I live in Long Beach. We do get coastal breezes. But because of our proximity to Palos Verdes Peninsula, the large "hill" blocks the northwesterly sea breezes, so many times Long Beach can reach into the 90s in the summer while south in Huntington Beach or north in Redondo Beach, the temps will be in the 70s. But for the most part, temps keep moderate year round. I'm luck to have a large yard and big enough for several large greenhouses. If do prefer the coast. San Diego county is beautiful. Take a drive down to Quail Botanical Gardens in Northern San Diego county. Vista is nice. Capistrano is nice too. The O.C. is nice, but you will find a lot of track homes. Large homes, yes, but not very big yards. Fullerton is nice. The old part of the city. But it does get warm in the summer. Not too bad. If you go north, try Ventura County. Ventura or Carpinteria. Forget Santa Barbara or Goleta unless you have big bucks. The housing market has slumped. But not to a point where you can buy a house along the coast for less than a million. (Though you will find some nice homes in the $800K) Hard hit areas where homes have been foreclosed will be the outlying suburbs (tract homes) in Corona, Riverside and much of Inland Empire where many new homes were defaulted on. I for one hate these types of neighborhoods. Cookie cutter homes (large) but no yard. And basically but up against near desert. I would avoid Porter Ranch and Santa Clarita. Right now the area is ablaze. Planned neighborhoods, fancy tract homes, and small yards. But again, fire hazard areas. Also we have a bad drought, so you will be limited in watering. And if you do choose to live in a dry area, well, you will have to change your plantings to reflect more native plants, grasses, and cacti. San Bernardino County is up in the foothills. The base of the mountain. Fallbrook is nice, but gets hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Good for fruit that need winter chill. Again, if you want to grow more exotics, more tropicals, then you need to move to the coast. Mornings will have marine overcast. Which is nice. And will burn away to sunny, mild days. You will have more micro-climates too. Here in Long Beach, I grow mainly orchids. But also pineapple, plumeria and hawaiian tea bushes.

I had a deadline (Passover Seder) so even without a lot of details done, I had to get the boxes out of the living room and clean everything. I'm still backfilling shelf liners, while the last bits of the kitchen get finished. It took about a month of working at least a couple hours a day to get everything washed (by hand--DW problem) and in. I had everything pretty well planned out, so most things went in pretty well. I'm still rearranging the uppers because I got an extra shelf made and those were just installed. The pantry is doing pretty well, but now that I've been using it and have everything grouped right, it probably needs a going over. I bought some pots and stuff at a big sale so rearranged my bakeware and pot drawers. Those are minor things, really. The kitchen overall works the way I thought it would and better. Zone organization works extremely well except for one thing. I use table knives a lot in baking. Even without really baking anything yet, I had to get a knife from across the room. Then found a couple of nice ones on open stock sale. I'm the only one who knows where stuff goes, but it's great having a place to know where stuff goes! Congrats on getting to this point!

When I did the kitchen in my previous home, I purged (I mean PURGED) before packing it up. Once the new kitchen was up and running, I had nothing in the kitchen that was not used. Now that we've moved and are doing another kitchen, the only difference is that some of what was previously in the kitchen will be in a hallway pantry this time (small apartment kitchen vs. house). Also, when I planned the new kitchen, every drawer and cabinet was specifically designed for something, so I know exactly where everything will go. I hope it won't take more than one or two days to unpack.

Salti, I think it's great that you had an experience with an agency that you felt did not get their responsibilities confused. I can also see why it might be more reasonable for the process to take as long as it did with the breed and situation you chose to adopt under, but not everyone is having a similar experience. Granted fosters have lives and scheduling can be an issue, but part of the responsibility of fostering is making the animals you're fostering available. This was actually said to me a few years back when I thanked a foster for her quick response while we were looking to adopt. As with the OP, if a potential family goes through the process of filling out paperwork, a home inspection and a LONG wait period because they want to bring a dog into their home, I'm more inclined to believe that they are probably a positive placement for a dog and the problem is the agency. Granted, placement is not black and white; finding the right forever home does have a lot of grey areas to consider like the animals history, breed compatibility, family dynamics and yes, environmental situations too but it should be a joint effort to figure that out, not the fosters alone. The OP says they only got to see one dog and never got a chance to see if other dogs would be a better fit for them. If you do the research and read some of the articles on this subject, you'll see there is a negative trend in the adoption world. Too many dogs go unadopted and left in less desirable situations because the "agency" trying to adopt them out is over zealous in their placement requirements. Look at how many people posting here have said they were rejected for one reason or another and subsequently had to find a dog elsewhere. All the dogs that they eventually paired up with are absolutely loved and have thrived in good homes. If a family really wants a dog they will get one in spite of the challenges poised by an agency. The family ends up with a dog but what about the dogs that are left behind? Also whether a rejection is for a good reason or not, it just seems like there are a lot of agencies who don't seem to have much regard or concern for the adopting family. If a family, especially one with kids shows an interest in an animal but doesn't qualify for whatever reason, the agency should at least reach out and communicate their concerns. What if the concern is a minor misunderstanding or there is a simple fix that can make things right? The dog could still have a chance at a good home. Follow up regardless of the decision is just common decency and the families deserve that. Lastly, I wouldn't just assume that a pet adoption agency was right just because placing dogs is what they do. As far as I know there are no requirements when it comes to credentials or certifications for the fosters. Obviously, some are pretty confused about what really matters and what doesn't matter at all.