Sounds like you'll be fine. My wife and I are very similar, relocated from CT, and loving VT. It pains us to go back there, all the traffic, and the people, and nobody there is very happy. I'm not saying VT is perfect, but people seem much happier here. We've made more "real" friends here in the last year than we ever had in CT.

DM me about the type of work your partner is looking for, I may have a good lead for them.