Tonya and PQBON's WebLog

Big Changes... Moving out away from the bay...

There are some big changes in the family PQBON. We are moving. We are moving to Folsom, Ca.

I moved here (the bay area) in 1999 for what was either going to be a summer job or a career (I hadn't decided yet). Since then I have lived in Sunnyvale, Newark, San Francisco, Mountain View, Mountain View, Los Altos, Pacifica, and finally Fremont. After living in Fremont for over year, we decided that we needed to make some changes.

I'm transferring to Intel Folsom Sept. 1st (although I don't start until the 10th so that we can move and relax and get used to Sacramento again.

FAQ

• Q: Where will you be living?

  A: We will be living with my parents for 6 months while we save up our down payment to buy a house.

• Q: Isn't that lame?

  A: Yes, it is very lame. However, while Tonya and I have great credit we haven't saved enough for a down payment on a house. While we were able to line up a mortgage for 0 down on a nice house, we felt it would be better to delay 6 months and come to the table with cash in hand. At the same time we will be cutting many of our expenses. We will drop down to one car since I use my motorcycle for everything. We will also be tighting up our expenses and spending. We are very serious about buying a house in 6 months.

• Q: Is this all about a house?

  A: Yes and No. The cost of housing in Folsom is about half of what we would be looking at anywhere in the Bay Area. This is the largest driver for our move. However, the other driver for this is our families. Tonya's mother and stepfather and brothers live in Sacramento. My parents live in Folsom, and my brother and his wife live in Sacramento. We feel it is important for Katie to get to know her family as she grows up. Currently, we spend many Friday nights driving to Folsom and many Sunday nights driving back. My mother spends many Thursdays driving down and many Saturdays driving back. We will be putting all of our stuff in storage (except a very short list of things) and living as sparsely as we can so we don't take over my parents house.

• Q: Wait, really? But you said you never wanted to move back to the Sacramento area?

  A: Yes I did, but when you have a big mouth like I do you wind up saying many things that you end up taking back. Call me a flip flopper, I don't mind being in the company of John Kerry. But yes, I would rather be looking at houses in downtown Mountain View or Palo Alto or Pacifica or San Francisco, however, we just can't afford the million dollar price tag on one of those houses. We can't even really afford the 3/4 million price tag to live in Fremont or Sunnyvale or Santa Clara.

• Q: If this is about money would you stay if we give you a million dollars?

  A: Yes, I would then walk around downtown Mountain View and pick out the new house for our family.

• Q: What will Tonya do for work since she has to give up her 1 day a week gig as a medical assistant?

  A: We don't know yet.