Where would you move to?

I can sure relate to the clutter. I had two huge yard sales before leaving Laguna and thought I had done great. After all, I took in $1800 and paid for the move. But then I moved from my first place in Cambria to my second and realized how much crap I still have. At least I've weeded out the crap-crap and this is mostly stuff I can make money on if I can get it together to send it on its way. When I was researching leaving Laguna the three places that were at the top of my list were New Zealand, the Gulf Islands of Canada and Cambria. Cambria won for simplicity. I still have those options though. I'm originally from Ohio. It is beautiful there for about 3 weeks in the spring and again three weeks in the fall. Can't take the heat/humidity/bugs nor the cold/grey/ice. But boy are those few weeks glorious! Say about May 20-June 10 and Sept 20-Oct 10, somewhere in there. And with the prices of the homes there it's almost feasible to have a vacation home just for those 6 weeks a year. Especially if were on a lake. I could buy a cabin on a small lake in Northern Ohio/Southern Michigan for less than I paid for my Subaru. I dream of living a totally simple life here on the coast of CA and having a cabin on a lake back there too.

stell...that does sound wonderful,doesn't it? I loved the snowy days in Iowa. I'd bundle up and go walking, but really didn't like driving in it. I still wonder what it does to their car insurance in those areas..lol...every time it snows and freezes and you see all of those cars slipping around, hitting each other. It might be very costly to drive in the winter there..one mile down the road and..boom! I was driving up a hill and sliding backwards and the construction workers were laughing at me so I got out of the van and left it and walked home...told the DH to go get it, and BTW, I want to go back to California. I'm pretty sure I want to make that leap back up to the northwest, but I'd like to have time to do it in stages. First to Cambria, then to Mendocino, then Oregon, then Washington. I'd like to ease into it. I want to be gone, but somehow want to hang onto familiarity also, not give it all up at once. New Zealand I'd have to 'ease' into..too big a change all at once. Maybe I can talk my BIL & SIL to go with us. I'm kinda feelin' the need for family or friends there.

Walking in the first snow, yup, that's special. But anything after mid-January is just plain cold, wet and gray. You'd be hard-pressed to find a hill anywhere around where I come from so there's not much sliding-down-the-hill driving, but then it's sooooo flat it's not that easy to tell the road from the ditch from the field if it's new-fallen snow. The salt they put on the roads sure can mess up a car fast too.

My car insurance in Ohio was a little cheaper than my car insurance here (for the same car). In my experience, people out here drive worse in the rain than people there drive in snow and ice.

What really kills insurance companies here in Iowa is Hail damage . . . to cars, to roofs, to siding and . . . to farmers' crops.

Our insurance agent was cancelled from representing a certain insurance company because he had too many "hail claims". I called the insurance company and they gave me the name of another agent 20 miles away to go through so we could stay with the same insurance company.

When we get too much rain (like in southern Iowa this summer) and there is flooding . . .that also affects people a lot. We have never had flooding where we live (the high side of the lake) so have not been affected. Even though central Iowa is very flat-there are dips in the roads and they can become impassible.

We can also get a lot of wind damage; they call they "tornadic winds" - no tornado but very high winds.

Arlene, interesting that you mentioned that...we were recently told that it can depend on which agent you have, whether or not they've let too many claims go through and that a claim might go through with a different agent. I never knew that before! Too bad there isn't a site to let us know which agent we might want. On the other hand, perhaps the reason we've not been cancelled when we're hearing that so many others have is because of our agent. Hmmmm.
With relatives living in Texas, I'd wondered how the insurance companies could keep paying out on hail damage over and over again.

A little OT, but did you see the pictures of Bogota, Columbia on the news? Four FEET of hail! Cars were swamped, people were wading around waist deep in the stuff. Yikes! That's weather.

Hey Guys; I love the weather in CA,however I bought a couple of hundred acres in the hill country of TX,.I am buying another tract of land (400 acres) next to the original 200 this year.I really don't need 700 acres however the price was right.I also like not having to worry about future developments moving in.It does get a little colder in the winter. There is No Way I could afford to buy 700 acres here.

Wow - 4 feet of hail; that would be something to see . . .NOT in MY yard.

