Tell me about Newbury, Eden, Isle la Motte, and Grand Isle, plz. (Considering a move from Randolph.)

Submitted by peachboot828 t3_10yub4b in vermont

My partner and I currently live in Randolph. We love it here, and we love our rad old house that’s walking distance to everything…but we used to homestead when we lived in NC and we’re finding that our quarter-acre lot just isn’t doing it for us. (I miss my sheep. 😂)

As we all know, the real estate market is still insane, and we’re not rich. With limited funds and a weirdly specific wish list, the only houses we’ve found that MIGHT work for us are in Eden, Newbury, Isle la Motte, and Grand Isle. Having spent minimal time in Eden (at the lake) and none in the other places, I’d be so grateful to anyone who can share pros, cons, and general observations for each.

Considerations for us: •We’re not young but we’re not old, either. I’m 35 and my partner is 53. •We don’t have kids but we plan to within a year or so. •I work remotely full-time and he works in Stowe, but his schedule is hybrid (1 day/week in the office is good). •We like to have friends over for a game night or dinner party every now and then but we’re kinda hermits! :P •Access to local food to supplement what we grow and raise is important to us. We shop at thrift stores but we don’t mind paying the real cost of real food.

Thank y’all so much for your help!

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Unique-Public-8594 t1_j7zkrc2 wrote

> He works in Stowe

When the notch road closes in winter, his 1 day a week commute from Grand Isle is going to be rough, no?

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peachboot828 OP t1_j80ehoc wrote

Ehhh, a little over an hour to go through Burlington, across 89, and up 100 from Waterbury. It’s about 5 minutes more than he commutes now because, ya know, we can’t really afford to live any closer to Stowe. Definitely sucks…but it also sucks now. :/

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RZRPRINCESS t1_j80anzw wrote

Eden, Johnson and Hyde park are all great areas. Eden is a little out there depending on location. Johnson & Morrisville would be the closest for groceries. The cell service is spotty in Eden, not sure about the internet.

It's beautiful though, lots of land, very rural. I wouldn't say no to Eden, its also closer to Stowe than the other locations. Not sure about the housing market there right now, may be limited BUT where is it not limited in VT right now?!

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peachboot828 OP t1_j80eyrw wrote

Ugh, amen to that. It’s limited everywhere that’s actually worth living. :( If we could afford Johnson or Hyde Park we’d be there in a heartbeat but I think Eden is the closest to Stowe that we can manage. That property isn’t our favorite on the list but the closer you get to Stowe, the less you get for your money, it seems. :/

Also, thank you so much for your specific and helpful feedback! :)

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Blondemoose3 t1_j82angu wrote

I currently live in Newbury and absolutely love it. It’s very agriculturally based, and there’s definitely a small village-like feel. I love walking to the post-office, village store, and library on my days off, and the green in front of the elementary school is the center of town. I work at a local business and everyone makes an effort to help out at a community level. The surrounding towns are somewhat economically depressed and you’ll have to go to Woodsville (15 mins) for any big shopping. There’s very limited public transportation. The schools are decent from what I hear, and Newbury Elementary is rated well. Big art scene. Lots of overlap with community events in Bradford as well. Very happy to have ended up here!

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peachboot828 OP t1_j856yv7 wrote

Ahhhh, awesome! I’m so glad to hear this! Everyone making an effort to help out on a community level says more about a town than the amenities it has, IMHO. I’m so glad that there’s a library…a good library can be life-changing (I know it was for me).

We don’t do much “big shopping” since we tend to buy in bulk and grow/raise a lot of our own food. And public transportation isn’t a huge deal for us…we’re a one-car/two-motorcycles/two e-bikes family, and I WFH full-time.

And I’m SO glad to hear there’s a good arts scene! I’m a printmaker, former college art professor, and I used to own/run an art gallery and community workshop space in Atlanta. I’d love to bring something like that to life again wherever we finally put down permanent roots. The arts infrastructure in Randolph is so good that they don’t need me, lol (which is awesome in its own way).

Where do you work, if you don’t mind my asking? We’re going to see this property in Newbury tomorrow afternoon and maybe we can swing by where you work and say hi if you’ll be there!

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Loosh_03062 t1_j85yvab wrote

One thing to consider about Newbury (the town) is that which part you live in determines the school. Newbury (the village) uses Newbury Elementary and Oxbow (the combined junior/senior high school), and Wells River (another village within the Town of Newbury) uses the PreK-12 Blue Mountain. When Act 46 was in flight there was talk about folding Blue Mountain into Oxbow but what was in the state meeting minutes amounted to "let's wait and see if Bradford and Newbury actually start to like each other before adding BM to the cluster and figuring out which buildings to close and how to split the grades"

I have a niece and nephew at Oxbow HS and another niece graduated last year. There's an active drama club, but the music program barely remains. There are definitely the usual "small school" issues with finding ways to challenge the potential superstars.

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Full_Whereas_2694 t1_j80qwo1 wrote

Well I grew up in Newport (near Eden) and Lived in Groton (Near Newbury). Newbury area is nice, you'll probably end up in Woodsville NH for your groceries and hardware store runs but Montpelier is a reasonable drive for food/time out. Groton State forest is right around the corner and the Whites are really close for hiking/camping. You're close to 91 so a lot of the Upper Valley is accessible that way. The major downside is a lot of towns right around it are pretty dismal (Washington, Corinth, Wells River, Topsham), but the area is beautiful-not sure about the schools.

Eden seems more central but i think you'll end up driving further to get your groceries and other essentials- Johnson has a good grocery store now which is nice and you've got the college/Studio Center scene there. Similar to Newbury the towns nearby (Lowell, Belvedere, Irasburg) are pretty sad and Again guessing the schools are rough. Definitely an easier commute to Stowe though.

