WE found the house we wanted late yesterday afternoon. It is in that former planned community of California City. It is in Kern County. Think Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, with the county seat of Bakersfield.
We are renting a 1,600 square foot, three bedroom, two bath with a two car garage in a very nice neighborhood. It has an outstanding kitchen and a huge living room. It comes with the refrigerator, range, microwave and dishwasher. And there is a washer and dryer already there! And the rent is only 800 bucks a month! The back yard is just the right size for the sheltie that we have and it has a patio that is out of the evening sun. So those who I hope will show up next spring for a Santa Maria BBQ will have to enjoy the sunset over the Tehachapi Mountains from the driveway.
When we get internet service, we will send pictures to any and all and my facebook account!
Tomorrow will be occupied with getting utilities and such transferred to our name. The water has to be done at city hall.
There is no supermarket in town. The nearest is in Mojave but the commissary at Edwards is an easy trip. We did the Visiting Quarters at the base last night. We may even try to get into the system at the clinic for our primary care. One of those retired earned things, ya know.
On Thursday we are going to rent a U-haul to move a couch, occasional tables, lamps and maybe a small chest freezer from Palmdale. The Missus Old Retired Petty Officer's Sister has some things for us to use. And we can afford a small chest freezer.
I am glad we decided on Cal City over Lancaster/Palmdale. They are just to busy, even though having all the conveniences of a pair of cities that have almost 400,000 people in them just couldn't match the small town atmosphere and lower costs.
The Missus did ask the one rental agent office staff this one: Why do I want to move here? His answer was: low crime and affordable. Sounds good to me. As for flying the Missus back to Wichita, her sister in Palmdale will provide the lift to LAX. It is cheaper to fly out of LAX via DEN or DFW than Ontario or Bakersfield.
4 comments:
After 22 years as a Navy Wife, and 3 as a Navy Wife, Retired (hey, that's what the certificate the Skipper at Test Pilot School says), I am GREEN with envy.
Congrats... sounds like you landed WELL. LocationX3!
By comparison: I paid $2K a month for an 800 sq ft 1BR apartment in Berkeley when I lived in SFO at the height of the dot-bomb fiasco... and I felt lucky to have THAT, as it took me three weeks of frantic searching to find something, anything at that point in time (August of 2000). Count your blessings!
Wow.
That was fast, and it sounds like you got a good idea. I particularly like the rental agent's pitch for renting in that neighborhood.
Of course, I'd like to live in a neighborhood with a bit less people and traffic too. The small town I moved into about 12 years ago isn't exactly small anymore. Instead it's turned into a big strip mall.
And the commute is about 25 minutes. Just as the sun is coming up over the mountains east of Barstow. The town is a mix of occupied and not occupied homes. The street on which we now live has a senior apartment community on it directly across from us. The house has been overhauled, with new kitchen appliances, the bathrooms have new tubs, sliding doors, fixtures and tile in the tub/shower. The back yard is small yet big enough for the sheltie to run in. And no grass! And it will stay that way! All I have to do is keep the weeds down. Maybe I will ask the agent to check with the owner next spring about coloured gravel in the front.
This week has been mostly check-in stuff but today I did get to spend time working panels on an F-16. I still need cockpit checkout and the other training. The Air Force is obsessed with quals of some sort or another.
And we don't have a major grocery store in town. But we do use the commissary on base and it is a good one.
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