A good move
I've got a good excuse for neglecting this site since early May -- my wife and I moved across the Pa. state line on May 10 and became citizens of the beautiful state of West Virginia (barely).
This is the mass emailing I sent to a bunch of people I know/like/love about my move to West Virginia, which occurred without incident on Tuesday May 10....
Bethany, WV
After about six weeks of looking around for a house in western pa, north and south of Pittsburgh, in the sticks, in the burbs and in the city, Trudi and I stumbled upon this treasure in the little college town of Bethany, West Virginia.
Hardly two miles across the PA line (by crow), Bethany is home to ancient Bethany College (where Frances McDormand matriculated). The house was such a deal compared to all the previous houses we had seen that we bought it after touring it for 45 minutes.
A week later, we have no buyer remorse.
In fact, the house turns out to be better than we knew. We are extremely lucky.
The photos in the attached real estate listing don't do it justice, but it's a great well-cared-for and updated 1916 house -- six bedrooms, three stories, a nice yard, a garage, a front porch, a back deck, even gutter guards and mineral rights.
Bethany is a grid of a dozen century-plus-old streets with sidewalks and giant trees and a general store -- all in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by woods and farms. Only a thousand people live here and 600 are students.
It sounds like we've moved a million miles away from the South Hills of Pittsburgh, but Bethany is only 50 minutes and 28 twisting miles west from where we lived for 33 years in a money pit on a hilltop in 12 acres of woods.
The nearest big mall (on I-70 toward Washington PA) is 25 minutes away. Wheeling, what's left of it, is 20 minutes southwest. Lots of golfing and parks and woods and streams and working farms all around. Pgh Airport is 45 minutes away.
I've got half a dozen college professors and ministers as neighbors but Brooke County's 22,000 souls voted about 70-30 for you-know-who, so it's going to be an interesting place for a seasoned libertarian to survive.