Last Day in Charleston

Here's the deal with Charleston—it's a new option. John has always wanted to live here, and now I love it, so, we have another option outside of Long Beach. I've received one freak out email about moving from the West Coast, and I wouldn't be surprised to receive more. But everyone can rest assured that it won't be happening before this year's World Series of Poker in Las Vegas (July - Aug).

That said, I am melting for the palmettos, fans on the porches and verandah's, downtown culinary scene, the large houses, and John's truly nice, down-to-earth friends. In an imperfect world where Australia is too far away and difficult to get permanent residency, where Milwaukee is too cold half the year, and where LA is just too damn big , trafficy, and vain—Charleston is an excellent alternative. I can't begin to tell you what a better quality of life it would be, especially where building a family is concerned.

We walked around quite a bit yesterday, looked at more houses, and I can see myself being happy here. I can see myself being happy *working* here. Who wouldn't be happy working in a brick and timber building in the middle of a charming 200+ yr old downtown next to the ocean? Friends greet each other on the street, and it's ok to pop over to your friends' houses while they're still in their pjs.

Here are some pics of the houses.

A $799k house we'd looked at several times.



(Below - right) The blue house is one that we could rent right now, and it's in a GREAT neighborhood.



(Below - left) This is a typical Charleston single house. If we moved downtown, our price range would get us one of these in a various state of needing repair. These houses were made in the 1870s-1890s.



I absolutely can't get enough of the porches.

More nice porches.
I didn't take pictures of downtown because I waited till the very last minute for our picture tour. But Discover Charleston is a great resource with photos of the town and what it has to offer.

Another option were we to choose this town to build a future in is to live on one of the islands and commute 20 minutes into downtown for work. That scenario would be pretty nice, too.

Houses out on the islands are still in their 200ks and you could spend all day downtown in a great old building for an office.

Anyways, like I said, I highly doubt a move would happen any time soon. Soon being this month or next, I just wanted to show you the houses so you could see why I liked it so much. I'm forever dreaming about my first real office. And if you're up on Written Road, you know about the megalopolis I want to build. :-)

Happy New Year everyone!