"Hell Hath No Humidity Like": The Carolinas Real Estate Tour, Part II--"Gone Away" :((P. 7 is current)

[Plumcreek]

Well shoot mvp, as a dry air Colorado resident, I was looking forward to your summer trip to get your take on the NC/SC heat and humidity.

[betonbill]

I moved to the Charlotte NC area in December of last year from the Gainesville FL area. Am loving what I am seeing in North Carolina. I will admit that summer here is hot (that's why they call it summer, LOL), but the humidity compared to Florida is much more bearable. Just moved my old horse up here last month and he is also liking the weather here. Haven't gone out to see what's going on horse-wise, but have to say that I am very happy about my move to be closer to family.

[MuddyHalter]

Well shoot mvp, as a dry air Colorado resident, I was looking forward to your summer trip to get your take on the NC/SC heat and humidity.

Me too. I'm originally from SE Pa, now in SoCal, but would eventually like to land in the Carolinas. The prospect of going back to oppressive humidity, though, is a bit daunting, and what I was used to was just Pa, not SC. I have a feeling I will eventually be taking a similar "immersion" tour of the Carolinas.

[mvp]

@ Risa-- will do! I have some technical questions of the Real Estate/local variety for you, and also one about modifying a horse trailer. I'm a huge fan of expertise.... giving it when I have it, knowing when I don't have it, and running my amateur ideas by those who do have it. I do hope we can meet up on this trip or, worse case scenario, another.

I'll tell you what, people, I'm loving what I'm finding in the Southeast and I'm ready to just call the PNW and say, "Ship the Cats! I'm not coming back. Ship the Cats! (And the horse.... maybe my stuff.... don't know/don't care.... maybe have the scheduled Earthquake.... whatever. But Ship the Cats because I'm *that kind* of crazy.)

[mvp]

Well shoot mvp, as a dry air Colorado resident, I was looking forward to your summer trip to get your take on the NC/SC heat and humidity.

Hehe, I'd be happy to be your guinea pig.

There is still a chance for me to do some experimental sweltering because, as I understand it, the weather is going to get hotter just about the time I'll be leaving Aiken and going to Charleston for a minute and then to Camden on my way up to Southern Pines. A born-n-bred (I believe Mr. Fox Wood Farm) explained to me that Camden is in a low area whether the heat seams to settle.

Also, Plum Creek, I had to clean some tack up in the Sisters, OR where I dropped my mare off for some babysitting and good riding while I'm away. Sisters is High Desert and much drier than down low in the Willamette Valley. Now, I grew up in the dry heat of the SF bay area, including the hot East Bay. But the damp glycerine soaped sponge I was using in Sisters dried out way, way fast.

In other words, I think the gap between the Dry you live in and even the Dry I live in now in the Willamette Valley, or even what I lived in as a kid are different species of Dry. Also, I'm both vain and macho, so I might be a bit of a liar about how bad the humidity and heat are. Just to let you know what kind of data I might be able to provide (or not).

[RMJacobs]

Plumcreek, I just moved from Colorado in the spring. I am tolerating the heat and humidity just fine, but my life and activities and tolerance may be very different from yours. I moved my retired driving pony as well.

I live about five miles from the ocean and my horse is farther inland. The house was chosen in part because it's in an area that has a low probability of flooding yet it gets the sea breeze often. I wanted my horse even farther inland to reduce the chances of needing to evacuate him in a hurricane. Both my house and the barn where my horse is came through Hurricane Matthew with no problems, according to the people in my neighborhood and the BO where my horse is. The drawback to the barn location is that it's hotter in the summer than where my house is.

I bike every day and go out early enough so I don't roast. I haven't been getting out as early as I could, and this summer it's usually into the mid 80s by the time I am done. If it were bothering me, I'd haul myself out the door sooner, or even go before sunrise if I had to.

I tend to be in the house in the middle of the day, and go back outside after dinner to enjoy the nice evenings. If my horse were still driving, I'd probably bike every other day and drive him early on the days I don't bike. But he isn't, so finding time for him is not an issue. He always liked the super hot days in July in Colorado, and the humidity here doesn't seem to be bothering him at all. He's not thrilled with the bugs, but so far fly spray seems to be keeping them at bay. Flies aren't the problem--the no-see-ums (midges) are, and they can get under a fly mask pretty easily. So his fly mask is still just sitting in my tote at the barn. The midges don't seem to bother local horses anywhere near as much as they bother my horse before he is sprayed.

My husband and I take our boat out in the middle of the day regardless of the heat, since it's cooler on the water. Evenings on the water are just delightful.

We're having a round of lower humidity (would be considered high in CO!) and highs around 85, so I haven't even been running my air conditioner this week. My husband and I both felt we acclimated pretty easily, but we are both originally from humid places (New York for me and Michigan for him). Still, we were in Colorado for 24 years, and we were very used to low humidity when we moved here.

