Scotts Valley, California

We've spent the last couple weekends driving down to Scotts Valley and just driving around. We're pretty sure that it will be our next move...hopefully by the end of the year, but we're not in a rush. It's more important to us to move into the right home than the timing. We actually love Union City and have made some great friends here, but know we're not supposed to stay. Every time we look into houses around here we get a strong feeling not to stay.

We didn't think we'd ever find a place that met so many of our "requirements"...but I think we have! Scotts Valley is located in the Santa Cruz mountains, surrounded my beautiful redwood forests, with excellent schools, only 10 minutes from the beach! Could there be a better location? :) I've included a map, just in case you are wondering exactly where it is.

We were a little worried about Kurt's commute, but talked to several "locals" who said its not bad at all. Most days it should take Kurt about 45 minutes to get to work. The mileage is a lot longer than his commute from Union City, but not the time. Weird I know...but Kurt works in West Palo Alto, so he has to drive all the way through Palo Alto stopping at tons of stop lights.

We are going to look into getting a real estate agent when we get back from Hawaii. Quite a few of the homes in our price range are short sells which can take several months to work through. We also haven't seen our "perfect" house yet. We most likely will be buying an older home with a good size lot. Most of the older homes have lots ranging in 1/4 acre to acre lots.

So we'll have to see what the next few months will bring. I'm excited to own a home again and get settled before Logan starts school.