Our Northeast Kingdom story starts with the house. It never was about location, we’d never heard the name Northeast Kingdom, nor had ever ventured this far North. It really was all about the house.
As we spent December looking at houses in all of New England, this particular house kept showing up. I originally dismissed it because I felt the kitchen was too small and who the hell puts a hot tub in the basement? Time and time again though it would pop up in my searches, and once the new year started we decided to look at a few houses in the very farthest place away first. Having lived the winter through the coastal ice, the thought of snow sounded wonderful. We found a real estate agent and made plans to see 3 houses in the Northeast Kingdom.
Jan 9 2022 – Viewing day and ice storm from hell
Of course the day we select to see 3 of the houses we liked there was a terrible ice storm. We had about a 3 hour drive to get to the first house, and that was terrifying. Luckily the roads were fairly good, but the build up of ice on the car had us pulling over several times to clear ice chunks off the windshield. A nice 1/4 inch thick coating of ice covered every square inch of the car. Being from the dry sticks of Colorado this was insane. As we progressed North the ice turned to slushy snow, which was equally terrifying to drive in. We pressed on, encouraged by our real estate agents willingness to brave the storm and our idea that now we were hardened New England folks and that’s just what you do.
As we slid our way through Irasburg on to the second house of the day, I couldn’t help but notice the lack of Trump flags and signs. Much different from New Hampshire and already a welcome change. As we turned on Petit Rd, the trees give way to the big blue house on top of the hill. We were already in love. I thought if Terry liked the kitchen this could be a viable option. This was the first time I heard the name Northeast Kingdom from my realtor’s husband as he explained the feel and the vibe of the NEK. After living in the burbs this sounded like exactly the change we wanted.
We immediately loved the place, they say you make a decision on a house within the first 10 seconds or so and that was certainly the case here. Even with the strange hot tub arrangement, this felt like home and the acreage and size we wanted. Being unable to walk the entire property much of what we purchased was unseen, it was all about the house remember. Time to start negotiations.
