First Night

We moved out of Elly's cousin's house this morning as her son, his wife and their two year old from Connecticut were taking our place as house guests.  I had to call the electric company, the gas company and Verizon to start the new service in our names. When we got to Murrieta, we went to the club office to register, pick up our gate transponder and get all the info such as rules, phone numbers etc for the association.
The bed arrived from the bed store around 1:00, then we went shopping for sheets, towels and other things we needed.  Tonight we will spend the first night in the condo on the new bed.

Moving Day!

Panoramic View from the Patio (click on picture to enlarge)

Yeah! Today we picked up the keys from the owners and received a copy of the completed lease from the realtor.  We also went shopping for a mattress so we can sleep there.  The rest of the appliances can wait until we move in.  The mattress will be delivered tomorrow.  Tomorrow we can also go to the club's office to get the transponder to open the gate automatically.  This will allow us to use Gate 2, which is closer to the condo, rather than have to go to the main entrance with the guard shack.

We got to Murrieta a little early, so we decided to go up the road about 2 miles.  Wow!  It a place called the Santa Rosa Plateau.  The views and houses are incredible.  We stopped at the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve, they have miles of hiking trails.  We picked up the trail maps and chatted with the Park Rangers for a while.  This is definitely a spot we will frequent often as it is just up the road.  Will post more pictures after we take them.

I shot small movie of Elly moving in and unpacking along with a tour of the condo. I will post it here when I find the bandwidth to upload it since I am over my 3GB Verizon limit already on my Xoom tablet.  Maybe I can do it at Starbucks tomorrow.

Just saw the weather forecast, we are expecting colder weather this week.  That means the daytime temps will be around 60-70 degrees. Brrrrr!

Almost There!

Our Honda Element in the Condo's Driveway

Today we got the lease via email, went to Kinko's to print it out, sign it and fax it back to the realtor.  We have an appointment tomorrow at 10:00 to pick up the keys from the owners and start the move in process.  We are going to bring our boxes of "stuff" first to get them out of our cousin's garage.  Then we need to buy a mattress.

Will post more pictures during the move-in process.

Success! We Have A Place to Live



View from our Patio

After sending in the application, all of our financial information, credit history and references we finally had an appointment to meet with the landlord.  At 1:00 today we met with our realtor, the landlord's realtor and the landlords.  They agreed to let us rent the condo. Hurray!

We gave them a deposit and told them we would like to move in Sunday.  Now just need to sign the lease.

Indoor Atrium for Elly's Plants









The living room has a gas fireplace that opens into the kitchen and a center atrium for plants that is open on top for sun & rain.  It also has hose spigots and a center drain. Elly just loves this feature!

There are two bedrooms and a den. The Master bedroom has a his & her bathroom with two separate counters and sinks.  The spare bedroom has private access to the second bathroom.  The den is on the other side of the atrium.

 The condo is at the Bear Creek Golf Course in Murrieta,CA.



More Looking For a Place to Live

Elly made appointments with a realtor that we have been working with in Murrieta.   The first house was not as nice as in the pictures, it was in the shade all day and had a "yappy" dog next door.  The next house had potential from the outside, it was in a nice neighborhood, had a nice pool, and had a great layout with 4 bedrooms.  We would have considered renting this house, but the interior workmanship was atrocious.  The paint job looks like it was done by a 10 year old with paint splatters all over the woodwork and wall.  There were no smoke alarms, doors were smashed, wall had holes in them, etc and the landlord was not going to fix them.  I told the realtor that I would fix up the place for two months free rent, but that offer went nowhere.  Oh well off to another showing.

The realtor did not have the "lock box code" for the next place, but we decided to drive over and look in the windows anyway, hoping that the listing realtor would call with the codes on the way (wishful thinking).

Condo Kitchen

 The place was a condo home in a golf club community.  It was absolutely spectacular!  The condo was on a man made pond with ducks, turtles and water jets!  As luck would have it, the realtor with the codes called and we were able to see the condo.

View from Kitchen and Patio

 Elly fell in love with it and we submitted our application for it.  Now we are waiting to hear if our application is accepted.  More pictures to come if we get the place!

Thursday, January 26,  2012

Oh, I forgot! It was 85 degrees today, the rest of this week and next week will be 75-85 degrees and dry!

Redlands & San Timoteo Canyon

Today we took a day off to sight see and visit friends because our cousin was feeling a little better from her surgery. We decided to visit our friend again in Redands and to drive by a few houses that Elly saw online.  Theses houses were for sale, not for rent, but Elly wanted to see them regardless. Maybe we will see some 'For Rent" signs.

San Timoteo Canyon - click for a larger view

After picking up our friend, we went to a Vietnamese noodle restaurant called Noodle 21 .   I had the seafood noodle soup with crunchy noodles, Elly had the chicken noodle soup with soft noodles.  Elly commented that the soups were not as spicy as she would have liked, but there were spicy sauces that you have to add at the table.  Nevertheless, I thought the soup was excellent and a good luncheon alternative.

