Moving to Asheville, NC area
 

When you moved to your new place how long did it take to make new friends, finding new doctors, lawyer, accountant, bank, grocery store? How long it took you to feel "this was your home?" Any suggestions? Is Asheville a friendly place to newcomers?

How long it took you to move to your new place from the day you accepted an offer for your "old" place? Where to start?

Anyone?

Sorry, I can't help - but, I'm interested in a reply as well. Not moving to Asheville (but Anchorage!), and all of the other questions are quite relevant to anyone trying to re-locate. Hope to see some feedback!

I think it is a hard question to answer. I believe Asheville is enjoying an influx of new residents so it may be easier to connect because those folks are looking for the same thing. It depends on where you put yourself--are you a churchgoer? That is usually a good place to make new acquaintances and get connected to the town.

Short answer first: from day of acceptance of an offer on old place to move-in to new place seems to average about 3 months.

I've moved 7 times and it always seems to take longer than I'd like to feel settled, and I can't say that it's quicker in a smaller town/city than in larger areas -- almost the opposite. A lot depends on your workplace or church connections and whether you have kids in school or not. If your co-workers are friendly and inclined to help you find your way around, it's great. If you have kids in school, other parents are often a resource. I'm not a churchgoer, but it's obvious to me that that provides the best introduction to a new community.

It takes a minimum of a year to find your way around to your "infrastructure," and a bit longer to settle into friendships. Unfortunately, smaller towns tend to have fewer people moving in and out, which means most there already have a lot of friends and family and may not understand that newcomers need them. But Asheville has, as noted, a lot of newcomers, which should help.

I find that I don't really feel like my house is my home until I've gone away on a vacation or some other longish trip, so that I'm glad to get home to my own bed. I find that I don't really feel like my new city is home for as much as 3-5 years -- and a lot depends on how much I fit in. I'm not a Southerner and even after 12 yrs., I still feel a bit "temporary" here in NC, partly because of my own nature and partly because I'm still seen as a non-Southerner by Southerners.

Sorry not to be more optimistic, but you'll do well if you have a built-in affinity group (work, church, school) and try not to "fight" the new environment or make it fit into your idea of what it should be.

Here's a symbolic description of what happens when you move: You have all your furniture with you and your initial impulse is to put it in the rooms of your new house in pretty much the same arrangement as the old house -- but that won't work. The endtable may have to go on the right side of the couch instead of the left, and that old armoire isn't going to fit in the master bedroom, so maybe it'll have to go in the dining room or somewhere else.

Same thing with hardware stores that sell a different collection of stuff than they did "back home" and friends who think "dinner" is at noon instead of evening.

Good luck -- whatever else may happen, Asheville is in a spectacularly pretty location, and that can always compensate for a lot.