As to the insurance - an agent cannot prevent it from hailing on his client's property. Agents are there to write the correct insurance for you and if a claim needs to be filed for loss HELP you utilize your insurance.

Too bad insurance companies don't know that . . . evidently some of them EXPECT the agent to discourage filing of claims. They think they are only in business to make money.

My car and house in CA are insured with(decided not to give the name). Every time I had a claim my insurance person would say, "Are you sure you really want to file?"

We knew him personally for over 30 years and when we filed a claim on a very expensive diamond bracelet that was lost in the park he led me to believe it wouldn't be covered. I went to the jeweler who had made the bracelet to have him make another like it and HE was the one who wrote the appraisal to get the insurance company to pay. My JEWELER helped me with the claim - not the AGENT! (incidently, the jewler had just put a new safety chain on it the week before)

All insurance companies are probably not like this; but you'll never know about your own until you have to make a claim.

Z
Did you buy for investment or will you live there?

Hey Twin Lakes Chef; I originally bought the 200 ac. for deer hunting.I will be 50 in a couple of years.Even though I don't look it, I plan on retiring and moving there.

What's 50 look like? I don't remember. :-)

I passed it so fast, it was just a blur.

Z
Thanks for reminding me about deer hunting; here in Iowa at one point there weren't enough of them-hence a very tight limit during deer hunting season. My dad always kept us in deer; he even got one that had such a great rack that he taught himself taxidermy to preserve it.

But he died a few years back and now I have one good friend that I rely on for deer meat. You should come hunt deer in Iowa; we have too many; and they are corn-fed (they raid the cornfields) so the meat is excellent. We really like to grill deer chops . . . as good as any steak.

My dad would make deer summersausage and smoke it; it was excellent. I have the recipe here somewhere but have not tried doing it. No one could make it like his.

The deer impact on insurance companies here is phenomenal; right now they are rutting and as you drive along you have to keep looking back and forth for them; if there is one . . there will always be a second one. They are cute but can do serious damage. I already totaled one car since I have moved back.
(and that finishes all I know about insurance companies in Iowa)

I'm loving reading this thread. I think most of you know that DH and I are talking about moving in a year or two and we are looking at the Shasta Lake/Redding area of Northern Cali. It's so great to hear everyone's input.

You know all this talk about living in two places has me wondering if we really want to sell our home here. Maybe we should think about keeping it. Most of both my family and DH's is spread out all over the country. It would be nice to have a place that we could all use as "home base" whenever we wanted/needed to. We love this neighborhood, and isn't it always so nice to come back to someplace familiar?

heathrjoy, I've always wished our family had such a place. It would be a cabin on a lake in Michigan, not where we grew up, though. Both of my sisters still live close to our family home and there would be nothing special for them there, but the thought of sharing a cabin on a lake, where we spent many a summer in childhood, sounds ideal to me. I think that if you can swing it, don't let go of your place back there.

I remember growing up spending summers on a lake (Conchas Lake in Northern New Mexico) with both sides of aunts, uncles, cousins, their boyfriends/girlfriends, all of our tag-a-long friends and sure tempers would flare occasionally but isn't that just the way that kids learn tolerance and patience with the people that they will know for the rest of their lives?

Sometime around the early 1980's (I was one of the last born cousins) everyone was doing their own thing and getting together became less important. Sometimes I think that is just a result of being a "Western US Family" where no one in my family at all lives in the same town where they were born and every one is spread all over the place. There is a legacy, IMHO, of those who worked in Texas, NM, Oklahoma that came out of the pioneers and continued through those who went through the Depression in those states that you go where work is and don't look back.

When my Grandma Gussie died last year at 97 one of the last conversations that we had was about that and all of her children were thousands of miles apart.

Now I am California (actually about 45 miles from my eccentric great aunt who is the youngest sister of my Grandma and I never see her). I miss family and I know that I maybe would have still made some of the silly decisions that I did growing up but they would have been more tempered had I had my older cousins, aunts and uncles surrounding me. My parents are the only parents who divorced until just recently 2 of my cousins did (out of over 220 relatives!) and I am the only one who decided to be independent and go to boarding school at 14.

My daughter is 14 and has no idea what it is like to have summers like that. She has only seen my parents under the same roof once and that was when my brother died 4 years ago.

I think that my homesickness is for a place, like you mentioned, Stella, where we could all be together.

