In other news... We sold our house!!
We have just a few weeks till we close and hand over the keys! YAY!!!
So my every waking second that isn't spent tending to Bradley or exercising the dog, is spent on finding houses to look at!
Yes it is fun looking for a new home, but it is still stressful too. Brian is working in Palmdale, CA and still working for Lockheed Martin. He loves it fyi. A great move for his happiness in his career, which makes me SO happy too. But now we need to figure out where to live.
Palmdale is the edge of the Mojave desert. It has gorgeous hills to the west and mountains in the distance to the north and south. It is at least an hour an a half from Anaheim or the beach. I couldn't say that it is a small town because each block is a mile long, and you go 50 mph on all those streets. So it extends a good ways out, but the further east you go, the crappier it gets. But the snug suburbia between the freeway and the west hills is all families, stucco mansions (okay not mansions all the way around, but the average is probably 5 bedrooms per house), and all the popular shopping you could imagine.
Forty minutes over the hills to the west is Santa Clarita, a family city nestled into the hills north east of LA. It feels like California with out all the California prices. However, still spendy. People from all over the world come to live here though because it has the best schools. You drive by some of the high schools and they have sayings like, "creating the leaders of the future" on the walls of the school. The shopping is spread out, but man way cute and the kind of fun areas you want go visit because it is just fun. For those in Oregon, picture Bridgeport everywhere. For those in Georgia it is like the fun Perimeter areas. Who wouldn't want to live there right??
Arge it is just hard to choose. Beautiful affordable home in Palmdale, close to Brian's work, and family friendly? Or fun, trendy Santa Clarita with super schools, but small expensive houses and 1.5 hrs of commute time every day for Brian? Both are beautiful but in different ways. Both are family friendly. Both are still near LA and the fun stuff to do there.
However there is a significant difference in home price.
Can you guess which home $100,000 less than the other??
Yea. The top. See, Palmdale mansion vs Santa Clarita golden oldie. Grrr. Decisions, decisions.
I'm not exaggerating the price difference at all, the top one is exactly $100,000 less than the bottom one. It is just in Palmdale vs Santa Clarita. Shocking I know.
Today I look at more Palmdale homes. I'm really waiting to walk into a house and have it feel like home. That is how I would describe my last home purchase experience. It is the only home we lingered in to chat. It was comfortable right away. I hope I find that soon. ... I'm due in 4 months! We had better find something soon!!
3 comments:
You are SO cute! That is such a tough decision. If it were me, I would go where I felt like I would be happiest. If I were in your scenario, I would probably pick Palmdale because there seems to be good things there too, plus more positives. No long commute for Brian = more family time. Less expensive homes = the kind of home you actually want to get. its hard though with the schools because you want your kids to have the best education. But as long as the schools in Palmdale aren't bad, I would be ok with it. I don't know if that helps. But we would probably pick Palmdale, and I really liked it when I was there! =)
I agree with Heidi. A commute like that would get really old, really fast. And that's valuable family time. Plus it looks like you get way more for your money. Hoping that feeling comes soon! I know just what you are talking about! I have to have it too! :)
Santa Clarita is what I would choose. Tell Brian to suck it up and get some books on tape for the commute. He needs more education anyway.
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