[cyphire]

Thanks for your kind words jpinpb!

Our house was on Concannon Court – was built in 1990 and had a 13,000 sq ft lot, but a lot of it was hill. The new people who bought it from us terraced the back lot and put a swimming pool in.

I grew up in Long Island (Smithtown), but my folks were from Brooklyn – my dad from Sheepshead Bay and my mom from Coney Island Ave. My family followed me here to SD! But they moved up to Irvine. I have my brother-in-law in Madison, we are great friends.

—–

Hey Rustico! Sorry I have been so remiss at checking in at the forum. Bishops is very cliquey and she has friends – just doesn’t like the way that the groups judge and stick together. She gets crap for being friends with some 7th graders (she is in 8th grade), and while she has 2 great friends – she doesn’t like being in a school where there are so few kids. I think that the whole 8th grade is just 30 or 40 kids. There are kids there which are on scholarships, there are kids there that have access to private jets. My daughter is pretty down to earth and quite frankly I don’t want her in the So. Cal lifestyle anymore.

Some of the girls come from the Evans school – which is somewhat dangerously religious. I don’t like the family values they espouse.

I don’t think that the really rich kids snub anyone, but I could be wrong. The very wealthy kids are pretty nice – but it’s still a pretty bizarre situation there. I’m hoping a very large but really nice high school in the Midwest is a good move for her. She really wants to go to public school and I don’t want to let her go to Torrey Pines or the equivalent.

—

And ibjames….

I don’t want to disagree with you because I am sure that the winters will be very tiresome and the bugs will drive me crazy… but…. I like weather (when I am outdoors which isn’t that often!). I have been in Wisconsin about 6 times for at least 1 or 2 weeks each time in the winter – the dead of winter and it was 0 degrees or less… Didn’t bother me. It was warm inside! I am an indoor person and the reason I got a 6000 sq ft house is that I am going to have a 10′ steam shower with body sprays and a sound system, a theater room, a huge basement with a pool table and bar, a very custom master bedroom with a walk out 4 season room with heated floors and sealed gas fireplaces (with remote control) and 6 bedrooms and a room just for my 2 pianos, my books and my couch I have had since I was a single dude in NYC!

As for culture – I think that the culture out here is missing a few bulbs. My wife and I have season tickets to the Old Globe and I really enjoy the theater scene, but outside of that where is the culture? Madison is a 2 hour drive from Chicago (a real city), and a couple of hour plane ride to NYC (where there is real culture). While Wisconsin might be lacking in culture, Madison is not. Its a very cool college town. It has a new state of the art performance center which is supposed to be one of the three best in the US (donated by the American Girl owner lady..) There is a theater scene very similar to San Diego (Spamalot is there now) and because of the University it has rabid sports fans, and lots of intellectual discourse.

As to the food scene what might be true for Wisconsin in general, doesn’t apply to Madison. When I moved from NYC to San Diego I was afraid that the food wouldn’t be up to my enjoyment level – I was wrong… The food is great here in SD (not at the high end, but I would rather go to San Francisco or NYC for those meals), and in Madison it is no different.

Had some of the best sushi of my life there last month (and I eat a LOT of sushi!), there is a Vietnamese restaurant which was the equivalent of any in NYC, a Ruth Chris steakhouse, French restaurants, as well as some amazing restaurants downtown. There is a hard to get into Italian restaurant which had better food then any I have found here in SD. The other cool thing is that I am out in the country but a 10 minute drive to the capital building. The good restaurants are at least as expensive as SD (maybe even a bit more) but they have to ship stuff there – especially fish.

Madison is 100% smoke free even in bars. This was another important criteria for me. The surrounding suburbs are just going there -and the governor of WI is trying to make the whole state smoke free!

I totally understand your feedback though (especially as it relates to outside the 25 mile radius of Madison proper)… But without trying to be a snob – seriously I’m not! I live in La Jolla and the only time I go north of Rancho Santa Fe is to go play poker at Ocean’s 11! And I don’t usually ever hang out east of the 5. I would probably kill myself if I lived in the country in Wisconsin. Same thing for Temecula or Vista. The reason I’m moving to Middleton is for the kids and it’s proximity to the downtown, the university, and all the services I like. For their schooling and for their having great, nice friends.

Type in “middleton, wi” into google, go to maps and you will see what I am talking about. It was rated #1 by Money Magazine for a reason – best place to raise kids. I plan on spending every time the kids are off from school in the Bahamas anyway!!!

[cyphire]

Thanks for your kind words jpinpb!

Our house was on Concannon Court – was built in 1990 and had a 13,000 sq ft lot, but a lot of it was hill. The new people who bought it from us terraced the back lot and put a swimming pool in.

I grew up in Long Island (Smithtown), but my folks were from Brooklyn – my dad from Sheepshead Bay and my mom from Coney Island Ave. My family followed me here to SD! But they moved up to Irvine. I have my brother-in-law in Madison, we are great friends.

—–

Hey Rustico! Sorry I have been so remiss at checking in at the forum. Bishops is very cliquey and she has friends – just doesn’t like the way that the groups judge and stick together. She gets crap for being friends with some 7th graders (she is in 8th grade), and while she has 2 great friends – she doesn’t like being in a school where there are so few kids. I think that the whole 8th grade is just 30 or 40 kids. There are kids there which are on scholarships, there are kids there that have access to private jets. My daughter is pretty down to earth and quite frankly I don’t want her in the So. Cal lifestyle anymore.

Some of the girls come from the Evans school – which is somewhat dangerously religious. I don’t like the family values they espouse.

I don’t think that the really rich kids snub anyone, but I could be wrong. The very wealthy kids are pretty nice – but it’s still a pretty bizarre situation there. I’m hoping a very large but really nice high school in the Midwest is a good move for her. She really wants to go to public school and I don’t want to let her go to Torrey Pines or the equivalent.

—

And ibjames….