If you need to keep multiple horses in work, I could see that being challenging in the summer (but really nice in the winter).

I think the hardest thing for me to get used to is often having nights that don't cool off. If it's still 80 at 10 pm, I run the air conditioning all night. I hate to do that, but I hate worse to be too warm while sleeping. This week has been great--lows in the 60s at night.

I hope that's helpful to both you and MVP (since the weather isn't being typical for her visit).

Rebecca

[mvp]

Thank you RMJacobs, and also for explaining that you are near the coast. That's a (different) kettle of fish than inland, I suspect.

Also, you are right about a generic thing that one moving anywhere non-deserty should consider: Whether or not it cools off at night and you get a break. In California, that made the hot, dry days OK. In Chicago (with the lack of same), murder rates were said to spike during heat waves and, IIRC, sociologists thought that that might be that no one got a break and rest of the heat. There are other reasons to kill one another in Chicago during a heat wave, I'm sure. But, generally speaking, everyone benefits from a way to sleep well at the right temperature.

Along these lines, do you people in Air Conditioner Country think about the prospect of paying high utility bills year round? That seems like a decided bummer to me.

[nycjumper]

I will say I was SHOCKED at how high my utility costs are here in Aiken. My water bill (b/c I'm out of the city of Aiken) has not only water but also $36 a month for fire protection. Anyway, on my teeny tiny rental house, i did a 10 minute automated sprinkler program. It was 5 days a week. My bill for that month - 170+ dollars. Needless to say, no more sprinkler. With the AC for the past month (at 77, so not freezing) my electric was 198 for the month. Keep in mind those issues (property taxes are really low but..you still pay in other ways).

[mvp]

I will say I was SHOCKED at how high my utility costs are here in Aiken. My water bill (b/c I'm out of the city of Aiken) has not only water but also $36 a month for fire protection. Anyway, on my teeny tiny rental house, i did a 10 minute automated sprinkler program. It was 5 days a week. My bill for that month - 170+ dollars. Needless to say, no more sprinkler. With the AC for the past month (at 77, so not freezing) my electric was 198 for the month. Keep in mind those issues (property taxes are really low but..you still pay in other ways).

What? Makes you want to only drink Mountain Dew and water yer lawn with it, eh?

[RMJacobs]

I seem to be pretty lucky on utility costs here in SC. So far my worst electric bill was $125, and we pretty much kept the air conditioner running that entire month as it was near 90 during the day and over 80 at night, with high humidity. This month will be cheaper as we have cut way back on running the air. It's 2 pm and I haven't turned it on yet today. If it stays cloudy, I may not run it at all today.

My water bill runs a pretty steady $36-ish a month. Lawn irrigation doesn't run through my meter. Instead, the entire subdivision has lawn irrigation that pulls from the storm drainage ponds, and currently each lawn gets watered three times a week. Seemed like a great deal, except that the ponds tend to get too low to run the sprinklers when we hit a dry spell. So not only do we not get any water from the sky, but the sprinklers have to be turned off or the schedule cut back. I can run a standalone sprinkler from a hose, but even on a small lot, it's a pain trying to cover the whole lawn that way.

HOA fees for my subdivision are pretty high--$150 per month for a single family home and twice that for a paired ranch (essentially a duplex). Lawn cutting, maintenance of the irrigation system and basic cable are included in that fee, but if you choose to go with a separate landscaping company and/or a satellite dish, there is no reduction in the HOA fee. The paired ranches have all external maintenance covered by the HOA. We also have a pool with a small clubhouse, and our streets are owned by the HOA, not the town or county.

Before I moved to SC, I didn't realize that mold growing on house siding was such a thing. Luckily we decided to bring our power washer since we had room on the rental moving truck, and that keeps the mold under control. There is a nearby older neighborhood in which it's hard to tell what the original siding color is on some of the houses--it's all a uniform growth of mold. I don't think the HOA will allow that to happen in my neighborhood. The other neighborhood doesn't have an HOA at all, which results in some beautifully kept places and some that I would hate to live too near.

One thing to be aware of in SC is the effect of the recession on how newer neighborhoods were built out. My neighborhood has houses that are about ten years old, built by the previous, now bankrupt, builder, and then houses that are just a couple of years old to brand new, built by the developer who took over after the economy recovered quite a bit here. While the houses all look very nice inside and out, there have been quite a rash of major plumbing leaks in the older houses lately. I came close to buying one of those older houses (the price was great), and it happens to be one that had a lot of expensive damage recently. Dodged that bullet! The house I ended up buying is about two years old now. I guess time will tell on how good the plumbing fixtures are. I feel bad for the people who bought the original houses when they were new, as they lived in a half-finished subdivision until fairly recently, or they took a beating on selling their houses before the new developer stepped in.

