They were looking for an affordable place they could call their own: A house where they could put down more permanent roots, that ideally came with one or more acres of land where they could garden and start homesteading projects.
It was around the same time as the pandemic, so the couple decided to take advantage of their remote working arrangements to explore different towns.
“Because our work was remote — we were both working in schools at the time, which shut down — we were able to move around a bit on this sort of spring break trip,” Taylor, 34, told Business Insider.
During their road trip, the couple stumbled onto the Upper Valley area in Vermont and fell in love with the location.
With that, they decided to take the leap and moved out of NYC into a 350-square-foot studio apartment in Hartford, Vermont, near Dartmouth College, which they found online.
“It was probably slated for one person related to the college. But those lists of apartments, that’s public access, so it doesn’t have to be a Dartmouth student who lives there,” Tatum, 30, told BI.
It was a temporary arrangement — and a way to have an official address in Vermont — while they continued looking for proper housing in the area.
A fixer-upper within their budget
When they chanced upon the listing for a one-bedroom, one-bathroom fixer-upper in the small town of Pomfret, it was love at first sight.
“I thought it would be perfect for us,” Taylor, who is an artist, said. “At the time, it wasn’t a house, so I didn’t see it set up in a residential way. It was not lived in for at least, I want to say, about a decade or more.”
The 650-square-foot cottage was being used as an office for a local business, but Taylor saw its potential despite that.
“I saw the beauty of the natural lighting, there was a lot of sunlight. There are a lot of neat details with the wood and the cabinets which I thought were really cute. And then, mostly, the outdoor space was what we wanted,” she said.
The charming house came with 2.6 acres of land. It was initially listed for $225,000, but the price had been steadily decreasing.
“Not very popular on the market as far as a one-bedroom house, but we wanted a small house and it was perfect for when the price was reduced,” Taylor said.
The couple bought the property for $160,000 in March 2021. It took them about three to four months to close on the house, and moving in felt good.
“We packed up and moved a dozen or more times during the summer of 2020, so to be able to do that for the last time and unpack the boxes — knowing that we had no intentions to repack them — was a great relief,” Tatum, who works in parks and recreation, said.
Turning the house into a home
Although Tatum did some of the renovation work himself, the couple also hired a carpenter to assist them with some projects.
The first thing the couple did was fix up the sliding door that leads to their porch. The door was broken, and the wood underneath was rotting.
“With winter fast approaching, we absolutely had to take care of that in the first months of us getting here,” Tatum said. At that point, the couple was also expecting their first child, and that served as another form of motivation to improve things around the house.
While they’re still on the grid, the couple also invested in solar panels for their home.
“I think it’s a good investment since we’ll save a lot of money over time. And I think it’s an indication that we intend to be here for the long run,” Tatum said.
In an effort to be more sustainable, most of the items in the home are either gifted, thrifted, or free.
“I encourage people always to use what’s there, whether it’s salvage or free materials, instead of going out and trying to buy a bunch of stuff to set your home and garden up,” Taylor said.
The couple’s home is located on the main road of their town, which consists of about 1,000 people spread out across miles of mostly farmland. They’re 20 minutes from the nearest hospital and about an hour and a half from the city of Burlington.
While they have neighbors right across the street, the population density in the town is low.
“So our neighbors are right across the street from us. For context, they have about 75 acres, and their neighbors have 500. And we live on about two and a half acres here,” Tatum said.
What the couple loves about their home is the amount of privacy it affords them, without being too secluded.
“Maybe they could hear through the walls in our Brooklyn apartment, but if we needed help and we were to yell loudly here, our neighbors would hear us,” Tatum added.
The couple also manages a small campsite on their land where people can come and enjoy the outdoors. There’s a firepit where guests can start a campfire, and a composting toilet is available. Rates start from $24 a night for a maximum of four guests.
While the campsite is open all year round, Taylor says most people come between April and November.
City versus small-town living
Life in Vermont is quite different from in NYC.
For instance, they drive now, whereas they didn’t before.
“In New York City, I did not drive. I walked to work, I biked to work. If I wanted to visit a friend 90 minutes away, that meant I was on a train and we traveled 10 miles. And here, I drive 10 miles to work every day,” Tatum said.
The way they interact with their community is also very different.
“In New York City, we’re not waving at everyone we pass by because if you did that, you’d go insane. It’s too many people, and not everyone is your friend there,” Tatum said. “But here in Vermont, everyone waves at you, and you learn to wave back. It’s very friendly and very welcoming.”
While it was tough to make friends in Vermont at first — since it was the pandemic — it became easier to get to know new people, especially after they had their son.
“We met other parents and families through playgroups and things like that, and got to know our neighbors more,” Taylor said.
The slower pace of life in Vermont has been refreshing compared to the hustle and bustle of the city, Taylor, who was originally from Pennsylvania, added.
“I lived in New York City for about four years, and it’s something that I knew I wouldn’t be able to sustain long-term in terms of the sensory overwhelm and the pace of life,” she said.
That said, with a two-year-old toddler in tow, the young parents are “still exhausted,” Tatum, who is originally from NYC, said.
“The pace here is slower, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not running around, trying to get him from play date to day care and back to work. I just can’t imagine how we’d pull it off in New York,” he added.
Getting used to life in the country
The Barnes family isn’t alone in their journey.
More and more Americans are being priced out of the city. A single person in NYC would have to make about $140,000 to live comfortably, and this amount jumps to $318,000 for a family of four consisting of two adults and two children.
It comes as no surprise that many lower-earning New Yorkers and even young families are choosing to move to the suburbs or leave the country entirely in order to enjoy a lower cost of living. A December 2023 report from the Fiscal Policy Institute found that 65,242 residents who earned between $32,000 and $65,000 left NYC in 2022, compared to 50,160 of those who earned over $172,000.
However, the couple says that things aren’t as straightforward as it seems.
“Compared to New York City, the mortgage is half that of what we paid for rent,” Tatum said. “And while that may look good on paper, the reality is that being homeowners means that those savings go to the repairs and the projects that allow us to push up our comfort in the space and our enjoyment of the house.”
At the end of the day, everything balances out, he said.
“We’re not suddenly wealthy because we are living in the country,” he added.
The couple has some advice for those who want to move out of the city and into the country: Learn to let your guard down.
Tatum said that living in cities can teach people to be alert and wary of others, but that’s not how things necessarily work in the countryside.
“In small, rural towns, people often have good intentions — and you need to only reach out and ask for help to receive it,” he added. “Your greatest threat is not your fellow man, but the raccoons that are going to find their way into your attic or kill your chickens or the bears that are going to get too curious around your bird feeder. It’s a different set of threats, and it’ll take a little bit of time for your brain to make the switch.”
Have you recently built or renovated your dream home? If you’ve got a story to share, get in touch with me at agoh@businessinsider.com.
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