Update on our NEW life in the USA

[MYVYSS]

OK so we took possesion of the house on the weekend, and I thought I would post some new pics of the inside, and also some of the furniture and that we have purchased in the USA, our stuff from Australia should arrive this week, so its nice to know that the house wont be so um...empty lol

Anyway I hope you like, I know we do.

This is the family room without anything in it, just as we walked in the door



This is the other half of the family room looking towards the back of the house rather than the front.



This is the back room just off the kitchen again before anything arrived



This is the wet bar area just off the Family Room, Will be where all the bourbon is stored.



This is the master bedroom



Ensuite two pics as its massive





This is the back room looking towards the kitchen and then the shot of the kitchen




This is the Garage with the Cable Guys Car in it lol



OK had some stuff delivered, and well

37 Inch HD LCD for the Back room mmm Nice..



Got the Fridge so had to stock it..



Brought a couch for the Family room and well Lara and Lachlan had to test it out.



got the new dinner table



Here is the street we live in




Oh and nothing quite like a 50 Inch HD TV for the living room, cant wait for the stuff to arrive from Australia to set everything up and have furniture, so we have get everything off the floor lol...Oh and NHRA Drags in HD Rules... LOL




Run down of tellys in the house.. All have between 80 and 200 channels of cable connected to them

Lachlans room 22 inch HD LCD

Our Bedroom 26 Inch HD LCD

Back Room 37 Inch HD LCD

Family Room 50 Inch HD Plasma...


Next the home theatre systems for the back and family room, A couple of HD DVD systems and a Multi Region DVD combo so I can watch the 400+ movies coming from Australia.

[MYVYSS]

OK also been to San Fran for a couple of days and brought a new Digital SLR so had to take some photos.

















Oh and Brought a new car... VW Passat Wagon Turbo 2.0 with Luxury Package level 2











An average American street in an Upmarket area looks like this



My mates a copper here so went for a ride along

[MYVYSS]

have also been to lake Tahoe, and six flags discovery kingdom, will upload and do many more photos soon..I only have about 700 of them...LOL

If anyone has question please feel free to ask

[The Monty]

Damn, bloody nice looking house and neighbourhood. Well done, looks like youll have a blast over there.

[MYVYSS]

Originally Posted by The Monty

Damn, bloody nice looking house and neighbourhood. Well done, looks like youll have a blast over there.

Yeah just cant wait for the next purchase of another car, still dont know what to get, everything is SO SO SO cheap over here, I originally thought I would stay the 12 months and make some money over here and come home, However I have already started the ball rolling in order to get my Green Card, and are starting to look at a LOT longer period of time here. It really is not what I was expecting, and so much better, sure I miss certain things from home, but the reality is, I can have a much better life and comfort style here than I probably every could back home. We also live in a GATED communite so there are NO safety issues here what so ever. We probably feel as safe, if not safer than we did back in Australia.

If anyone wanted to look at the prices of cars over here

This is a great place to start : http://www.rosevilleautomall.com/

Insurance is a LOT different, I passed my licence test here pretty easy (didnt even read the book) and there is NO such thing as a un roadworthy vehicle, I cant seem to find Height restrictions anywhere, the only thing they do is for vehicles over 5 years old, is you have to have a SMOG test, which is basically ensuring the car isnt blowing smoke or harmful stuff into the air, OH and V8's are everywhere, So many Hummers, Vette's and Mustangs its a laugh, could get a 5 yr old Mustang with all the gear for around the 8k mark...its rediculous....Already planning the next OS trip as well, we are looking at London as its only about 400 bucks to fly there RETURN!!!!, Apparently at times during the year can do Hawaii for like 98 bucks Return. Added bonus I dont only get the US time off as in two weeks a year, as I came over as a Manager, I automatically qualified for 6 weeks a year annual leave. I wake up every morning and Pinch myself at how cool it is...

PS the last week or so the temps have been around the 39-44 Degrees Celcius and we will have this weather for about 7 more weeks, its actually not as bad as it sounds, and of a Night we get a cool change which brings it down to around the 18-22 mark..its Beautiful.

Oh and to RUB IT IN.....NO WATER RESTRICTIONS!!!!!!! have a lovely green lawn and plenty of plants all watered everyday...and can wash the car in the drive way when I like.

