Please wake me from this real estate nightmare, or just give me your advice!

[Anonymous]

OP - this is a tough situation. Only your husband and you can make the best decision. If you really feel the house and neighborhood are tainted for you than you should move. It sounds like the community has not been very welcoming either. Look into moving and work towards it but don't rush into it. Spend a lot of time in the city you are thinking about and visit the schools. I don't think you need to see a therapist except in the general sense that everyone needs to. I would not want to live in a tick invested area. Maybe you can move closer to NYC. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

When we lived in Austria we had to take a series of vaccines against tick-borne illnesses. I suggest you get these if you plan to stay in the house. I also think it might be worth talking to someone about your apparent anxiety if you want to stay in the house. Otherwise it sounds like you should probably just plan to move.

[Anonymous]

This thread should be required reading for every I want to a lcol suburb thread. There is a reason it costs less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Personally I would move into a city environment where I would feel more comfortable.

Me too. It's a serious and valid concern and I'd be worrying constantly. Not worth it. I'd move.

[Anonymous]

I would move. The worry and anxiety just isn't worth it.

[Anonymous]

OP here -- thanks for all of these thoughtful answers.
I was trying to think of a good analogy, and this is my best so far:
It's like you moved to a beautiful, expensive piece of oceanfront property and got stung by a box jelly on the first swim. For 18 months you didn't know if your body and brain would ever fully recover. Now you know not to go swimming during certain seasons and tides, and to scan the water around you. But do you still like the view of the sea? Do you still want to go swimming? Does it still make sense to pay all of this money to stay? (Now I know that there are surfers who get their arms ripped off by Great White sharks and are back in the water at the next possible opportunity, etc. I would NOT be that person. Perhaps I do have an anxiety disorder!)
The earthquake analogy is close, but...nobody moves to California to live near the San Andreas fault. And earthquakes don't last 18 months, and threaten to never end.

[Anonymous]

OP, do you live in Wilton, CT or nearby? Your descriptions sound a lot like that area. My grandmother lived there. And yes, she did Lyme's Disease one time too. However, we did love to visit her, go ice-skating on her pond, marveled at all the stone walls, watch the deer from her windows, etc.!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread should be required reading for every I want to a lcol suburb thread. There is a reason it costs less.

LOL. There are reasons, but TICKS aren't among them.

[Anonymous]

This thread reminds me of Funny Farm (1980s movie). If you haven't seen it, watch it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread should be required reading for every I want to a lcol suburb thread. There is a reason it costs less.

LOL. There are reasons, but TICKS aren't among them.

Agreed, but the ticks aren't why op wants to move. She just doesn't want to admit they made a mistake, irregardless of ticks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was going to move to the country (VA countryside) and now after reading this thread I feel like I definitely should not. I'm sorry OP, what a horrible nightmare. And I'm sorry for the compassionless responses you've gotten on here.

Based just on this thread?

The risk totally depends on location. Our old place backed up to 300 acres of conservation woods, and it was tick central. The dog came down with Lyme (and went lame) twice, and I had a bulls-eye rash that I treated immediately.

Our place now is in a very open area without any significant woods around. Very few deer, and we haven't seen a single tick.

I really wanted to live in the forest. I guess not anymore! What the hell is wrong with this world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A year and a half ago my family moved from DC to our "dream house" in semi-rural New England. (Vibrant town with great schools, movie theater, arts and community life, but a 90-minute commute from NYC on a good day. We work from home.) We were extremely familiar with the town -- I grew up there, and my husband grew up near by. We bought a big, old, rambling house that was very overgrown and started to restore it, clearing the jungle-like four acres of land so our kids could have the play space that we always dreamed of for them. It was like an article from Elle Decor!
There was a problem, though. Literally the day that we did our home inspection, my husband got bitten by a tick and got Lyme disease. We never saw the tick. Since we were still in the process of moving and our doctors were in Washington, they didn't catch it and the disease quickly progressed. Even though we were both natives of the area, we didn't make the connection either -- we didn't know though that Lyme disease had rapidly spread in the last 20 years due to certain suburban development patterns, and we associated the sickness with a simple bulls' eye rash and a few aches and pains, instead of full-blown neurological symptoms...

There is absolutely no way you could possibly know what day your husband was bit by the tick. Presumably, you both were outside looking at the acreage prior to purchasing a home. Presumably you were also outside in different places in the same area prior to purchasing the home. You sound histrionic and a little paranoid. I think that you've built this up and air blaming the house everything that's going wrong in your life. It does sound impulsive and reckless to make this decision however if you truly hate the house I don't think anything will change your mind because of how you've crafted the situation in your mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would stay and spray the shit out of my yard.

this.

easy

[Anonymous]

The only time I've seen a tick on my dog was off season oceanfront at the beach...

You really can see those things anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would stay and spray the shit out of my yard.

this.

easy

but with what??? toxic chemicals for your kids to play in? what are the effects of having your yard sprayed with these chemicals over and over?