Home Sweet Home

It's been three weeks since my last entry and a month and a half since I should have written this entry. Well at least written an introduction to my month of house hunting. I spent the whole month of August looking for a place for Veronica and me to live and it was somewhat of an unpleasant experience. The last time I actually had to really seek out a place to live was in 1999 when Adam and I moved from Alameda to San Francisco. It was a cut-throat business then and it wasn't much better now. In '99 we squeezed in right before the dot-com boom because otherwise we never would have made it into SF, so it was good timing.

This time around it was a bit of bad timing I believe. I wanted to move to the East Bay to give it a try again and also to be closer to some of the outdoor activities I enjoy but August is when all the students return for school. It seemed that all the places I looked at were swarming with college students desperate to find a place to live before school started. The other thing I heard that was affecting the rental market was the slowing housing market. As people stop buying they need a place to live so they choose to rent instead. At least this was the word on NPR.

But after looking at a ton of horrible places and getting more and more depressed until I actually gave up, I found a great place. It was nearing the end of the month and I was burnt out so Vero and I decided to wait until she arrived to start afresh which would give me a break. But right after that she sent me a link to another place because it looked more promising than most. They were going to have an open house from 4pm to 6pm and I arrived right at four. I was there an hour and nobody else showed up, which gave me a long while to talk to the landlord. I offered to leave a deposit and first month's rent but he said that wasn't necessary and could consider it mine.

It's an old-style Berkeley/Oakland house with hardwood floors and 9-foot ceilings, two bedrooms, one bath, a big kitchen, dining room, and living room. There is a basement unit below and a garage-converted-to-studio in the backyard. It's a bit quirky but most of these older places are and I like that about them. I'll post some photos in a few days to give a better feel for the place. Right now we're still getting settled in and there is a serious lack of furniture but all in good time.