Has anyone lived on acreage and moved back to a regular neighborhood?

[Momma H]

We are currently on 38 acres.  It is nice having privacy but we are moving to Nashville soon and I notice that everything fun happens in Franklin.  We can NOT afford acreage there.  (it is a rather expensive area because it is great and everything fun happens there apparently)  Either I need to live 45 minutes away to be on a couple of acres or I need to be in a regular neighborhood home.  We have lived in a suburban neighborhood and it was fine, but now we are used to room, privacy and all that.    

Does anyone have experience they would like to share?  Was it better or did you have regrets?  I am not trying to put down suburban or urban neighborhoods in any way, we are just not used to it!!!!  

[almondbutterandjelly]

I grew up on acreage.  I miss it.  The thing about living in a regular neighborhood is the moment you step out your front door, the whole neighborhood can see you.  Consequently, I only step out to get to the car and leave.  There is no hiking in my yard :( and if I am outside, I will have to speak to or consciously ignore the neighbors, neither of which is fun for me, as I am an introvert.  Also, if you want to take a walk around your neighborhood, you have to beware of dogs, because people will just open their doors and let them out with no lease (yes there is a leash law but they don't care).  As I have "dog fear," that means I can't walk around my neighborhood.

 

However, my dd has tons of kids to play with and is outside much of the time, once they are all home from school.  They do run around on the sidewalks quite a bit and play in our front yard, which is not that big but has nice grass and no sticker-burrs (a Texas thing I believe).  So socially for my dd, it's very good to live in a regular neighborhood.  One of our neighbors recently got a trampoline in their backyard, and all the kids are enjoying that.

 

And I have nice neighbors, which actually is really important in a regular neighborhood, but something you don't find out until you live there.  They don't park in front of our house or try and store their stuff on our property or complain about anything.  They are easy to live next to. 

 

So... pluses and minuses.

[elegantlion]

Previously we had 3 acres and a lot of privacy, it was still a neighborhood, but it was different. Now we're in a rural town on a city lot. personally, I like it better. I grew up in the suburbs, so I'm used to seeing people out and being closer to activities. 

 

We're on a corner and that helps with the closed in feeling. I'm not sure how I'd do in the middle of a street. Our neighbors driveway is right next to the other side of our house. $3 mini blinds make for great privacy, and they're good neighbors, which helps. 

[Momma H]

Yes, a bonus would be that right now it takes me about 6 hours to mow the part of my yard that is not wooded.  Yes, it is lame.  

 

I am worried about being at the mercy of difficult neighbors although you can't know that until you move there.  I guess it is a craps shoot, but is it worth the gamble?  sigh.....I don't know.

It will be good for my kids to make some friends.  They have really only had homeschooled friends because we have had to be deliberate for them to get together with anyone and that is who I know!  

[Paula in MS]

I moved from 50 acres of land about 25 minutes out of town to less than an acre in the middle of town. I think what helped the most is that the neighborhood we moved into is older, so all the trees are mature. We still have lots of birds, squirrels, and nature sounds. (We even have a possum that hangs around, unfortunately.). I think a new, treeless neighborhood would have been tough.

 

We now live much closer to homeschool activities and are able to participate more. Shopping is also much easier. I don't regret it at all.

[Venia]

The noise was the biggest issue for me. It went from virtually silent (plus wild animal noises) to listening to cars passing, doors slamming, occasional music, yard equipment roaring away every Saturday. I ended up needing white noise to be able to sleep.

 

The bonuses were pretty good though. Less property maintenance, good neighbors, super fast utility repair and emergency services.

[Saddlemomma]

I did the opposite and can't ever see myself going back to suburban living.  I dislike the lack of privacy and versatility in close suburban living. 

 

With this our current house (hopefully the last) we are now on 50 acres (previously we only had 24 acres).  However the trade off with this house is we are in a more populated area.  It has been nice in the fact that down the road, DD has friends she can play with and activities are a lot closer to get to - 20 minutes max.   Our church, dentist, and doctor are all 45 minutes away - not much different than when we lived in VT.