I don’t want to disagree with you because I am sure that the winters will be very tiresome and the bugs will drive me crazy… but…. I like weather (when I am outdoors which isn’t that often!). I have been in Wisconsin about 6 times for at least 1 or 2 weeks each time in the winter – the dead of winter and it was 0 degrees or less… Didn’t bother me. It was warm inside! I am an indoor person and the reason I got a 6000 sq ft house is that I am going to have a 10′ steam shower with body sprays and a sound system, a theater room, a huge basement with a pool table and bar, a very custom master bedroom with a walk out 4 season room with heated floors and sealed gas fireplaces (with remote control) and 6 bedrooms and a room just for my 2 pianos, my books and my couch I have had since I was a single dude in NYC!

As for culture – I think that the culture out here is missing a few bulbs. My wife and I have season tickets to the Old Globe and I really enjoy the theater scene, but outside of that where is the culture? Madison is a 2 hour drive from Chicago (a real city), and a couple of hour plane ride to NYC (where there is real culture). While Wisconsin might be lacking in culture, Madison is not. Its a very cool college town. It has a new state of the art performance center which is supposed to be one of the three best in the US (donated by the American Girl owner lady..) There is a theater scene very similar to San Diego (Spamalot is there now) and because of the University it has rabid sports fans, and lots of intellectual discourse.

As to the food scene what might be true for Wisconsin in general, doesn’t apply to Madison. When I moved from NYC to San Diego I was afraid that the food wouldn’t be up to my enjoyment level – I was wrong… The food is great here in SD (not at the high end, but I would rather go to San Francisco or NYC for those meals), and in Madison it is no different.

Had some of the best sushi of my life there last month (and I eat a LOT of sushi!), there is a Vietnamese restaurant which was the equivalent of any in NYC, a Ruth Chris steakhouse, French restaurants, as well as some amazing restaurants downtown. There is a hard to get into Italian restaurant which had better food then any I have found here in SD. The other cool thing is that I am out in the country but a 10 minute drive to the capital building. The good restaurants are at least as expensive as SD (maybe even a bit more) but they have to ship stuff there – especially fish.

Madison is 100% smoke free even in bars. This was another important criteria for me. The surrounding suburbs are just going there -and the governor of WI is trying to make the whole state smoke free!

I totally understand your feedback though (especially as it relates to outside the 25 mile radius of Madison proper)… But without trying to be a snob – seriously I’m not! I live in La Jolla and the only time I go north of Rancho Santa Fe is to go play poker at Ocean’s 11! And I don’t usually ever hang out east of the 5. I would probably kill myself if I lived in the country in Wisconsin. Same thing for Temecula or Vista. The reason I’m moving to Middleton is for the kids and it’s proximity to the downtown, the university, and all the services I like. For their schooling and for their having great, nice friends.

Type in “middleton, wi” into google, go to maps and you will see what I am talking about. It was rated #1 by Money Magazine for a reason – best place to raise kids. I plan on spending every time the kids are off from school in the Bahamas anyway!!!

[cyphire]

Thanks for your kind words jpinpb!

Our house was on Concannon Court – was built in 1990 and had a 13,000 sq ft lot, but a lot of it was hill. The new people who bought it from us terraced the back lot and put a swimming pool in.

I grew up in Long Island (Smithtown), but my folks were from Brooklyn – my dad from Sheepshead Bay and my mom from Coney Island Ave. My family followed me here to SD! But they moved up to Irvine. I have my brother-in-law in Madison, we are great friends.

—–

Hey Rustico! Sorry I have been so remiss at checking in at the forum. Bishops is very cliquey and she has friends – just doesn’t like the way that the groups judge and stick together. She gets crap for being friends with some 7th graders (she is in 8th grade), and while she has 2 great friends – she doesn’t like being in a school where there are so few kids. I think that the whole 8th grade is just 30 or 40 kids. There are kids there which are on scholarships, there are kids there that have access to private jets. My daughter is pretty down to earth and quite frankly I don’t want her in the So. Cal lifestyle anymore.

Some of the girls come from the Evans school – which is somewhat dangerously religious. I don’t like the family values they espouse.

I don’t think that the really rich kids snub anyone, but I could be wrong. The very wealthy kids are pretty nice – but it’s still a pretty bizarre situation there. I’m hoping a very large but really nice high school in the Midwest is a good move for her. She really wants to go to public school and I don’t want to let her go to Torrey Pines or the equivalent.

—

And ibjames….

I don’t want to disagree with you because I am sure that the winters will be very tiresome and the bugs will drive me crazy… but…. I like weather (when I am outdoors which isn’t that often!). I have been in Wisconsin about 6 times for at least 1 or 2 weeks each time in the winter – the dead of winter and it was 0 degrees or less… Didn’t bother me. It was warm inside! I am an indoor person and the reason I got a 6000 sq ft house is that I am going to have a 10′ steam shower with body sprays and a sound system, a theater room, a huge basement with a pool table and bar, a very custom master bedroom with a walk out 4 season room with heated floors and sealed gas fireplaces (with remote control) and 6 bedrooms and a room just for my 2 pianos, my books and my couch I have had since I was a single dude in NYC!

As for culture – I think that the culture out here is missing a few bulbs. My wife and I have season tickets to the Old Globe and I really enjoy the theater scene, but outside of that where is the culture? Madison is a 2 hour drive from Chicago (a real city), and a couple of hour plane ride to NYC (where there is real culture). While Wisconsin might be lacking in culture, Madison is not. Its a very cool college town. It has a new state of the art performance center which is supposed to be one of the three best in the US (donated by the American Girl owner lady..) There is a theater scene very similar to San Diego (Spamalot is there now) and because of the University it has rabid sports fans, and lots of intellectual discourse.

As to the food scene what might be true for Wisconsin in general, doesn’t apply to Madison. When I moved from NYC to San Diego I was afraid that the food wouldn’t be up to my enjoyment level – I was wrong… The food is great here in SD (not at the high end, but I would rather go to San Francisco or NYC for those meals), and in Madison it is no different.

Had some of the best sushi of my life there last month (and I eat a LOT of sushi!), there is a Vietnamese restaurant which was the equivalent of any in NYC, a Ruth Chris steakhouse, French restaurants, as well as some amazing restaurants downtown. There is a hard to get into Italian restaurant which had better food then any I have found here in SD. The other cool thing is that I am out in the country but a 10 minute drive to the capital building. The good restaurants are at least as expensive as SD (maybe even a bit more) but they have to ship stuff there – especially fish.