[Ives]

That's a nice looking house and area you live in. Good on yous.

I'd love to holidaying in the US and A sometimes.

[fou_bleu]

You lucky b*****d! Great house great(ish) car :P Get a Shelby Mustang, THEN i'll be jealous!

[AC]

Originally Posted by MYVYSS

Oh and to RUB IT IN.....NO WATER RESTRICTIONS!!!!!!! have a lovely green lawn and plenty of plants all watered everyday...and can wash the car in the drive way when I like.

You suck :P

I nearly moved there myself back in 99.
I had friends in Louisville, Kentucky and was all set up and ready to go.
But, unfortunatly life doesnt always go as planned.

Looks like you got yourself a great place in a very reasonable looking area.
Is this a perm thing, or a working holiday ?

[Ringo]

Ditto ....you really suck


please keep sending us pics and updates so we keep reinding of how much you suck.

Mrs Ribngo and I were only talking the other day about breaking out of our little rut and perhaps living in another country for a while.

We figure living in the US could be fun and not to much of a stress...

[MYVYSS]

Its a semi perm thing at the moment, I am on a E3 visa program, for highly skilled IT professionals and the like, I can stay basically as long as there is work and or I like it. My visa is renewable every 2 years with no limit on the number of times I renew it. The project I am working on will basically run for about 6 years at this stage.

I should point out, my previous posts only list the GOOD things, as with eveyrthing there are bad sides to it as well.

The cheese here sucks, American cheese is YELLOW I mean WTF...and taste crap. But we located a decent Deli and fixed that.

Chocolate here is terrible, it tastes like wax, but we found a place to get Cadburys and Tim Tams so we are set.

Bread at first was discusting, it IS so sweet, but we found a bakery and live on Sour Dough and Split tops.

Most of the foods and drinks here are SO full of sugar its not funny, but we have found thru trial and error whats OK and whats not (my son has Hypo attacks big time from too much sugar, its been a interesting couple of weeks)


Apart from that a lot of things here are REALLY Cheap

Smokes 3-4 bucks a pack
Jim Beam in 1.75 litre bottles are around 16 bucks
Corona beer and the like about 18-22 bucks a slab
Electrics are really cheap I brought a 500 gig External HD for my laptop for 100 bucks

Our Phone (unlimited calls to anyphone including mobiles anywhere in the USA and Canada), 8-12 MBPS internet Unlimited (yes it means unlimited although I heard someone got disconnected for DL 350+gig a month for 4 months) Plus Cable Telly with 212 Channels and appox 2000 on Demand movies and 2 DVR boxes costs us a grand total of 129 a month!!! lol Plus some movies are in provided in HD and I can purchase like a video store NEW movies some still in the theatre's for about 5 bucks a pop, BUT I am allowed to record them to the DVR which happens to have a USB output as well, which means I should be able to burn to DVD as well. (Hence the 50 inch HD Telly)

Um restaurants here I feel and think are cheaper, as a family of three I could go out for chinese and have entree, main and desert plus a couple of drinks for around 40 bucks.

San Fran is a 90 minute drive away, Nevada and Lake Tahoe are about an hour, I heard Vegas is about 6 hours and LA is about 4. Yosemite national park is approx a 3 hour drive as well.. We are really central to everything. Doing a weekender here in a 4-5 star hotel usually costs us about 100-180 for a Fri and Sat night which isnt bad.

[4.9 EF Futura]

What an awesome looking place. And the weather!!! What's that blue stuff up in the sky?!??

Hows the housing affordability there? Similar situation to here in australia?

How you going with the tipping thing?

[MYVYSS]

LOL housing is similar, we are only renting for now until we decide we really like it, something we have at the moment would fetch around the 525 - 575 mark I think, its pretty comparable to Australia, EXCEPT that if/when you purchase a house here your mortgage payments become TAX FREE!!!!

Tipping here in Califronia is simple..standard = twice the Tax good equals more than that....

[get_an_ea_today]

Gezz nice house mate congrats.

Matt

[Grum]

Where is the photo of the cop car with Ford Forums on the screen???

[merlin]

Damn looks great - are the prices you quoting US or AUS dollars?

You will have to let AFF member visit for free...