Rebecca

[mroades]

Aiken Camden etc are in what they call the "thermal bowl" . Gets hotter and colder there. But I would love to live in either one

[Fox Wood Farm]

Nycjumper- that water bill sounds insane! Are you sure there's not anything wrong with your meter? I also live in an unincorporated area, greenville county, so I also buy water directly. In 24 years, I don't think I've ever had a water bill over 50 or 60 in a really heavy use month. Averages about 35. No yard sprinklers, but it does include my barn and normal bathing and water troughs for 2 horses.

[Fox Wood Farm]

About utility bills for heat and air... mvp- I meant to bring this up when you were here. As you know, Mr. FWF and I are both heat intolerant. And we don't vary the AC much, except whether we turn on the upstairs unit if we have company here. (BTW- we had the AC guys out and they added coolant to the upstairs unit!). We set the main level AC thermostat to 72 when we get the first hot weather, usually in March. And we may have a couple of weeks where we go between heat at 68 and AC at 72. And we keep the thermostat at 72 til we finally get a break - usually in October. During winter, we keep the downstairs on 68. And rarely ever turn on the upstairs unit. Because I had the data easily accessible....
Monthly Averages for three years (2014- 2015 - 2016)
Electricity (house) $120 - $140 - $155 with Max of $311 in August 2016
Electricity (barn) $35 - $43 - $52 with max of $115 in August 2016 (w/o summer fans or winter trough heaters/buckets, it's about 25-30/month)
Natural Gas $81 - $78 - $67 with max of $230 in Feb 2014 (winter heat and gas logs, plus year round water heater and cooktop.)

And that brings up another issue for another time - you may get away with electric heat in Aiken or Charleston- and maybe SP. But you want to make sure you have gas heat if you end up in Tryon!

[mvp]

Aiken Camden etc are in what they call the "thermal bowl" . Gets hotter and colder there. But I would love to live in either one

Both cities are in the same bowl? Camden isn't hotter?

It's getting the tiniest bit hotter here in Aiken, but still dishonestly cool.

[nycjumper]

Nycjumper- that water bill sounds insane! Are you sure there's not anything wrong with your meter? I also live in an unincorporated area, greenville county, so I also buy water directly. In 24 years, I don't think I've ever had a water bill over 50 or 60 in a really heavy use month. Averages about 35. No yard sprinklers, but it does include my barn and normal bathing and water troughs for 2 horses.

Nope sadly. We have to pay water and sewer to the city (both on the bill) but we don't live in the city itself so get charged double what the people in the city pay. PLUS the almost 40 a month for fire protection randomly included on the water bill (which is a pretty good deal for the fire dept - thee are a lot of houses paying that 40 a month). I've never had a bill lower than 100.

ETA - Obviously we'll be looking at a well on the farm we're building

My electric averages about 1110-20 except in high use months. My gas goes from $100 over the winter to 20 over the summer.

[Fox Wood Farm]

Nope sadly. We have to pay water and sewer to the city (both on the bill) but we don't live in the city itself so get charged double what the people in the city pay. PLUS the almost 40 a month for fire protection randomly included on the water bill (which is a pretty good deal for the fire dept - thee are a lot of houses paying that 40 a month). I've never had a bill lower than 100.

ETA - Obviously we'll be looking at a well on the farm we're building

My electric averages about 1110-20 except in high use months. My gas goes from $100 over the winter to 20 over the summer.

Wow - you get hit for sewer and fire. We have a septic tank and don't pay for sewer. The only thing on my bill besides actual water usage is a flat $15 meter fee. Whatever that is. LOL. We are the very last house on this water system. My neighbors beyond us all have wells. Deep wells. One neighbor had to go 600 feet down for a measly flow rate of 3 gallons per minute!

[Plumcreek]

The trade off for colder climates is my $300 electric bill in the depths of winter for constant house heat and bucket, water trough and auto waterer heaters in the barn. Have the well for water, and over time forget the $$$$ cost of drilling it.

[IPEsq]

Both cities are in the same bowl? Camden isn't hotter?

It's getting the tiniest bit hotter here in Aiken, but still dishonestly cool.

Different bowls but same phenomenon.

[mvp]

nycjumper Oooh... building in Aiken. I might want to do that. I'm sure this is whole 'nother thread, but can you give me a clue? Do you all test wells for water quality and flow? Is there anything wrong with the ground water that I should know about? And is permitting or getting utilities to the edge of a parcel unexpectedly expensive or slow? And how'd you pick your builder?

[nycjumper]

nycjumper Oooh... building in Aiken. I might want to do that. I'm sure this is whole 'nother thread, but can you give me a clue? Do you all test wells for water quality and flow? Is there anything wrong with the ground water that I should know about? And is permitting or getting utilities to the edge of a parcel unexpectedly expensive or slow? And how'd you pick your builder?

We are just clearing our land now so don't have answers to your questions yet! Probably by year end, I'll know better At least at first discussion, permits and utilities aren't going to be too difficult - everyone has been super nice. My husband is designing the barn now and I'm sure he'll work with whichever builder we wind up using - he designed the farm in Argentina and he's pretty specific on what he wants.