FYI, for now all of my cousin's and I do correspond through a tree we started on http://www.geni.com

So interesting reading the posts here.

^We opened with "where would you move to?" Inviting mobility and change. Perhaps opportunity, safety, separation from family problems.

^Offerings of other places to consider a life.
^Rationalizations as to why to stay put, or move.

^Now we're seeking a core, stability, family, traditions and closeness.

You can't go home again. Its up to us to create the tradition. It may include Grandma Maude/or not -- but its important to create our own futures, kids futures and if carrying on with ancestors traditions works, cool. If not ya gotta make your own traditions and introduce new, true friends into it.

I don't have kids but I have a couple of cool traditions I carry forward in honor of my granny and her totally fabulous life. I get a kick out of possibly making it someone else's tradition.

We're a mobile society and most of us live where we do because that's where our job is. Actually, I'm glad I don't live in Menlo Park CA where I was 5th generation San Francisco Bay Area. Its a dynamic world. JMHO
Carry on!

This message was edited Nov 7, 2007 9:11 PM

We're all searching for something.

Fact is, Aquane, Phoenix was my landing place for grad school after living in some beautiful places all lover the world, I did go to live near family when I was first married and had my daughter. My daughter's father wanted to move to California and his attention span lasted about a year and he left us here. Sometimes I feel like I was thrown out of a rolling taxie cab.

Out of pride I stayed and have done this on my own, made a career and work so much that I don't have time for friends as a single mom. That isn't to say that I don't carry my grandmother's traditions but understanding that I have a choice for my daughter and myself, it would be to be closer to family. Fortunately I have created such a niche in my area of expertise that I could live anywhere I chose at this point and travel the same amount but be able to leave my daughter with family instead of a babysitter.

I hear ya, daisy. Phoenix isn't too bad. Its very nice several months of the year. I've spent most of my life in SF Peninsula and I 'can' get over that.

I imagine Long Beach is as challenging as any other metro city in LA proximity. Housing is expensive?

Sounds like a very perfect and well thought out scenario for you, DD and the lucky family near by! Sounds like you're quite content.

Loved the people I met in Phoenix but I could never live there again. Just too hot! I didn't like having to play softball at 5 am during the summer and sitting under misters at 11 pm while having coffee with friends. Loved the school though and Tempe is a friendly place to be.

Long Beach is okay- it was the last affordable coastal area down south, I think and it is getting nicer all of the time. I bought the best house in the worst neighborhood so that is a bit odd. I guess if the question was if I could pick my entire Victorian era house and move it anywhere, where would we go? LOL Probably somewhere with trees, water and then the family could just come to visit. ;)

Prescott AZ has some very nice Painted Ladies. Don't know the prices but they are very much up to par with SF Painted Ladies. Very homey, nice old town square. The original Territorial Capital before AZ was a state.

Water in Prescott might be an issue though...... :-((

Its forest, a healthy forest but a little drought can cause alot of problems.

I think that family is a big issue for anyone who's considering moving a long distance. Another issue for me is my friends. I know I'll stay in touch with family and know the goings-on in their lives, but friends can be a different story all together. It's not easy to imagine a life without the people that you've spent your whole life with. I'm a very independent person, but when I think of moving so far away it does sometimes seem lonely knowing that there won't be anyone right there who knows just by looking at me that something is not right. I have gone through times in my life that if I wouldn't have had a support system of friends and family around me my life could have turned out very differently.

On the other hand, we should make our own way in this world and not let fear (or loneliness or whatever) hold us back. Who knows, I may meet the bestest friend in my whole life in Northern Cali! I certainly am excited about even the idea of the move. To me this will almost be like starting a new life....a fresh start....and who wouldn't want that? I link so many of my troubles to the weather in my area, just the thought of better weather makes me feel better.

I know we can never go home again. But, we can come and visit and share our new traditions with the ones we love! When I told my DSIL that we were thinking of moving it really hurt her, it was like she took it to mean I wanted to get away from her....which is the furthest thing from the truth (she's my favorite family member!). I think keeping a home here is almost like a promise to my family that I'll be back, that I'm not really leaving them completely, and that I still love them. At least that's my story and I'm stickin to it.

