Hi, I currently live in Houston and I came here two years ago from LA. The cost of living can be as low as $500 dlls for a one bedroom apt, in an so so part of town (over by the 610 west) you can pay about 900-1000 a month for a really nice/ clean/ good managed property one bedrrom apartment (AMLI, Avistele) in the downtown/ river oaks area and its also an 8dlls max cab ride from anywhere you would want to go out to at night. I think the best areas to live are montrose/ river oaks. washington. Some places charge up to $1,300 (midtown) a month but its really unecessary and they aren't any nicer that the ones that are 300-400 dlls cheaper. All rent here includes trash water and parking. So it can really range depending on what you want. You probably want to stay away from areas south of town by the Hobby airport or the Reliant Center.
Good coffee places you've got Epicure cafe and Inversion Coffee.
Let me know if you're curious about anything else! Going somewhere new can be crazy, I came here without knowing anything about the city or anyone that lived here and found everything out the hard way so i'd be glad to help!