Northeastern WV/Northwestern VA?

[KaliLily]

Calling out to anyone residing in northeastern West Virginia or northwestern Virginia. I moved to Berryville, VA (10 miles east of Winchester, VA and 12 miles south of Charles Town, WV) in December 2004. Before that I lived in the Seattle, WA area for over 20 years. I'd love to chat with anyone nearby.

[camberne]

I know right where you are!! I'm down in Va Beach, but I was just today, coincidentally, writing up a report on a new construction project up your way - IN Berryville. The company I used to work for also built the IHOP in Winchester. :) Just a short 4 hours from here...

[KaliLily]

I'm impressed. :) We're small, but we are the seat of Clarke County. :) And we have affordable single family homes - compared to Loudoun and Fairfax county! There's a lot of construction going on. I'm constantly shocked by the number of new homes being built here. Now we just need another grocery store or a SuperTarget.

Anyway, nice to meet you! I've received many brochures on Virginia Beach and it looks lovely. I'm dying to see the Atlantic Ocean.

[camberne]

Hey, if you guys want to come down one weekend let us/me know. We don't live on the ocean (we live on a golf course, though), but we're not far... and we're MUCH cheaper than the hotels. ;) Of course, the room isn't quite as nice as a hotel, and the dog gets excited with visitors...

It's lovely up that way...especially in Oct/Nov!! What brought you east?

[KaliLily]

Thanks for your very generous offer.

My husband was offered a job in Dulles, VA in October. He had been laid off from his previous job in March and the job market for technical workers in Seattle was going from bad to worse. He already knew the people he'd be working with, as they were his clients at his previous job, and the offer was better than we hoped for. So we decided it was a good time for a new adventure. I put in notice at work, we put our house on the market and moved out here (flying with 2 cats) after Thanksgiving.

That was the perfect time to come out here, as fall was GORGEOUS! When I came out to house-hunt the first weekend in November I was blown away by the scenery, especially driving on 7 from Sterling to Berryville through the Blue Ridge mountains.

Not to knock Seattle, because it is beautiful as well, but I think I like it here better. I miss the many lakes, but it's so spacious here. I feel like I can finally breathe - of course quitting my job helped too. :) Now I just need to talk my parents and best friend into moving here.

[camberne]

Virginia Beach used to be a nice small town with fields and such. There was much farmland and I used to pass a huge field with horses on my to the commissary (my parents are navy folk). Now it's built up like mad!! The horse field is condos, townhouses and huge houses on tiny lots. It's sad. I can't wait to someday retire somewhere where, like you said, we can breathe... and I love it up your way. Right along Route 15 around Orange is my preference, but I'm not too picky. Just nice rolling hills would be nice.

[KaliLily]

I don't think I've been along Route 15 yet. I did take the "scenic route" up to Hershey PA in April. It was amazing!

Being in a small town has been nice, but I would like to see it expand a bit. We have only one grocery store in town - which of course has higher prices than those a bit farther out. We do have a Subway restaurant, though. It's my favorite place here.