Ali and I are starting to get serious about finding a place to live. We made a trip to Pennsylvania and two places in particular, Hazleton and Allentown. I wanted to see what it was like as housing and taxes are much cheaper there than New York. Hazleton is the town my grandmother grew up in, and I thought it would be neat to go see it. Allentown wasn’t a bad place, but it is about 3.5 hours from Ali’s family, and I think I would like to be closer to them than that, so we’ve pretty much ruled out Pennsylvania. This whole notion of being close to her family is interesting, as it has a lot more to do with proximity. In particular I don’t think I would have a problem moving out West to Utah, Montana, or Oregon, but I am more reluctant to move a few hours away. I think it is because I believe living three hours away or 25 hours away, that I would see them almost the same amount. As such it would be ashame not to take advantage of the proximity. I know it sounds absurd, but experience has shown this to be true.

I been thinking that living in the Catskill area would be nice. It has some down-sides, taxes, over priced, it’s in New York, but it also offers most of the things I’m looking for, good cycling, decent skiing, esthetically pleasing, etc.

So we went and looked at a local house — It was kind of small around 1000 square feet; the lot, having very nice views of the mountains, was extremely sloped (very undesirable); taxes were good around $2000/yr; but the sellers were wanting (a firm) $195,000. Overall it had too many negatives to warrant a price like that, so we are going to pass.

There isn’t a whole lot on the market right now, but with spring looming, I’m hoping some other properties start showing up.

I am debating keeping a photo record of the houses we look at, if there is any interest in such a thing let me know, that would persuade me to make the effort.

And in other news the “Service Engine Soon” light came on in my Saturn today, hope that isn’t going to cost me too much, but it is Saturn after all. In doing some research I came across this site, these people really love Saturn, NOT!