Madison is 100% smoke free even in bars. This was another important criteria for me. The surrounding suburbs are just going there -and the governor of WI is trying to make the whole state smoke free!

I totally understand your feedback though (especially as it relates to outside the 25 mile radius of Madison proper)… But without trying to be a snob – seriously I’m not! I live in La Jolla and the only time I go north of Rancho Santa Fe is to go play poker at Ocean’s 11! And I don’t usually ever hang out east of the 5. I would probably kill myself if I lived in the country in Wisconsin. Same thing for Temecula or Vista. The reason I’m moving to Middleton is for the kids and it’s proximity to the downtown, the university, and all the services I like. For their schooling and for their having great, nice friends.

Type in “middleton, wi” into google, go to maps and you will see what I am talking about. It was rated #1 by Money Magazine for a reason – best place to raise kids. I plan on spending every time the kids are off from school in the Bahamas anyway!!!

[cyphire]

Thanks for your kind words jpinpb!

Our house was on Concannon Court – was built in 1990 and had a 13,000 sq ft lot, but a lot of it was hill. The new people who bought it from us terraced the back lot and put a swimming pool in.

I grew up in Long Island (Smithtown), but my folks were from Brooklyn – my dad from Sheepshead Bay and my mom from Coney Island Ave. My family followed me here to SD! But they moved up to Irvine. I have my brother-in-law in Madison, we are great friends.

—–

Hey Rustico! Sorry I have been so remiss at checking in at the forum. Bishops is very cliquey and she has friends – just doesn’t like the way that the groups judge and stick together. She gets crap for being friends with some 7th graders (she is in 8th grade), and while she has 2 great friends – she doesn’t like being in a school where there are so few kids. I think that the whole 8th grade is just 30 or 40 kids. There are kids there which are on scholarships, there are kids there that have access to private jets. My daughter is pretty down to earth and quite frankly I don’t want her in the So. Cal lifestyle anymore.

Some of the girls come from the Evans school – which is somewhat dangerously religious. I don’t like the family values they espouse.

I don’t think that the really rich kids snub anyone, but I could be wrong. The very wealthy kids are pretty nice – but it’s still a pretty bizarre situation there. I’m hoping a very large but really nice high school in the Midwest is a good move for her. She really wants to go to public school and I don’t want to let her go to Torrey Pines or the equivalent.

—

And ibjames….

I don’t want to disagree with you because I am sure that the winters will be very tiresome and the bugs will drive me crazy… but…. I like weather (when I am outdoors which isn’t that often!). I have been in Wisconsin about 6 times for at least 1 or 2 weeks each time in the winter – the dead of winter and it was 0 degrees or less… Didn’t bother me. It was warm inside! I am an indoor person and the reason I got a 6000 sq ft house is that I am going to have a 10′ steam shower with body sprays and a sound system, a theater room, a huge basement with a pool table and bar, a very custom master bedroom with a walk out 4 season room with heated floors and sealed gas fireplaces (with remote control) and 6 bedrooms and a room just for my 2 pianos, my books and my couch I have had since I was a single dude in NYC!

As for culture – I think that the culture out here is missing a few bulbs. My wife and I have season tickets to the Old Globe and I really enjoy the theater scene, but outside of that where is the culture? Madison is a 2 hour drive from Chicago (a real city), and a couple of hour plane ride to NYC (where there is real culture). While Wisconsin might be lacking in culture, Madison is not. Its a very cool college town. It has a new state of the art performance center which is supposed to be one of the three best in the US (donated by the American Girl owner lady..) There is a theater scene very similar to San Diego (Spamalot is there now) and because of the University it has rabid sports fans, and lots of intellectual discourse.

As to the food scene what might be true for Wisconsin in general, doesn’t apply to Madison. When I moved from NYC to San Diego I was afraid that the food wouldn’t be up to my enjoyment level – I was wrong… The food is great here in SD (not at the high end, but I would rather go to San Francisco or NYC for those meals), and in Madison it is no different.

Had some of the best sushi of my life there last month (and I eat a LOT of sushi!), there is a Vietnamese restaurant which was the equivalent of any in NYC, a Ruth Chris steakhouse, French restaurants, as well as some amazing restaurants downtown. There is a hard to get into Italian restaurant which had better food then any I have found here in SD. The other cool thing is that I am out in the country but a 10 minute drive to the capital building. The good restaurants are at least as expensive as SD (maybe even a bit more) but they have to ship stuff there – especially fish.

Madison is 100% smoke free even in bars. This was another important criteria for me. The surrounding suburbs are just going there -and the governor of WI is trying to make the whole state smoke free!

I totally understand your feedback though (especially as it relates to outside the 25 mile radius of Madison proper)… But without trying to be a snob – seriously I’m not! I live in La Jolla and the only time I go north of Rancho Santa Fe is to go play poker at Ocean’s 11! And I don’t usually ever hang out east of the 5. I would probably kill myself if I lived in the country in Wisconsin. Same thing for Temecula or Vista. The reason I’m moving to Middleton is for the kids and it’s proximity to the downtown, the university, and all the services I like. For their schooling and for their having great, nice friends.

Type in “middleton, wi” into google, go to maps and you will see what I am talking about. It was rated #1 by Money Magazine for a reason – best place to raise kids. I plan on spending every time the kids are off from school in the Bahamas anyway!!!

[cyphire]

Thanks for your kind words jpinpb!

Our house was on Concannon Court – was built in 1990 and had a 13,000 sq ft lot, but a lot of it was hill. The new people who bought it from us terraced the back lot and put a swimming pool in.

I grew up in Long Island (Smithtown), but my folks were from Brooklyn – my dad from Sheepshead Bay and my mom from Coney Island Ave. My family followed me here to SD! But they moved up to Irvine. I have my brother-in-law in Madison, we are great friends.

—–

Hey Rustico! Sorry I have been so remiss at checking in at the forum. Bishops is very cliquey and she has friends – just doesn’t like the way that the groups judge and stick together. She gets crap for being friends with some 7th graders (she is in 8th grade), and while she has 2 great friends – she doesn’t like being in a school where there are so few kids. I think that the whole 8th grade is just 30 or 40 kids. There are kids there which are on scholarships, there are kids there that have access to private jets. My daughter is pretty down to earth and quite frankly I don’t want her in the So. Cal lifestyle anymore.

