When Trish and I decided to move back home from London, our main goal was to be closer to family and friends. To get away from the crowds of Boston and the suburbs that seem to have grown ever more dense in the seven years we were away, we decided to move to New Hampshire.

Our first thought was Portsmouth. On the coast (we love the ocean), it has a really nice downtown with lots of little shops and many good restaurants. Unfortunately, that makes it highly desirable, so real estate is expensive.

Our friend Jay Burnham suggested we also look at the Conway area. We love the mountains and each spent time there as kids and young adults, but move there? It seemed pretty far from everything, so we were not so sure.

We started looking at what was available and realized it is a great value compared to Portsmouth. Of course, once you start thinking of a different path, it easy to find good reasons. Roli can only go to beaches in the off-season, so coastal living will not be as good for him as it is for us…The Conway area is halfway between family in the Merrimack Valley and Pittsburg, NH so it will be a great meeting point…We can easily go hiking, snowshoeing and skiing…

The positives kept adding up so we looked online and found a bunch of possibilities in the Conway area. In February, 2017, I flew home for a week to see some properties in person, experiencing several snowstorms and sub-zero weather. (I did start to question what we were thinking.)

After seeing way too many properties that were disappointing (apparently, photographers can do amazing things with home photos), I viewed a lovely house in Chocorua, NH. We made an offer and got it accepted the day I flew back. Three months later we flew back and moved into our new home. Fresh air, beautiful scenery in every direction, more snow than a Siberian Husky could ever want…

OK, so it has taken some adjusting to be back in the throws of New England weather. Even still, it turns out that moving to the mountains is one of the best decisions we ever made.

Have you ever taken a chance and moved somewhere completely different?