Early next week Mr. DoH, the pup, and I are embarking on the second-ish installment of our Northeast home search. We currently reside in Northern Virginia, where I have lived my entire life and Mr. DoH moved to for work ~10 years ago. We are comfortable here and I love being so close to my family but we have been itching to leave for a handful of reasons.

Given our fortunate work from home circumstances, Mr. DoH and I have quite a bit of flexibility in where we decide to settle. We have bounced around from state to state (mentally and physically) over the past few years in an attempt to determine where we fit best. Many times we thought we found “the one” and proceeded to inform all of our friends and family that we were moving to Greensboro, North Carolina or Frederick, Maryland, only to sheepishly backtrack when we realized something didn’t fit with our dream home location needs or desires.

List of Dream Home Location Needs and Desires:

• Privacy: very few neighbors + feeling of seclusion + tranquility
• Acreage: anywhere from a couple to a dozen or more acres + space for growing crops + possibly space for some companion farm animals + some scenic views wouldn’t hurt
• Affordability: lower overall cost of living + lower home price options
• Not too Isolated: access to good grocery stores + within a couple hours distance to a bigger city
• Driving Distance to Family: 7-8 hours max

The aforementioned list led us to a little section of the northeast, which includes Litchfield County, Connecticut, lower Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and Columbia County, New York. We like to say we are spoiled for choice but it would be fair (and only a little rude) to categorize us as indecisive.

During the first installment of our home search we fell in love with Litchfield County, Connecticut; it checks almost all of the boxes for us, except it can be a little pricey. That being said, we decided that during this second installment of our home search we should check out some of the surrounding areas to ensure that we don’t miss any neighboring gems before making our final decision.

The DoH Northeast Home Search means another short-ish blogging break, I’m afraid. I expect the next blog post will be up on December 11th. Follow me on Instagram @directorofhousehold for some updates along the way!