Advice on 5bdrms in Carmel Country Highlands

[UCGal]

flu and sdr… call me spoiled. My first job out of college was in Oceanside. This was the 80’s so North County didn’t have as many employment centers – it was a total reverse commute from my home in downtown SD. 40 minutes there, 45 minutes home. I swore NEVER again.

That’s 90 minutes I didn’t have to do other stuff. If I wanted to go to happy hour with friends after work I had to leave well before closing time. If I had a date and needed time to primp… it was really a time killer.

I swore never to commute more than 30 minutes again… preferably 15 minutes or less. That promise to myself has improved my quality of life. I’m less grumpy when I walk in the door. My kids spent fewer hours in daycare because I didn’t have to cover as much commute time.

Some of us are willing to live in a smaller, older home (obsolete by Brian’s terms) in order to have more time not spent commuting.

[yellowS2K]

[quote=UCGal]…That’s 90 minutes I didn’t have to do other stuff. …[/quote]

We are at the same point in our lives: time with each other and with the kids is a top priority – especially when the kids are young and still want to hang out with us. This is my original post lists wife’s commute as the top location priority, and proximity to a good school the second location priority. At the moment I’m lucky enough to work at home roughly 3 weeks out of 4 (and commute to the airport just once for a week-long trip), but I do think longer term about being close to possibly future local employers (for me technology / software development / project management).

A co-worker reports the commute from the 56 at Camino Del Sur is about 30 minutes. Google puts it at roughly 12 miles and 16 minutes. We drove it (after looking at Pardee’s Terra Mar development and other homes in the area) on a Sunday aftenrnoon and it was 20 minutes, so 30 with rush hour traffic seems right. By contrast, from the area near Sage off Carmel Mountain it was right about 10 minutes. And my wife once test drove it at 7:45am – only traffic was off-ramp from the 5 to Genesee, and she’d be getting off at La Jolla Village so can go right around that traffic with ease.

So let’s assume it’s 20 minutes further out to Camino Del Sur area. That’s 40 minutes a day, 2hr 20mins per week, and roughly 154 hrs/year (figuring 46 weeks just as a rough number) of extra time sitting in a car. She figures to be in this job a long time – say 15 years (maybe more). For 15 years, you are now talking 2310 hours in a car. That’s like working a whole extra year and then some!

What’s worse is the the time that is lost is prime time with the kids for the M-F rat-race. Daughter typically wakes up at 6am, so if you can leave for work at 7:45 (to arrive at 8), you get 1.75 hrs. Bedtime for her is 7:30, so if you get home at 5 (leaving between 4:30-4:45), you get 2.5 hours. If you loose 40 minutes of that (20 each end), you lose about 15% of your time with her. May not seem like much, but you can do a lot in 20 minutes – rather than a race to get ready for the day in the morning, you can read a story or maybe have her “help” cook breakfast (where of course the “help” doubles the time it takes and triples the mess). Working from home most of the time I’ve been fortunate to have those little daily experiences with my daughter over the last 4 years. I can’t put a price on that.

The other big thing I enjoy is walking my daughter to school. It really is different than strapping her in a car seat and driving because you talk more and interact with the environment. And there’s nothing like that little hand reaching up to hold yours as you walk. A good school is important to us, but scores/ratings are everything, and I figure in the walk-ability factor pretty heavily too.

So like they say, it’s “Location Location Location” – well in our case, it’s just “Location (work) and Location (school).”

My biggest reservation about buying near Ocean Air and Sage is that we could be across the street from them but still not get her in. I wish I knew more about how it works and what the chances are – e.g., if we bought at Bridle Run by the models and could walk to either Sage (couple blocks) or Ocean Air (have to cross Carmel Mountain and it would be a bit of a long walk), what would our odds be of getting in to one of those two? Schools out for the holidays, so I can’t go talk to the staff at the schools – no doubt they’d just tell me the process and not make any firm statement about odds.

Seems like this wouldn’t be an issue in UC for schools like Curie and Spreckles – if you bought near one of them and wanted her to go there, there wouldn’t be much doubt? Still not sure if UC is an option given traffic on Genesee and Governor – but hope to test that out soon. Also, wife seems to be leaning heavily towards the area around Sage and Ocean Air anyway. But we’ll see!

