santa barbara, ca

Oops I am accidentally moving to Montecito to live in the guest suite of a 5M house lollll. I am the Kato Kaelin of Santa Barbara.

lol

montconcieto

3 month lease while we house hunt but hey, heated pool!

Say hi to Oprah.

that will be fun! I'd eat at Bettina every day. All of Montecito only really has this one Vons, though. It upsets me because it is just a Vons, but I swear this Vons is putting on airs.

I will be out in Goleta to see the pony pretty much every day, hoping this will offset the Montecito-ness.

What is the scoop on mission canyon?

Oh and apparently I will be living in Riviera, not Montecito. Is there really a difference i dunno

Mission Canyon is cool. I actually love the city and mountain views you get from those hills a bit closer to the Mission and away from the city. The Riviera is probably the most classic Santa Barbara spot. It's the densely packed hills overlooking the city and should be very awesome. Have you ever lived somewhere with high radon levels? If you buy a home in the hills, you might have to install a way to sink radon away from your foundation so that you don't reach unsafe levels inside. see https://www.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/Documents/Publications/Open-File-Reports/OFR_0-Radon-SantaBarbara-Map.pdf

when i first heard about the radon issue, i thought it was a prelude to being shown a trunk full of dreamcatchers and salt lamps. but it's real.

oh weird, wtf CA!

I doubt we will be in the hills long term. Hopefully Downtownish/Milpasish/North Stateish does not have radon problems
Or fire problems

not in santa barbara, but my house was tested prior to purchase and we were able to get the seller to install radon remediation with no drama at all

I admit that the word "remediation" strikes fear into my wallet.

Do I need any updates to my late 70s earthquake response training? Was living in Utah and we drilled to get under our desks for earthquakes. Or maybe it was nukes. Same technique for both. In the DC earthquake about 8 years ago everyone ran outside. Some took the elevators down to do so.

to the best of my recollection it cost the sellers like a little north of a thousand bucks, again TBC i'm in massachusetts and can only speak to my experience but radon is common here and i don't think it's usually a big deal. i see radon pipes like mine on tons of houses in our area.

also congrats on your move to santa barbara, it's a beautiful place!

when i first heard about the radon issue, i thought it was a prelude to being shown a trunk full of dreamcatchers and salt lamps. but it's real.

Yup. Lots of circumstantial contributions from the local oil and gas deposits. The tar pits in and around Carpinteria are worth checking out.

If you like hot springs there a couple that are fairly easy to get to, Big Caliente and Little Caliente. I went once but someone else drove, so I can't tell you how to get there.

The riviera is a bad day away from being burned down to milpas. It’s a minor miracle it hasn’t yet

did not mean to scare quincie with the radon stuff. as cad said, the fix is pretty inexpensive. nothing like a tall retaining wall of death that will ruin you forever.

Nah I'm not too put off by the radon thing. Far more manageable than retaining walls of death!

Pony will be living at Glen Annie Ranch. What's cool around there?

Can't wait to start my taco diet.

SB isn't a suburb, is it? Like, I'm not now an icky person who lives in the suburbs. More like a small city or something? I dunno I guess parts feel suburban, sans the crap commute into the city.

there's a surprisingly good taco place next to the batting cages on milpas. you just have to commit to a "triple play", so you get 3 for $9 with chips.

Chips seem like a weird thing to have alongside tacos, but I am game!

IMO california is all suburbs except sf near market street and dtla

It is true that most of the carnage from the thread on crazy real estate photos hails from CA.

Glen Annie is a cool area. there's a cheap but beautiful golf course. I wouldn't necessarily live over there. I would live close to cathedral/foothill so I could take it to Glen Annie. the area surrounded by Glen Annie rd, cathedral oaks, and the 101 is one of the most suburb feeling locations.

where's the crazy real estate thread shoot it into my veins

we can walk to restaurants, coffee, parks, grocery stores, etc. and i don't live in a target based condo development. i feel like it's a small city if you live in the small city.

yeah my idea of suburbs is very european i guess, but residential california is suburban by defintion imo.

quincie, i feel you'd enjoy upper east, oak park, laguna, downtown, and lower state areas if you don't want to feel too suburban. maybe lower riviera as well.

Oh we will definitely relocate from the the rich ppl mansion (I mean srsly google sixteenfiftyone sycamore cnyn rd and begin the rofls) to a small city area. Or hell maybe will stay in rich ppl guest suite forever, it's pretty cheap. And 400 square feet. Where both of us will be working full time.

But I mean I plan to take calls from the pool, let's be real.

Oh apparently I grossly overstimated the square feet. It's 225. Cozy!

haha wow. you will do well here if you can continue to value weather and lot size over square footage.

Oh shit that rental fell through. How do I shot furnished short term rental in uh 3 weeks?

I shot it! East Beach/Milpas. Another guest suite but for a normalish property not a Riviera mansion property. Guess I will have to settle for ocean instead of pool.

Walking distance to East Beach Tacos, are those good tacos?

that's the batting cage tacos! they are good. and it's fun to have a drink and do a terrible job attempting to hit home runs after.

should be a good spot. east beach tends to be less crowded. it's where most of the regular volleyball happens. the pavillion was under construction, but it may be done now? tri-county produce is a good little grocer. Habit Burger is good. You'll have solid mexican food up milpas along with the best trader joes. brand new Sprouts nearby. you can also walk cabrillo to the funk zone or ride bikes to butterfly beach and montecito.

you'll have many options for outdoor hanging. the thin strip of grass between the beach and cabrillo, the bird refuge, and the zoo is sort of like a nice park. convivo is maybe a bit expensive when you have so much cheap food nearby, but it's good. SB farmers market would also be an easy bike ride.

for somebody that prefers a small city feel, i'd consider this new spot an upgrade

Yeah if I had to move home again I’d try and get in around milpas

Yeah the location is definitely more our speed than up in the hills! Relieved to have something squared away, it was getting a little close for comfort. Our bikes will be in storage in DC until we buy, bet I can rent something or like steal one from an Isla Vista group house.

drove by east beach this morning, and the pavilion appears to be finished. the three months you're over there will be "rainy season", but there will be sunny days. temperature should never get too hot again, though. autumn in santa barbara feels like it lasts from now until spring. i absolutely love autumn, and this may be why i can't leave.

and why I am kicking myself that I have spent so much time in the swamp!

ok random question: is there an SB track with a good springy surface that the public can use? Like maybe at the high school?

I'm almost a year out from mega knee surgery and am finally *almost* to the point of being able to jog a bit, but the PT recommends a nice forgiving surface at first, not concrete or asphalt. Here in DC we can use the Sidwell Friends school track which is nice enough for presidents' kids, so good enough for me obv.

La Playa Stadium at SBCC is a very popular spot. It might be closed right now due to the pandemic.

UCSB also will have this, but I'm not sure if it's open to the public.