 

Before, in VT, we were on top of a mountain 4 miles up from the nearest paved road and no close neighbors.  Most of the other "houses" were actually camps and our backyard was 5,000 acres of state forest, and we had a covered spring for water.  It was quite funny when our realtor was showing us this house.  She said, "Well, with this house, you'll really be out in the sticks."  She had absolutely no clue.  We felt we were in the city because we could hear the traffic from Rte 1 from the property.  Not only that, but we were used to pitch black darkness at night, coyotes talking, owls hooting a chorus, and various other critters visiting.  Here, everyone seems to want and have huge spotlights on their barns and houses.  The first thing we did upon moving in was disabling the huge light on our 18,000 sqft. barn.  Then it took us months to get used to the cars whizzing by our house on our road. 

.

Now that we're used to all that (after 6 years) we're quite happy where we are, despite missing some things from our old place.  I guess it's all what you can adapt to.

[Cinder]

We had 8 acres--1 of those was a pond--before we had to move out of state for dh's job. It was great! We were on a dead end road in the country and yet only about 15 minutes away from town. Now we're in a suburb. There are very few places with any acreage around here and they are $$$--out of our budget. I haven't liked the change much. We've been pretty lucky with mostly good neighbors if you don't count the nearly invisible kids 2 doors over who thought it would be fine to sled down a small hill on the corner of our lot without asking. :glare:  I would have felt differently if these were kids we knew but they very rarely come outside and never say hi. I've only seen them a handful of times in 8 years!

 

Anyway, we're also in a subdivision with an HOA so we can only do so much in our yard. Can't plant a garden wherever we feel like. Can't skip on mowing the yard if we go out of town. Blah, blah, blah.

 

We're hoping to move at some point in the next 2-3 years to a place that has a bit more land (2-3 acres) and no HOA!

[Liz CA]

We came from 7 acres in a rather isolated area to a town of about 65,000, however, we were blessed to find an old home in an orchard. We have no immediate neighbors around us but there is a busy street at the end of our long driveway. I count it as one of God's greatest blessings because we have a large dog and transitioning to a suburban type neighborhood may have been difficult. If there is any way to choose a middle road, I would. Less acreage perhaps but still 1-2 acres, perhaps an older home or fixer upper if you can do the work yourself.

[Erin]

Watching this thread with interest.  We might have to make a similar decision in the coming year.

 

 

 

 

Our entire property is less than a 10th of an acre (which over half is our house).

Wow, that's tiny!  

My folks live in town with a lot on a standard* city block.  It's a corner lot so it's a little bigger than the central lots, but I always find it so small!  lol  I just figured it up and it's about a half acre...

 

 

*"standard", of course, meaning anything but.  My hometown is a small, young town (125yrs), so the blocks are fairly large.  About 12 blocks to a mile.

[Woodland Mist Academy]

. . . If there is any way to choose a middle road, I would. Less acreage perhaps but still 1-2 acres . . .

 

This is my advice as well.

[fairfarmhand]

Who told you that everything fun happens in Franklin?

[Momma H]

Who told you that everything fun happens in Franklin?

OK, no one told me that, per se.  I just have been looking at homeschool groups, CYT, and stuff like that and it all seems to be there. (or Spring Hill but the traffic there sounds pretty bad)  We are looking at Hendersonville, Mt. Juliet or Goodlettsville too but I don't see much activity there--homeschool wise.  Do you know differently?  I know a lot of things aren't posted on line.  We have to be in close proximity to Nashville for my husband's work.  Tell me what you think!  Please?

[DawnM]

I think there should be a compromise available?????

 

We live a little out (12-15 miles to most activities) but we have 2.5 acres and all of our neighbors are private (no HOA or anything.)