"we should make our own way in this world and not let fear (or loneliness or whatever) hold us back. Who knows, I may meet the bestest friend in my whole life in Northern Cali!" This absolutely rings true for me. I've gained new and wonderful friends in each place that I've moved and though we don't see each other as often as when living in the same town we're still close and now I have dear friends from all over.

Stella, I think that's wonderful....then you know there are so many places all over this country where you are welcome. What a great feeling!

DH and I have decided that we would like to keep our home here. Our biggest concern right now is how we are going to maintain our lawn/garden and etc. We've started thinking about the idea of a place further out of town....cabin on a lake like someone said....then if the weeds get too high in summer at least no one will see it!

That was me that said cabin on the lake. Are you about to live my dream life?

Heathrjoy - just be sure that cabin by the lake isn't controlled by your "friendly" neighbors in an HOA or your weeds will cost you! LOL.
Prescott, Arizona: AKA New California or East California depending on who you talk to.
Now my fantasy is to move to Carlsbad. Imagine that with all of you wanting to leave CA. The grass is always greener................

Carlsbad,Ca? We're there almost every weekend and we love Carlsbad...it's unpretentious. BUT, does have the freeway noise, train noise and, I've been told, gang problems. We went and took a look at Prescott, a couple of years ago. Liked the town and the town square...LOVED the little bakery on the side street. I think we got both cream puffs and Napoleons...some of the best I've ever had! I'd like to go back over this month or next if at all possible just to enjoy the town and some of the Oaxacan rugs carried there in one of the shops.

We just moved from Carlsbad/La Costa 4 years ago. :-)
Hope you've got deep pockets for that dream.

I said it was a fantasy! LOL. We will probably never move. Then where would we go to visit? Gangs?

Really? Gangs in Carlsbad? That surprises me. I loved Carlsbad in the 70s. Haven't spent any time there since though and don't know how much it's changed.

Gangs in Carlsbad, Vista, Oceanside.
Harold, Phoenix is supposed to be one of the worst areas for gang activity with 150 different street gangs. If you don't notice it there, I'm sure you would find Carlsbad quiet.

If I were moving to California, I would at least consider this spot. For me it sounds just fine. A little bit in the boonies though.

http://hilcrest.net/realestate.html

http://hilcrest.net/images/properties/Woods.jpg


2.5 ACRES - Lovely three bedroom, 2.5 bath home surrounded by mature landscaping. Family orchard w/trees, berries, grapes. Home sits on knoll - has fabulous views of the mountains. "Very private"

Asking: 385,000.


I would expect it to be very hot in the summer. I have never been to the area, only found it on the net.

Yep...very hot in the summer!

If you were going to / are going to move, where would you move to and why? Realistically , seriously...

Probably will end up in Mexico, on the ocean , in a small village near an X-pat enclave and near some of my co-workers.
Why ? - quality of life for the buck.

I was born and raised in the LA area. I moved to the Bay Area when I was 21 and have lived here ever since. If things were different in the USA at large, I think I could live happily in CA the rest of my days. However, I've grown more and more disillusioned with the US. I've entertained moving to Scandinavia ever since I lived in Denmark for a summer in 1982. Never investigated it seriously because I always assumed I didn't have the money. Wish I had investigated more seriously while I was still young enough to rough it. However, every time I think of moving to Northern Europe for a more compatible political and possibly social climate, winter hits here and I deal with my SADS. It's gotten worse as I've gotten older. I think a Scandinavian winter would kill me. So ideally, I'd like to live in Sweden or Ireland in the spring and summer and Tahiti or another South Seas island in the winter. :-)

probably to the cemetary. because i can't imagine finding a more affordable, amenable,
quiet place to live. less "people pollution". i like to visit, i just don't want to "live" with everyone all the time. i could probably live on the ocean but not by it. people on three sides.

Haha, Len! No wonder you suggested gravestone plant markers in the other thread. :-)

rofl! spidra. i see you want to move to scandinavia. i always thought i would like to live in italy. but i've sort of succumbed to the advice i've given others. it's one thing to go on vacation, but quite another to live there. I drive over the road and had a cousin that vacationed in wy, yellowstone for a week one summer. He wanted to move there with his family. I told him that he needed to visit for a few days in the 9 months of winter they had! lol. he never moved.