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Yeah, out your way and other places like Palm Springs, you may as well be in Phoenix, especially Palms Springs, gets up to 110 out there pretty regularly in the summer.
I was also considering NM, the Albuquerque area for a while but decided against it. It's not as hot as AZ is, it actually gets pretty cold in the winter.
Both my parents are gone, I have no siblings, Mrs. Chow's mother is about the only thing really keeping us here right now. She's got a couple of brothers that we mostly see around the holidays so we could come back here for the holidays if we wanted to.
I'm a CA native and I do like lots of things about living here and there is an equally long, if not longer, list of things I don't like about here.
Albuquerque is lovely!!!
I agree in that there are a lot of things to do in Ca., for sure. but the heat, traffic, high COL, etc. is making it hard to enjoy.
Location: Huntersville/Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC
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I’m back in Washington DC for the weekend visiting mom. It was 100 in Charlotte yesterday and I can’t remember the last time where the high wasn’t at least 95 there. And I know a lot of people are from the West Coast here. The humanity you’ve heard horror stories about is REAL. High of 71 today in DC. No way in hell I’m moving back (a quick look at rent here cemented this) but happy to have a break from the heat. While I like Charlotte, the heat is brutal and not much relief in sight there. I think with global warming, we are climate wise similar to New Orleans. Even Durham just two hours up I-85 isn’t that hot.
Chow you know I like you but on behalf of North Carolina I have to give you this message as it relates to any potential relocation: we full. That goes for any other Californians too, so you’re not being singled out.
I’m back in Washington DC for the weekend visiting mom. It was 100 in Charlotte yesterday and I can’t remember the last time where the high wasn’t at least 95 there. And I know a lot of people are from the West Coast here. The humanity you’ve heard horror stories about is REAL. High of 71 today in DC. No way in hell I’m moving back (a quick look at rent here cemented this) but happy to have a break from the heat. While I like Charlotte, the heat is brutal and not much relief in sight there. I think with global warming, we are climate wise similar to New Orleans. Even Durham just two hours up I-85 isn’t that hot.
Chow you know I like you but on behalf of North Carolina I have to give you this message as it relates to any potential relocation: we full. That goes for any other Californians too, so you’re not being singled out.
Lol, I know. Memphis folks and Boise folks are saying the same.
We come and throw 450k down on homes and it pisses the natives off, I get it. Lol.
Scottsdale/Phoenix was nice, but the thing about heat is there’s only so much you can take off to get cooler… with cold, you can just put on more layers to stay warmer… In my 3 years there, I really started to miss the color green. I had a medium long term vision of owning a house/condo there and one also in Colorado so I could enjoy the positives of each place and avoid the negatives as best I could, but life happened and I relocated to greener pasture
It was sunny & 90 in Grants Pass, OR today. I was out on the lake. Caught & released some nice bass.
It's all green & trees around here.
Take Care, Mama.
If it keeps raining pretty soon I’ll be able to cast a line into our creek…. From my back porch. ( we don’t have any fish in our creek). Lol
Yesterday we had our first dust storm of the season. When I initially moved here, I thought (much like I have with tornadoes) that if I could at least not be driving in my car or in peril generally, I'd really like to SEE this weather phenomenon. I was eager to step outside of my home and look at it, the first time it happened when I got here.
And then I read about this little thing called valley fever. I guess these dust storms kick up a ton of fungal spores from the dirt and if you breathe them, you can get really sick. This place I swear. Weird and gross. Why the heck do people even live here?
But anyhow. After the wind and dust, we had a proper thunderstorm with pouring rain (first of the season) and all the little kids in the neighborhood ran outside to yell and sing and play in the rain.
I, too, miss the green. Even Colorado (at least parts where I lived) is a lot more brown than areas of the east where I grew up. /sigh. If only I could have all the best things of the various places I have lived, in one spot, that would be great.
Though it's all dreaming really, as I have no idea how things will actually go. I cannot really afford to buy a house (probably ever) unless my husband's inheritance makes it possible. His father has said that he want to leave at least the paid off house to him. That would be enough. But he's been giving away a ton of money to charities and political fundraisers and stuff. Like $12 grand last month! And he is still sharp in the mind and making his choices, and my beliefs are solidly in the position of "it is his money and he can do as he pleases with it" but I don't know if he understands that by giving away his son's inheritance, he's chipping away at our hopes and dreams. I kinda want to tell him but I also don't want to tell him. I mean, I don't think it's really greedy of me, like we gave up a place we could afford to live, with friends we cared about in Colorado to come here and help him. It's so expensive living here, we just balance right on the edge of making ends meet. We would not be here if it weren't for his needs, though we are happy to help. And...a large part of FIL's lifetime wealth was passed to him from HIS father.
