A year in living in San Diego, and exciting news!
When we left New York City, I felt like it was the right decision: I was ready for a change. At the same time, it felt like a big risk. New York City is one of the only places where just living there is an accomplishment, where the cool factor comes automatically with the borough address: would I regret leaving that all behind?
And moving to San Diego came with a lot of unknowns. We had only spent one weekend there a couple of months before our move date. We didn’t have any good friends or family in the city. Our jobs were letting us work remotely, but without any guarantees. Could this oasis of sunshine and fish tacos be as good as we imagined it?
A year in, and the answer is a resounding yes. I feel incredibly secure in the decision we made.
The cons: living in California is not cheap, and it’s especially not cheap in a coastal city with perfect weather year-round. People love reading about the struggles of living in New York City; people are less interested in the golden life in San Diego (see: blog traffic has struggled, and I’ve struggled with what to write about). Although we’ve found some very cool bars and restaurants, you can’t get a decent bagel or a slice of pizza that comes close to rivaling Brooklyn. The majority of my best friends (aka the ones who I text constantly just about every day) are still on the East Coast, and no manner of texts can replace in-person hangs.
But the pros far outweigh them. More than anything, I think we’re just both a lot happier by virtue of the lifestyle. We both work from home, so we don’t have to commute: the daily hours we used to spend packed in a subway car or sweating on a bike has magically been given back to us. We do a lot more activities, especially outside: David surfs, I walk to the park every morning, we play tennis and go to yoga classes. We’ve made an incredible network of friends, more friends and better friends than I could have dreamed a year ago: fellow tennis players and pug parents and New York transplants and watchers of The Bachelor.
And so, I’m excited to announce: we’re staying put in America’s finest city. We closed on our first house yesterday!
It’s a three-bedroom, three-bathroom (!!!) house with a sunroom that I’m going to fill with books and plants, and a yard for a pug to play in, and an orange tree so I don’t have to steal oranges anymore (and a lime tree! and a lemon tree! and a strawberry guava tree!), and raised planters ready to be filled with vegetables. It also has a 90’s dream kitchen full of oak cabinets that I can’t wait to tear down, and so much concrete in the front and back yards that David can’t wait to jackhammer away. It’s going to be a work in progress for a while, but we’re thrilled for the opportunity to make it our own. David is determined to make it a house of the future (I’m already creeped out by the number of Alexas we have, but alas!) and I’m thrilled to be able to bring some Pinterest boards to life (comment with all of the home design blog and DIY resources, please!).
Overall, we are absolutely ecstatic to be putting down roots in San Diego–a city that has charmed us since day one, and has never let us down.
