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Our new-old front yard.
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I hate moving. Since the age of 18, I've moved 17 times. I've owned two homes and had a driver's license in five states. The Wife and I don't have a clothes dresser because they are too much of a hassle to move.
There will be an 18th move. On Tuesday, I was offered and accepted a full-time job as a copy editor at the Portland Press Herald (on the condition I pass a drug test -- do they test for caffeine?). I worked there part-time for two years while TW was in graduate school. So what's changed in the last year? Only pretty much everything.
If you've only ever visited Boston as a tourist, this move makes no sense. Boston's a great town. We love Boston. We also don't love living here. This is a confluence of three factors:
LOGISTICS
Our landlords have us in an iron-clad lease. If you sign up for a year, you owe a year of rent. Our lease runs out at the end of June and the landlords want a full-year lease. So we want to go. We considered several options: We could move to New Hampshire to be closer to my work; we could move to Portland, where we have friends galore; we could move to Pittsburgh, where I interviewed to be a copy editor; we could move to Reno, where I could write about skiing and be near friends.
Either way you cut it, we were leaving Boston. Our rent is around $2,000 a month. Our condo is nice. It has granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, two parking spots and is near a bunch of parks and the subway. It's also about $2,000 for 550 square feet of space. Living in Boston is one big logistical question: What kind of place are you willing to live in for the cache of living in Boston?
We are ready to buy a home. To get a 1,000-square-foot home in the Boston area, on the subway line, would cost around $400,000. If you've been to Boston, you've probably loved the Old North End, Beacon Hill or Newbury Street. Take a look at real estate in those areas. We can't afford to live there and we don't love our current neighborhood (though we have amazing friends here).
CAREER
My paper in New Hampshire had layoffs in both October and February. But this goes beyond job security. It's about working at a paper and with people who are doing great work, writing important stories. Above all, that is what I was looking for. I interviewed at a Pittsburgh paper that is growing its circulation and doing great work. A friend in Reno, Prego, is doing amazing work and winning all kinds of awards. Prego has offered me a hundred jobs and I've had to turn her down because the timing has never been quite right.
Which brings us to Portland. The paper was falling apart while I was there. I was laid off from my part-time gig. As we were getting ready to leave Portland, a new owner took over. There's a new top editor. He's hired 10 writers in the last year. The paper is writing important stories. It is exactly the kind of environment I want to be in. As we were leaving a year ago, I had pangs of wanting to stick around the Press Herald. But we had that iron-clad lease in Boston that would have left us owing about $20,000 in rent. Staying wasn't an option.
HOME
A year later, going back is an option and it makes sense. We have some of our best friends there. The Bearded Beer Nut is there. Nacho Man and Molly Lu Who live downtown. TW's best friends, the Quadrangular or whatever it is they call themselves, all live within an hour or so from Portland.
More important, Portland feels like home. It offers big-city amenities with small-town New England touches. I like skiing, hiking and golfing. Do you know what's tough to do in Boston? Skiing, hiking and golfing.
Portland offers an extensive wooded trail system in the city. The mountains are close by. And still, it has Kamasouptra and bacon-dusted French fries at Nosh. You can walk to the airport and fly nonstop to 15 cities, including New York. It's a fantastic blend of big city and rural New England.
It just feels right. That's what it boils down to for us. TW was so excited last night she couldn't sleep. The decision between Portland, Pittsburgh, New Hampshire and Reno wasn't initially an easy one but it became obvious. Really, this blog is just trying to explain a gut instinct.
I feel the need to explain because it doesn't make sense to lots of people. Already, people are asking why on Earth I would leave Boston. If you like eating and drinking, it's fantastic. But you can't spend your life eating and drinking The Freedom Trail. I take that back. You can and some people in this town do that. It's just not for us. And that's why we're moving. Here's hoping No. 18 sticks.