Some of the girls come from the Evans school – which is somewhat dangerously religious. I don’t like the family values they espouse.

I don’t think that the really rich kids snub anyone, but I could be wrong. The very wealthy kids are pretty nice – but it’s still a pretty bizarre situation there. I’m hoping a very large but really nice high school in the Midwest is a good move for her. She really wants to go to public school and I don’t want to let her go to Torrey Pines or the equivalent.

—

And ibjames….

I don’t want to disagree with you because I am sure that the winters will be very tiresome and the bugs will drive me crazy… but…. I like weather (when I am outdoors which isn’t that often!). I have been in Wisconsin about 6 times for at least 1 or 2 weeks each time in the winter – the dead of winter and it was 0 degrees or less… Didn’t bother me. It was warm inside! I am an indoor person and the reason I got a 6000 sq ft house is that I am going to have a 10′ steam shower with body sprays and a sound system, a theater room, a huge basement with a pool table and bar, a very custom master bedroom with a walk out 4 season room with heated floors and sealed gas fireplaces (with remote control) and 6 bedrooms and a room just for my 2 pianos, my books and my couch I have had since I was a single dude in NYC!

As for culture – I think that the culture out here is missing a few bulbs. My wife and I have season tickets to the Old Globe and I really enjoy the theater scene, but outside of that where is the culture? Madison is a 2 hour drive from Chicago (a real city), and a couple of hour plane ride to NYC (where there is real culture). While Wisconsin might be lacking in culture, Madison is not. Its a very cool college town. It has a new state of the art performance center which is supposed to be one of the three best in the US (donated by the American Girl owner lady..) There is a theater scene very similar to San Diego (Spamalot is there now) and because of the University it has rabid sports fans, and lots of intellectual discourse.

As to the food scene what might be true for Wisconsin in general, doesn’t apply to Madison. When I moved from NYC to San Diego I was afraid that the food wouldn’t be up to my enjoyment level – I was wrong… The food is great here in SD (not at the high end, but I would rather go to San Francisco or NYC for those meals), and in Madison it is no different.

Had some of the best sushi of my life there last month (and I eat a LOT of sushi!), there is a Vietnamese restaurant which was the equivalent of any in NYC, a Ruth Chris steakhouse, French restaurants, as well as some amazing restaurants downtown. There is a hard to get into Italian restaurant which had better food then any I have found here in SD. The other cool thing is that I am out in the country but a 10 minute drive to the capital building. The good restaurants are at least as expensive as SD (maybe even a bit more) but they have to ship stuff there – especially fish.

Madison is 100% smoke free even in bars. This was another important criteria for me. The surrounding suburbs are just going there -and the governor of WI is trying to make the whole state smoke free!

I totally understand your feedback though (especially as it relates to outside the 25 mile radius of Madison proper)… But without trying to be a snob – seriously I’m not! I live in La Jolla and the only time I go north of Rancho Santa Fe is to go play poker at Ocean’s 11! And I don’t usually ever hang out east of the 5. I would probably kill myself if I lived in the country in Wisconsin. Same thing for Temecula or Vista. The reason I’m moving to Middleton is for the kids and it’s proximity to the downtown, the university, and all the services I like. For their schooling and for their having great, nice friends.

Type in “middleton, wi” into google, go to maps and you will see what I am talking about. It was rated #1 by Money Magazine for a reason – best place to raise kids. I plan on spending every time the kids are off from school in the Bahamas anyway!!!

[cyphire]

Not sure if this is the proper forum.. But since I opened the door and I have been lazy, remiss, and too busy playing Halo3 to join the forum in the last few months – I have officially bought a house in Middleton (outside of Madison) WI.

I have obsessed and hated the idea of buying anything here in SD…. This is one sick, twisted, insane market! Here is my history: Bought a house in 2001 in Carmel Valley. It was in a nice neighborhood and close to Ashley Falls Elementary. 810K, but original carpet and kitchen from 1990 when it was built.

I think that the houses in Carmel valley, especially the ones built by Baldwin were built out of paper mache and spit. I was unhappy about paying 810K – but that was the market and it was on it’s way up.

We remodeled along the way and put about $250K into the house – custom kitchen, turned the 2 story bedroom/loft into another room above us and pushed the kitchen out 10 feet to the backyard.

Was pretty unhappy with Ashley Falls, it was supposed to be the best elementary school – I found it full of pretty, young teachers who were mostly just babysitters… Union babysitters. Started down the private school path – my kids went to The Rhoades School in Encinitas, which meant a commute up through Rancho Santa Fe every day.

Sold the house for 1.4M in 2004. Bought in Olivenhain for 2M. Daughter started bishops 1.5 years later (7th grade) and decided after 3 months of commuting to La Jolla that I didn’t like living out in the country and commuting. Sold the house in Olivenhain for 2,050,000 which after a good deal on Realtor fees, only put me 30K in the hole after the 2 years (.lol.)

Have been renting in La Jolla with the money in my pocket from the sale of my company to buy a house.

But we are in a market which I consider somewhat crazy to buy in right now. It’s not just the high prices, its the high prices for terrible houses and even worse lots. I couldn’t in my right mind buy in Carmel valley again. The houses are 7 feet from each other, the lots are insanely small, and it’s just too many houses all too similar for my taste. I don’t think the value is there. I am tired of people saying “you are paying for the sunshine”. While i agree that it is great weather – I think that the premium is too high and the likelihood of the values dropping a ton is still there – all while financing huge amounts of money and living in a state / county which is on the edge financially of going somewhat bankrupt.

The final straw was the education system. I am tired of paying almost 30K / year for private school because the public schools are so deficient – more importantly, my daughter isn’t thrilled with the private school experience and my son probably isn’t a great candidate for the private school – so I would have one in a school she doesn’t want, and the other in public school which would fail him.

We just bought a house in Madison (Middleton) WI. I’m not crazy about buying there either! Prices continue to go up there, but the high end of the market is very flat. Getting exactly what I wanted would mean building – and I don’t feel like building right now. We found a house which doesn’t have every feature I want, but between what it has and what I am adding to it, it will be very nice.

