How we made our escape from the city and changed our lives

Our adventure

We had a dream to move out of Southern California away from the congestion and stress and switch from the daily commute to living in paradise in the Sierra foothills. Here is how we made the big move!

Sunset on the lake

Our Move:

From Fullerton, CA to the foothills just south of Yosemite in 2005

Our former life was spent in this small house in Fullerton where the kids were raised

Old life:

Businesses in the city, him, motorcycle media, me, wedding photography and raising teens.

New Life:

Him, Semi-retired.  Me, gardener, photographer, blogger
In the five years we had before we moved we really had no idea how we’d do it.  We were true ‘flatlanders.’

The view that grabbed our attention and began our dream. Could we imagine ‘living’ here?!

When we decided:

When the real estate agent showed us a view property and our friends here said they’d help us do it. After dreaming of moving anywhere away from suburbia, we ‘tried on’ many towns and areas before settling on the resort area of Oakhurst/North Fork, two miles away from our old vacation spot at Bass Lake. Forest access nearby was important and the very active community was attractive, featuring special events nearly every weekend.

Bass Lake Antique and Wooden Boat Show at the Pines Resort

Looking down our driveway

Parking on the driveway, getting ready to walk the property for the first time.

One weekend, we looked for a property with one to three acres, but found this one on the side of a ridge with seven acres in a natural area snugged up against the Sierra national Forest. We put in an offer that same weekend. It was 2000, stocks were way down and land was a better place to stash funds for a down payment….we took a year to pay it off.

This shows part of the ‘circle drive’ roughly bulldozed to show where a house could be planned.

The area just in front of where the house could be built,…this was the clearest area on the place.

The center section of the land

The High Country

We love driving the back roads and this location set us up near a network of roads between Oakhurst and Sacramento where two of our five kids live.

What we gave up:

Five minutes to a Target or grocery store.  Being close to the family still in Orange County.

Bass Lake from above

What we gained:

A fresh clean, beautiful environment, good motorcycling friends nearby, little traffic through forest lined roads to town plus our dream house, casual and camp-like that we were able to help design at a very reasonable price.

Road 200

The diary entry – October 2000-The adventure begins…we buy property

Next: How we found a home builder