[yellowS2K]

[quote=UCGal]…That’s 90 minutes I didn’t have to do other stuff. …[/quote]

We are at the same point in our lives: time with each other and with the kids is a top priority – especially when the kids are young and still want to hang out with us. This is my original post lists wife’s commute as the top location priority, and proximity to a good school the second location priority. At the moment I’m lucky enough to work at home roughly 3 weeks out of 4 (and commute to the airport just once for a week-long trip), but I do think longer term about being close to possibly future local employers (for me technology / software development / project management).

A co-worker reports the commute from the 56 at Camino Del Sur is about 30 minutes. Google puts it at roughly 12 miles and 16 minutes. We drove it (after looking at Pardee’s Terra Mar development and other homes in the area) on a Sunday aftenrnoon and it was 20 minutes, so 30 with rush hour traffic seems right. By contrast, from the area near Sage off Carmel Mountain it was right about 10 minutes. And my wife once test drove it at 7:45am – only traffic was off-ramp from the 5 to Genesee, and she’d be getting off at La Jolla Village so can go right around that traffic with ease.

So let’s assume it’s 20 minutes further out to Camino Del Sur area. That’s 40 minutes a day, 2hr 20mins per week, and roughly 154 hrs/year (figuring 46 weeks just as a rough number) of extra time sitting in a car. She figures to be in this job a long time – say 15 years (maybe more). For 15 years, you are now talking 2310 hours in a car. That’s like working a whole extra year and then some!

What’s worse is the the time that is lost is prime time with the kids for the M-F rat-race. Daughter typically wakes up at 6am, so if you can leave for work at 7:45 (to arrive at 8), you get 1.75 hrs. Bedtime for her is 7:30, so if you get home at 5 (leaving between 4:30-4:45), you get 2.5 hours. If you loose 40 minutes of that (20 each end), you lose about 15% of your time with her. May not seem like much, but you can do a lot in 20 minutes – rather than a race to get ready for the day in the morning, you can read a story or maybe have her “help” cook breakfast (where of course the “help” doubles the time it takes and triples the mess). Working from home most of the time I’ve been fortunate to have those little daily experiences with my daughter over the last 4 years. I can’t put a price on that.

The other big thing I enjoy is walking my daughter to school. It really is different than strapping her in a car seat and driving because you talk more and interact with the environment. And there’s nothing like that little hand reaching up to hold yours as you walk. A good school is important to us, but scores/ratings are everything, and I figure in the walk-ability factor pretty heavily too.

So like they say, it’s “Location Location Location” – well in our case, it’s just “Location (work) and Location (school).”

My biggest reservation about buying near Ocean Air and Sage is that we could be across the street from them but still not get her in. I wish I knew more about how it works and what the chances are – e.g., if we bought at Bridle Run by the models and could walk to either Sage (couple blocks) or Ocean Air (have to cross Carmel Mountain and it would be a bit of a long walk), what would our odds be of getting in to one of those two? Schools out for the holidays, so I can’t go talk to the staff at the schools – no doubt they’d just tell me the process and not make any firm statement about odds.

Seems like this wouldn’t be an issue in UC for schools like Curie and Spreckles – if you bought near one of them and wanted her to go there, there wouldn’t be much doubt? Still not sure if UC is an option given traffic on Genesee and Governor – but hope to test that out soon. Also, wife seems to be leaning heavily towards the area around Sage and Ocean Air anyway. But we’ll see!

[yellowS2K]

[quote=UCGal]…That’s 90 minutes I didn’t have to do other stuff. …[/quote]

We are at the same point in our lives: time with each other and with the kids is a top priority – especially when the kids are young and still want to hang out with us. This is my original post lists wife’s commute as the top location priority, and proximity to a good school the second location priority. At the moment I’m lucky enough to work at home roughly 3 weeks out of 4 (and commute to the airport just once for a week-long trip), but I do think longer term about being close to possibly future local employers (for me technology / software development / project management).

