Well, I'm looking to finally get out of Chicago.  Unfortuately, but fact, my mom is dying, only reason I still stayed here, she refused to leave and I live about a mile away.  

I'm looking into the areas around Lake Winnebago, pretty familiar with those areas, did business in Fon du Lac, Menasha, Neenah, Oshkosh, Appleton, etc in a former life.

Please help me narrow my search with pros/cons.  That area seems to have a lot of industry, commercial opportunities for me to work.  Can maybe work from home for a bit, we'll see.

Currently in construction management in tile, surprise, but I did work in other management including a 9 year stint at our beloved Optics Planet.  Should start an AMA on that sometime.

Ideally, I would like natural gas heat/kitchen, decent cable internet and cell phone area, no rich and diverse population.

You would be helping a rabid red Trump supporter with many LEO friends who are also pondering this, I'm not LEO, I actually do work

We have a family house on Washington Island, so I would be closer to access it if it needs work, seems that's all I do there.  Door County people are weird, Yoopers across the bay seem like they'd kill and skin me for sport.

Would Rhinelander be too far north for actual job opportunities?  I really like that town.

Let me know if there are better areas, I'm trying to stay as far away from Milwaukee and Madison as possible.

I finally want to be deeply involved in alcoholism, fish fries at supper clubs, have a huge circle around opening day of deer hunting on calendar, have my car rot away around me.  Sort of used to the car rotting.
If you die from natural causes, you're a pussy.

Hell, I might as well respond here too....

I love the Rhinelander/Eagle River area, but job opportunities are pretty lacking up there.  It would be a great area to retire.  It would be a long trip to get to Washington Island from there though.  I'm totally biased, but I definitely would agree with the folks in GD who recommended the Fox Valley area.  You'd be within 2 hours of Washington Island.  You could also look toward GB, that would put you even closer and still have good job opportunities.

I'm not that familiar with the western part of the state, I'm sure others will be along with information on good areas out that way.

OP... You're doing the right thing. Been there - done that. I moved to Eagle River 30 years ago, at age 41. From S.W. burbs of Shitcago. Wife & 2 kids in middle school. Neither of us had a job. We wanted out. Badly. We talked about it for years. Finally we just said "fuck it", we're not getting any younger, and we didn't want our kids growing up in that sewer.

I wanted further away (Idaho/Montana/Wyoming), but wife insisted on being within a days drive of family. Both sides of family vacationed up north, they understood completely (both of my sisters now have summer homes up here, spend winters in FL). What we did have was enough equity in our home down there to purchase a better, bigger home up here... for cash. And have $30K leftover in the bank to live on, while we blended in and got work. Easy access to hunting/fishing/snowmobiling - and no libtards - was my only goal.  

I'm a locksmith, and my "specialty" is safe cracking. I had 5 years experience in a unique skill in demand, and the tools, equipment & inventory to start my own business... had the same business down there for 5 years, after 18 years working as a union roofer. The only person in that line of work here had just passed away, creating a huge void. Within a few years, I had the business rolling. I serviced an area from Lake Superior shores in the U.P., down to the Antigo / Merrill / Tomahawk area, and from Iron Mountain over to Park Falls. I was actually making more money than I did down south.  Now I'm retiring here.

Most of that "family" the wife wanted to be a day away from has passed away. My wife found a job within 3 days of looking after we settled in. She worked there for 14 years, then moved to a better job where she worked for another 11 years. She then retired, got bored, and went to work part-time for a snowmobile dealer & marina 1/2 mile from home.

The jobs are here, construction jobs are plentiful. But they don't pay what the same position would in a more urban area in most cases. That's the tradeoff you have to stomach to live here. Being bottom rung in seniority means you WILL work on weekends, if your employer is open. That only lasts a few years until you get some seniority, and time flies when you're having fun. But it's worth every damn penny, IMO. As long as the bills are paid, I don't need to be rich monetarily. Living where I went to "play" when I resided in Hellinois is "rich" enough for me. I'm within a 30 minute drive of a half million acres of public hunting land. I have about 1,500 lakes (no exaggeration) to choose from to go fishing. My snowmobile trailer rotted away from non-use, because the trail is 150 yds from the end of my driveway. What's the price tag on that?

Sometimes you just have to say "fuck it, let's do it".

eta: my mom's side of the family was from Mauston WI. Family's been there since before the civil war. So I bled "Green & Gold" from an early age. Go Pack.

