PLACES TO LIVE SORT OF LIKE SD BUT NOT REALLY- give me suggestions!!!

[cruitr]

Originally Posted by tstieber

I agree with you. Everybody is skilled at different things, and having to do something for the first or second time takes a lot of time and trial and error. Even if you did it in your spare time, you could instead work a few extra hours at your other job in the same spare time and make way more money so that you can afford to hire someone and still come out way ahead.

This was Day 1 of our interior painting. Those guys did a great job. My wife comes from a family of painters. At first she wanted to paint the interior of our house. Even she admitted she could have never done that quality of a paint job. The painters will be here for two more days. All for a price less than $2000. That price includes everything. They did use my electricity for some of their tools and I did buy them lunch at McDonalds. In real costs and opportunity costs, these painters are cheap for very high quality work. Two more days of painting and we're done.

Next week come the pool table and furniture guys. We are converting our living/dining room into a pool lounge. We haven't used our formal living and dining rooms in years. We donated everything in those rooms to charity. So we're turning those rooms into sort of a big adult game room: full-size pool table, full-size bar with stools, pool-height chairs and tables etc. We may have room for an upright electronic piano (Costco has a nice one) for those karaoke party nights. It's crazy but we'll be the place to host car club and neighborhood parties. Thank God for cheap home-equity loans.

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by cruitr

This was Day 1 of our interior painting. Those guys did a great job. My wife comes from a family of painters. At first she wanted to paint the interior of our house. Even she admitted she could have never done that quality of a paint job. The painters will be here for two more days. All for a price less than $2000. That price includes everything. They did use my electricity for some of their tools and I did buy them lunch at McDonalds. In real costs and opportunity costs, these painters are cheap for very high quality work. Two more days of painting and we're done.

Next week come the pool table and furniture guys. We are converting our living/dining room into a pool lounge. We haven't used our formal living and dining rooms in years. We donated everything in those rooms to charity. So we're turning those rooms into sort of a big adult game room: full-size pool table, full-size bar with stools, pool-height chairs and tables etc. We may have room for an upright electronic piano (Costco has a nice one) for those karaoke party nights. It's crazy but we'll be the place to host car club and neighborhood parties. Thank God for cheap home-equity loans.

Sounds like all of us are gonna be coming over to your house, LOL!

[cruitr]

Originally Posted by tstieber

Sounds like all of us are gonna be coming over to your house, LOL!

Many years ago there was a core group from this forum who met at a physical restaurant. I never went to any of the meetings because I like to keep my online life separated from real life. Although I have had a lunch or two with select forum members.

[sarasen]

Originally Posted by Curious.In.California

I'm in the same boat - well, sort of. My husband and I moved to San Diego 6 years ago and while we love it here, its just gotten too expensive and brought on a lot of stress. We don't want to leave (this is actually my husband's hometown - he grew up here but moved away for college and other employment opportunities but his current job brought him back to San Diego so that's why we're here). His mom still lives here so the thought of us leaving gets her all emotional.

We live in Mission Valley/Fashion Valley and its just too congested. Traffic is awful, even at night...we can hardly get any sleep because of the street noise. Instead of looking at beautiful views out of our windows, we stare at the homeless people on the street.

We were renting a 3-bedroom nice home on a golf course in the Palm Springs/La Quinta area before coming to San Diego. The rental amount for that home could only get us a 2-bedroom apartment here. I'm still in my 30's (hubby in his 40's) but we are so over apartment living! Although we do live in a very nice apartment complex (they were actually built as condos so they don't actually feel like the typical cheap apartment). But they keep raising our rent like crazy! Our combined salaries just cannot afford the constant rent hikes and keep up w/ the cost of living.

It will be very sad to leave (especially for my husband to leave his hometown) but the stress has just gotten to be too much. He is in the process of applying for jobs elsewhere and we'll see what develops. If both of us got major pay increases, we'd stay but I don't see that happening. He is underpaid for his job (his particular career is in TV which unfortunately, San Diego only pays in sunshine dollars. We're open to other cities its just a matter of finding that that "it" place.

Other cities I've lived in: Colorado Springs, Houston, Boise, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Denver and Palm Springs. Some of those places I liked and some I didn't.

Colorado Springs - although very beautiful, too small. Can easily get bored.

Houston - Loved all the greenery and the trees. Super fun sports town, tons of restaurants, mild winters but very humid summers. More rain and clouds than here which I doesn't bother me. People are very friendly there.

Boise - Too small, too brown, I was bored out of my mind living there.

Seattle - LOVED all the greenery, the trees, the water, the mountains, even the rain. Probably my ideal city...other than the cost of living. People weren't that friendly there, hard to make friends.

Salt Lake City - Beautiful mountains, great in the spring, summer and fall but winters w/ that inversion was just yucky. Much more affordable than Seattle or San Diego.

Denver - Similar to SLC but no inversion to worry about so in my opinion, I rank Denver higher than SLC. More sun in the winter too. Its also a fun sports town, always something to do. Cool people.

Palm Springs - Beautiful mountains (especially when covered w/ snow) but I'm not a fan of the desert. Too dang hot from May-October. Cool mid-century modern architecture and a fun vacation spot but not to live (at least for younger people).

May I ask what the combined income is? Trying to figure out what is feasible.

[Chimérique]

OP, and TStieber,

Yeah, I grew-up in San Diego (lived in Clairemont Neighborhood, up the hill from PB, grew-up hanging at PB and La Jolla) and back when I was regularly going back from San Diego/Sacramento. I would say the over-all feel of the people and pace are very similar.

Sacramento is more like San Diego than any other part of Southern Cal.

Politically and historically Sacramento has always been way more moderate to conservative like San Diego. Compared to LA and the SF Bay Area, SD and Sacramento have always been the more relaxed, easy going, friendly big cities of SoCal and NorCal.

Both, San Diego and Sacramento are influenced-affected by their nearby neighbors: LA/OC influence on SD; and SF Bay Area upon Sacramento, but

But, both SD and Sacramento have always been stand only cities and metros with their unique and personal "culture" (way of life) apart from SoCal and NorCal.

San Diego is the epitome of SoCal; Sacramento is the epitome of NorCal, different, yet still distinctly Californian.
California is a big state, cut out LA and the SF Bay Area and San Diego and Sacramento would very much represent California.

[Chimérique]

Accidental post.