Possible move to Napa/Sonoma area in 2013....need advice on towns (San Jose: appliances, hotel)

[tryton11]

Hello from the East Coast!

My wife and I are looking for a new chapter in our lives and feel like the Napa/Sonoma area will be a fun adventure. My main reason for posting on here is to get some advice on the Town of Napa, the Town of Sonoma and any other neighborhoods and towns in and around these two that are suitable for everyday living. The only part of the bay area that I am familiar with and have visited in the past is SF and San Jose. I lived in SoCal about 15 years ago and it was very much not my style. I always said if I ever moved out west it would be to SF as I love the big-city/small-city feel that it has versus an LA, NYC or Miami. That being said, I'm over the bigger metropolitan cities and am looking forward to a more laid-back almost countryside type of living but not remote and rural to the point that you can't enjoy good restaurants, bars, etc. I get this feeling that Napa is a bit pretentious and is probably flooded with people looking for the "next hotspot" whereas Sonoma is more comfortable and easy going.

Here is a little about our background in order to help give as much info about us to narrow down the places that we would not enjoy......

I am 35 (she is 24) and we both work in the food and beverage industry. I work for a major hotel chain here in a supervisory roll and would probably transfer to one of the properties there or a similar hotel brand in the same capacity. My background up until this position was a bartender and wine fan for quite some time. She is a bar manager as well, so I feel like landing jobs there will not be an issue. We currently pay $1500/month for a 3-br home in Downtown Charlotte. I know this money won't get us the same size place, but we're looking for a 2 bedroom place, 1000 sq ft - 1500 sq ft, preferably a home with some room for our lab to run around. We'd prefer modern design, appliances, etc, but do love a rustic/cozy bungalow type of home as well, as long as it's not run down, and cold. We'd prefer to live as close to Napa or Sonoma as possible, but understand that prices and size are higher the closer to the epicenter of each town.

I guess my main hope of this post is to figure out if we can get what we're looking for in Napa or Sonoma, or what are some neighborhoods/towns/cities near these places that might be an option since we've never visited this area.

Thank you so much for reading through my long post and I look forward to hearing what people have to say.

[TrueTimbers]

Hi,
Can not give you any real specifics.. But it sounds like you are on the right track.. I "precive" Napa to be more "wine country fast lane", than Sonoma..