Will work be centered around Danbury? these are all towns surrounding that area? Could probably throw Brookfield in there as well.

Wilson and Ridgefield will be very expensive, even for CT. Great schools though.

If you're in a work from home situation, Avon/Farmington/Glastonbury/Simsbury might be less expensive but have among the best public schools in the state ( which also means in the country). S Windsor, Canton, and Southington aren't far behind.

Suddenly this old talking heads song popped into my head...

This used to be real estate Now it's only fields and trees

Where, where is the town Now, it's nothing but flowers

Thankfully there are still so many bucolic vistas in western Mass. My favorite is still Tyringham cobble.

Quality of life is important, especially if you can pay the bills.

Is your col going up or down in NC?

Will you be able to comfortably live on your own in NC? If things don't work out and you move out on your own will you be able to afford it? I'm not hoping that will happen but something like that is always a possibility.... At least strictly from a financial standpoint you have to be able to handle that..

Also consider, will you have the same quality of life overall if you move to North Carolina and things don't work out? Will you enjoy living there verses where you are now?

Once you are Out there you can Always jump ship to a new job if $$ is an issue. But then your work/quality of life ratio could change .

But with a potential recession looming I'd stay with your current employer, you can always bail a year from now.

The Jamaican restaurant is incredible.

I think portly Pig is the best BBQ around, and one of the best anywhere, for that matter...

Unfortunately, we haven't had a great experience with mofongo, its been average for the type of food it is, but we've eaten at every restaurant there multiple times, and there is nothing that is truly subbar.

Sold off most of it about 15-20 yrs ago. Missed the chance to get a 71 Lt1 Corvette for about $24k at the time. They're worth a bit more than that now....

I think of that every time I go by the old building....

Just get the scanner and scan as you go. Checkout literally takes one minute if you do this.

Get a few more quotations. We have a relatively straightforward vacation house in Western Ma, and we were quoted anywhere from $8-22k for a 2 to 4 split on a ~1200sf house. This was 10-18k btu. The latter of which is absurdly overkill.

But I think in Berkshire county these things might actually be a little more expensive, because there are fewer people who do them out this way.

A commercial realtor might know something about this type of thing. A friend of mine did this, spent a lot of time researching locales that might suit certain needs for prospective clients.

However, this particular point in time (possible recession in the cards) might not be the best time to open up.

We had companies calling us about some vacation houses we own ( not rentals) two springs ago when the market was exploding.

They offered about 70% of reasonable, not inflated, mkt value ( neighbor at one place is a realtor and said they were low-balling everyone in the neighborhood, looking for a taker).

I wouldn't do it unless you are truly desperate for the $$. Otherwise maybe try a heloc, if it's not a home affordability issue.

I might have made the same mistake too if I had to print this out at 4 o'clock in the morning.

You're not likely to have any issues. Berkshire county tends to be relatively laid back.

It's a good thing you're not going into a high crime area of the Berkshires like Washington, Williams, or Monterey ; )

This makes complete sense, But I never knew that was the reason for two sets of paint.

But there are always certain conditions anywhere when it rains that make it difficult to see line markings.

It's somewhat relative, Avon/ Glastonbury/Farmington/West Hartford are wealthy towns with respect to metro Hartford.

New Canaan/Darien/Wilton/Weston (etc) are wealthy WRT metro NYC. Which makes them the elite of the elite.

Most of these towns are great places to live, we have lived ourselves, and/or have relatives in all of them save Darien.

I had a hard time finding a donation location, ended up buying a meal to give through my grocery store. Will plan better for Xmas and throughout next year ( the need doesn't go away with the holidays).

Yes, but some of the best restaurants anywhere in the country are tucked away in a lot of those Berkshire towns.. Great Barrington might have the best 'great restaurant per capita' ratio anywhere on the planet.

Minneapolis hadms one of the best cuisine scenes anywhere due to the influx of migrants. It's incredible!!

If you're trying to stoke up fears or anything otherwise, one data point in one year is insignificant.

You'd have to start looking at longer term impacts, and collecting data from decades to really draw an accurate trend line.

So snow last night by itself means nothing, versus having plotted the trends over the past several decades.

The smart thing to do would be to stash the $$ on the island and come back months later.

You'll definitely want to spend some time kicking around the center portion of the county. There are a lot of beautiful and unique areas throughout. It would probably be easiest to be somewhere on the route 7 corridor, but you could also consider a place like Becket, which has easy access to Lee and slightly longer access to Adams ( via the only straight road in all of Berkshire County, Washington Mountain Rd).. But if you want to be out in the sticks, that is a viable option.

You'll fall in love with the best kept secret in New England once you get here.

And Lenox.

If you are truly in one of the 5 boroughs the heat sink effect makes them somewhat warmer overall.

But if you're in the suburbs it's nominally warmer in NY.

Once you get to philly, it becomes noticeably warmer.

For a Republican, he's a pretty sensible guy. Which means he'll get steamrolled in the primary if he were ever to run.

Despots and quacks only need apply for the Republican primary.

Artificial.

I have an allergy to evergreen/coniferous type trees.

Found out the hard way after a couple of natural Christmas tree outings......

There's an onramp on 91south in Springfield by the Chevy dealership, it gives you about 20' to merge onto 91 before the onramp lane is cut off by an overpass.

I've seen some ridiculously close calls, but I still can't believe I've never seen an accident there.

Have you ever driven anywhere in Florida?

That being said the best drivers by far are in Minnesota from my experience.