A California Tease

(Things Part II Forthcoming... I officially cannot blog and have a job at the same time. )

I love California. Love love love. Love more than I thought I would. Love more than I remember from my childhood back and forth in the Bay Area. Knowing that I'll be sharing this wonderful life in this wonderful place with my favorite person in the world is the best feeling.

I spent a lot of my weekend feeling extremely blessed and grateful, almost to the point of guilt. I'm pretty sure it's my multiple personality as a Jewish grandmother (see this post), but guilt controls a lot of my life. In all seriousness, I'm overwhelmed with the idea that I am still young and I have most of the things I ever dreamed of having. I'm talking about more than contentedness... really, I'm having a hard time figuring out what else I could want out of life. IF I get the job that I have been drooling over for a while, I can't imagine anything more perfect. I am very grateful and very lucky.

This weekend we went house hunting. I was so excited to go, because this really was the first house hunting I'd ever done for a house I was actually going to buy. For the house we live in now, I pretty much saw pictures on the Internet, emailed them to Art, and said, "Just in case you ever get around to marrying me--this is THE house." It worked, because I love my house, but I was excited to actually LOOK this time. We were supposed to get to California on Thursday, so I took a half a day off of work so that we could drive out to San Antonio. Unfortunately, we connected through Phoenix and our flight was delayed, so we missed our connection to Sacramento and had to say the night in Phoenix. FORTUNATELY, our friends Stewie and Jess just PCS'd there, so we were able to hang out with them for the night.

That is the most amazing thing about the Air Force--it is remarkably small, so you have friends all over the place! We are so glad we got to see them and look forward to April when we see Lacey and Clay driving through Tuscon! And maybe I can convince Art to schedule an overseas vacay so we can see all of our friends over there. I'm sad that I don't get to see my friends as often, but I just love these serendipitous visits!

We finally arrived to Sacramento at about 9 a.m. on Friday, three hours before we were to meet with our realtor. We had found a house online that we really loved, Waverton, so that was our first stop. I was less than impressed with the neighborhood when we first got there. Lincoln is a really nice place and there are some beautiful homes and great scenery, but the lot sizes are so small it felt like the houses were leaning toward us and the street got smaller. The house itself was beautiful, but the "backyard" was laughable. I mean, I know we only have Peanut, but I spend a lot of time outside reading and just decompressing. I was so bummed out. I needed to see some more houses.

And more houses we saw. A lot more houses. All on narrow streets, all with tiny yards, all about two feet from the neighbors. In the middle of the afternoon, we came upon a house on a curve, Rawlings. The outside was dilapidated, and the first thing I noticed was the poor condition of the driveway and front courtyard. But man, the price was so right, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I always had a desire to buy a house and fix it up, so maybe this was the house I could do that in. (By the way, I say I... but I mostly mean Art. I will write checks to the contractor. I'm super good at that!) We got inside, and it was very evident that this house needed some serious fixing up. The floors were already ruined, there were holes in weird places, the face places of all the outlets had been ripped off, and each room with cabinets was missing about two or three drawers. However... the potential of this place was amazing. The living room had two stories of huge windows, a fireplace that could be gorgeous (once we put it back together), a brand new kitchen with granite counter tops, and a really cozy layout upstairs. Then... we went outside. The backyard was about twice the size of our current backyard. After seeing tiny postage stamp yards all day, I was sold. I loved this place. It needed love and some curtains, and it could be the dreamy, lodge-y, cozy place Art and I had talked about having in retirement. Did I mention the price was right?!

At the end of the day, we went back to Waverton. After a full day of tiny lots, the Waverton property was looking mighty fine. Plus those hardwood floors... I was in like. In California, you are not bound by contract when you put offers on houses, so you are allowed to write offers on multiple properties. It doesn't work that way in Texas, so we were a little leery, but trusted our realtor, Judy, and ended up writing offers on both. It was Friday, so we knew we probably wouldn't hear back from either that weekend, but at least we got the ball rolling. We finished Friday with dinner at one of the Thai restaurants in Lincoln. Art ordered a seafood dish that was not great, but my pad thai was amazing. Several times throughout the night, I just sat in our booth with my martini and admired the many races and ethnicities I could see. I really took this for granted living in Dayton (which is hardly known for its diversity)... but I really enjoy looking at lots of different colors of people, enjoying lots of different cultures, and having the opportunity to converse and share meals with people of all sorts of walks of life. It is one of the things I am most looking forward to when we move to California.

On Saturday morning, Judy wanted us to see two other properties in the area. One, Groveland, was across the street from a park, so it really felt much more open than the other houses we had seen. The backyard was unimpressive, boasting about two square feet of grass. Sorry, Peanut. The inside was amazing. This house is perfect. I had not expected to find a kitchen that rivals the one in Del Rio, but the Groveland kitchen is amazing. The upstairs had hardwood, it had adorable built ins, and lots of space. But the price... yikes. The price was at the very top of our budget, and even further than we were really comfortable spending.

The other house, Towle, was in the world's perfect neighborhood. I hadn't realized it, but moving to California, I was looking for my dad's old neighborhood in Saratoga. I wanted the wide streets, the wooded lots, the secluded houses. I mean... this is the view from the street of my dad's old house... can you even see the house? No. I loved that neighborhood. Maybe, someday. But this Towle neighborhood was damn close. Unfortunately, the house was a big letdown. It was small and tiled, and felt very Southwestern, a feel we are not into and didn't want. But you can bet I will be keeping my eye on that neighborhood, and taking walks there often! However, we left that day wanting to put an offer on the Groveland house as well.

Yes. Three offers. On three houses. In Texas, that would have meant that we could have bought ourselves three houses. In California, whatever. So three houses it was!

Saturday night we grilled out with a few people in Art's new squadron, and I was so excited by how nice everyone was. Now, let me tell you something. Military people are nice. You know why? They can't afford to be mean, because friends cycle in and out so frequently. Friends need to be made fast and often, so you will generally find yourself around very warm, confident, kind people. I love that about the military, and I loved meeting all the Beale pilots and their wives. I think we are going to fit right in this community. (Grateful, again.)

Sunday morning we went to 10 a.m. Mass at what will be our new Church! The Church is new and modern, but really beautiful and I really enjoyed Mass... especially when the priest derobed to reveal his 49ers jersey! I didn't even get a chance to pray for the usual stuff... health, family members, etc., because I was so busy being thankful. What a position to be in!

We spent the rest of the day exploring the area and meeting more Beale folks. Our friend Trigger, who used to live two doors down from us in Del Rio, just bought a house in Roseville, so we went to see that (it's gorgeous!) and watch some football where he is staying while his house is being built. We made it an early dinner at a downtown Italian restaurant, and I discovered something else I'm going to love about California: Wine. Surprised? Ha. The local Lincoln winery produced a red blend that I loved... here's to you, Cali Cali.

I will continue our episode of House Hunters when we know! :)