Location, location, location-

Why the Westside? Because the person with the highest paying job and the most erratic hours wants to spend the maximum number of non-work hours with his children.

After a long and painful conversation with our friendly banker and a decision to sell my much beloved house in a lousy school district (a place with a Great Schools score of 2/10 that was NEXT TO MY JOB) we started the process of narrowing the search area. We used the search tool at http://www.greatschools.net/ to find schools of the type we wanted within 5 miles of each of our jobs, then we used the intersection of the two sets (think Venn Diagram for those with kids) to narrow us down to a subset of neighborhoods. Then we tossed in the price filter, number of beds and baths and size of yard. There are tradeoffs- if the price and the lot size are right, we can go with a smaller house and add on. If the house is perfect and there's a park close by, then we could trade off lot size. School quality and commute time are non-negotiable.

My dream yard has room for at least one large avocado tree, some citrus, and the ridiculously large swingset/sandbox/clubhouse given to the kids by their doting grandparents. Now attach a 4 bed 3 bath home in a superior school district, in our price range and geographic desirability and you will have a deal!

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