Adventures in Attachment Parenting: Moving To The Country by Allison Silver

We officially lasted ten months in suburbia and have decided to move to the country. Like many of you, we got caught in the housing mess and after much research and many sleepless nights last year we decided to sell our two-bedroom condo in the urban jungle of the San Francisco Bay Area and head north towards Sacramento to the suburbs. We were quickly outgrowing the condo which was never meant to be our permanent home for the next thirty years! And we really wanted to find a family-friendly community that had good school districts where we could raise our daughter.

We decided to move two hours away to a community north of Sacramento that was close to my mother-in-law. It was the perfect little community, had good school districts, close to shopping, and family was nearby. What more could you want? I’m not sure what it was, but after a few months I wasn’t really loving it. But this is what we wanted wasn’t it? After all, we no longer had upstairs neighbors and we could park our cars in an honest to goodness garage! Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the urban jungle or the suburbs but I was raised as a mountain kid just east of Albuquerque (seriously, that is how we were referred to growing up as the “mountain kids”). I never realized growing up how much I enjoyed being a mountain kid. I even went to college in a small mountain community in southern New Mexico and truth be told I loved it! As a young adult I wanted to explore the city, which I did, and I loved it too. But now as a parent I find myself wanting the simplicity that comes with living in a small mountain community. I want my daughter to have memories of running and playing outside like I do.

Luckily, there are many little mountain communities just north of us off of interstate 80. I have found myself being drawn to them and this past year we have been exploring several. One of my favorites is Auburn. It is an old gold mining town steeped in history. It reminds me a lot of the small community where I went to college.  My hubby and I both agreed that if a home in one of these communities became available in March or April then we would move to the mountains. A few weeks ago a home in Meadow Vista just north of Auburn became available. We read the description and agreed to go take a look. We went to see it this past weekend and we loved it. It is a beautiful home on five acres in the middle of the woods! But luckily it has high speed Internet which my hubby needs for work and it’s only eight minutes from the interstate so we are not too far in the boonies.  

We found out this week that our application was accepted by the owner and we are meeting with the owner this weekend to sign a lease and we will be moving in the week before Easter. I am not looking forward to moving again, but half of our stuff we never unpacked from the first move.  And we found a local moving company that quoted us a terrific price. No way could I ask our family and friends to help us move when they just helped us move ten months ago!  

Moving to the mountains will be a new adventure for us. For me it’s like going home and I am pretty giddy about it. For my husband, the city boy, it will be a brand new experience. He is beginning to get excited about it, but I think he will love it. I’m sure before long I will be able to turn him into a mountain kid! And if not, then in a year we will move again. (I pray we love it!) But that’s the beauty of renting right now we can try different areas and see what we like. We are quite fortunate with my husband’s job that we can move to a remote area and he can still access work.

So here I go again, the next step in my crunchy conversion is moving to the country! At least now I will have a reason to be the crunchy mom, right?

Tags: Allison Silver, attachment parenting, country, housing, Moving, Renting, simplicity, suburbia, urban jungle