It’s 6,000 sq ft, with a 3 car garage and about 70 feet from one neighbor and 40 feet from the other. This is considered big houses on smallish lots (like CV), but I don’t want to take care of a big property again (like Olivenhain). The house was just finished, but we are adding on some space and some features. The price of the house was $749K and the upgrades, sun room, wiring, custom kitchen and steamroom ect will be another $105K.

This works out to about $160/sq ft, and while I didn’t want to buy – I can’t put my kids on hold anymore. My son starts Middle school in Sept and my daughter starts 9th grade (high school). It’s the perfect time to put down some roots where I have some family (my wifes brother and family lives there and we enjoy them a lot) and finish raising the kids. Medium and longer range time frame is to pick up a condo for around 1M (hopefully prices keep falling and some nice units come on the market in 1 or 2 years) so we can have 2 homes and a place to go after the kids graduate and we either sell or just keep Middleton.

The neighborhood is the nicest in Middleton (IMO) and the school is one of the 3 best in WI. We are 4 miles from the school, 7 miles from the capitol building and downtown, 1 mile from Starbucks, shopping, and the new Costco (yeah!). Money magazine just ranked Middleton as the #1 place in the US to live! That’s not why I am moving there – but it helps my mind. It was ranked #1 for the college, commute (nothing is more than a 10 min drive), education system, family parks and facilities, its the bicycle capital of the US, the food is great, it has great lakes and other nice features. It is 45 min away from Wisconsin Dells which is a resort area with giant water parks (think Rickey Bobby) and casinos!

The downside? The weather and bugs. Not happy about each, but I’m not from CA originally (NY) and am used to weather. I also don’t mind winters as if I work, it would be from home and will have heated floors! If I had to get up at 6am and drive I wouldn’t do it! By the way – the winter is harsh, but only really part of December, Jan, Feb, and part of March. The summer, spring and fall are awesome. I also like weather, rain storms, all the rest of it. I miss breezes where you actually can smell the air etc.

The final issue for us was the people. I have great friends here and find the people in San Diego to be really nice on the whole, but it’s not Madison. Madison is very, very liberal, very intellectual, and the people are way, way too nice! It’s scary how nice the people in the midwest are. I think that it’s the best thing I can do for my kids which is the only reason we are moving there for the next 8-9 years!

Wish me luck!

[cyphire]

Not sure if this is the proper forum.. But since I opened the door and I have been lazy, remiss, and too busy playing Halo3 to join the forum in the last few months – I have officially bought a house in Middleton (outside of Madison) WI.

I have obsessed and hated the idea of buying anything here in SD…. This is one sick, twisted, insane market! Here is my history: Bought a house in 2001 in Carmel Valley. It was in a nice neighborhood and close to Ashley Falls Elementary. 810K, but original carpet and kitchen from 1990 when it was built.

I think that the houses in Carmel valley, especially the ones built by Baldwin were built out of paper mache and spit. I was unhappy about paying 810K – but that was the market and it was on it’s way up.

We remodeled along the way and put about $250K into the house – custom kitchen, turned the 2 story bedroom/loft into another room above us and pushed the kitchen out 10 feet to the backyard.

Was pretty unhappy with Ashley Falls, it was supposed to be the best elementary school – I found it full of pretty, young teachers who were mostly just babysitters… Union babysitters. Started down the private school path – my kids went to The Rhoades School in Encinitas, which meant a commute up through Rancho Santa Fe every day.

Sold the house for 1.4M in 2004. Bought in Olivenhain for 2M. Daughter started bishops 1.5 years later (7th grade) and decided after 3 months of commuting to La Jolla that I didn’t like living out in the country and commuting. Sold the house in Olivenhain for 2,050,000 which after a good deal on Realtor fees, only put me 30K in the hole after the 2 years (.lol.)

Have been renting in La Jolla with the money in my pocket from the sale of my company to buy a house.

But we are in a market which I consider somewhat crazy to buy in right now. It’s not just the high prices, its the high prices for terrible houses and even worse lots. I couldn’t in my right mind buy in Carmel valley again. The houses are 7 feet from each other, the lots are insanely small, and it’s just too many houses all too similar for my taste. I don’t think the value is there. I am tired of people saying “you are paying for the sunshine”. While i agree that it is great weather – I think that the premium is too high and the likelihood of the values dropping a ton is still there – all while financing huge amounts of money and living in a state / county which is on the edge financially of going somewhat bankrupt.

The final straw was the education system. I am tired of paying almost 30K / year for private school because the public schools are so deficient – more importantly, my daughter isn’t thrilled with the private school experience and my son probably isn’t a great candidate for the private school – so I would have one in a school she doesn’t want, and the other in public school which would fail him.

We just bought a house in Madison (Middleton) WI. I’m not crazy about buying there either! Prices continue to go up there, but the high end of the market is very flat. Getting exactly what I wanted would mean building – and I don’t feel like building right now. We found a house which doesn’t have every feature I want, but between what it has and what I am adding to it, it will be very nice.

It’s 6,000 sq ft, with a 3 car garage and about 70 feet from one neighbor and 40 feet from the other. This is considered big houses on smallish lots (like CV), but I don’t want to take care of a big property again (like Olivenhain). The house was just finished, but we are adding on some space and some features. The price of the house was $749K and the upgrades, sun room, wiring, custom kitchen and steamroom ect will be another $105K.

This works out to about $160/sq ft, and while I didn’t want to buy – I can’t put my kids on hold anymore. My son starts Middle school in Sept and my daughter starts 9th grade (high school). It’s the perfect time to put down some roots where I have some family (my wifes brother and family lives there and we enjoy them a lot) and finish raising the kids. Medium and longer range time frame is to pick up a condo for around 1M (hopefully prices keep falling and some nice units come on the market in 1 or 2 years) so we can have 2 homes and a place to go after the kids graduate and we either sell or just keep Middleton.

The neighborhood is the nicest in Middleton (IMO) and the school is one of the 3 best in WI. We are 4 miles from the school, 7 miles from the capitol building and downtown, 1 mile from Starbucks, shopping, and the new Costco (yeah!). Money magazine just ranked Middleton as the #1 place in the US to live! That’s not why I am moving there – but it helps my mind. It was ranked #1 for the college, commute (nothing is more than a 10 min drive), education system, family parks and facilities, its the bicycle capital of the US, the food is great, it has great lakes and other nice features. It is 45 min away from Wisconsin Dells which is a resort area with giant water parks (think Rickey Bobby) and casinos!