 

It is the best of both worlds.

[Guest submarines]

I moved from 50 acres of land about 25 minutes out of town to less than an acre in the middle of town. I think what helped the most is that the neighborhood we moved into is older, so all the trees are mature. We still have lots of birds, squirrels, and nature sounds. (We even have a possum that hangs around, unfortunately.). I think a new, treeless neighborhood would have been tough.

 

We now live much closer to homeschool activities and are able to participate more. Shopping is also much easier. I don't regret it at all.

 

Wow, 25 minutes out of town is practically downtown by my standards! My kids don't have a single activity in town which is closer than 25 minutes, and we are right in town.

[Mergath]

I will ditto the neighbor-ignoring-or-chit-chat-all-the-time issue mentioned upthread, and add that when you're accustomed to letting the kids roam around outside, playing imaginatively and building things or whatever,  it's MUCH different in a suburban neighborhood. In someplaces they might be able to go outside, but the spur-of-the-moment imaginativeness of their play is missing. 

 

It's not necessarily worse, it's just much different when you're not used to it. All of our neighbor kids have LARGE and LOUD outside toys, and many of them. Not the same as tree climbing and stalking blackbirds ;-)  And it kind of ties into the privacy thing. Having privacy isn't just for "private" things....for example, when we lived in our last place (after living on a farm) my wee little preschooler and I gathered sticks and made a teepee in the backyard. My neighbors wondered aloud whether or not we are allowed to touch the sticks (?????), and just kept talking about it all. the. time. until I took it down. It was weird. They were the same when we picked and ate the blackberries growing in the yard. It's just --different-- knowing that people know what you're doing all the time, ykwim?

 

Just different.

 

Wait... so your neighbor was questioning whether or not you're allowed to touch the sticks laying in your own yard?   :huh: That's bizarre, to say the least.  I live in a regular neighborhood, and I promise, I don't care what you do with your sticks. ;)

[Mergath]

Uh yeah they were just special.They thought all sticks belong to the city?????????????? Because we lived next to a road???????

 

But the knowing, that someone else knows what you're doing (whatever it is) is a change from living out in the sticks.

 

Wow.  Well, if that's the case, my five-year-old owes the city here a small fortune. ;)

[SnMomof7]

We downsized from 80 acres to 3 - our neighbours are definitely closer - we can see them, gasp! But they are nice! We found a place with a longer driveway - a sanity saver for us :). It is a big change, DH grew up with 320 acres, but he's holding it together :).

[kroe1]

It's all about the neighbors. They can make your life fabulous or miserable. I always go meet all my potential neighbors before I make an offer on a house. I am on the alert for barking dogs, messy unkept yards, grumpy attitudes, broken down cars, and rambunctious kids shooting pellet guns. I believe meeting the neighbors first can help avoid a disaster.

 

Right now we are in a planned community with very strict association rules and mostly retired couples. It is perfect!

[Momma H]

Wait... so your neighbor was questioning whether or not you're allowed to touch the sticks laying in your own yard?   :huh: That's bizarre, to say the least.  I live in a regular neighborhood, and I promise, I don't care what you do with your sticks. ;)

Agreed!  That is just weird.  All of these things are concerns for me.  I have pretty much come to the conclusion that we need to have an acre or two in order to stay sane.  Even with acreage we will have to get used to people being around.  Right now we are completely hidden and private, it is really nice.  I will really enjoy having more conveniences around.

Thanks everyone for your experiences, it is what I was looking for to think about some stuff.  I talked to my kids and they agree that we need some space.

[LMD]

My in laws sold up their 16 acres and moved into suburbia with their 3 kids (2 of whom were teens at the time), they love it and never regretted it.  They did, however, make sure to choose a place where they were close to the beach/parkland so they had open space to walk in.

 

That said, one of their sons (my DH) is planning to move back onto 20 acres, and still fondly remembers the 16 of his childhood...