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peachboot828 OP t1_j814qor wrote

Super helpful perspective, thank you! Re: schools, we were so jazzed before we moved here to hear about Vermont’s amazing public schools…but now we find ourselves paying 2x more property taxes than ever before and suffering schools that are dramatically more dismal than anything we encountered in the South…which is REALLY surprising. It seems like the applause about great public schools comes from a handful of exceptional places in the greater Stowe, Burlington, and Woodstock areas, and most everything else is average at best and failing at worst. So…we don’t have high hopes for good schools in any area we can reasonably afford. :/

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Full_Whereas_2694 t1_j817f64 wrote

Oh just saw you're interested in Local food. If you're in Newbury probably Hunger Mountain in Montpelier is your best bet. There are some good farm stands around but they are pretty seasonal. There's been an on again off again coop in St Johnsbury which right now seems off again. If you're in Eden, Morrisville Coop is your best bet, which is only a few years old but looks really nice (I stop there on my way up to my folks place in the NEK). The school situation is tough, in theory we have equalized funding from the state, but you still have to attract good teachers and the physical infrastructure is still dependent on local bonds a lot of the time. We have an amazing local school in Lincoln where I live but we've had to fight tooth and nail to keep it open.

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peachboot828 OP t1_j854ktr wrote

Ahhh, that makes a lot of sense re: the schools. Equalized funding doesn’t necessarily attract and retain equalized talent if a school is in a place that’s seen as “less desirable” to live in for whatever reason. Such a shame. :/

Thanks so much for all of the info!

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Sea_Childhood_1998 t1_j81bk0q wrote

Eden is small, almost no cell service. 1h20mish from Burlington, Montpelier/Barre/Berlin. 15-20min from Morristown/Morrisville which is where you’ll find some small restaurants, two grocery stores, and some other essential places. 15-20minutes from Johnson and NVU/VSU campus. I don’t know much about Randolph but I’m assuming due to its general location it’s also a rural town, so if that’s something you like, Eden might be a good fit!

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peachboot828 OP t1_j855zg9 wrote

Thanks for the info!

I think of pretty much every town in VT as “rural” with the excepted of Burlington and Montpelier, and maybe Waterbury/Stowe…so maybe I’m biased in my answer here.

But Randolph actually feels weirdly…metropolitan?…for a small town. And I say that as a former resident of both actual cities (NYC, ATL) and big towns/small cities with great cultural resources (Asheville, Chattanooga). We have a James Beard Award-winning restaurant in addition to two amazing breakfast spots, two pizza places, a great coffeehouse, a Filipino-American fusion restaurant with amazing cocktails, a Mexican restaurant, a great bakery, an ice cream spot, and a steak/pub type place. We also have a dispensary, a yoga studio, a recording studio/music venue, a boutique florist, a community pottery studio, an awesome library, a gourmet grocery, an epic performing arts hall, and an art supply store. Like, Randolph is kinda the bee’s knees. If we could make this house work for our weirdly-specific wants or find something else affordable around here, we’d definitely stay. But Randolph has gotten so rad that it’s just not affordable anymore. :/

All of that said, as much as we deeply appreciate all of these things, we don’t need them. So being a little far-flung from those amenities isn’t a big deal to us. We need a couple of acres, a big garage, good food access for what we can’t grow/raise, and good internet (or at least the promise of good internet coming soon). So Eden doesn’t sound too shabby, nor does Newbury. Still not sure about the other places we’re looking, tho!

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Spiritual-Shirt-9101 t1_j81d903 wrote

Grand Isle being closer to Burlington is really nice!! You have a ton of natural areas by the lake that are private- multiple state parks, land trusts. You’re closer to Montreal and can also quickly get to NY adirondacks if you want. Kids in Grand Isle have a choice between a few different high schools. Milton is your closest grocery store. The Milton rec department is an excellent resource as well!

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Loudergood t1_j81iior wrote

Milton isn't really any closer than exit 16. The nice part is that I leave my house and there are no traffic light between me and 89 south.

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Spiritual-Shirt-9101 t1_j8206db wrote

Oh that’s true isn’t it? For some reason I thought it was I guess because of that one section of Milton that connects to the islands via like Bear Trap Rd (always a fun drive!)

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Loudergood t1_j821wvv wrote

Yeah Milton is close but the village isn't really.

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peachboot828 OP t1_j857g8g wrote

Awesome, thanks for the info! We kinda love the idea of being so close to the water, and I suppose being close to Burlington and Montreal doesn’t hurt since you could still enjoy a rural vibe! And I’m not mad at high school choice.

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Loudergood t1_j81n8ie wrote

Grand Isle has been good to us, Exit 14 is 25 minutes away if we want to go to Burlington and Plattsburgh by ferry is really close.

Locally we're really happy with the school so far. There are zero restaurants in town but a few decent options in South Hero or North Hero. Emmons is a good sized small town market with a full deli, and seems to have avoided much of the price inflation we see at the bigger grocers. I largely work from home myself, and Comcast has been pretty reliable. You can find most services you'd want "on island".

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peachboot828 OP t1_j857l52 wrote

That’s all great to hear - thank you so much! Sounds like Grand Isle is pretty rad. :D

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MargaerySchrute t1_j838k2r wrote

The cell service up there is not great. Eden, I mean.

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peachboot828 OP t1_j857s4m wrote

We’re not super worried about cell service as long as decent internet is available. But I appreciate the info - you’re like the 3rd person that has mentioned that. It kinda surprises me that more folks have mentioned Eden having bad service for cell and internet than the other places we’re looking, all of which seem further-flung from major towns (like Stowe, etc.)

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