[XA Coupsta]

well done to you - seems you are making the transition very well.

i can say im jealous!

keep us up to date with how things are going - love the pics.

so this is all from being an IT specialist huh?!

[csv8]

NICE car...price ? half of what they are here ????

[kyro_02]

OMG your mate is lucky he gets the internet at work!

so did you actually own a house here in aus? then sold it and moved OS? or did you just buy a house over there for your first time.

how much was your new car? looks like an expensive buy.. but over there it would be cheap as chips hey?

[sgt_doofey]

Glad to hear things are going well over there. The bread does suck doesn't it! Leave it out of the fridge/freezer and see how long it takes to go stale! You'd be surprised!

The wife and I will be in SF in November for a couple of days. Unfortunately, we already have things planned and will be catching up with people that we worked with in the Sonoma Valley when we were there in 2003. It's basically a stop-over on our way home as we are flying around the world and we wanted to break up the flight home from the east coast of the US before the long haul home. The wife's work is paying for that part of the trip, so it's a bit handy!

A bit of advise: Avoid eating chicken from the IHOP's. I had a bout of gastro after that not long after we arrived there in '03. Saw me in bed during our orientation lectures for 2 days. Apart from that, I can't think of anything bad from our Californian experience. Hope yours is a great as what our was, but I'm sure it'll be better!

[photn]

how you handling having to drive on the opposite side of the road and car?

[vandrsxr6]

looks good there in San fran, very nice house and some nice Tele's too.

love that car.

Enjoy it for as long as possible.

love the look of the fridge too, mmmmmmmmmmm coronas

[honer]

Looks fantastic. I'm jealous !

Is that carpet in the ensuite ?

[Bucknaked]

Ok, might be time to relocate to the US. How hard is it to get the dole? :

[Falcon Coupe]

Looks like a great life over there, do us a favour and buy a tough muscle car !

This one from your link looks good .

[james22]

^^^ Doesn't matter where you go lol, Vauxhall Monaro in the backround. Awesome dude, I gather your not coming back home anytime soon then eh?

[DOC]

Looks magic, envy you and hope to drop in one day when i get over there for a holiday.

[AC/DC]

Without being rude, , can you give me an idea on the value of the house, ,

I can guess it is in a better area, , and I am genuinely interested in the cost of property in the South West coast.

Thanks

AC/DC

[MYVYSS]

mmm All prices quoted by me in US Dollars, All going well I dont plan on coming back to Australia for quite a while, the car we have here cost us just over 30k USD but priced it back home and its 56k AUS before onroads and the like..Cars are cheap as here which is a nice thing, I am seriously waiting till January for the Pontiac G8 yeah I know its a SS but Dam for 25-32k why wouldnt I get something I know that the build quality will be far greater than anything American made, LOL the price of Exotics here makes you cry when you would out what it would cost back home, Seen M3's M5's and 911"s for under 40k and thats This century models...so its a tough choice, we picked the Passat as it was a wagon for travel, got a sweet deal on it, and its perfect for the long haul drives we are planning on doing.

And YES its carpet in the Ensuite, and I cant for the life of me work out why you would put that in there, but HEY its a rental so I dont care, even comes with a lawn service and gardner...

Next time I am out for a run in the police car I will get a shot of the onboard computer with AFF on the screen...

Driving on the wrong side of everything took about 2 weeks to master, every now and then I have a brain fade and think incorrectly but havent really had a scare yet...


And yeah all this from being a IT specialist, I am a SAP Functional Consultant and the demand for anyone with SAP knowledge over here at the moment is amazing... Its almost as like if you could Spell SAP know what a IMG is and understand Tables and rules you are in for around 100K USD a year mark.....which would give you a VERY comfortable life style here, A GREAT Salary here is considered anything above about 60K

[kyro_02]

Originally Posted by MYVYSS

Driving on the wrong side of everything took about 2 weeks to master, every now and then I have a brain fade and think incorrectly but havent really had a scare yet...

I get that here, driving on the left side of the road! lol



sounds like you are friggen lucky to be living in the U.S .. one day . i will lol

[sgt_doofey]

Originally Posted by MYVYSS

Driving on the wrong side of everything took about 2 weeks to master, every now and then I have a brain fade and think incorrectly but havent really had a scare yet...

Still trying to get in the car on the passenger side? Or have you adjusted to that as well? ;)