I love where we live… though I have to admit, this spring (early summer) the weather did get to me.  I have NO intention of moving, but for the sake of this blog post we’ll make the call that I had to move my family from Washington… we’ve been outlawed or something like that… so, the criteria for this top five is that I have to pick the top five places I would move if we were to vacate WA.  I will throw out the stipulation that it must be in country as well, just to make it a little more narrow. I have to admit, this is a tough list to do because I know my wife won’t agree with all of them… good thing we haven’t been outlawed… yet.

Without further ado, the list.

Honorable Mentions: Maui; Santa Barbara, CA; Boulder, CO; Durango, CO and Bend, Oregon.

Five: Boise, Idaho or Redding, CA.  This pick surprised me as well.  I like the climate that both of these places would offer and most importantly the pace of life that I could imagine both these cities offer.  Both are about equal drive time from family in Western WA. Advantage to Boise because of the bigger city amenities but advantage to Redding because of In-N-Out. Enough said.  I like being outside and both have a great season of sun and a great winter season.

Four: Suburbs of Atlanta. I know, weird.  I wanted to throw at least one oddball one out here in this list.  Cost of living, sprawling estates and some southern hospitality all seem to be nice benefits to this area.  I think I could do okay, but not great, with the humidity.  Of all the places I’ve been back east, Atlanta had the most appeal as a place I could live.

Three: North Colorado Springs/Monument/Castle Rock. I like it in Colorado, I could very easily see us living in that area.  I think Denver is a pretty cool city, I could get into the Rockies, but never the Broncos.  I really like the area south of Denver and would want to live close enough to the airports to get out to anywhere in the US.  Colorado would make a lot of sense for the business/ministry side of things.  I love the outdoors and 300+ days with some sunshine coming through is a nice appeal to the state.

Two: San Antonio. Seriously, did I just write that?  Weird.  I know, I’m not a Texas guy, but San Antonio doesn’t feel “south” to me, it has a unique culture there and seems like the hills north of the city would be a pretty cool place to be.  I have relatives in the area and I think for Youthmark’s purposes being near the Bible belt could provide for great business rather than the highly unchurched culture of the west and specifically the northwest, but I do know that for now we are called to our PNW culture!

One:  San Diego County.  I really don’t want to live in CA, however, I can’t think of another place outside of the greater Seattle area that I’d want to live more.  I love the climate of San Diego and would probably pick somewhere in North County.  We’d be only a couple hours from in-laws and very close to many friends and ministry associates.

Got any suggestions and/or major disagreements/reasons I’ve made a poor choice?  Anyone agree with any of these choices?

Grace,
Brian

Let me start by saying, “If Money Were Not An Issue…”

The top 5 today is a list of things that we really want/need to get done, but obviously cannot do all at once and/or should probably start saving for because a few of them absolutely need to get done sooner than later.  The criteria, each of these things have been items Elisabeth and I have discussed as things we want to do at our house, on our house or on our property.

Without further ado, the list:

Five: The Deck. Okay, ain’t going to happen, but here’s to hoping.  We are hoping for a year or two more with our current deck.  Elisabeth just blessed me on my last trip by bleaching, scrubbing and preparing the deck for a new sealant.  It looks great, hope it buys us a couple years.  Anyone want to design, pay for and build our new deck… now?

Four: Side-yard gravel and bark. The weed-garden needs to be replaced with a new gravel pathway and that anti-weed fabric covered with bark.  Can’t wait for a presentable side-yard.  Anyone know where we can get some cheap bark?

Three: Playroom/Office/Garage overhaul. These three areas of our house are all related to the one major project of the summer.  The good news, it won’t cost much.  The Youthmark inventory (t-shirts/books) have overtaken the garage with some spill-over into my office as well.  The office and playroom are about to be switched (the office being our old homeschool room, which has also been a spare-room, but was originally a dining room).  With the switch we hope the shelving we add in the new office will alleviate the garage take-over and create a new clean and fresh situation in all three spaces.  Here’s to hoping.  Anyone know where we can get some good cheap shelving?

Two: The Fence/Play Area. I could easily list these ones as separate items, but because I will probably do these ones together, I may as well list them together.  About five years ago I did a redesign on the backyard and created a play area for the kids.  Well, one thing I didn’t really think about was the fact that the area I built up with fill dirt would settle.  The settling has literally pushed our side-fence so much that boards are popping off.  Not only this, but other parts of the fence are just old and rotting.  So, I plan to dig up parts of the play area, level it even more, create a reinforcement system and replace the fencing.  Anyone know a good and cheap fencer?

One: The Roof. Though it isn’t the one that I want to do the most, it is the one that honestly needs to be done very, very, very soon.  Almost six years ago when we were negotiating to buy the house we asked about the condition of the roof in our home-inspection.  The report was that it needed to be replaced but was certified for one more year.  Well, here we are, five-and-a-half years into ownership and still sporting the same cedar shingles. Yep, not an expense I look forward to, but with the rain we had this spring (and early summer), I cannot see another dry fall, winter and spring.  Anyone know a good, but cheap roofer?

Man, doing this list makes me want to buy my first lottery ticket… or move.

Grace,

Brian