The Question?

The question that started it all was an existential one. Why do we live in California? That exploration lead us down a path to many more questions.

Do we want to live in California?

Should we live in the same town/same house we raised our family?

Should we even think we could live anywhere else?

We own a home in Montana and we love it there? What if we lived there? Do we want to live there? Could we live there? Why are we even considering this?

Step #1 - Let’s start by spending several weeks in a row in our home in Ennis and see what happens.

Step #2 - Let’s spend most of the winter in Ennis.

Step #3 - Game theory out the whole idea - what will it be like to rent or sell our California house, what will it be like to move away from our lifetime friends and family, what will it be like to remake and/or give up our work life that we have known for 25 + years, what will it be like to start fresh with a handful of friends and acquaintances.

Step #4 - Make a small bet and see where all of these questions land on the scale from “you are an idiot” to “let’s do this”

Step #5 - Can Ennis be our permanent home or is it too small, too isolated, too rural, too disconnected, can we make friends (are there people like us). Remember we came from big city LA and San Francisco surrounded by MILLIONS of people and Ennis has 900 people.

So fast forward, while spending a winter in Montana Step #2 was a resounding - we can do this.

Questioning Step #5 we decided that Ennis was going to be too hard of a stop from the Bay Area and a very active professional and social life. Decision was to look for a property in the big city - Bozeman.