We moved here because of our priorities:
1. Had to be in CA.
2. Had to be sparsely populated.
3. Reasonably priced properties.
4. Reasonably clean air
Our house isn't much, especially compared to what our old home was like, but we look at this home as a "temporary" situation, and when our granddaughter is out of college, then we'll either build a bigger home or put a modular home on our property.
Old home: 1700 sq. ft., 500 sq. ft., sewing room, complete with shower, etc., 32'x22' garage, 4.5 acres, seasonal creek through the back side of the property, 35 miles from town.
New home: 1963 single wide mobile home with an add on, for a total sq. footage of 800, a "garage and barn" with dirt floor and by no ways "air tight", actually is more of a large shed with doors, sewing room is 135 sq. ft, no creek but we do have 80 acres now, 7 miles out of town.
Alturas has virtually everything we need and the best thing is, with the exception of Rite Aid, all the businesses are locally owned and operated.