The downside? The weather and bugs. Not happy about each, but I’m not from CA originally (NY) and am used to weather. I also don’t mind winters as if I work, it would be from home and will have heated floors! If I had to get up at 6am and drive I wouldn’t do it! By the way – the winter is harsh, but only really part of December, Jan, Feb, and part of March. The summer, spring and fall are awesome. I also like weather, rain storms, all the rest of it. I miss breezes where you actually can smell the air etc.

The final issue for us was the people. I have great friends here and find the people in San Diego to be really nice on the whole, but it’s not Madison. Madison is very, very liberal, very intellectual, and the people are way, way too nice! It’s scary how nice the people in the midwest are. I think that it’s the best thing I can do for my kids which is the only reason we are moving there for the next 8-9 years!

Wish me luck!

[cyphire]

Not sure if this is the proper forum.. But since I opened the door and I have been lazy, remiss, and too busy playing Halo3 to join the forum in the last few months – I have officially bought a house in Middleton (outside of Madison) WI.

I have obsessed and hated the idea of buying anything here in SD…. This is one sick, twisted, insane market! Here is my history: Bought a house in 2001 in Carmel Valley. It was in a nice neighborhood and close to Ashley Falls Elementary. 810K, but original carpet and kitchen from 1990 when it was built.

I think that the houses in Carmel valley, especially the ones built by Baldwin were built out of paper mache and spit. I was unhappy about paying 810K – but that was the market and it was on it’s way up.

We remodeled along the way and put about $250K into the house – custom kitchen, turned the 2 story bedroom/loft into another room above us and pushed the kitchen out 10 feet to the backyard.

Was pretty unhappy with Ashley Falls, it was supposed to be the best elementary school – I found it full of pretty, young teachers who were mostly just babysitters… Union babysitters. Started down the private school path – my kids went to The Rhoades School in Encinitas, which meant a commute up through Rancho Santa Fe every day.

Sold the house for 1.4M in 2004. Bought in Olivenhain for 2M. Daughter started bishops 1.5 years later (7th grade) and decided after 3 months of commuting to La Jolla that I didn’t like living out in the country and commuting. Sold the house in Olivenhain for 2,050,000 which after a good deal on Realtor fees, only put me 30K in the hole after the 2 years (.lol.)

Have been renting in La Jolla with the money in my pocket from the sale of my company to buy a house.

But we are in a market which I consider somewhat crazy to buy in right now. It’s not just the high prices, its the high prices for terrible houses and even worse lots. I couldn’t in my right mind buy in Carmel valley again. The houses are 7 feet from each other, the lots are insanely small, and it’s just too many houses all too similar for my taste. I don’t think the value is there. I am tired of people saying “you are paying for the sunshine”. While i agree that it is great weather – I think that the premium is too high and the likelihood of the values dropping a ton is still there – all while financing huge amounts of money and living in a state / county which is on the edge financially of going somewhat bankrupt.

The final straw was the education system. I am tired of paying almost 30K / year for private school because the public schools are so deficient – more importantly, my daughter isn’t thrilled with the private school experience and my son probably isn’t a great candidate for the private school – so I would have one in a school she doesn’t want, and the other in public school which would fail him.

We just bought a house in Madison (Middleton) WI. I’m not crazy about buying there either! Prices continue to go up there, but the high end of the market is very flat. Getting exactly what I wanted would mean building – and I don’t feel like building right now. We found a house which doesn’t have every feature I want, but between what it has and what I am adding to it, it will be very nice.

It’s 6,000 sq ft, with a 3 car garage and about 70 feet from one neighbor and 40 feet from the other. This is considered big houses on smallish lots (like CV), but I don’t want to take care of a big property again (like Olivenhain). The house was just finished, but we are adding on some space and some features. The price of the house was $749K and the upgrades, sun room, wiring, custom kitchen and steamroom ect will be another $105K.

This works out to about $160/sq ft, and while I didn’t want to buy – I can’t put my kids on hold anymore. My son starts Middle school in Sept and my daughter starts 9th grade (high school). It’s the perfect time to put down some roots where I have some family (my wifes brother and family lives there and we enjoy them a lot) and finish raising the kids. Medium and longer range time frame is to pick up a condo for around 1M (hopefully prices keep falling and some nice units come on the market in 1 or 2 years) so we can have 2 homes and a place to go after the kids graduate and we either sell or just keep Middleton.

The neighborhood is the nicest in Middleton (IMO) and the school is one of the 3 best in WI. We are 4 miles from the school, 7 miles from the capitol building and downtown, 1 mile from Starbucks, shopping, and the new Costco (yeah!). Money magazine just ranked Middleton as the #1 place in the US to live! That’s not why I am moving there – but it helps my mind. It was ranked #1 for the college, commute (nothing is more than a 10 min drive), education system, family parks and facilities, its the bicycle capital of the US, the food is great, it has great lakes and other nice features. It is 45 min away from Wisconsin Dells which is a resort area with giant water parks (think Rickey Bobby) and casinos!

The downside? The weather and bugs. Not happy about each, but I’m not from CA originally (NY) and am used to weather. I also don’t mind winters as if I work, it would be from home and will have heated floors! If I had to get up at 6am and drive I wouldn’t do it! By the way – the winter is harsh, but only really part of December, Jan, Feb, and part of March. The summer, spring and fall are awesome. I also like weather, rain storms, all the rest of it. I miss breezes where you actually can smell the air etc.

The final issue for us was the people. I have great friends here and find the people in San Diego to be really nice on the whole, but it’s not Madison. Madison is very, very liberal, very intellectual, and the people are way, way too nice! It’s scary how nice the people in the midwest are. I think that it’s the best thing I can do for my kids which is the only reason we are moving there for the next 8-9 years!

Wish me luck!

[cyphire]

Not sure if this is the proper forum.. But since I opened the door and I have been lazy, remiss, and too busy playing Halo3 to join the forum in the last few months – I have officially bought a house in Middleton (outside of Madison) WI.

