Picked a Date!!

We are finally moving along with our Perry beach house vacation! Yes!! The tentative date of the vacation for now is: Wednesday June 1, 2011 to Tuesday June 7, 2011. These dates seem to work best given that Memorial weekend is May 27-30th and then the summer prices go up after the second week in June. If any one has a problem with these dates and has other suggestions please let me know. I think its far enough in advance to kind of plan around these dates for things such as work, extracurricular activities and such.

Now on to the real issue here: picking a house

The Newport villas I mentioned on the previous post are more expensive then they advertised. I heard back today from the owner and for all 3 villas it will be $4,800, plus California tax and a cleaning fee. Bringing us to a grand total of $800 plus per family. Unfortunately we, meaning Vern and I cannot afford that. I'm thinking that like $500 can be the absolute max we can afford or we won't have any money for anything else such as gas, food, extras etc... I don't know how everybody else feels about the price of $800? I thought about maybe only getting two of the Villas and that would put us at $3600/600 per family. And two family's will not have bedrooms but a living room. Now, Degen is okay with a living room, but the rest of us all have children and I don't think Lynne and Vernon should have to sleep in a living room. $600 seems pretty expensive for not all of us to have a bedroom. I've searched and searched for properties in the Newport/Balboa area and there are very few with more than 4 bedrooms and if they do have 4 bedrooms they are usually around $5,000 or more a week.

I think a better option for us, is to find a more affordable house somewhere else if there is one. I inquired about several houses yesterday in different areas with at least five bedrooms. I found one in Encinitas that looks nice and the price is right. It is not right on the beach, but like one street away from it. You can look at the house on google earth. I am not familiar with Encinitas but it is in the San Diego area. This area has tons for us to do and you can still drive to other areas of California for sight seeing such as Newport for the day or Disneyland or Hollywood. Also Vernon has had his heart set on seeing the aircraft carrier (can't think of the name at the moment) and we will right by it.

The great part about this vacation is that we will be there seven days- plenty of time to do what ever we want. This house has five bedrooms, pool, hot tub, three bathrooms, full kitchen, 2 washers and 2 dryers, beach toys, beach umbrellas and chairs. Click below to go to the listing-

https://www.vacationrentals.com/vacation-rentals/57561.html?cid=E_owner-inquiry_DB_O_2034_prop%20pg_text_LPROP

One of the bedrooms

Living room

Family room?

The price- $1700, plus 330 cleaning fee= $2030/338.00 per family. This sounds much more reasonable to me. After June 15, the price goes up to $2900 per week. I will forward you the emails I received so you all can view all the properties and amenities.

If any of you want to look for a house please do. Just remember to check the rate and the dates because I've found that it will be listed for one price and then have a higher price for summer and then even higher one for after the middle of June. Summertime is the peak season for California vacation rentals.

I will be forwarding the emails tonight so please check your email!! In the email if you scroll down to where it says inquiry property ######, under that there will be a link with a web address to click on and it will show you the listing. You can also use this website if you want to search for a house.

Please let me know what you think about the house in Encinitas as soon as possible so we can book this baby (if its what we want). If not, I'm sure we will find a different one. So look at all the emails and let me know what you think.

I think I Found It!!!!

Okay so I was getting kind of bummed looking for houses. It's so hard to find a house with more than 4 bedrooms, little alone 6! Anyways, I searched New Port and found a place with six bedrooms!!!! It is not as fancy as the house listed on the first post but it consists of: A Beach Villa with 3 units (two of which connect) which all include: 2 bedrooms and 1 bath. So in total, 6 bedrooms and 3 baths. With a separate living and dining area (maybe Degen could sleep in the living area?) The price of this is not bad compared to what I've been finding for summer rates and homes with 5 bedrooms.

The price is:

mid Sept - mid June $1,000 - $2,500/week
mid June - mid Sept $1,800 - $3,500/week

If we want to go in the beginning of June we would get the $2,500 a week. If all families go including Degen, it would be $357.00 a couple/family/Degen.

I am not sure what this- maybe that's what the house opens up to?

Looks like a living/dining area

I am not sure what this is either but you can see out the window how close you are to the beach!

I am not sure if it has a full kitchen. This is the only draw back I see with the place. On the add it says dinning area and that there is a BBQ in the lower unit. I can contact them and find out exactly what it has in the way of a kitchen. Scratch that, I just looked at all the pictures and there is a full kitchen with a refrigerator, stove and sink. I am unsure if each "unit" has a kitchen or if there is one for all three "units". There is a washer and dryer as well but they are coin operated.

The major advantages with this house is that it is in Newport, we can all fit (YEAH!!!!), it is a beach front property, meaning it is on the beach, and the price is reasonable. Here is the link: http://www.vacationrentals.com/vacation-rentals/1126.html

Please let me know what you think about this! Also, I have not heard from Verlynne and Rich or Jason and Aubrie. If anyone has talked to them about getting a beach house this summer and knows how they feel about it let me know. Thanks!

First Things First

I don't remember where or when but I do remember having a discussion about getting a beach house this summer for our family. I want my children to have wonderful memories of their childhood like I do. When I was little we used to rent a beach house with my family every year. I think this would be a really great experience for all of our families.

It's almost October so I think if we are going to do this, we need to get started! So, who is interested in getting a beach house this summer for a week/or 5 days? Sound like fun? It is going to be outrageously fun!!!! We were thinking that we would need a pretty good sized house to fit all of us in it. One bedroom per married couple is what we were thinking. We could bring sleeping bags/air mattresses for the kids. If Degen wants, he can have his own room too or usually in a big house there are two living rooms/lofts/extra rooms where possibly Degen/older kids could sleep if they wanted to and if parents allowed them hehe :). Also, with a house you have a full kitchen, so most of the meals could be made at the house which we can divide up evenly when it gets closer to time.

So, I've been looking around just to get an idea of prices and stuff and I saw houses from $2,000- $10,000 per week. I think we should stick to a more economy friendly price of house that is still big enough for our family. If we got a six bedroom house for a week for $3,000.00- it would be $428.00 per family. I know this sounds like a lot, but we have several months to save this money. The size of the house will depend on how many people are going to be in it. The area of the house also plays part in the price of the house. I know we all love Newport, so I will look there first but it is an expensive area.

We need to decide on the following items:

1. Who is interested in going- (this does not have to be a definite answer yet, just an idea so we can price houses that are big enough)

2. The date- I was thinking the first or second week in June just because it seems like July is an out of control month and August people are getting ready for school. Please comment on when you think a good time to go would be. It is early enough in the year that we could plan this vacation and then plan the rest of your summer around it.

3. The Place- Newport, San Diego, Santa Monica, (This might depend on the best value for a house we can find )

So think about this for a few days and get back to me so we can start planning the funnest beach house vacation ever!! Over the next week I will look at houses and post pictures and prices so everyone can see.

Here is one I found its pretty awesome and it sleeps 20+ people. It is hard to find a house this big. It is $495 per day so it we stayed 5 days it would be $ 2475 (353.00 per family) and if we stayed a week it would be $3465 (495 per family) click on this link to see pictures of it and all the amenities http://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/vac/1978168749.html Some of them include:

Suitable for large groups, weddings, retreats and events
Plenty of parking
La Jolla location
Private swimming pool and spa
Outdoor resort style furnishings and decor
BBQ Island
Fire pit
Game room
4 Flat screen TV`s
WiFi
2 living rooms
2 dvd players
Washer / dryer
Gas Fireplace
Huge back yard
1/2 basketball court