A co-worker reports the commute from the 56 at Camino Del Sur is about 30 minutes. Google puts it at roughly 12 miles and 16 minutes. We drove it (after looking at Pardee’s Terra Mar development and other homes in the area) on a Sunday aftenrnoon and it was 20 minutes, so 30 with rush hour traffic seems right. By contrast, from the area near Sage off Carmel Mountain it was right about 10 minutes. And my wife once test drove it at 7:45am – only traffic was off-ramp from the 5 to Genesee, and she’d be getting off at La Jolla Village so can go right around that traffic with ease.

So let’s assume it’s 20 minutes further out to Camino Del Sur area. That’s 40 minutes a day, 2hr 20mins per week, and roughly 154 hrs/year (figuring 46 weeks just as a rough number) of extra time sitting in a car. She figures to be in this job a long time – say 15 years (maybe more). For 15 years, you are now talking 2310 hours in a car. That’s like working a whole extra year and then some!

What’s worse is the the time that is lost is prime time with the kids for the M-F rat-race. Daughter typically wakes up at 6am, so if you can leave for work at 7:45 (to arrive at 8), you get 1.75 hrs. Bedtime for her is 7:30, so if you get home at 5 (leaving between 4:30-4:45), you get 2.5 hours. If you loose 40 minutes of that (20 each end), you lose about 15% of your time with her. May not seem like much, but you can do a lot in 20 minutes – rather than a race to get ready for the day in the morning, you can read a story or maybe have her “help” cook breakfast (where of course the “help” doubles the time it takes and triples the mess). Working from home most of the time I’ve been fortunate to have those little daily experiences with my daughter over the last 4 years. I can’t put a price on that.

The other big thing I enjoy is walking my daughter to school. It really is different than strapping her in a car seat and driving because you talk more and interact with the environment. And there’s nothing like that little hand reaching up to hold yours as you walk. A good school is important to us, but scores/ratings are everything, and I figure in the walk-ability factor pretty heavily too.

So like they say, it’s “Location Location Location” – well in our case, it’s just “Location (work) and Location (school).”

My biggest reservation about buying near Ocean Air and Sage is that we could be across the street from them but still not get her in. I wish I knew more about how it works and what the chances are – e.g., if we bought at Bridle Run by the models and could walk to either Sage (couple blocks) or Ocean Air (have to cross Carmel Mountain and it would be a bit of a long walk), what would our odds be of getting in to one of those two? Schools out for the holidays, so I can’t go talk to the staff at the schools – no doubt they’d just tell me the process and not make any firm statement about odds.

Seems like this wouldn’t be an issue in UC for schools like Curie and Spreckles – if you bought near one of them and wanted her to go there, there wouldn’t be much doubt? Still not sure if UC is an option given traffic on Genesee and Governor – but hope to test that out soon. Also, wife seems to be leaning heavily towards the area around Sage and Ocean Air anyway. But we’ll see!

[yellowS2K]

[quote=UCGal]…That’s 90 minutes I didn’t have to do other stuff. …[/quote]

We are at the same point in our lives: time with each other and with the kids is a top priority – especially when the kids are young and still want to hang out with us. This is my original post lists wife’s commute as the top location priority, and proximity to a good school the second location priority. At the moment I’m lucky enough to work at home roughly 3 weeks out of 4 (and commute to the airport just once for a week-long trip), but I do think longer term about being close to possibly future local employers (for me technology / software development / project management).

A co-worker reports the commute from the 56 at Camino Del Sur is about 30 minutes. Google puts it at roughly 12 miles and 16 minutes. We drove it (after looking at Pardee’s Terra Mar development and other homes in the area) on a Sunday aftenrnoon and it was 20 minutes, so 30 with rush hour traffic seems right. By contrast, from the area near Sage off Carmel Mountain it was right about 10 minutes. And my wife once test drove it at 7:45am – only traffic was off-ramp from the 5 to Genesee, and she’d be getting off at La Jolla Village so can go right around that traffic with ease.

