> The 100+ year old Victorian house I now live in is impossible to pest proof.

When we were house shopping, one of our "short list" was this house, which is about a century old: https://www.google.com/maps/@36.222585,-93.1124827,3a,75y,26...

We ended up with a slightly smaller home on the outskirts of town that was built in the 70s. It partially burned in ~2008 and was completely remodeled afterward - all of the electrical, most of the plumbing, and all of the ventilation was replaced.

The older home was listed at $99k versus the $135k of the one we bought. It was bigger, in a part of town we preferred, and we loved the layout and "feel" of the older one... but I cannot overstate how glad I am that we bought the one we did.

Even this one has been far more of a financial strain than I expected. One of the things that wasn't apparent to me is the sewer situation. I knew the home had a septic tank, and I'm familiar with the care and maintenance burden that it entails; I wasn't aware that the city has an ordinance prohibiting the substantial repair of existing septic tanks. When our tank reaches the end of its life we're required by law to connect to the municipal sewage system, which I've estimated will cost about $10k. That's higher than usual, but I believe it's accurate: the plumbing in the home will have to be "reversed" because the septic tank and the municipal sewer service are on opposite sides of the house; the sewer access point is 12' underground because of the neighborhood's landscape; the path between the hookup and the access point goes under the three 40-year-old trees in our front yard, at least one of which will have to be removed.

> Resources, such an cars and mechanics, are harder to find.

I've found Facebook to be a huge help for this sort of thing. I grew up in the area I now live, but it's been five years since I was here so a lot of my knowledge is outdated. Businesses close, move, and change hands.

Whenever I need something done I post in a local "gossip" group. It generates a fair amount of the typical drama in the responses, but it's been effective for quickly finding reliable service workers in particular.

> I'm looking at relocating to a rural area that's still out in the woods, but closer to a smaller city than I am now.

I fully understand that. My preference would be to live far away from people and with another land that I can do whatever I want on my property without worrying about the neighbors. My wife grew up in a small city and finds that lifestyle to be isolating - so we compromised on a small subdivision on the outskirts of town. It's dense enough that we know our neighbors and there are people around, but rural enough that there's 200 acres of farmland about two blocks from us. The kind of people who live here seem to be more compatible with my kind of libertarian individualism than what I've experienced elsewhere, too, which is nice. Our town technically has ordinances requiring dogs to be on leashes or fenced at all times outdoors, building permits, etc. - but my neighborhood has at least four little dogs and a couple of cats running around during the day and I don't think a building permit has ever been issued for the entire subdivision. It's quiet, friendly, and we generally get along with one another. My neighbor has a boy about my oldest daughter's age (9), and even though they play together all the time, he still stops at the property line and asks my permission to come over every single time.

I feel like I got all the good parts of 1950s America.