I have obsessed and hated the idea of buying anything here in SD…. This is one sick, twisted, insane market! Here is my history: Bought a house in 2001 in Carmel Valley. It was in a nice neighborhood and close to Ashley Falls Elementary. 810K, but original carpet and kitchen from 1990 when it was built.

I think that the houses in Carmel valley, especially the ones built by Baldwin were built out of paper mache and spit. I was unhappy about paying 810K – but that was the market and it was on it’s way up.

We remodeled along the way and put about $250K into the house – custom kitchen, turned the 2 story bedroom/loft into another room above us and pushed the kitchen out 10 feet to the backyard.

Was pretty unhappy with Ashley Falls, it was supposed to be the best elementary school – I found it full of pretty, young teachers who were mostly just babysitters… Union babysitters. Started down the private school path – my kids went to The Rhoades School in Encinitas, which meant a commute up through Rancho Santa Fe every day.

Sold the house for 1.4M in 2004. Bought in Olivenhain for 2M. Daughter started bishops 1.5 years later (7th grade) and decided after 3 months of commuting to La Jolla that I didn’t like living out in the country and commuting. Sold the house in Olivenhain for 2,050,000 which after a good deal on Realtor fees, only put me 30K in the hole after the 2 years (.lol.)

Have been renting in La Jolla with the money in my pocket from the sale of my company to buy a house.

But we are in a market which I consider somewhat crazy to buy in right now. It’s not just the high prices, its the high prices for terrible houses and even worse lots. I couldn’t in my right mind buy in Carmel valley again. The houses are 7 feet from each other, the lots are insanely small, and it’s just too many houses all too similar for my taste. I don’t think the value is there. I am tired of people saying “you are paying for the sunshine”. While i agree that it is great weather – I think that the premium is too high and the likelihood of the values dropping a ton is still there – all while financing huge amounts of money and living in a state / county which is on the edge financially of going somewhat bankrupt.

The final straw was the education system. I am tired of paying almost 30K / year for private school because the public schools are so deficient – more importantly, my daughter isn’t thrilled with the private school experience and my son probably isn’t a great candidate for the private school – so I would have one in a school she doesn’t want, and the other in public school which would fail him.

We just bought a house in Madison (Middleton) WI. I’m not crazy about buying there either! Prices continue to go up there, but the high end of the market is very flat. Getting exactly what I wanted would mean building – and I don’t feel like building right now. We found a house which doesn’t have every feature I want, but between what it has and what I am adding to it, it will be very nice.

It’s 6,000 sq ft, with a 3 car garage and about 70 feet from one neighbor and 40 feet from the other. This is considered big houses on smallish lots (like CV), but I don’t want to take care of a big property again (like Olivenhain). The house was just finished, but we are adding on some space and some features. The price of the house was $749K and the upgrades, sun room, wiring, custom kitchen and steamroom ect will be another $105K.

This works out to about $160/sq ft, and while I didn’t want to buy – I can’t put my kids on hold anymore. My son starts Middle school in Sept and my daughter starts 9th grade (high school). It’s the perfect time to put down some roots where I have some family (my wifes brother and family lives there and we enjoy them a lot) and finish raising the kids. Medium and longer range time frame is to pick up a condo for around 1M (hopefully prices keep falling and some nice units come on the market in 1 or 2 years) so we can have 2 homes and a place to go after the kids graduate and we either sell or just keep Middleton.

The neighborhood is the nicest in Middleton (IMO) and the school is one of the 3 best in WI. We are 4 miles from the school, 7 miles from the capitol building and downtown, 1 mile from Starbucks, shopping, and the new Costco (yeah!). Money magazine just ranked Middleton as the #1 place in the US to live! That’s not why I am moving there – but it helps my mind. It was ranked #1 for the college, commute (nothing is more than a 10 min drive), education system, family parks and facilities, its the bicycle capital of the US, the food is great, it has great lakes and other nice features. It is 45 min away from Wisconsin Dells which is a resort area with giant water parks (think Rickey Bobby) and casinos!

The downside? The weather and bugs. Not happy about each, but I’m not from CA originally (NY) and am used to weather. I also don’t mind winters as if I work, it would be from home and will have heated floors! If I had to get up at 6am and drive I wouldn’t do it! By the way – the winter is harsh, but only really part of December, Jan, Feb, and part of March. The summer, spring and fall are awesome. I also like weather, rain storms, all the rest of it. I miss breezes where you actually can smell the air etc.

The final issue for us was the people. I have great friends here and find the people in San Diego to be really nice on the whole, but it’s not Madison. Madison is very, very liberal, very intellectual, and the people are way, way too nice! It’s scary how nice the people in the midwest are. I think that it’s the best thing I can do for my kids which is the only reason we are moving there for the next 8-9 years!

Wish me luck!

[cyphire]

Not sure if this is the proper forum.. But since I opened the door and I have been lazy, remiss, and too busy playing Halo3 to join the forum in the last few months – I have officially bought a house in Middleton (outside of Madison) WI.

I have obsessed and hated the idea of buying anything here in SD…. This is one sick, twisted, insane market! Here is my history: Bought a house in 2001 in Carmel Valley. It was in a nice neighborhood and close to Ashley Falls Elementary. 810K, but original carpet and kitchen from 1990 when it was built.

I think that the houses in Carmel valley, especially the ones built by Baldwin were built out of paper mache and spit. I was unhappy about paying 810K – but that was the market and it was on it’s way up.

We remodeled along the way and put about $250K into the house – custom kitchen, turned the 2 story bedroom/loft into another room above us and pushed the kitchen out 10 feet to the backyard.

Was pretty unhappy with Ashley Falls, it was supposed to be the best elementary school – I found it full of pretty, young teachers who were mostly just babysitters… Union babysitters. Started down the private school path – my kids went to The Rhoades School in Encinitas, which meant a commute up through Rancho Santa Fe every day.

Sold the house for 1.4M in 2004. Bought in Olivenhain for 2M. Daughter started bishops 1.5 years later (7th grade) and decided after 3 months of commuting to La Jolla that I didn’t like living out in the country and commuting. Sold the house in Olivenhain for 2,050,000 which after a good deal on Realtor fees, only put me 30K in the hole after the 2 years (.lol.)

