I booked the flights and hotel reservation for our “house hunting” trip to San Francisco this morning. We are going out for four days to beat the streets of the Bay Area looking for a place. We are looking for a home or apartment with at least a few square feet of grass in front or in back that accepts dogs. And is near public transportation. In a decent neighborhood. For under $2500 a month. Good times!
We are leaving on Thursday the 11th and coming back Monday the 15th. We are staying in Oakland and renting a car this time. Neither myself nor The Boyfriend has ever driven in that town. Should be eye-opening. We figure with a rental car we can check out more places for rent in less time. We are going to be on a freakin’ mission, checkbook in hand. And it will hurt to write a check for first month’s rent and last month’s rent and the deposit, plus extra for the pets. It will hurt like a motherfucker.
That said I’m super excited. Once we get this housing thing figured out the hard part is over. Unless you count the actual moving stuff as the hard part, in which case we’ve just begun. Me? I’d rather slave away all day loading boxes than be stressed about where we are going to live. Stress takes more of a toll on me than physical labor. Luckily, The Boyfriend and I have some awesome internet friends in the Bay Area who have made this entire exercise a hell of a lot easier, thanks to their advice. We were going to wait until the 3rd week of October for house hunting until they asked us if we had lost our damn minds. According to them, we’ll be lucky to find a non-flea bag place going as soon as we are. But, hey, thank God for the internet, huh? I don’t know how people tried to move across the country before cable modems and Craigslist.
Hopefully we’ll have some down time during our trip to buy a couple of drinks for these highly helpful individuals in the SF area. Without their help, we’d be pretty lost. So, thank you Bay Area internet friends. Pretty soon you won’t merely be internet friends anymore.
P.S. This picture? It’s the view from the lobby of my future place of employ. Incredible.
12 comments ↓
If you rent from Hertz, spring for their NeverLost GPS. It is $10 extra a day and I use it all the time.
Ouch, too late. We chose Enterprise. (They pick you up!)
So, when is the drinking? ;)
Are ya gonna meet up with Newscoma, this weekend? If so, buy her a beer, and I’ll owe ya yet another one. I’ve got a long-ass scooter trip to DEEP RED, TN, goin’ on this weekend.
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Moving to a new town, I can’t recommend enough to buy a portable GPS. Especially house hunting.
Unless the road work on the Bay Bridge has ended since I was there in July, you want to avoid going anywhere near that sumbitch if at all possible!
I hope I get to see you when you’re here this time!
You may want to look into the Presidio. It’s got grass, trees, pets, and all sorts of nature, and is just a stone’s throw from the shops and restaurants in the Marina. All the advantages of the East Bay or Penninsula without the commute. Plus you’re on the water. http://www.presidio.gov/leasing/residentialleasing/
Craigslist: I moved here ten years ago (well, in a few months) and couldn’t have done it without good old CL even way back then. (Although at the time I think that was during its incarnation as thelistfoundation.org. ) Still the best place to find a place to live and work here.
Jeffraham, All drinking engagements will be announced ahead of time.
Mat, the Presidio properties look great, but they allow no more than one pet per household. Maybe we could hide Cooper…
At some point, go to Muir Woods. Across the bridge, get off at Mill Valley (of Mash’s BJ Honeycutt fame) and hang a left.
Driving in Oakland?
The whistles go whoot!
Hahaha. I forgot all about the whooo whooo!
I just finished up a vacation to my home state and I adore the Bay Area!!
Check out Vik’s in Berkeley for yummy veggie Indian food!
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