Fourteen years ago we left Oceanside California and it broke Jim's heart. He loved it there. He loved surfing the harbor, one of his very favorite places on earth. He has returned several times since then, but only for short visits. Then his company transferred him to Southern California again.
We made the decision not to sell our house in Alpine and move. With all the foreclosures around, we knew we would take a huge loss, but we needed to do something, so Jim decided to commute, three days a week.
We knew we needed some place for him to stay while he was there. Orange County is way too expensive. Hmmmmm, Northern San Diego County might work. Well what do you know! That is where Oceanside is!
So after a lot of searching we took advantage of the foreclosure market (we recognize it is at someone elses loss) and bought a small condo in Oceanside. We spent all last week getting it ready to move in. Note: People who are forced to leave a house do not leave it very clean!
After a few disasters like the washing machine flooding over, the gas line leaking, a plugged toilet and sink, it was finally OK. I say OK because there is still a lot to do.
I wish we could have furnished it with brand new furniture but most of it came from our house; stuff we really don't like anymore. But, someday I hope we will be able to fix it the way we would like. In the meantime, take a look at Jim's new digs...