We are moving to Floyd, VA

After almost a year of preparation, our house-building project has achieved critical mass and everything is beginning to happen at once.

Gretchen and I look forward to joining our blogging and non-blogging friends in Floyd before snow falls. The Ripples Weblog, Affordable Designs in Wood, and Bent Crow Press are moving down to Floyd, VA in less than 60 days if all goes well. 

The rapid transition from planning to moving is a direct result of deciding to build using a modular home. This builder takes about four weeks in the factory to construct a home and then another few weeks on site to finish the home by adding a roof structure, siding, and some interior details.

We were going to build in the Spring of 2006 until we were informed that material prices were becoming unstable due to the after-effects of Katrina. We made the decision yesterday to proceed immediately with the house and the factory in Rocky Mount, VA will begin construction Monday.

This sets off a chain of events which I will blog, because we are planning to work outside the box in several areas and I want to capture the lessons learned. I also want your advice and suggestions because we have a lot to accomplish in the next 60 days.

I hope to find a mover that offers moving pod service. Barring that, I hope to find a mover that will cause the least damage. Any current recommendations for movers in the south central Virginia area will be most appreciated.

We will be listing our current home this week and I have work to do to give the place more curb appeal. I will provide a link to the listing for those of you who have friends who are looking for a less stressful lifestyle.

Gretchen and I moved to Virginia from San Jose, CA in 2002, hoping to find acreage and high-speed internet connection. We found you could get either, but not both, so we settled on the wooded lakeside environment at Lake Monticello, VA. It offered the comforts of a gated community and a peaceful lifestyle where we could operate businesses from our home.

As time passed, this formerly rustic resort community has mutated into a clone of typical northern VA developments. It is still a charming place to live, but it is more like a manicured golf course community than an example of laid-back country living.

As a result, it is becoming an attractive bedroom community for people who commute to Charlottesville or Richmond and want gracious living at an extremely attractive price.

For home-based businesses, on the other hand, there is increasing pressure to minimize any visible evidence of business activity. Thus business expansion almost mandates a move to the countryside where land-buying pressure has driven prices sky high.

Our alternative was to find a community where land prices would allow us to achieve our earlier goal of enough acreage to put up a house and a workshop while allowing us to have high-speed internet access. Floyd County still offers that opportunity at a price we can afford.

Stay tuned for the rest of the saga.