So long California, I'm out of here!

Yeah you read that right, after living in CA for the last 26 years, I'm outa here.

There are quite a few motivational factors behind the decision, but there are really two major compelling reasons. The first and primary is what you all see as the picture in my avatar. I really wanted to live closer to my sister. One of my biggest regrets in life was not spending more time with our dad after he was diagnosed with cancer and before he passed away. Now that she's going through this shit again (round two with boobie cancer), I had an epiphany that when you're on your deathbed, you're not going to wish you worked more. The good thing is my sis is past the hard parts, but given that this was the second time she's gone though this, I'm just not risking it. I wanted our families to live closer to each other.

The second reason is my boys. For those of you that have been to my house, I don't live in a bad neighborhood by any means, but it's not a great neighborhood either. I really wanted to raise the boys in a better neighborhood than where we are at now. Bottom line, California is expensive. Houses are still ridiculously overpriced. Cost of living blows. I genuinely feel that the biggest influence on how a kid is raised boils down to the parents, but the environment certainly can be a quantifiable factor. My wife's been very supportive of the whole situation and we sat both boys down and asked them how they felt about moving. We gave them the pros and cons of both and we all agreed it was the best decision to move.

So what does it at all mean? WE'RE MOVING TO TAHOE!!!!!!!!! To be specific, Zephyr Cove, NV. For those of you not familiar with the area, it's about 4 miles north of the CA/NV Stateline in South Lake Tahoe. I pitched my situation to my employer and they agreed to let me become a permanent remote employee working from a home office and I keep my salary. In fact, I'm getting almost a 10% raise by not having to pay for fucking California state income tax.

We are currently in escrow for what I would consider the perfect home for us. Its 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, nearly 3000 sq ft, and a fucking man cave! One of the bedrooms is completely separate from the rest of the living area and is perfect for my home office. It's sitting on 1/3 of an acre and has a swing set/jungle gym on the property for the kids. The house is about 45 minutes to my sister's house and less than 1 mile to the beach. Barring any complications of inspections, the house will be ours in a couple weeks.

There's a lot of other perks too. We'll be about 4 miles to Heavenly and 8 other resorts to snowboard in are within an hour. I'm 30 minutes to the desert instead of 4 hours and only about 2 hours from Sand Mountain. Rubicon is around the corner and there's endless trails around the Tahoe area. Rock climbing, hiking and snowshoeing venues are limitless. The roads in Nevada are actually maintained, I don't have to deal with a completely broke ass state, and I don't have to pay for a fucking bag at the grocery store. I get to actually use my CCW, I can get cans for my guns, and can finally turn my 9mm AR into a SBR.

Even though Escrow will close mid next month, we decided not to pull our oldest boy out of school midyear. So we'll still be around for a few more months. Although we're leaving Norcal, it's not like we'll be that far. I'll still be making semi regular trips back here as needed for work and I wouldn't miss the Norcal wheeling trips for anything!

And a few glamour shots of the new pad:

 

Thanks to you all! Appreciate the kind words.

 

Open invitation buddy. You got my number.

Absolutly! I'll be in Reno and Carson regularly.

 

I thought you had ATRAC? Doesn't that get you out of anything?

 

Then you can mix the drinks.

We wrote the offer up to include the pool table.
You and Dana are welcome to visit.

 

Feel free to PM me later down the road man. I did my homework on the schools as well. The Zephyr schools arn't stellar, but they put the school my boy is in at currently to shame.

As far as travel (which is part of my job) I'll be flying out of Reno International. It has direct flights to the places I need to be or at most a single connection.

I don't really have a "need" for a 3rd bay, but I've got enough propety to put in a second garage down the road if needed. As it is now, my plan is to lay down a parking pad beside the garage for my toy hauler. Retaining walls and level ground is already there, just needs some concrete.