorse lawyer. Well i took her up to the house to show her and she fell in love with the place, from there we went home and talked to my three boys. At that time the oldest was 12 years old and the yougest was 7. We all made the decision to move up here full time. Now under stand when we did this we had no jobs, barley any money and only one friend that ive know since i was a kid that was here. Wow what a gamble we were making. When we moved up my wife found work right away since she is a nurse. we got the kids in school and i commuted back and forth from boston till i found work here about a year latter. Now i run an awsom company here and work on the water. Thank god everything worked out and hearing my boys say this was the best thing i ever did makes it all the better and my wife and i are still very happy after 31 years of marriage. So thats how i came to be in the best place i could ever want to be..........

What a fantastic story Slugo!! I love it!!! Thanks so much for sharing, wow, youve got one heck of a lady there!!!!
Good for you, livin the dream...

Great story sluggo. 31 years.....Wow!

Never stop dreaming
 

Spent my childhood summers at the lake. Never truly appreciated it until I moved west to go to school and never went back. 15 years later I brought my then two young children to the lake to visit my favorite Uncle. Watching the delight in their eyes and the flood of childhood memories rekindled my dream. Once the "kids" were in colleague I began my plan of getting back to the lake. Every fall for 5 years I traveled to NH and spend time at different areas of the lake. With the last tuition check written, I found a place and decided to go for it. I contemplated it for a month then gave my broker the OK to put in the offer. Did everything from the West Coast....once the contact was accepted, I finally told my family and had an east coast family member close the deal for me. That was 6 years ago......and 35 years after I began the dream! Next year I hope to retire and spend summers there full time. But each spring when I go out to open up it is still llke a dream and I still thrill each time I land at the airport in Manchester!

I used to love it, then I moved here.
 

I started coming up with my two young boys in the early 90’s and staying at the campground by Long Island Bridge. We would spend many weekends and the week of the 4th at the campground camping, fishing and boating.
Then in 2000 I met a fine you woman in Manchester NH who eventually became my wife. She owned a house in Belmont NH.
Shortly after getting married the electronics industry tanked and I started up my current business of painting and snowplowing.
And now we can’t wait to move away because in the last ten years the traffic in this area has gotten unbearable.
I can understand why people from say Center Harbor to Wolfeboro and on don’t understand how bad it is. I just did a job for someone in Ossipee and that side of the lake is so much different then it is from Center Harbor around to Alton. Also unless your job has you driving around in this area you could not possibly understand how bad it has gotten in the last 10+ years.
I was talking with someone from Ossipee and they compared the Laconia side of the lake to driving in Nashua traffic. I concur.

That is true, BR. Even this side of the lake is a lot busier than it used to be. Why do you think FLL has the signature he does? Every time I think about his signature I laugh!!!

Time to move to Maine.:eek:

Traffic between Meredith and Laconia
 

Yup, all true....but when we get to the cottage and look out at the lake, the traffic is the furthest thing on our minds.

The traffic might be better, but the taxes will definitely be worse. Pick your poison.

So very true....

Well, we have no traffic, we live on a Mountain, 2 acres a cabin and a screened in huge porch is NOT hard to take.... ;) We certainly dont have the beautiful water to look at, different beauty, as stated choose your poison :eek:

Short version of a long story
 

We started the “live here” journey by driving to the lake on weekends in the mid 80’s, launching the boat and spending the day exploring the lake. Gradually, the favorite activity shifted to exploring homes for sale and dreaming about owning one. The next step was renting. We tried different parts of the lake to see which areas we liked the best. The hobby grew into an obsession and we signed on with a real-estate buyer’s agent around 1989. Long story short, we bought in February 91. It was during a recession that generated a lot of inventory and price reductions of about 30% under late 80’s prices. Wind the story ahead by 15 great years of weekend lake living and we caught the “move here” bug. The choice was to renovate the cabin into a modern home or sell both homes and buy something elsewhere on the lake. We loved the location and our neighbors so much that we hired an architect, built what we wanted and changed our permanent address to Moultonborough in 2008. My job allows telecommuting, but we both look forward to my retirement day. Year-round living here is great. The brief busy summer is icing on the cake, but the people and lifestyle of the lakes region make it a joy to say “we live here”.

Have no intention of going to Maine. You missed my attempt at a dig. Never mind.

No, I got it. That's why I wrote "pick your poison."