How badly do you want decent cable/internet? Cuz you will be hard pressed to find it up north. Also, realize that cell service starts to die once you get north of 64, in my experience. By the time you hit Hwy 8 you're better off not trying using it outside of the towns. Life is great up north, but it's not the same as what you're used to. Unless you live in a few select areas, you're probably gonna have to either drive farther than you expect, or order a lot of stuff online.

Travel from Rhinelander to Washington Island would be 230ish miles, so a 4-5 hour drive one way. Appleton to Wash Island is about 2-3 hours, depending on traffic.

Fox River/Lake Winnebago is pretty red for the most part. Cost of living isn't too high, you're fairly close to Milwaukee/Green Bay if you want to go for a day trip. It's a pretty busy area(employment wise) from what i can tell.

Sounds like you want just the traditional Wisconsin lifestyle. You can find that stuff all across the state. I'll be completely honest, outside of a few select cities, i don't think there is really a bad place to live in this state. I've spent tons of time up north, in the driftless, down near Monroe, up in the Fox River Valley, in Door, over in Indian Head Country. I've always found something i loved about the area.

I cannot speak to job opportunities in your specific field up north. I have always said that trades travel well, so if you can do certain jobs, you will find work.

^^^ what he said about cell service, internet access, cable TV, and shopping up north is true. But it has improved a lot since I've been here. If you can't live without all that city crap, then stay in the city. Northwoods living definitely is not what you're used to.

OTOH...for me, that was exactly why we left. It's not like down there, Thank God....

Traffic? What is "traffic"?

"Rush hour"? To me, rush hour is that hour before shooting hours begin, during duck season, and I have 2 other rigs in front of me at the boat launch. Then I have to rush to my blind to get set up in time.

I would suggest a smaller town like Omro or Winneconne. Both are on lakes/rivers that are part of the Winnebago system and are nice areas to live and housing prices aren't too bad. Oshkosh is becoming a shithole, Appleton is becoming another Madison in terms of libtards, and Neenah isn't too far behind.

As the state continues to fill up with IL and MN people running away from the liberal utopia they currently live in. The state will turn into the same shit hole they just left. Having lived here for over 50 years I can see how things are going down the toilet.

Most the new neighbors we now have that are from MN. All had biden signs in their yards this fall.

There aren't enough conservative rural people to stop what is coming, and the spineless elected conservatives have done nothing about voter fraud in more than one election. The state is on it's way to becoming MN, IL, and NY.

All the More reason why we should encourage the conservative types from IL, MN, or anywhere else to move here, instead of the libs.  

Most of the libtards in my area came from Madison... not IL or MN.

Exactly why more conservative people like the OP need to be welcomed here with open arms, no matter where they're coming from.  

I second this

Pretty much anywhere within 30 miles of Lake Winnebago is nice, pretty conservative, and you shouldn't have any lack of business opportunity. Also the area right in the middle between Madison and Milwaukee is very nice and conservative, and there are a lot of money in this area.

LP is pretty common more rural.  Natural gas you'd be living in a suburb somewhere I imagine.

Coming from big city life to rural WI is an adjustment. I don’t consider the 41/43 corridors N of shitwaukee as “rural”, but more urban to semi-urban with some surrounding rural areas.

For your line of desired work with excellent income potential you need expanding housing growth. That’s more small city area like Wausau, Appleton, Eau Claire, etc.

If you want to start your own business & be successful in a real rural area you need to bust your ass & develop a name for yourself, which will take time, that will undoubtedly have limited growth potential. You need to be happy with that & learn to appreciate your life you carve out for yourself.

If you can do that & be happy with what you have, treat people honestly & fairly, love what you do, live humbly among common folk that also struggle for a living, have appreciation for those people whom employ you, then you might just be cut out for a real rural life. In other words become a valued part, while having value of others, of a real community.

If not, well...

Thanks for the responses! I'm sort of zeroing in on the Appleton area.

How is access to ranges there, indoor/outdoor? Used to shoot some USPSA and 3 gun until it took up too much time.

Sucks, lost on house in Kimberly last week, I went in at $12.5K over asking.  Just got back today, offered at $11K over asking on house in Menasha.  Both with inspections waived.

