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[08:41] Quiet Garage Workspace

🎧 Play snip - 3min️ (05:41 - 08:41) Quiet Garage Workspace

• Connor describes moving from San Diego County to Riverside County, seeking more space in a house rather than an apartment.
• He works in a quiet garage space to record podcasts away from family noise.

📚 Transcript

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Connor

Okay, let me talk to you first about my new house, the house where we’re living, and then I’ll talk a little bit about the moving process. So we’re not living in San Diego anymore. We’re living in a different county. So states in the U.S. Are divided into counties. So when I used to say that I lived in San Diego, what I was saying was that I lived in San Diego County. I didn’t actually live in the city of San Diego. There’s San Diego County, Orange County, LA County, for example. So we’re in a different county now called Riverside County. We’re still in Southern California. We’re not very far from San Diego County, but it is a different county here. So things are a little different. It looks a little bit different. And obviously it’s not the same as living in San Diego, but I think all of Southern California shares a lot of different characteristics and traits elements. So it’s not a huge difference. But that’s where we are now. And we’re living in a house. And we’re really excited about that. Because when you live in a house in the US, you usually have more space than if you live in an apartment. And so the house itself is not a new house. It is fairly old, not really old, but it wasn’t built any time in the last 30 years, let’s say. So it’s not a new house and it’s not a really big house, but it’s definitely big enough for us. It has enough rooms for us right now, uh, enough space for what we need at this point in our lives. So we’re really happy about that. And it’s got a pretty big living room, which is nice. So when you’re in the common area, the living room, it feels spacious. It feels like you have a lot of room there. I think that it will be a good space to entertain guests, for example. And we have a garage, a two-car garage. So we can fit two cars in this garage.

[13:59] Backyard and Views Matter

🎧 Play snip - 3min️ (11:12 - 13:59) Backyard and Views Matter

• A big backyard with grass and dirt is essential for raising small kids.
• The house is situated on a hill with beautiful scenic views adding to its appeal.

📚 Transcript

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Connor

We’ve got bedrooms, of course. And the really big attraction of this house, the reason why we wanted to rent this property was because it has a big backyard with grass and dirt and this is amazing when you have kids especially Small kids like mine this is really the number one feature of When I saw the pictures of the backyard, when I was looking at the listing, a listing refers to an the house. Advertisement for a house, a job, or something like that. So when I saw the pictures of the backyard, when I was looking at the listing of this house, I thought, wow, that would be a great place for us. That would be a great place for our kids to play. And not only that, but also this house is located on a hill and it’s actually kind of right on the edge of the city and so we can see these beautiful hills right behind us and in the distance In the other direction we can actually see very tall mountains, not very close to us, but in the distance. And it looks really cool. So we have great views from here. And there’s also grass in our front yard as well. There are beautiful flowers in both the front yard and the backyard. Really just in love with the way things look around this neighborhood because there are so many flowers and there’s a lot of grass and trees. Actually, right across the street from us, there is a big grass field with a lot of beautiful flowers, actually. It’s like a perfect setting for a quiet family-style living situation.

[20:39] Smooth Rental Application

🎧 Play snip - 5min️ (15:47 - 20:39) Smooth Rental Application

• Connor and his wife found their rental house by touring one place and submitting applications directly to the owner.
• Their good credit scores helped secure the place quickly without dealing with a management company.

📚 Transcript

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Connor

And now let me talk a little bit about our move, our moving process. So first of all, we needed to find a house. And so we went on different sites where they show different listings for houses and apartments. There are a few really major sites that have these listings, and then there are plenty of other sites that kind of just copy the same listings of these main sites, I think. So there are a lot of sites for this, but really most of the listings kind of overlap, meaning you’ll see the same listing on different sites because they just get copied to other websites. So we spent weeks probably just looking at different listings, not very seriously, but in preparation for our move, just to get an idea of what places there were and see which ones we Could afford or that we couldn’t afford. And unfortunately, in 2025, things are expensive. And so it’s not easy. It’s not cheap to rent a house. And so we really had to make some sacrifices. And obviously, there were many places that we just couldn’t consider because they were too expensive. But there were a handful of places within our budget in this area. And this place now that we’re renting was kind of right on the edge, right at the limit of our budget. It was honestly a little hard to commit to it because it was at the very top end of our budget of what we were willing to pay. But we really loved the yard and the space and the neighborhood. So, um, we committed to, you know, paying this rent. And of course we had to contact the owner, the property owner. And, uh, thankfully we didn’t have to go through like a property management company, like it was just the owner directly. And we were in contact and she allowed us to tour the house. So you usually do that. You take a tour of the house or apartment that you want to rent. And so we toured it. And then after touring it and meeting the landlord and talking to her, telling her what my job is, talking about my income other things like that because that is really important in the U.S. They want to see that you have enough monthly income to pay the rent and not only that but you’re supposed to have like three times the amount of monthly income as the amount of the rent. This is the case in many areas. So I had to show that and we got to know each other a little bit. And she liked us, but she had to see our credit score. This is a really big thing in the U.S. Everyone has a credit score, which shows how reliable you are as someone who can pay bills on time and manage debt and all of that. And so we had to fill out applications, both my wife and I, on the website where the listing was. And we had to pay to send in applications. It’s not free. And then through those applications, the landlord was able to see our credit scores. And so once she saw that we have really good credit scores, she called me and said, you got the place.

