Sunny San Diego

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I’m going to crow this morning and say that I’m happy to live in Sunny San Diego.

Screw all the snow and inclement weather. An occasional earthquake is a good tradeoff. Plus in dry sunny areas, we don’t need to spend all the money to maintain our houses and replace our cars.

[spdrun]

I’m about to put on x-c skis and hit up the park. Not minding it one bit.

I love me a climate with real seasons.

[FlyerInHi]

Snow clearing over the years;
http://nyti.ms/1lFqDc0

Seems stupid and self induced pain when you can vote with your feet and get away.

If you have enough money, it’s a non issue. But why would you want to live in a house and deal with that crap every year?
I could live in a NY apartment. At least you’re not out there shoveling snow. Seems like a useless endeavor, like a rat spinning wheels every year — shoveling snow, sweeping leaves, cutting branches, clearing gutters and ditches, mowing acres of lawn, etc… If I have to do labor, I’d rather remodel condos and see income producing tangible results.

[mixxalot]

No doubt last night I enjoyed a pitcher of Chronic beer and delicious pizza at Pizza Port outside in OB and enjoyed the nice weather and laughed at folks stuck in east coast blizzard.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=spdrun]I’m about to put on x-c skis and hit up the park. Not minding it one bit.

I love me a climate with real seasons.[/quote]

More pics, puleeze 🙂

[bearishgurl]

[quote=FlyerInHi]Snow clearing over the years;
http://nyti.ms/1lFqDc0

Seems stupid and self induced pain when you can vote with your feet and get away.

If you have enough money, it’s a non issue. But why would you want to live in a house and deal with that crap every year?
I could live in a NY apartment. At least you’re not out there shoveling snow. Seems like a useless endeavor, like a rat spinning wheels every year — shoveling snow, sweeping leaves, cutting branches, clearing gutters and ditches, mowing acres of lawn, etc… If I have to do labor, I’d rather remodel condos and see income producing tangible results.[/quote]I agree with you to a point, FIH. I’m still considering South Lake Tahoe for a retirement locale. “Senior citizen” ski season passes and free buses to Heavenly 3-4 months per year appeal to me. For the most part, their winter is fairly mild and it is very beautiful up there and also very well-preserved (on the CA side).

It’s expensive and a hassle to drive all the way up there once or twice per season and stay in hotels or timeshares, not knowing what the actual ski conditions will be during your stay. Since their weather (and ski conditions) can be unpredictable from day to day and even hour to hour, I would just like to have a cheap season pass (purchased the prior summer) that I can use to ski for a couple/few hours at a time as time (and conditions) permit. I’d need to live there to do that as staying in lodging is cost-prohibitive.

In spite of having to shovel snow a few times per year, I feel living in a reasonably-priced resort town such as SLT would be the ideal life for me.

It’s also big enough to have its own hospital and for me to find a part-time gig if I should want/need one.

This wouldn’t work in the CO resort towns or even Mammoth Mtn as housing is too expensive for me in those locales and I would also likely be forced into a small condo and/or having to scare up paying roommates to survive. That isn’t my idea of a peaceful, economical retirement.

[bearishgurl]

Oh, and SD has its own challenges for the homeowner set, i.e. constant (expensive) vigilance against both drywood and subterranean termites, stubborn hard-water stains, rust and wayward vegetation including constantly seeding queen palms, wild overgrown bird of paradise, encroaching elephant ear, virulent native bermudagrass up to 2 feet long and stickery bougainvillea messes blowing in the wind all year round, etc.

I could go on … and on. Better to have 35′ knives, a Sawzall and all manner of garden tools at your disposal and USE them … regularly. I’ve owned several homes in SD and lawn and gardening maintenance is tedious, repetitive and back straining work, which never lets up. Short of chopping everything down and stump removal for a “sterile looking” unattractive lot, there is always work to do.

I’ve never had one but can tell you that gardeners do earn their money.

To the tourist, all those large-lot stately homes surrounding the Hotel Del Coronado and beachfront have gorgeous landscaping that looks effortless. Little do they know how many hours per week hired gardeners spend on the premises :=0

[spdrun]

FiH — every year, we get maybe 1-2 storms above 8 inches. It’s usually much less. If you don’t want to shovel, pay someone else to do it.

And buy a house with a small front yard/driveway so you don’t have much surface area to shovel. Huge front yards are generally a waste of time/money since you have to keep them looking nice.

[paramount]

[quote=spdrun] Not minding it one bit.

I love me a climate with real seasons.[/quote]

I agree -> So Cal is overrated for weather IMO.

SD weather = Booorrring!

[FlyerInHi]

I agree with you in many ways spdrun. Sometimes you just have to let nature be and deal with it. I’m just talking about how people live in general.

People in nice neighborhoods want their walkways and driveways shoveled nicely. I would just let the snow pile up because it will melt anyway. Just drive over it in a 4×4. Why bother? But if you live in certain areas, you have to conform otherwise you become the outcast of the street.

In east coast suburbia, people have large lots (for sure compared to San Diego). All I see is maintenance.

BG, if you have a nice courtyard as a yard, you don’t need to do much landscaping in SD. But you have the initial investment of improvement. Think a Moroccan riad,
Spanish/Mexican courtyard, or modern courtyard with hardscape.

The idea of a prairie or tropical home with grass in SD is anachronistic and contradictory to the environment. Santa Luz has the idea of appropriate landscaping, imo.

[spdrun]

FIH — lot size depends on where. There are a lot of older towns where houses have tiny front yards and bigger back yards. Which is great for privacy.

This is a really attractive beach town, but plenty of that type of thing in other places. Off-street parking comes from back alleys rather than from the street.

[paramount]

[quote=FlyerInHi]

The idea of a prairie or tropical home with grass in SD is anachronistic and contradictory to the environment. Santa Luz has the idea of appropriate landscaping, imo.[/quote]

Humans have changed and shaped their environment for thousands of years and will continue to do so.

Most want real green grass for lawns; not rocks or carpet.

[bearishgurl]

Those native elephant ear rhizomes in SD are bigger than a football and at least 14″ deep with lo-o-o-ng roots that resemble seaweed …. in Humboldt County, lol ….

Do ya’ll realize they can grow under a solid block wall from a neighboring property?

Try digging one out and see how far that gets you.

[XBoxBoy]

To some degree I agree. Life in San Diego is pretty nice. But a friend of mine who lives outside of Washington DC on a couple acres sent me a video of him and his hound playing in 30″ of snow today. I’m deeply jealous. To be bundled up, off for a romp in the snow with a big hound… now that’s the life for me.

[bearishgurl]

I’m constantly battling with my yard in sunny SD. In a previous life, I had a 110-foot raised bed of so-called “prize” floribunda roses. They cost more to maintain per month than my own individual food bill. And I didn’t even own any stock in the Scotts Company but probably should have:

http://www.ortho.com/smg/gosite//home

I used to don heavy rubber gloves while still in my swimsuit and turn on the floodlights in the dark to spend my token hour-plus cutting them back about once per month. Since I was gone and under fluorescent light in an office or commuting 9.5 – 10 hours per day, 5 days a week, I really never got to enjoy them much in the daylight. The time I spent feeding them, cutting them back and exterminating them far exceeded the time it took me to properly care for my three cats!

Such is the price of living in a SFR in SD sans (expensive) gardener.

Shoveling snow a few times per year (hopefully just the walks) while getting a few months reprieve from “gardening duty” seems like a fair tradeoff for “snow-clime dwellers.”

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