Pacific Beach Living

When Charlie and I came back to San Diego we were really up in the air about where we wanted to live.  We really enjoy Oceanside but the commute just didn't make sense no matter how much we tried.   I was pretty set on living coastal.  Unfortunately where Charlie works, no matter where we are on the coast, it is about a 30-40 minute drive.  He repeatedly said he didn't mind so we set off to look at Ocean Beach and Pacific Beach.  I preferred OB, I like the scene there a little more and there are also a ton of dog friendly places (my hidden motives) but we were looking at literal closets for $1200 a month.  I mean 300 square feet apartments or complexes that have like 30 residents in them and you can look into each one of their places.  We weren't having much luck.  Everyday we would drive up and down different streets looking at for places.  At first we wanted to do a beach cottage but what we were seeing was small and somewhat dumpy (kind of a side effect of living by the beach in San Diego, not paying for nice new place but location rather). After a few weeks i was looking on my Zillow app and around 5pm a place popped up in PB.  It was an apartment but one that had only about 6 other tenants.  It was an upstairs place with 2 parking spots (almost unheard off for this area), a large patio and laundry.  One disappointing thing is that there is no garage.  Any who, I called the real estate manager again the next morning, probably right when they opened and the guy said since i was first person he had spoken to (apparently there was a TON of inquiry about the place but timing got us in there first), if brought in the application he would show it to us first. So when we went and looked at the place I was pretty set on it, Charlie too, so we put down the deposit.

We are about 6 blocks from the beach.  Just about a 10 minute walk.  We are one block from the main strip and have already become locals to some of the taverns.  My cousin who Charlie is good friends with, lives about a 10 minute bike ride away.  Also, we have a great market with cheap organic produce that is a 5 minute walk away.  It is so convenient.  Needless to say we settled in pretty quick.

This is a real picture I took right when we came out!  I sent it to my friends in NY :)

This big kahuna is just down the street from us.

A view of our apartment from across the street.

A little bit of a better view of our patio.

My handsome man.

We were really fortunate that we got such a spacious living room and an actual dinning area.

We bought a table and 4 chairs on craigslist for like $40 and my brother and I reupholstered and painted for less then the cost of the table.

Our whole house is craigslist, we got this couch with delivery for $350! Charlie was on top of it.

I really enjoyed decorating this wall.  Charlie made me the hexagonal shelves as well as the wall mounted bottle flower holders.  I was really touched he made these for me so I really prize this wall! Of course the center piece is my anniversary present to Charlie, a wood burning of our names and anniversary date.  Above that is a picture painted by one of my friends (She has a great shop on Etsy called Studio South Seas!)

One of my favorite pieces is our map of Long Island.  

We are really enjoying PB life here.  It is a little chaotic at night but were usually in bed by the time its really wild.  We are much more the day timers and happy hour attendees.  It is nice to be so close to the beach and town!