Frist Report from SF!

My first post from SF - and well over-due I know!  Where to start

We have been here for 3 full weeks now!  We are settled in well, but I can't say I feel 'moved' yet.  Our corporate apartment is nice and furnished well and convenient to everything which is exactly what we wanted, but we definitely aren't settled and thus it just feels what it is - temporary. 

We are spending all our spare time searching for a place to live.  We had been looking on line even before we got here.  We are working with a company called Right Move Group and a consultant named Laurie.  We officially started looking at house last week and this past weekend.  Laurie said that it was VERY unusual to have so few options on the rental market as is the case now - Lucky us!  A lot of properties won't even consider pets, so those are out for us. 

We were able to see (inside and out - as we did do drive-bys on a few that weren't able to be seen inside yet) Three houses on Saturday - just 3!  The first was OK (it was on Lake, so we call it the Lake House :)  It was 4 bedrooms with a small but updated kitchen.  It had a distant view of the bay from the family room window.  It has a large, fenced yard.  It was at the very top of our price range.  The 2nd was nice and on the larger side - officially 4 bedrooms, but it was very awkwardly laid out - the master was smaller and not sure our bed would fit in there.  There was another bedroom on that side of the house and then the other two were in bad locations - one right off the family room by the front door and the other was behind the kitchen by the door from the outside near the detached garage.  Not very useful space.  The last one was a few trips to the ER waiting to happen.  It was a nice enough house but on a hill and once you went out the back door, it was a tiered yard leading up the hill which would be O-K but, the roof was waist-level and flat.  You could literally and easily climb on the rood which would not work for the kids or Ginger.  On top of that, all the tiers were accessed via concrete, steep steps with no handrails, etc.  Again, not going to work for us.

Sunday we saw 2 more homes.  The first was a 3bed 1 bath and we had concerns it would be too small, and it was vastly too small.  The other was a VERY nice home with views of a nice canyon, but it was on the side of the canyon and the yard was a drop off...again, trips to the ER in our images at that home.  Two more strikes out!

This week we have seen 2 homes and an apartment.  The first was in the ideal area and sounded promising, but the inside layout won't work - it is listed as a 3 bedroom, but it is really a 2 bedroom with a couple of other rooms that *might* work as a bedroom.  The other was just in a bad neighborhood and bad school district.  The apartment was really nice - brand new with great amenities, but just too small for us to make work long term.  We are still looking! 


We did FINALLY get our school options from the city schools.  The list was short and mostly the schools that no one wants - but we can get both boys into a solid school in the North Part of the City (North Beach).  We are taking that assignment for now, and we can still be considered in future rounds if we become city residents.  We are now working with another person (Valerie) to look for properties in the city that would be acceptable.

Speaking of schools - I knew we'd have issues getting schools assignments in the city, but our back up was the Peninsula (the area we have been looking).  We thought that it was similar to home - you live IN a school district zone and you go to that assigned school.  Well apparently, if the zoned school is full, then they re-route you to another school.....so, tough planning where to live based on that as you might be in a good zone and then be routed to less than stellar school that is much further away.  FUN TIMES.

I never guessed it would be this difficult to find a property MAINLY because of Ginger.  This city boasts its pet-friendliness and yet you can rent if you have a dog?!?

Other than house hunting, and David working of course, we have fit in a few fun things.  We spent some time on Sunday (Father's Day) with friends that live in the city and they have a son Ethan's age, so that was great for the boys.  We have had dinner with other friends and will have dinner with Andrew tonight as he is in town for business.  The boys and I have been to the library a few times, the pool, the playgrounds and dog park with Ginger.  Just keeping busy.  We will definitely be able to have more fun and maybe even do some weekend trips once we have the housing issue squared away.

That's the quick update for now.  I will try to post more...and I do have some photos I can share soon.

Wish us luck on the house/school front!!