We bought it!

We have spent years trawling real estate listings. We have looked in Canada, in Costa Rica, but we kept coming back to the southern US.

Why? For one, my husband's grandparents moved there, so we have enjoyed many vacations with his grandparents or after our visit with them in San Diego, Borrego Springs, Carlsbad, Palm Springs, Sedona, Arizona, Las Vegas, Los Angeles.

It's an easy flight or possible to drive there. After having a run in with cancer in the family, we wanted somewhere we could replenish our vitamin D from the long rainy Vancouver chill that is October through May. If we spent part of our retirement there one day, friends could actually visit us.

In 2011, we wanted to take a vacation with my parents. Our criteria: somewhere that would be reliably warm and sunny, had a swimming pool, near hiking, with affordable shared accommodations. We looked at the Big Island of Hawaii, but found the cost and duration of flights, and the cost of accommodations with a pool and near nice beach access to be too costly. We wanted somewhere we could enjoy fresh vegetables and fruits, and not worry about unsafe drinking water, so Mexico was out. The Carribbean is beautiful, but also quite a flight from Vancouver.

We honed in on Palm Springs, researching the different neighbourhoods and house rental options. When we started looking, I was not aware that the area generally referred to as Palm Springs is actually a collection of smaller cities, from west to east: Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Indio. We learned that La Quinta had the benefit of being one of the least windy areas in the Coachella Valley, and that blowing sand in some areas can actually shut down the highway, thus the big wind farm in Palm Springs proper by the airport.

La Quinta had a quaint village with farmer's market every weekend, great access to groceries and shopping, but was positioned at the hub of a spiderweb of hiking/biking trails extending up in the higher desert, over to a lake and along a dry riverbed.

We contacted realtor Carol Corcoran through Vacation Palm Springs and she helped us narrow our search to the most family friendly neighbourhoods as well. We weren't interested in the expensive shopping drag El Paseo, nor we were keen on being bullied into conformity in a gated community, no highway or airport noise, low wind, safe, where we can get to outdoor activities but also close to culture. We wanted a place with character in a great location with a beautiful peaceful setting.

Here my first look at the house with the realtor...