I dunno. Unless I can find a tactful way to say something, I'm gonna keep my mouth shut. I have way too much personal family baggage with greedy relatives, I refuse to act like them. But I will acknowledge here, that I have some conflict between my feelings and my beliefs on the matter.
This place I swear. Weird and gross. Why the heck do people even live here?
I know it's not a popular thought, but I've always thought that people shouldn't live in places like Phoenix or Vegas or most of Texas, even, to the extent that they do. It's only air conditioning and pumping water in from elsewhere that makes it possible. There's a reason why those areas weren't hugely populated 100 years ago.
I know it's not a popular thought, but I've always thought that people shouldn't live in places like Phoenix or Vegas or most of Texas, even, to the extent that they do. It's only air conditioning and pumping water in from elsewhere that makes it possible. There's a reason why those areas weren't hugely populated 100 years ago.
I agree with you. I wouldn't be here myself were it not for this family obligation, and once that is no longer a factor, do not intend to stay.
What really ticks me off is the extent to which people insist on growing landscaping plants that require irrigation. Grassy golf courses all over Phoenix. Granted xeriscaping is fairly popular, but still.
They do the same here with the lawns. Should be xeriscape stuff to match the climate. If they turned off the sprinklers it would somewhat resemble Phoenix here.
The water drought is so bad here that they've instructed to people to only water on certain days and hours. I imagine you'll see more landscaping to match the native vegetation soon.
I like the way it looks anyways, so it wouldn't bother me.
In terms of parents spending the inheritance, yeah, touchy situation for the spouse. It's one of those things that is hard to broach.
If they leave you a paid off house that's pretty good, especially in a larger metro areas like Phoenix or here in So Cal. Could be a bigger nut than you realize. You could go to Zillow.com and punch in the address and it will give a "Zestimate" I've done that with our place and my jaw about fell to the ground. You can comp search other sites too.
Depending on local zoning and tax laws if you roll the money from the house sale into a house purchase you don't pay any taxes on the proceeds (up to a limit), again, check your local and state tax rules.
We're selling Mrs. Chow's mom's house and escrow is closing soon and we're in the same boat in terms of taxes that have to be paid. There are other issues, but I don't want to get into too much detail.
They do the same here with the lawns. Should be xeriscape stuff to match the climate. If they turned off the sprinklers it would somewhat resemble Phoenix here.
The water drought is so bad here that they've instructed to people to only water on certain days and hours. I imagine you'll see more landscaping to match the native vegetation soon.
I like the way it looks anyways, so it wouldn't bother me.
In terms of parents spending the inheritance, yeah, touchy situation for the spouse. It's one of those things that is hard to broach.
If they leave you a paid off house that's pretty good, especially in a larger metro areas like Phoenix or here in So Cal. Could be a bigger nut than you realize. You could go to Zillow.com and punch in the address and it will give a "Zestimate" I've done that with our place and my jaw about fell to the ground. You can comp search other sites too.
Depending on local zoning and tax laws if you roll the money from the house sale into a house purchase you don't pay any taxes on the proceeds (up to a limit), again, check your local and state tax rules.
We're selling Mrs. Chow's mom's house and escrow is closing soon and we're in the same boat in terms of taxes that have to be paid. There are other issues, but I don't want to get into too much detail.
Yeah, I'm actually really OK with it being a house and not much else. My concern is that we don't know what kind of care he will need between now and the end of his life. There could still be big expenses, like medical stuff, and if he drains his resources to cover those kinds of things... We don't have it. If he had to go into a home, if his needs became more than what we could actually help him with, it could necessitate the sale of his home to cover those expenses. That's what really worries me.
Well. That and the fact that I worry about whether he signed himself and his wife (years ago before she passed) for this one Arizona long term care scheme...which promises basically that they will pay costs for long term care, in or out of your home, in exchange for a right to recompense from your estate...basically the "premiums" are several thousand a month, accruing from sign-up, payable when both spouses have passed. I don't know if he has this, and I would like to find out.
My Mom suggested that we get the deed on the house modified to have my husband's name on it with rights of survivorship, so that when he passes, the house goes directly to my husband. I think we need to look into that.
It's just tricky because I don't want to be all nosy into his business, and I've really been trying to create an atmosphere of trust and respect here. But I'm not sure that we should really take it all on faith, that he structured everything in the best way or it will all work out alright.
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