couch-rug-n-cUpdate? Well, we sold our townhome in Asheville, NC. The decision and move weren’t easy. We’d spent 5 months a year (wintertime) in one of the trendiest retirement towns in America for each of the past 9 years, a place where we’d built a new life.

In the end, we left.

Why’d we leave that Southern mountain enclave to return to a geographic location that got 3 feet of snow last winter? I get into all that in the book.

There, I cover the joys and problems of close community living in a townhome complex (with rules and regs.), the in-fighting, the adjustment to a Southern way of life. I mention the time we residents tried to find the ‘final resting spot’ of one of us (to pay anniversary tribute,) only to find the marker to his ‘grave’ moved. Or the time we rode all over town looking for the right Baptist church but ending up in the wrong funeral procession.

I tell of the process of selling our townhome by ourselves–thus saving approximately $20,000 realtor commission fee….and our disposing of an entire household of furniture. Some experiences,  such as our Craigslist sale of our Cabrio car to a Southern hill person, are hilarious.

In fact, much of the book is pretty amusing, altho’ some characters may not like how they’re portrayed (even if I do disguise them.)

Then, there were the lawyers….those we thought we paid to oversee the remainder of the deal. Not so funny but you’ll definitely want to know–if only to save yourself future problems.

So, these are just some of the topics. It’ll be a helpful guide to all who consider moving to another state, for they’ll probably repeat the process that saw us investigate coastal communities from Maine (Portland area) to Key West.

Going inland to Asheville was the end-result of a many-year process.

In the end, we came back home. My book will tell you why……

***Below is a pic of my Asheville women friends. I’m in the center (it was my Going-Away Party), wearing a green t-shirt with “Asheville Under Glass,” the name of the column I wrote for Asheville’s alternative newspaper, Mountain Xpress.

women friends--asheville..going away party