[ThisIsTheDay]

We left 5 acres in the woods in the middle of nowhere, 25 mins. to the nearest (real) town, pop. 4500.

 

But we moved because I couldn't stand being quite so far away from every.single.thing.  I also worried about the length of time any emergency services would take to get to my house, and I worried about being so isolated if the power went out.  I grew up in the suburbs and am happily back there again.  I wasn't thrilled about having neighbors again (but our one neighbor in the woods was a piece of work).  Some neighbors here are chatty, some aren't.  I'm not really much of a chatty person.  The newer neighbors barking dogs sometimes make me want to scream though.

[PrincessMommy]

We are currently on 38 acres.  It is nice having privacy but we are moving to Nashville soon and I notice that everything fun happens in Franklin.  We can NOT afford acreage there.  (it is a rather expensive area because it is great and everything fun happens there apparently)  Either I need to live 45 minutes away to be on a couple of acres or I need to be in a regular neighborhood home.  We have lived in a suburban neighborhood and it was fine, but now we are used to room, privacy and all that.    

Does anyone have experience they would like to share?  Was it better or did you have regrets?  I am not trying to put down suburban or urban neighborhoods in any way, we are just not used to it!!!!  

 

I haven't read all the responses.  We moved from 1.5 acrea (not exactly "acreage" but close enough for us) to a more traditional neighborhood closer to the city.   I am SO unhappy. 

 

That's it in a nutshell.   We weren't as far out as  you are,  I think we were definitely still considered the burbs... but it felt like we were out there.  And, we were far enough out that I did get so tired of having to do that drive to get to anything.  Even though I'm really unhappy to be living in this neighborhood (with an HOA -avoid at all costs) I do *love* the convenience.  Only 5 mins. to the store - 15 to Church!  Woo hoo!.

 

I definitely feel like I've lost all my privacy even though I'm sure my neighbors could care less about what I'm doing.  I just miss the room to spread out.  I miss the darkness and I miss the privacy.  I miss being able to do what we want.. .build a trebuchet in the driveway?  sure no problem. I miss that freedom.   We couldn't do that here and then keep it on the driveway for a day or two.  The HOA would complain.   So I might have been happier if we'd been in a similar neighborhood without an HOA.  But having both close neighbors and an HOA really gets to me more than I thought it would.

 

What I don't miss is dealing with the yard, or the pool, and the older box-like house.  I hated my old house.  I guess I can't be content (and that makes me sad too).

[Janie Grace]

I went the other direction. Beautiful house in a neighborhood with an HOA to not-so-beautiful house on 10 acres (woods and fields). I could never, ever go back. I miss my kitchen. That's it. I cannot *imagine* going back to the lack of privacy and quiet.

[KungFuPanda]

I grew up on acreage. It has it's perks, but it seems like my childhood was one big long stretch of yard work. I do not care for even a little yard work and the whole family had to help maintain that much property. It was also a bit isolating because everything was a drive.

 

I live in the burbs now and I love it. My street is quiet. My neighbors make much less noise than the frogs and crickets at my parent's place! The neighbors are nice, but tend to wave from a distance. I feel like I definitely have more privacy here than in the country where everyone has to know everything. We have paved bike paths through the woods that I don't have to maintain. My grocery store is close enough to walk; so is my daughter's high school. There is tons to do here within 5-10 minutes. A tank of gas lasts me three weeks.

 

I think it really all depends upon how YOU like spending your time. I'd much rather go to the symphony than weed a large garden. I don't enjoy being in the car, so having everything close is great for me. DH and I like running out to a coffee shop or bookstore on a whim. Now that I have teens, I really think we could be perfectly happy in a city. Don't get me wrong, I love the outdoors and enjoy hiking and biking and camping. I'm outside a lot. I just don't need to own all of that land to enjoy these things. My grandmother, on the other hand, would hate it. She's happiest with her hands in the dirt and birds all around :-)

[Ottakee]

Dh and I were talking the other day that if we ever can't live where we do now---on 5 aces in a semi rural area--where we have our horses, he has his big pole barn, our freedom to do as we want, etc. we would make the huge switch and go right into small town living. I would not want to live in a subdivision--esp. not with an HOA. If we can't have our rural freedom---like riding 4 miles down the road to my friend's house on our horses, etc. The we would want to be in town where we could walk to the library, stores, park, boardwalk, beach, ride our bikes all over, etc.