So let’s assume it’s 20 minutes further out to Camino Del Sur area. That’s 40 minutes a day, 2hr 20mins per week, and roughly 154 hrs/year (figuring 46 weeks just as a rough number) of extra time sitting in a car. She figures to be in this job a long time – say 15 years (maybe more). For 15 years, you are now talking 2310 hours in a car. That’s like working a whole extra year and then some!

What’s worse is the the time that is lost is prime time with the kids for the M-F rat-race. Daughter typically wakes up at 6am, so if you can leave for work at 7:45 (to arrive at 8), you get 1.75 hrs. Bedtime for her is 7:30, so if you get home at 5 (leaving between 4:30-4:45), you get 2.5 hours. If you loose 40 minutes of that (20 each end), you lose about 15% of your time with her. May not seem like much, but you can do a lot in 20 minutes – rather than a race to get ready for the day in the morning, you can read a story or maybe have her “help” cook breakfast (where of course the “help” doubles the time it takes and triples the mess). Working from home most of the time I’ve been fortunate to have those little daily experiences with my daughter over the last 4 years. I can’t put a price on that.

The other big thing I enjoy is walking my daughter to school. It really is different than strapping her in a car seat and driving because you talk more and interact with the environment. And there’s nothing like that little hand reaching up to hold yours as you walk. A good school is important to us, but scores/ratings are everything, and I figure in the walk-ability factor pretty heavily too.

So like they say, it’s “Location Location Location” – well in our case, it’s just “Location (work) and Location (school).”

My biggest reservation about buying near Ocean Air and Sage is that we could be across the street from them but still not get her in. I wish I knew more about how it works and what the chances are – e.g., if we bought at Bridle Run by the models and could walk to either Sage (couple blocks) or Ocean Air (have to cross Carmel Mountain and it would be a bit of a long walk), what would our odds be of getting in to one of those two? Schools out for the holidays, so I can’t go talk to the staff at the schools – no doubt they’d just tell me the process and not make any firm statement about odds.

Seems like this wouldn’t be an issue in UC for schools like Curie and Spreckles – if you bought near one of them and wanted her to go there, there wouldn’t be much doubt? Still not sure if UC is an option given traffic on Genesee and Governor – but hope to test that out soon. Also, wife seems to be leaning heavily towards the area around Sage and Ocean Air anyway. But we’ll see!

[yellowS2K]

[quote=UCGal]…That’s 90 minutes I didn’t have to do other stuff. …[/quote]

We are at the same point in our lives: time with each other and with the kids is a top priority – especially when the kids are young and still want to hang out with us. This is my original post lists wife’s commute as the top location priority, and proximity to a good school the second location priority. At the moment I’m lucky enough to work at home roughly 3 weeks out of 4 (and commute to the airport just once for a week-long trip), but I do think longer term about being close to possibly future local employers (for me technology / software development / project management).

A co-worker reports the commute from the 56 at Camino Del Sur is about 30 minutes. Google puts it at roughly 12 miles and 16 minutes. We drove it (after looking at Pardee’s Terra Mar development and other homes in the area) on a Sunday aftenrnoon and it was 20 minutes, so 30 with rush hour traffic seems right. By contrast, from the area near Sage off Carmel Mountain it was right about 10 minutes. And my wife once test drove it at 7:45am – only traffic was off-ramp from the 5 to Genesee, and she’d be getting off at La Jolla Village so can go right around that traffic with ease.

So let’s assume it’s 20 minutes further out to Camino Del Sur area. That’s 40 minutes a day, 2hr 20mins per week, and roughly 154 hrs/year (figuring 46 weeks just as a rough number) of extra time sitting in a car. She figures to be in this job a long time – say 15 years (maybe more). For 15 years, you are now talking 2310 hours in a car. That’s like working a whole extra year and then some!

What’s worse is the the time that is lost is prime time with the kids for the M-F rat-race. Daughter typically wakes up at 6am, so if you can leave for work at 7:45 (to arrive at 8), you get 1.75 hrs. Bedtime for her is 7:30, so if you get home at 5 (leaving between 4:30-4:45), you get 2.5 hours. If you loose 40 minutes of that (20 each end), you lose about 15% of your time with her. May not seem like much, but you can do a lot in 20 minutes – rather than a race to get ready for the day in the morning, you can read a story or maybe have her “help” cook breakfast (where of course the “help” doubles the time it takes and triples the mess). Working from home most of the time I’ve been fortunate to have those little daily experiences with my daughter over the last 4 years. I can’t put a price on that.

