January was a month of huge contrast, as we spent the first 2 weeks at home in Scotland after returning from Christmas and New Year down south, but then the last 2 weeks were spent on our most adventurous house sit to date – in San Diego! We enjoyed the winter sunshine in Majorca last Christmas, so kept an eye out for winter sits somewhere sunnier this winter. When California came up, we applied. We got on well with the homeowners on a video call and were invited.
Before we left, we got a few jobs done at home. We started to prep for the builder who was due to begin the structural repairs two days after we got back. To minimise costs, we are (as usual), doing as much as we can ourselves, including removing a radiator and the basin and toilet from the bathroom. While we are making a big mess to turn 2 rooms into one and reinstate a large fireplace, we decided to move an internal wall to make the bathroom slightly larger and enable us to have a bath and shower.
As well as building prep work, I created a new raised bed out of an old galvanised water tank from a neighbour’s barn that was no longer wanted. I had to clear a space for the new fruit cage, so had plenty of soil to move to fill it. Luckily I got it done before the really cold snap when the loch froze over. There were Canada geese wandering about on it for 3 days and a thrown rock bounced off.
Having not done any paid work for months, the new year brought a new enquiry, presumably off the back of planning for the new business year. A former colleague, who has since moved to another business, passed my details on to one of their team. Their supplier onboarding process is somewhat tortuous, but if it all goes to plan, I will probably be providing a small amount of on-site consultancy. I am not sure at this point if it will lead to more, but it sounds like an interesting challenge that I am sure I can help with. A few extra pennies in the house renovation fund is always helpful.
Of course, the quotation request came in a couple of days before we were due to set off on our trip, but another advantage of house sitting is that you have a reliable WiFi connection and a comfortable place to work while travelling.
The house we were looking after in San Diego was huge, with more bathrooms than bedrooms. We estimated that we could probably fit the entirety of our cottage into the cavernous living / kitchen area – including the roof. The kitchen island was only slightly smaller than the footprint of our conservatory. The master shower is about the same size as our entire bathroom. It definitely is another world. To go with the massive house, we had rather large housemates in the form of 3 Rottweilers. They were all very affectionate and would have been lap dogs given half a chance. It was great fun getting to know their different personalities. We were also responsible for maintaining a salt water reef aquarium, which was a little more nerve-wracking than the dogs. The corals and tropical fish were mesmerising to watch and, as we had allowed a couple of extra days before the homeowners left (to allow for flight shenanigans), we had a good hand over and time to ask lots of questions. As well as feeding steadily during the day, we had to add various compounds in different qualities to the water to maintain the ideal balance. They have a maintenance and care contract, so the ‘aquarium guy’ came by once a week and was very happy to share his knowledge too.
Bigger isn’t always better. I think I got in my daily steps just emptying the dishwasher in the huge kitchen. I joked that finding pans and utensils was a bit like one of those memory games when you were a kid, where you had to turn cards over and try to match a pair by remembering where cards were. When you have a run of about 15 sets of 3 identical deep drawers, remembering which holds the grater and which the oven mitts can be a bit frustrating. By the time we got to the end of the sit I was down from opening about 7 to find what I was looking for, to 2. It was a minor cause for celebration when I got it right first time!
When we house sit, we take on a routine for the animals and to some extent live someone else’s life for a while. We normally meet some of the homeowners’ neighbours and friends, this time we were driving the homeowners’ cars and dealing with the services they use on a weekly basis. Short of living in a third world country, I’m not sure we could have transplanted ourselves into a world that was much more different than our normal lifestyle.
The first week, the humidity was around 20% and they hadn’t had any rain to speak of, for 8 months. I am sure you all saw the LA wildfires in the media, well we were about 2 hrs south. The warm, dry, windy conditions meant that the smallest spark was capable of starting a fire, and there were several near us which were thankfully controlled quickly. The homeowners were conscious that we would not receive evacuation alerts if any were to be issued, so we were put in touch with friends any family who who would notify us. I monitored an app called watch duty, which was a bit disconcerting as we could see all the fires as they were reported and some were really quite close. We asked the homeowners if they had an evacuation plan and if there was anything they would want us to take with us apart from the dogs. Surprisingly, they hadn’t really thought about it. We definitely got them thinking, because a few days after they left, they asked us to video each room in their house for insurance purposes. I guess they’d been watching the app too. They clearly trusted us, because we were also asked to unlock her jewellery drawers and photograph the contents.
