Moving in five years or now?

[shannongmac]

We are in a unique situation that I wish I didn't find myself in. Our house burnt down in December and we are in a temporary rental while insurance and everything is sorted out. Because of the emotional scars of what happened we aren't rebuilding there, we are going to pay off the mortgage and then sell the house to a builder/contractor outright and use those funds to buy somewhere else.
We live in the Northeast and we are both from here but DH HATES it. (With a passion) and after this winter and all that happened I'm on the bandwagon with him.
We've lived in AZ in the past (we stayed for 5 yrs but it wasn't for us, too far to travel home, tooooo hot in the summer for me, etc).
We are thinking of moving to central FL outside Orlando. But I want to wait till right before LO (we are currently TTC#1) is school age to move, because I know I will need help from my mother. We both work full time.
Part of me though wonders if we should just go?
If we do that, DH would need to be the breadwinner b/c with no support group I would need to be home most of the time while the LO is young, hopefully work from home (I'm a graphic designer and currently finishing up a Web Technology degree as well). The area of FL is randomly enough only a tad on the cheaper side than living in MA which is expensive as well.
Does anyone live outside the Orlando area?
Am I nuts?
I honestly think in the five year time period my family would move down there with us, so that was another part of the wait...
(however my mom has had it this winter too!)

Thoughts?

 

[missk1989]

Sorry to hear about your house. I personally wouldnt move away from my family just before having a baby as I have found it quite hard just being an hour away from my friends and family with a young baby.It was quite lonely for me. But then i think it depends on how much you want to get away from your current place.

 

[emyandpotato]

I think you should wait. I was incredibly lonely being by myself with a new baby and no friends or family. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

 

[shannongmac]

Thanks ladies! I really appreciate that input!
And I was worried about that... now if I can get my mom to move this is a completely different story!

 

[Pearls18]

Really sorry about your house what an awful thing to go through. We moved away from family 2 years ago for hubby's job, we're only 150 miles away which is obviously a much, much smaller distance than what you are thinking of and I really miss my family. I love where we live, we have carved a nice life out for ourselves here, but I am so jealous of those that get to live near family, to pop over on weekends, for the help etc. If job opportunities were better for us both I would move back in a heart beat, even though I would miss London, but somethings are just "priceless" as they say. I guess it depends on your relationship with your family though and the kind of life you are after. I've always said if I moved to the US I would live in the north east, no idea why I've never even been to that part apart from New York lol, I watch too many films!

 

[shannongmac]

I just know we aren't happy here and we have a weird timetable with insurance during when we can buy another house to make sure we get all our insurance money... so it's like, do we buy up here knowing we are going to sell or just buy down there... ugh!

 

[supertabby]

We live in the same town as my mum and hubby's parents - it's been a godsend having their help since we had our first child. I really appreciate having them around and just before we got pregnant with our second child we had the option to move abroad for hubby's work, it was something we'd have jumped at before kids but I just couldn't handle the thought of being so far from family with another baby.

Hubby's sister and her husband live 4 hours drive away with 3 young children and are trying to find jobs in our area so they can move closer to family - they've found it hard sometimes being farther away. Fortunately we are close with them and try to see them as much as possible, they visit a lot but it's not the same as being round the corner. It's not just having babysitting support, but also family bonds - our children and their children are the same age range so it's lovely for the cousins to grow up together.