The other big thing I enjoy is walking my daughter to school. It really is different than strapping her in a car seat and driving because you talk more and interact with the environment. And there’s nothing like that little hand reaching up to hold yours as you walk. A good school is important to us, but scores/ratings are everything, and I figure in the walk-ability factor pretty heavily too.

So like they say, it’s “Location Location Location” – well in our case, it’s just “Location (work) and Location (school).”

My biggest reservation about buying near Ocean Air and Sage is that we could be across the street from them but still not get her in. I wish I knew more about how it works and what the chances are – e.g., if we bought at Bridle Run by the models and could walk to either Sage (couple blocks) or Ocean Air (have to cross Carmel Mountain and it would be a bit of a long walk), what would our odds be of getting in to one of those two? Schools out for the holidays, so I can’t go talk to the staff at the schools – no doubt they’d just tell me the process and not make any firm statement about odds.

Seems like this wouldn’t be an issue in UC for schools like Curie and Spreckles – if you bought near one of them and wanted her to go there, there wouldn’t be much doubt? Still not sure if UC is an option given traffic on Genesee and Governor – but hope to test that out soon. Also, wife seems to be leaning heavily towards the area around Sage and Ocean Air anyway. But we’ll see!

[sdrealtor]

OK UCGal
You are spoiled. Rememeber those Philly commutes? 10 minutes to the train station. 10 minutes waiting for the train. 30 minutes on the train. 10 minutes to walk to the office. And its 20 degrees and you are walking through slush. Remember that its like to get to work with cold, wet feet? And that is an easy commute.

One thing people dont factor into the desireability of SD is how easy our commutes are for a metro area as large as we live in. Its another positive factor in our quality of life out here that often is overlooked.

[sdrealtor]

OK UCGal
You are spoiled. Rememeber those Philly commutes? 10 minutes to the train station. 10 minutes waiting for the train. 30 minutes on the train. 10 minutes to walk to the office. And its 20 degrees and you are walking through slush. Remember that its like to get to work with cold, wet feet? And that is an easy commute.

One thing people dont factor into the desireability of SD is how easy our commutes are for a metro area as large as we live in. Its another positive factor in our quality of life out here that often is overlooked.

[sdrealtor]

OK UCGal
You are spoiled. Rememeber those Philly commutes? 10 minutes to the train station. 10 minutes waiting for the train. 30 minutes on the train. 10 minutes to walk to the office. And its 20 degrees and you are walking through slush. Remember that its like to get to work with cold, wet feet? And that is an easy commute.

One thing people dont factor into the desireability of SD is how easy our commutes are for a metro area as large as we live in. Its another positive factor in our quality of life out here that often is overlooked.

[sdrealtor]

OK UCGal
You are spoiled. Rememeber those Philly commutes? 10 minutes to the train station. 10 minutes waiting for the train. 30 minutes on the train. 10 minutes to walk to the office. And its 20 degrees and you are walking through slush. Remember that its like to get to work with cold, wet feet? And that is an easy commute.

One thing people dont factor into the desireability of SD is how easy our commutes are for a metro area as large as we live in. Its another positive factor in our quality of life out here that often is overlooked.

[sdrealtor]

OK UCGal
You are spoiled. Rememeber those Philly commutes? 10 minutes to the train station. 10 minutes waiting for the train. 30 minutes on the train. 10 minutes to walk to the office. And its 20 degrees and you are walking through slush. Remember that its like to get to work with cold, wet feet? And that is an easy commute.

One thing people dont factor into the desireability of SD is how easy our commutes are for a metro area as large as we live in. Its another positive factor in our quality of life out here that often is overlooked.