Have been renting in La Jolla with the money in my pocket from the sale of my company to buy a house.

But we are in a market which I consider somewhat crazy to buy in right now. It’s not just the high prices, its the high prices for terrible houses and even worse lots. I couldn’t in my right mind buy in Carmel valley again. The houses are 7 feet from each other, the lots are insanely small, and it’s just too many houses all too similar for my taste. I don’t think the value is there. I am tired of people saying “you are paying for the sunshine”. While i agree that it is great weather – I think that the premium is too high and the likelihood of the values dropping a ton is still there – all while financing huge amounts of money and living in a state / county which is on the edge financially of going somewhat bankrupt.

The final straw was the education system. I am tired of paying almost 30K / year for private school because the public schools are so deficient – more importantly, my daughter isn’t thrilled with the private school experience and my son probably isn’t a great candidate for the private school – so I would have one in a school she doesn’t want, and the other in public school which would fail him.

We just bought a house in Madison (Middleton) WI. I’m not crazy about buying there either! Prices continue to go up there, but the high end of the market is very flat. Getting exactly what I wanted would mean building – and I don’t feel like building right now. We found a house which doesn’t have every feature I want, but between what it has and what I am adding to it, it will be very nice.

It’s 6,000 sq ft, with a 3 car garage and about 70 feet from one neighbor and 40 feet from the other. This is considered big houses on smallish lots (like CV), but I don’t want to take care of a big property again (like Olivenhain). The house was just finished, but we are adding on some space and some features. The price of the house was $749K and the upgrades, sun room, wiring, custom kitchen and steamroom ect will be another $105K.

This works out to about $160/sq ft, and while I didn’t want to buy – I can’t put my kids on hold anymore. My son starts Middle school in Sept and my daughter starts 9th grade (high school). It’s the perfect time to put down some roots where I have some family (my wifes brother and family lives there and we enjoy them a lot) and finish raising the kids. Medium and longer range time frame is to pick up a condo for around 1M (hopefully prices keep falling and some nice units come on the market in 1 or 2 years) so we can have 2 homes and a place to go after the kids graduate and we either sell or just keep Middleton.

The neighborhood is the nicest in Middleton (IMO) and the school is one of the 3 best in WI. We are 4 miles from the school, 7 miles from the capitol building and downtown, 1 mile from Starbucks, shopping, and the new Costco (yeah!). Money magazine just ranked Middleton as the #1 place in the US to live! That’s not why I am moving there – but it helps my mind. It was ranked #1 for the college, commute (nothing is more than a 10 min drive), education system, family parks and facilities, its the bicycle capital of the US, the food is great, it has great lakes and other nice features. It is 45 min away from Wisconsin Dells which is a resort area with giant water parks (think Rickey Bobby) and casinos!

The downside? The weather and bugs. Not happy about each, but I’m not from CA originally (NY) and am used to weather. I also don’t mind winters as if I work, it would be from home and will have heated floors! If I had to get up at 6am and drive I wouldn’t do it! By the way – the winter is harsh, but only really part of December, Jan, Feb, and part of March. The summer, spring and fall are awesome. I also like weather, rain storms, all the rest of it. I miss breezes where you actually can smell the air etc.

The final issue for us was the people. I have great friends here and find the people in San Diego to be really nice on the whole, but it’s not Madison. Madison is very, very liberal, very intellectual, and the people are way, way too nice! It’s scary how nice the people in the midwest are. I think that it’s the best thing I can do for my kids which is the only reason we are moving there for the next 8-9 years!

Wish me luck!

[cyphire]

Hey – Your going to Prague… Not London!

Good choice. You have a reason for going there, both family and honeymoon. While I’m sure that the dollar is very weak there – it’s not an overly expensive place (I would guess) compared to London or Paris. We went to London for new years year before last and stayed on the Thames next to the London Eye. It was brutally expensive. I couldn’t imagine what it would cost today. Even a starbucks latte was about 7$ back then. I felt like a third world citizen, couldn’t imagine what it would be like now.

I’m sure that Prague would be cost effective and fun – enjoy your trip!

[cyphire]

Hey – Your going to Prague… Not London!

Good choice. You have a reason for going there, both family and honeymoon. While I’m sure that the dollar is very weak there – it’s not an overly expensive place (I would guess) compared to London or Paris. We went to London for new years year before last and stayed on the Thames next to the London Eye. It was brutally expensive. I couldn’t imagine what it would cost today. Even a starbucks latte was about 7$ back then. I felt like a third world citizen, couldn’t imagine what it would be like now.

I’m sure that Prague would be cost effective and fun – enjoy your trip!

[cyphire]

Hey – Your going to Prague… Not London!

Good choice. You have a reason for going there, both family and honeymoon. While I’m sure that the dollar is very weak there – it’s not an overly expensive place (I would guess) compared to London or Paris. We went to London for new years year before last and stayed on the Thames next to the London Eye. It was brutally expensive. I couldn’t imagine what it would cost today. Even a starbucks latte was about 7$ back then. I felt like a third world citizen, couldn’t imagine what it would be like now.

I’m sure that Prague would be cost effective and fun – enjoy your trip!

[cyphire]

Hey – Your going to Prague… Not London!

Good choice. You have a reason for going there, both family and honeymoon. While I’m sure that the dollar is very weak there – it’s not an overly expensive place (I would guess) compared to London or Paris. We went to London for new years year before last and stayed on the Thames next to the London Eye. It was brutally expensive. I couldn’t imagine what it would cost today. Even a starbucks latte was about 7$ back then. I felt like a third world citizen, couldn’t imagine what it would be like now.

I’m sure that Prague would be cost effective and fun – enjoy your trip!

[cyphire]

Hey – Your going to Prague… Not London!

Good choice. You have a reason for going there, both family and honeymoon. While I’m sure that the dollar is very weak there – it’s not an overly expensive place (I would guess) compared to London or Paris. We went to London for new years year before last and stayed on the Thames next to the London Eye. It was brutally expensive. I couldn’t imagine what it would cost today. Even a starbucks latte was about 7$ back then. I felt like a third world citizen, couldn’t imagine what it would be like now.

I’m sure that Prague would be cost effective and fun – enjoy your trip!

[Author]

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