I have to disagree with Wolf. Having lived in several states (New York, Kentucky, Florida, Maine & Missouri to name a few) the BEST state I have lieved in is Tennessee, hands down. If you think Tennessee is a "nanny" state, you have never spent any time in New York.

I have no experience with Texas, so I can't say anything about how that state is. You could do a whole lot worse than Tennessee, though.

 

I am Scottish and arrived here permanently in 1993 - I had served here in various guises since the seventies, but emigrated in '93.... I have lived in Colorado, Tennessee, North Dakota, Arizona, California, Missouri, Indiana, Washington and New Mexico. The state I like least is Washington, but had to live there a few times, until my official retirement, in Nov 2011. it took me a while to leave but I aint going back there. Tennessee I lived in Oakland for four years, whilst doing other things, and wanted to return when I could, but it took until just last month to actually get back here. I don't thing I will trade TN for TX, though I may move to Vermont, just to see what it is like - never been there. Been about every other state.

Texas I lived in regularly, when serving. It is not the place I prefer, and do not think I would move there without being told to. I don't like the place - the people are great, friendly and helpful, but the state ain't my cup of tea.

 

Apples and oranges....

One of the things I dearly miss is citrus trees.

 

It will cost me more than what I paid for the house to get any action, the possibility is that I will lose the action, and as the house assessed independently as liveable, the seller would not have to pay anything. This would get me nothing - I am already out of pocket by a couple of thousand dollars on the lawyers and don't want to make them any richer, so I am stuck trying to sell a house I do not consider liveable, that I will not live in. Until it sells I cannot afford to either rent or buy a house anywhere, so we are leaving the area, going east for a few months, living in the Mack, until it, or the one in WA sells.

 

I met a man, the owner of an RV park, who chatted with us for a few hours, then told us that he had a house he needed to sell - it belonged to his parents, who died within two weeks of each other, two or three years ago. The house had been rented out, but the woman was behind with the rent, and he just wanted it sold.

I told him I couldn't afford a mortgage, I already had a bunch of them, so was credit crippled. He said he didn't like banks, and asked me to see the house. We went, it was great - needs updating - everything in it is from the seventies, but it is peaceful (ish) large (ish) and very comfortable feeling.

I told him of my Stock Portfolio, with dividends and such payable anually, in March, and mentioned that I could pay a third of the value, each march, for three years, and $400 a month, to cover the interest, etc... I said I could pay monthly until March, then one payment of $4800, and one payment of the third of the value, that would cover all payments until the next year.

I did not think anyone would do anything like that, but I was wrong. I offered the references and proof, and he chose not to avail himself of them. He told me in his seventy two years, he had been wrong about someone once, and he cured that by divorcing her.. He shook my hand, and asked if I would write out an agreement.

I wrote one out, with the help of a Judge friend of mine, and we got it notarized, with all signatures, and we now have a 1560 square foot house, brick built, with three acres of land, some trees, maybe eighty of them, some grass, most of which is on a steep hill, and the house sits atop the hill, with a fence around it. We got in, with the payment of $400 - and the expectation of paying that monthly, until the first big payment.

All with a Gentleman's word, and handshake.

This is a wonderful end to a troubling time, though I still have the cabin to sell, along with the house in Washington, but we are living in our own house, in a wonderful valley, mountains all around, and a Y junction just at the end of the rather steep driveway.

The people of Tennessee have no bloody clue what a stop sign is, at least the two at the end of our drive.. every so often, somebody actually stops at it, but most folk just blast through at up to sixty - in a 40 zone. I sit in the living-room window, just waiting for the crunch that is bound to happen some day..

 

Wonderful news!

It's also interesting (potentially useful) that you have a half dozen state lines fairly close by

Once you are well settled in, send me an SASE and I will pack it with garden seeds!

*Terracing works well on hills. You should bag yourself a good tiller. Fallen tree branches also make excellent landscape timbers to form gardens - and you can't beat the price

 

If I can get it back together we have a Grillo - walking tractor with a tiller and a bush hog attachment. It needs work and is due to arrive here sometime in October..

Terracing the steep part of the hills is a great idea - we have a large grasshopper mower that manages side slopes pretty well, but there is one place I won't be mowing, so terracing that will be a life saver, literally.

We will send a SASE shortly, thank you, and will look forward to seeds arriving.


The best thing about getting this house, is that I get my Mac desktop computer back.. It is way too big to run in the Mack camper. Problem is I have been using the crappy PC laptop keyboard, so I am having to get used to this whisper soft mac keyboard again.

 

If you don't wish to terrace the steep hill, vine crops would also work climbing up the side----hops would work, strawberries or even grapes/muscadines if you are up to them.