Staying Put; Sorta

View of beach from our new home.

This past year I have gotten married, managed to build a system to run my rental properties while traveling the country, get my youngest daughter graduated from High School, move from a 3,600 sq.ft. home into a 900 sq.ft. home then pack my bags for a move to California and have my daughter follow us in a friend's tractor-trailer rig a couple of weeks later. Start a new job complete with orientation, oh and let's not forget my last minute effort to pick up a California nursing license.

I'm tired!

So rather than move to another job which means another orientation, I have decided to stay put working in the Valley area of L.A., but I won't be staying in Santa Monica. Mary and I decided to look for a new housing arrangement in order to save some money as housing is hugely expensive in Santa Monica and then we could apply that savings toward our coming months in Hawaii.

First we cleared it with our current travel company that we were wanting to receive a stipend rather than them furnish the housing. We spent one day checking out local corporate housing but for the most part found that expensive as well.

In the mean time we were working www.craigslist.org . This is a great site to visit for housing accommodations as well as any other trade or purchase need you might have in an urban area. If you haven't yet checked it out, do so.

This is where Dave comes into the story. Dave is a retired policeman who has traveled across the pacific regions as a master diver, he also happens to own a beautiful home across the street from the beach in Ventura County. What's more is that the total cost for the home will be a savings of up to $2000 over our three remaining months in California. Money that hopefully will go a long ways in Hawaii.

The drive to and from work will be easier than dealing with L.A. traffic and the lifestyle will be more low key than Santa Monica especially during the off season allowing Mary and I to enjoy each others company.

Several travel companies have been calling to check up on my plans and I honestly enjoy talking with them. I explain my intentions to travel to Hawaii the first of the year and glean little bits of helpful info from them.

As for which travel company I will use determines first on who can get me the ideal assignment locale, as I prefer Oahu. What other methods will I use to pick a travel company. Well... that's for another post.