At the end of the first week we had a couple of days of rain showers, which diffused the situation, and it was no longer the main topic on the local news every night. The rain brought out lots of extra flowers, and we enjoyed watching the humming birds in the garden – rather different from the chaffinches and blue tits we are used to.
The neighbourhood was a gated community with its own pools and gyms. Everywhere looked beautifully manicured, especially at night when gardens were lit up. The homeowners told us that they had to sign a contract when they bought the house which required them to design their landscaping and have it approved by committee, before completing it within 6 months of moving in.
The immaculate presentation was continued inside by a team of 4 Mexican ladies who arrived every Monday morning to clean the place from top to bottom. They had vacuum cleaner backpacks, so were obviously accustomed to cleaning large spaces. I am always a bit uncomfortable having someone else clean up after us, but it did seem to be the norm. Every day the local streets were full of vehicles for cleaning companies, gardeners, pool maintenance, dog walking & grooming and ‘home remediation’ services and well as endless delivery vans. Most tradespeople were a bit surprised when we passed the time of day whilst out on a walk.
The yard maintenance workers who came to maintain where we were staying had the most fantastic straw hats. Not very practical for Scotland, but ideal for working outside in San Diego. Yard maintenance does seem to mostly consist of blowing things about with a leaf blower………
We also came across a fair few people out on a walk whilst obviously on a conference call or glued to their phones typing. I particularly enjoyed it when these people came towards us completely unaware of our existence until we were a couple of metres away. The look on their faces when they looked up and were confronted by two massive dogs was priceless 🤣.
Getting around was quite different too. We had the homeowners’ Tesla and large Toyota Sienna for transporting the dogs (and the home owners’ luggage to the airport and back). As we have an EV and large campervan at home, this was no issue at all, but the time it took to get anywhere really stood out. Not because of traffic (although there was plenty of that at rush hours), but because of the lack of roundabouts. We knew in principle that roundabouts are designed to keep traffic flowing, but the difference was stark in practice. Waiting at busy intersections for 4 way traffic light phases to come around took forever, as did the never ending sequence of 4 way stops. The ability to turn right on red at most junctions was a positive, but didn’t make up as much time as was lost waiting when you weren’t turning right. A journey that would take 10 mins at home would take 20, unless you were on a freeway. That’s another thing that was a big contrast – pretty much every journey involved going on a freeway. It’s probably more a city vs country thing, but there were a huge number of freeways in a relatively small area.
On a side note – this was my first direct experience of a Tesla. It was a Model S and had a ridiculous steering ‘yolk’ instead of a steering wheel. I can only assume it was designed for (or by) boys who like gaming. Its’s a good job there aren’t many roundabouts, because it is really irritating when trying to manoeuvre, as it’s effectively half a steering wheel. The indicators are two flat buttons above each other, with very little feedback and both on the left side of the yolk, rather than one each side. They were often at the bottom and out of reach when going round corners. They are virtually impossible to activate without looking down at them. Everything else is on the touch screen – including changing gear. Slide up for drive, down for reverse. The homeowner told us the only way to open the glove box is to activate voice control and ask the car to open it. Then there was the strange hoverboard sound when reversing……… OK, rant over. It was speedy and had good range, but the build quality left a lot to be desired.
One thing is for sure, no matter how long it takes, for the vast majority, driving is always better than walking. It probably won’t come as a surprise that Southern California is very car-centric. What we found strange, was that the population is generally far more heath conscious than the average American, yet walking to the local supermarket or the neighbourhood pool or gym doesn’t enter their mind. Fitting exercise into their day is vital, but always driving to the place of exercise even if it would only take 15 mins to walk there.
Our hosts were very much average in owning an EV. I would say around 60% of cars were electric and every other car was a Tesla. I saw my first real life cyberskip truck at the airport when we arrived and it was the first of many, as well as loads of Rivians. I christened the latter Moomins, due to the front end design – especially when they are white. Of course, the majority of non-electric vehicles were massive trucks.
Minimising ultra-processed food consumption had to take a back seat while we were away. It’s hard enough to avoid at home, but out there we struggled to find plain unadulterated yoghurt and the cream cheese had xanthum gum or guar gum in it even if it wasn’t flavoured or whipped. The less said about ‘cheese’ the better. We were wondering how expensive groceries would be compared to home and I think the general answer was about the same. Some things were notably more expensive, and some things cheaper and there was a huge difference between different supermarkets, which I expect is not much different from Aldi vs Waitrose. Fresh fruit and veg was generally much more expensive (with the exception of bananas and avocados that were much cheaper). The meat was a bit cheaper, but was sold in much larger quantities. I decided not to research what they do to chickens to make breasts twice the size of back home. I don’t think I want to know. They were seriously massive. I cut one in half to serve the 2 of us for dinner, and I’m not known for serving small portions.
