Hi Em! I am very introverted, so I am really enjoying the time alone. I have my cat here too, or I do think it would get lonely, but just having a happy little fur ball who loves things like licking the puddles up off the porch makes things happy and I still feel like family is here with me, because Lumi is my happy fur child. Once in a while I have a flash of intense home sickness for California, but it's over in a few seconds when I think of all the new adventures we're going to have.
I also talk with my family at least once a day to coordinate the work on the house and to ask my kid how she is doing. She and I text in the evenings while she is doing homework, too. And I send them pictures and sketches of things I am thinking about doing with the house and yard and get their input. As a family who spent the last 11 years remodeling, we are a really good team when it comes to design now. I also just send pics of cool things I find during the day like the toad under the house who likes the leaky hose bib or the bright green lizards who seem to live on the porch.
It's funny, in some ways I do feel like a single person again. I love throwing all sorts of odd things in a pan and being surprised it tastes good, like I did when single. It's nice going out on my own and getting to spend as much time as I like on things because no one's waiting for me. I like that there's time to garden and time to go tromping through the woods and the chores are about 1/4 of what I normally do, so it feels freeing in some ways.
I do think this is a very good move. Just having a house that we can cosmetically fix so it feels like ours and which is way better built than our last house and is half the price is a major thing. Plus it's just gorgeous here, and though the culture is very different, it's different in an interesting way, so I think it's going to be fun getting to know people here. And I have a massive art studio in the basement, which is going to be amazing. Plus I'm nearly the same distance away from the ocean as at the house in CA, and this is a particularly lovely beach. So yes, very good move!!