Will find out Tuesday on Menasha.  Might just store my stuff, sell house here and go up with all cash.

Housing market is nuts. Seems like it's everywhere, not just in WI. My daughter just sold her house in *Farmington MN, for $10K over asking price.... and did so in only 48hrs. She bought a house right on Lake Superior, near L'Anse MI (in the U.P.) for $5K over asking price, to outbid someone who came in at asking price. She really wants it.

*edit to add: Farmington is about 30-35 miles south of twin cities. Far enough away from the bullshit there, close enough if you have to commute there for work.  People fleeing twin cities in droves... one of those is who bought her house.

Tile market, I'd have to say larger metro.   Fox valley has people, but so does green bay, and milwaukee.   You need to look at competition.  

I'd look for an area that has had a steady population increase, urban or rural, that looks to continue a "boom" for the foreseeable future. Population increases means they need new homes for all the new people. Building them keeps contractors of all sorts busy.

Example... From what I hear, all the contractors in Oneida & Vilas counties, which are rural / tourism areas for the most part, are booked solid with projects for about the next 2 years. Both remodeling projects and building new housing.

Hard to believe that there would be a lot of building going on with the price of building materials.  You would think a bank would have a hard time approving  a mortgage on a house that in could be worth considerably less in the  near future ... well, hopefully until 2024.  A friend of my son is a contractor in the Fox valley area and told him he has already had several of his scheduled projects put on hold because of the price of materials.

Just was on "Maynards" site - $24 for a lousy 2x4 stud? $46 for 7/16 OSB?  Holy shit!  Also heard concrete and paint are soon to be going sky high as well.

Yeah, house I offered on had decent unfinished basement, but not looking at upgrading anytime soon due to costs.
Minor masonry repairs per inspection the seller actually did.
It sucks so much leaving the fox valley area almost weekly back to shit hole Chicago.
Morning news yesterday was interviewing campers and graduate on a boat kids. Get back, drive bys, gang violence,  cops can't run after criminals, etc.

I drive a Redi Mix truck.  Our cost for concrete delivered went up 2 months ago for 2 reasons.  1:  Some cement powder is in a shortage so cost went up.  2:  The cost of trucking has gone up because of fuel, parts etc.  Add to that the cost of all the trucks for the aggregate delivered to us has risen...  It all gets passed to the customer.

As I understand it, paint will be affected by the resins, that supposedly are mainly mfg'd. in Texas.  Because of the recent freeze and power outages, the supply was interrupted and stock was also ruined.  Nowadays, it doesn't take much to bring about a ripple effect when any little thing goes south.  Then again, that all could be just a bunch of hoey.

Another reason is that folks are getting scared to stay in the cities. They are willing to pay whatever to escape while they can. Not much faith in the future of our society.

Moved most of my shit into storage today in order to sell down here, fucking hard to get mortgages don't seem to work anywhere.  Cash is king.

Will be coming back up with around 500k liquid,  200-250 for house, hope it works, just sent my two friends who helped me move my stuff today $100 gift certificates for Nueske's.

Living in my own basement, it's finished, full bath, just different.

Well, I got lucky, my realtor sort of saved it for me, she's realtor for both me and seller, former owner upgraded it and had to move to Arizona for work
You'll have another conservative up dere! My cash deal should be easy, just the other paperwork bullshit to go through, have the carry permits for FL, UT, IL, and now WI to get settled.

Good!

Where?

Now you can change the IL in your profile.

Dont you lose the IL CCW moving out of state since those idiots wont recognize any other states?

I'm not that far away from Menasha, if you need any help let me know. We just moved in March.....I know how much moving and getting settled in sucks.

I'm an Appletoonian now, closing scheduled for end of October, but may be sooner, owner has to reshingle roof prior to my move in. Waiting to hear progress on that, can't wait to shed all the Illinois bullshit

Yeah, supposed to hear about that soon.
Anyone that knows movers from the area that would move a not even 10×20 load (storage shed) from 60641 in Chicago up to Appleton let me know, rather spend my money up there.

Heaviest is my small safe, about 300# and my weight set, about 350# in plates, rest is furniture, tools, etc.

If you know any cargo van rentals besides uhaul, I'll be making my initial trip after closing back down to northern IL just to gather my basic supplies.