After lunch we went for a ride around the Smiley Heights area of Redlands.  This area overlooks the San Timoteo Canyon.  We stopped may times to take tourist photos at the may overlooks.  It was absolutely gorgeous!  We also wrote down a few realtor phone number of houses for sale and for rent.


PS.  After we got home and Elly looked at the prices of homes in this exclusive area, we decided that we have to look at area in our budget.  We still have not found a place to live!

Close But No Cigar!

The Mission Viejo house in the Casta Del Sol retirement community was just what Elly wanted.  It was real cute and just enough room for us.  After the realtor left we went back to see the little garden plots that the residents maintain.  We talked with a few people who just loved living there.  We decided that we wanted this place.  We drove to San Clemente (a real cute downtown) to the realtors office to submit our application.  Now we just had to wait.  Elly is real excited about moving!

Today, the realtor called today to give us the bad news that there is an application ahead of ours.  Oh well!, back to square one.

Warmth!!

Our car in the California Driveway

Arrived in Riverside last night at 8:00.  Weather was just like spring in  New England.  Today we are taking it easy recuperating from the trip. It is sunny and in  the 70's today! We love the weather.   Our car made it safely here also.

Our "stuff" in boxes

Our "stuff" was waiting for us too, all stacked neatly in the garage.  Now we just need to find a place to live.


Elly made appointment to see a few leases in Mission Viejo tomorrow. We will see what that adventure brings

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Tomorrow is the day we leave for California.   The stress about when the car will get there has been relieved!  Our cousin called with the good news that our Honda Element is now on their driveway.  We are all packed and just need to get ourselves out to California.  Weather is supposed to be in the 60's this week.  Sure beats the teens here.  Can't wait  for the warmth.

Snow Today!

Well, the weather didn't hold out until we left.   Today we woke up to 2" of freshly fallen snow.  We really didn't want this weather.  This is why we are leaving for California!

Shipped two more boxes of STUFF to California!




It's 72 degrees in Riverside, but its only 28 degrees here!  Can't wait for "instant summer" on Monday!

Shipping Our "STUFF" to California

All of our 10 boxes of personal stuff (mostly kitchenware and books) made it out to Riverside successfully via FedEx Ground and Media Mail.  Kind of reminds me of George Carlin.

 The check for the Auto Shipper also made it to our cousin so she will be able to receive the car and pay the driver.  The "to do" list is dwindling down to the last few items.  I still have to pack up my computer and a few more antique reference books and get those shipped out Friday (more STUFF!)  Then we have to start packing our clothes (Still more STUFF!).  Only 5 more days to go. Whew!

Automobile Gone Mobile

We are not driving to California, we are having the Honda Element shipped.  To do this, you can arrange the shipping through an auto transport broker, and the broker assigsn and schedules the actual car transporter.  We wanted the car to be picked up on Monday Jan 9, and delivered Tuesday Jan 17, the day after we arrive in Riverside.

According to our broker, when the car got assigned to a shipper, it car was scheduled to be picked up on Tuesday, Jan 10 and arrive in Riverside on  Friday, Jan. 20.  This posed a few problems for us.  First, Elly has a Dr's appointment on Tuesday so the car will not be available all afternoon on that day.  Second, we will be arriving in Riverside on Jan 16. What are we going to do for 4 days without a car?  I really don't want to rent a car!

Luckily, tonight while we we watching the NFL playoffs, the driver of the car transport called to say that he was picking up the car today, Sunday!  After a few calls from him scheduling the pickup, we arranged to meet him at an empty parking lot in Sterling.  He arrived 5 minutes after we got to the designated lot. We inspected the car and he loaded it onto the carrier.  He says he will be in Riverside this Saturday, Jan 14. and expects to be paid COD cash or certified check.  OMG!  We won't be there until Monday Jan 16!  Another complication!

We frantically called our cousin in Riverside to see if she could meet the truck.  Luckily it's on a Saturday and she isn't working, so she agreed. What a sweetheart!  I just need to get a certified check out to her for the driver before arrives.  No sweat Priority Mail  will will do the trick.

Happy New Year! 16 Days to go!

We have decided to relocate for a while to the Coachella Valley of Southern California.  Although it is comprised of 9 cities, it is collectively referred to as "Palm Springs" for everyone not in the area.  Once in the area, each town has its own identity.  The towns are Palm Springs, Catherdal City, Rancho Mirage, Indian Wells, Bermuda Dunes, Palm Desert, La Quinta, Indio and Desert Hot Springs.

View from Our Kitchen Window - New Years Day

 We will be leaving on Jan 16 and staying in Riverside until we find a place to stay for a while.  Our car should be there by Jan 17 (it's being shipped).  We can't wait for the warm weather and our adventure to begin.

Our Backyard on New Years Day

Meanwhile, back here in New England the weather has cooperated.  Despite the Halloween snow storm, this has been the warmest Autumn in New England EVER!  We know it won't last, but we would like it to last until Jan 16.