[Coronita]

I don’t know. I kinda like some quality time to myself driving. The best thing about San Diego imho is the fact that traffic actually moves most of the time. I can’t stand bumper to bumper, even if it’s like 15 minutes. I use to work in UTC back when the 805S offramp to La Jolla Village Dr was still a mess. The commute time was about 15 mins…But I hated it because the offramp was the majority of the commute time.. Now, if I go to RB, it takes 5 minutes to get onto I56, and bam….75+mph all the way to RB…Ok, I admit, sometimes it’s >75…ok… maybe it most of the time…

If I lived in L.A., I wouldn’t drive anything that has more than 100hp or anything with any type of sporty suspension on it…..Because you wouldn’t be able put it to use it anyway….Heck, if I lived in L.A., I’d probably install an XBox 360 in my car and play in between stop and go…I’m kidding….Sort of…. Hell, I’ve seen drivers in L.A. read newspapers in stop and go… Go figure…

Besides, that extra 40 mins I would be saving, probably would be spent on quality time right here on this blog anyway 🙂

[Coronita]

I don’t know. I kinda like some quality time to myself driving. The best thing about San Diego imho is the fact that traffic actually moves most of the time. I can’t stand bumper to bumper, even if it’s like 15 minutes. I use to work in UTC back when the 805S offramp to La Jolla Village Dr was still a mess. The commute time was about 15 mins…But I hated it because the offramp was the majority of the commute time.. Now, if I go to RB, it takes 5 minutes to get onto I56, and bam….75+mph all the way to RB…Ok, I admit, sometimes it’s >75…ok… maybe it most of the time…

If I lived in L.A., I wouldn’t drive anything that has more than 100hp or anything with any type of sporty suspension on it…..Because you wouldn’t be able put it to use it anyway….Heck, if I lived in L.A., I’d probably install an XBox 360 in my car and play in between stop and go…I’m kidding….Sort of…. Hell, I’ve seen drivers in L.A. read newspapers in stop and go… Go figure…

Besides, that extra 40 mins I would be saving, probably would be spent on quality time right here on this blog anyway 🙂

[Coronita]

I don’t know. I kinda like some quality time to myself driving. The best thing about San Diego imho is the fact that traffic actually moves most of the time. I can’t stand bumper to bumper, even if it’s like 15 minutes. I use to work in UTC back when the 805S offramp to La Jolla Village Dr was still a mess. The commute time was about 15 mins…But I hated it because the offramp was the majority of the commute time.. Now, if I go to RB, it takes 5 minutes to get onto I56, and bam….75+mph all the way to RB…Ok, I admit, sometimes it’s >75…ok… maybe it most of the time…

If I lived in L.A., I wouldn’t drive anything that has more than 100hp or anything with any type of sporty suspension on it…..Because you wouldn’t be able put it to use it anyway….Heck, if I lived in L.A., I’d probably install an XBox 360 in my car and play in between stop and go…I’m kidding….Sort of…. Hell, I’ve seen drivers in L.A. read newspapers in stop and go… Go figure…

Besides, that extra 40 mins I would be saving, probably would be spent on quality time right here on this blog anyway 🙂

[Coronita]

I don’t know. I kinda like some quality time to myself driving. The best thing about San Diego imho is the fact that traffic actually moves most of the time. I can’t stand bumper to bumper, even if it’s like 15 minutes. I use to work in UTC back when the 805S offramp to La Jolla Village Dr was still a mess. The commute time was about 15 mins…But I hated it because the offramp was the majority of the commute time.. Now, if I go to RB, it takes 5 minutes to get onto I56, and bam….75+mph all the way to RB…Ok, I admit, sometimes it’s >75…ok… maybe it most of the time…

If I lived in L.A., I wouldn’t drive anything that has more than 100hp or anything with any type of sporty suspension on it…..Because you wouldn’t be able put it to use it anyway….Heck, if I lived in L.A., I’d probably install an XBox 360 in my car and play in between stop and go…I’m kidding….Sort of…. Hell, I’ve seen drivers in L.A. read newspapers in stop and go… Go figure…

Besides, that extra 40 mins I would be saving, probably would be spent on quality time right here on this blog anyway 🙂

[Author]

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