Really looking forward to it

Moving the shed may be a problem. May end up to be cheaper to just build a new one. Also check local building codes on sheds. You may need a building permit to even set it on the ground. I know in Janesville any shed over 80sq ft requires a building permit.

Congrats! You'll like the area, plenty to do around here. Lots of good supper clubs, good hunting and fishing not far away, high cliff state park is nice this time of year if you like hiking...

Sorry about that, to clarify, I'm just renting a shed space in a storage building. Just shopping moving companies to haul the furniture, weight equipment, tools, etc out of it.

No real advice on movers to offer you - don't have any experience with any of them.  I'm in Appleton. I'd be happy to help with just about anything else.

Actually, scratch that.  I do have a moving recommendation.  Nick of Time Moving  

Nick is a member here and moved my safe into the basement.  I didn't realize that they offered more than just safe moving services, but according to the website they will do full service moves.  They're located in SE WI, about halfway between you and your new destination.  Based on my previous experience, I'd highly recommend Nick's crew.

Thanks for the info, I'll look into it, I have sort of a dinky safe anyway by arfcom standards
Can anyone tell me why most houses have full on gas furnaces, water heaters, and electric stoves??!!
I wants my gas stove, this house doesn't have one, even my realtor couldn't explain it to me. Has a high fallutin electric since remodel, but I don't understand.

My wife had the same complaint when we bought our new house...she wanted a gas stove but the basement is completely finished and it would have been a complete pain in the ass to run a gas line so I told her to just deal with it. Besides, the electric stove the house came with has wifi so I can pre-heat it when leaving the store and has convection so is also a giant air fryer.

I think it is just builders cutting costs by not running a gas line.

Dunno. Mine is the same way. May be its to eliminate the chance of a gas leak when a home owner/tenant puts a new gas stove in.

I sold my house in Dodge County last October, and had to get the roof done for the VA loan to go through. It was a NIGHTMARE getting it done on time, I think I lost at least 5 years of my life due to stress. And that was with almost 60 days to closing after accepting an offer. Just getting quotes was difficult, then getting the guys to show up and do the work was even harder. So many broken commitments by the roofer, and it was only a 1400 sq ft house, so it should have been a simple one day job. They finally buttoned up the last fascia trim around 7pm the night before closing under threat of the funding bank stopping the deal if it wasn't completed just because a few pieces of fascia were still exposed.

I hope your roofing goes better than mine did!

My advice is to stay away from ARC when it comes to roofing. Broken promises, over-priced, and terrible work.

A friend of mine just had his roof done due to storm damage a month or so ago. Used Security Luebke Roofing and said they were great. Fast to get out and have the estimate done, and once he accepted it they were out there 3 days later, done in 1 day. 2 story 1700 sq ft home.

Moved here from PA many years ago, saw the NY/NJ crowd do the same thing when they invaded.
And guess what? ALL of them said, "But....but.....Not me! I'M DIFFERENT than the others!"
Biggest lie ever.
Chicago is the NJ of the Midwest.
Don't take it personally, OP. It's just how it is and how it always is. Everyone has heard it all before. Texas, AZ, Florida.......all the places the liberal big city people run to.
I wish you good luck in your new environment and please don't invite others.

I moved here from a Chicago burb 30 years ago. We are all "big city liberals"? ROFLMMFAO.

There are more ex-Chicago and ex-Milwaukee people here in my area of the northwoods than there are locally born residents. And Vilas County is one of the reddest counties in the whole state. The overwhelming majority of the liberal assholes that are here, either came from another state on a leftist coast (CA or NY/NJ for example) or from the Madistan area. I deal with new residents on a daily basis, a large portion of my customers over the 30 years I've been in business here were new home owners, new to the area. I see the cars in the driveways with the Obama, Biden, or PETA stickers. In conversations with them, I learn it's almost always another Madistan area lib... there are exceptions, but it holds true about 90% of the time. OTOH, most of the FIBS moving here are not libs (nor are the ex-Milwaukee people), but are doing what the OP is doing, doing what I did 30 years ago, doing what you yourself did "many years ago"... flee the liberalism infected areas for greener redder pastures.

And FWIW... from what I've seen in my 30 years of dealing with incoming "refugees", the only differences between ex-Milwaukee folks and ex-Chicago
"FIBS" is the color of their license plates, and who they root for at game time.... Packers/Bears, Cubs/Brewers, Bucks/Bulls.