[Heidi]

My husband missed the yard work; he got bored. I missed the privacy. Nosey neighbors, unpleasant neighbor kids. Apparently neighborhood dwellers wear shoes outside. ??? I have a picture of my 2 year old w/o a diaper , pushing his sisters pink stroller around the driveway, and another picture of him dressed up in a Pegasus costume riding his sister's Barbie bike. We don't belong in a neighborhood!!

[Erin]

When my kids aren't home, I can go get laundry off the line, straight from the shower and stark naked.  

 

This is a perk I would not want to give up...

[Pawz4me]

I think both have their appeal.

 

I lived semi-rural most of my life but for the past seven years we've been in a suburban/almost urban subdivision complete with HOA.

 

I enjoyed the privacy of semi-rural life.  I did NOT enjoy the massive amount of yard work and most forms of wildlife and spending so much time in the car to get to/from civilization.

 

From our subdivision I can be to a number of grocery stores, restaurants, Target, Staples, B&N, etc. within 10 minutes.  Love the convenience.  HOA has never been an issue.  At all.

 

We won't stay here forever, but I don't know where we'll go.  We own 15 semi-rural acres that would be perfect for building, so maybe.  Or maybe we'll stay closer to the conveniences of town.  Who knows?

[Erin]

From our subdivision I can be to a number of grocery stores, restaurants, Target, Staples, B&N, etc. within 10 minutes.  Love the convenience.

I have Amazon Prime...  

My UPS guy is Michael.  He even greets my dogs by name.   ;)

[JennyD]

I have nothing to offer wrt moving from acreage -- we moved from a tiny apartment in lower Manhattan to a single-family home on a quarter-acre lot in the middle of Nashville and for the first year I sort of felt as though we were living on the moon.  "Where IS everyone?!" I kept wondering.  It just seemed so empty.

 

Anyway, now that I've gotten used to it -- and more importantly, learned to drive -- I'm enjoying living here, and the kids and DH love it.  We live in one of the midtown neighborhoods and it's perfect for us, but there are a lot of good places to live around here.  And the WTM boards are positively crawling with Nashvillians far more knowledgeable than I, so feel free to PM or post with specific questions!

[Pawz4me]

I have Amazon Prime...  

My UPS guy is Michael.  He even greets my dogs by name.   ;)

 

Our UPS guy just rang our bell with a package. I think that's the fourth time he's stopped here this week.  So far. ;)

 

But IMO it's no substitute for being able to run out and pick up things right now when there's a need. Like when DS was working on his senior project on Sunday and realized the printer was out of ink and we didn't have a spare cartridge.  We're pretty organized, so things like that don't happen often.  But when they do, or when I just need a bit of instant gratification, it sure is nice to be close.

[KungFuPanda]

When my kids aren't home, I can go get laundry off the line, straight from the shower and stark naked.

 

This is a perk I would not want to give up...

OK. I cannot do THAT in the suburbs. Please tell me you have a giant suit-optional hot tub on your property.

[Miss Tick]

We moved from a small county house abutting farmland (so it felt huge, even though or part was small) into an established neighborhood very much in town. There is a lot to love about being closer to everything. What has really helped me is we found a house situated in such a way that we are actually pretty isolated. We are at the end of two dead-end streets, but our drive is from a third. As a result our lot backs up to the backs of the other lots and we only have one try neighbor house (with fabulous neighbors).

 

So definitely look at all your options!