Bye San Diego, We bought a farm, the move to Texas
It’s been a long time, where have I been? Well, a little over a year ago we made a big change to our life/lifestyle and moved from sunny San Diego, CA to unrestricted and unincorporated Driftwood, TX (just outside of Austin).
We really enjoyed 6 years in San Diego, but over time we saw a lot of bad changes in the great neighborhood we lived in. We weren’t very excited about the state of the state, plus it was about time for us to set down roots. We had always talked about having chickens and how great it would be to have some land to stretch out on and after some talk, we decided we should try something new. Before moving to San Diego we were actually going to move to Austin, TX. We had known Austin from visiting during the South by Southwest conferences and always liked it but that was the only area I was familiar with.
Overall Texas fit our general criteria of a place where we could spread out and own some land, have a great cost of living, and Austin specifically has a vibrant and growing tech industry. Home prices are affordable and the cost of living moving from California is at least a 10% instant raise not only because there is no state income tax but things like food and energy just cost less. Did I also mention there is no income tax? So, we took a trip down and toured the great state of Texas to get a sense of everything and decide which of the big cities we might want to make our home. You can read all about the road trip here and a review of the Silver Car we rented.
The road-trip was great and we were sold on moving to Texas! It seemed like a great place where we could change our lifestyle, live out a dream, and try something new. After the decision was made I made a couple of short trips down to Austin and stayed with some great friends while I explored all the various areas of Austin and it’s outer areas. What we were looking for:
- single floor
- 3 Beds & 2 bath
- located in hill country
- 5–10 acres
- water on property
- 30 min from the city
After a long day with our patient and wonderful realtor we finally found a place that fit 5 out of 6 our criteria and was located in the small unincorporated area of Driftwood, TX. Driftwood is most famously known for the Salt Lick BBQ Restaurant.
The market is very hot in Austin so after some thought, we made an offer the following day and I traveled back to San Diego. After a couple of days of some negotiation, the offer was accepted and we started packing. We had a month to get the home packed, schedule the movers and get to Driftwood in time to close on the new house. It was a lot of work, we hired some movers off of Uship and after the surprise of filling one truck, we had so much we needed another truck, I rented a Uhaul and we got the other truck filled up.
We packed two dogs into one car and another dog into the other car and headed out for the 3-day drive. We took our time and stopped in the famous Tombstone, AZ for a night and then El Paso, TX the second night then finally Fredericksburg, TX the last night. Fredericksburg is only an hour from our new house and an adorable German village best known for their peaches, a place we would later explore.
We bought a single family home on a fenced 7 acres in the hill country area known as Driftwood which we are calling Fluffy Bottoms Farm. This last year has kept me busy with the big move, a new house, a new job, and building out the farm with our 20 Chickens, 4 goats, 6 donkeys, 1 lamb and 1 Anatolian Shepherd/Pyrenees pup. We’re growing and changing daily.
Now that we are settled I can’t wait to share what we’ve been up to and post about the time on the farm, change in lifestyle, and the other things I tend to write about. Happy to answer any questions. Stay tuned I’ve got a lot to write about!
Like this post? Great! Follow me here on Medium or over on Twitter @genevate. If you like this post it would be cool if you hit “Recommend” and share it with others. Thanks!
