We went round and round on the weather problem for years. Fortunately, the San Fran Bay Area where we’ve lived for 45 years is quite mild in the winter, so we will return here where we’ve had all of our friends for winters. The unbelievable beauty and thousands of miles of trails here is hard to beat. It does get cold — the mountains east of us are snow-covered this week, but 20s low 30s is not bad and that usually happens only in Nov and Dec.
We thought about going south, but the southwest gets you into desert quickly and neither of us were thrilled about that. Lots of people like desert living - it just wasn’t for us.
The area we selected has a very strong year-round community. We last visited during Labor Day and my wife took a stroll down one of the lanes. She struck up a conversation with a woman working in her yard and next thing we know we are over at her house at 5 pm for wine and cheese!
Going far north seems nuts for people in their 60s, but we are in the very fortunate position of being able to own a second home. If it doesn’t work out, we can always sell (assuming the housing bubble doesn’t collapse). With inflation picking up, real estate might be a wise investment decision, too.
Second home would solve our weather issue. Yes. Not sure cats would like it tho? And not sure about leaving a house unattended ?