We were warned that fuel is very expensive in California, but when we worked it out, it was about 75p / litre, so hardly excessive compared to the UK. We were also told electricity in the state is very expensive, but were surprised how few solar panels we saw. I would say about the same percentage of houses as back home in Scotland, but the payback calculation must be very different in a California climate. The home owners’ tumble dryer was gas powered because of the cost of electricity. When I told them that we don’t have a tumble dryer and just use a washing line, they questioned why they don’t do that. We used the hedge in their back garden and washing was dry in an hour or two in most cases.
One thing that was the same was outdoor swimming; although the pacific in January was about 10 deg warmer than a Scottish loch. In fact, not much cooler than peak summer water temperatures back home. One of our hosts is a triathlete (she took it up when she retired). She put me in touch with a friend of hers who swims in the sea every day. She met me at a beach not far away, and showed me where to find leopard sharks and guitar fish. it was amazing! They swim right underneath you in chest deep water. No photos, but this video was taken in the same spot a week earlier. Although my new swim friend was a keen cold water swimmer, she and I were the only ones going in without a wetsuit. The rest of the locals were clad in neoprene from neck to toe, and they watched us suspiciously.
House sitting means we can experience a new place in a much more local way, rather than just following the normal tourist trail. Normally the things we want to see are not expensive, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t pick a couple of touristy things to do while we were there. Top of the list was whale watching. I knew in advance that San Diego was a great place to see whales, but as with any wildlife, it is never guaranteed. In January, grey whales are passing on their mind-boggling 10,000 mile migration from the Arctic to Mexico. We got lucky on a sunset cruise and saw several, as well as a lot of dolphins. I only had my phone, so the footage isn’t great, but this was the best clip I took – I turned the sound off, as it’s mostly horrible wind noise.
While we were off having fun, the strongest storm in a decade brought 100mph winds to our quiet corner of Scotland. Storm Eowyn was a direct hit, and I was quite glad we weren’t at home to experience it. That said, watching from a distance meant you only saw the worst of it in the media. I messaged a neighbour who was good enough to pop round the morning after and check there wasn’t a tree through the roof or some other disaster that couldn’t really wait until we got home. They reported with normal Scottish understatement that it had been ‘a bit wild’, but thankfully, the house was still there and the roof was still on when they checked. Although there were a huge number of fallen trees all around us when we got home, we had nothing worse than a few dropped branches and some re-located garden furniture and bird feeders to deal with.
It seems that the inauguration that happened 3 days into our visit, and accompanying flurry of policy changes (which put us off attempting a trip over the border into Mexico), has helped the Freedom Fund surge again in January. It just goes to underline the worrying influence the big 7 tech stocks have on the global stock market and the sway they now seem to have with the federal government.
Freedom fund value – £1,371,388 (up nearly 30k)
Expenditure – £2,216.67 (or a 1.94% withdrawal rate) including renovation costs, or £2,174.81 (or a 1.90% withdrawal rate) without renovation costs
Earned income – £0
A soaring Freedom Fund value means that our net worth is now just under £57k away from £2M, which seems incredible. I wonder if we’ll crack that barrier before it all falls back again?
It was actually a fairly cheap month, despite our global gallivanting. Our San Diego flights and airport parking were paid for some time ago, and house sitting meant no accommodation or vehicle rental during the sit. It also meant we could cook at home rather than be forced to constantly eat out. We did some eating out, but it quickly adds up, especially with the ludicrous tipping culture in the US, so we kept that to a minimum.
As we were away for much of January, there weren’t many renovation costs (not that they come out of the freedom fund anyway). Grocery costs were similar to being at home and we only made a few visits to attractions that actually cost money (Whale watching and San Diego Zoo being the main ones). Our hosts had a couple of 50% off vouchers for the zoo, so we got a bargain there too. Which was just as well – full price for an adult is $76!
We have dived straight into a very busy February, hence the tardiness of this update. I still haven’t completely got to grips with my specific goals for 2025, although I have some ideas. That will have to wait until next month too. There is a lot to share next month, and I’ll try to publish it closer to February than March.
Here are a few of my favourite photos from January. You’ll notice the abrupt change of weather half way though.
Finding Enough 