[22:23] Set Up Utilities Early

🎧 Play snip - 1min️ (21:25 - 22:23) Set Up Utilities Early

• Set up utilities such as gas, electricity, water, trash, and internet before moving in.
• Remember utility costs are separate from rent and need to be budgeted for.

📚 Transcript

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Connor

So after we signed the lease, we had to set up all of our utilities, all of the services for the house. So gas, electricity, water, trash removal, the internet. There’s a lot of stuff that needs to be set up. And the price of these things are not included in the rent price, unfortunately. So you have to factor that in when you’re trying to think of your budget. So I had to set up all of these different services. It wasn’t easy to do all of them. Some of them are hard to deal with because their government services or whatever and their websites don’t work well or things like that.

[24:35] Hiring Movers for Efficiency

🎧 Play snip - 2min️ (22:54 - 24:35) Hiring Movers for Efficiency

• They hired movers to transport a bed and other belongings, which was cheaper than buying new furniture locally.
• The movers efficiently disassembled and reassembled the bed, making the move easier.

📚 Transcript

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Connor

Bye. So I had to do that and we had to hire a moving company to help us move. It wasn’t 100% necessary, I would say, in our case, because we didn’t move much, to be honest. We didn’t have our own furniture, really, just a bed. And besides that, it was just other things that we were moving. But it was still worth it for us to hire the moving company just for the bed alone. Because if we wanted to just sell that bed and buy a new bed here, we would have spent more money than just paying for the moving company. And with the moving company, we were able to just put all of our other stuff in the truck and they moved it. So it was worth it, even though we didn’t have a bunch of furniture to move. The movers were kind of surprised at how little we had, but it was worth it. So we hired that moving company to do that for us. And it’s cool because they disassemble the bed and then put it back together for you here in your bedroom. It’s very convenient, and they work really well, and they’re fast at that stuff.

[27:38] Furnishing a New Home

🎧 Play snip - 3min️ (24:44 - 27:38) Furnishing a New Home

• Moving from a furnished parent’s house meant buying all new furniture, which is expensive but necessary.
• They could furnish the house with good style, and this furniture will be used for future moves.

📚 Transcript

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Connor

Like I said, we didn’t have our own furniture. We were in my father’s house, and because of that, we were just using the furniture that was there. And so we were moving from his house to our own house and we didn’t have any of our furniture from Mexico from when we lived in Mexico. So we have just been buying all the furniture for the house these last couple of weeks. And you can imagine how much money this is. It’s a ton of money, unfortunately. However, there are a couple good things about this. Number one is that after we do this, we will have this furniture for our next move. If we move again in a few years, we will have our furniture now, and we don’t have to buy it all next time, right? Like we had to get our furniture at some point. And so it’s okay. We’re just getting it all now. It’s just hard because normally you don’t have to buy everything at once. And so that’s, what’s really hard about this. Obviously we have to be really strict with our budget right now because we just have tons of bills to pay because of all of this stuff. But the other positive thing is that my wife’s dream has always been to furnish a house. She’s never had the chance to do this. Obviously, she has furnished apartments in Mexico, but it’s different when you have a house and a patio and more space. You just have a different environment and you can furnish it in a different way, perhaps, when it’s a house. And so my wife has been having a lot of fun doing this. And I think personally, she and I have really good taste in furniture and style. And so I really like the way that the house is turning out right now as we’re putting more and more furniture in it. We don’t have a lot of furniture. We’re kind of putting the bare minimum, let’s say, meaning just what’s essential.

[29:05] Challenges of Furniture Assembly

🎧 Play snip - 1min️ (28:09 - 29:05) Challenges of Furniture Assembly

• Assembling furniture is difficult and time-consuming especially with Connor’s back problems.
• They get help from family and friends, but finishing furniture assembly is very rewarding.

📚 Transcript

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Connor

And that is assembling the furniture, putting the furniture together. This is not my favorite thing. And I have issues with my back, unfortunately. So it’s hard for me to be bent over building furniture. I need help with this. So my wife does a lot. I do a lot. Our friend has helped us. So the assembly of the furniture is not my favorite thing. It takes a long time. So that’s one negative. But when you’re done, it’s very rewarding when you see the furniture in its entire form and then you’re done with it. So after you assemble it, it’s great.