After spending the last 6 months on the road, 4.5 of which were abroad, we were happy to finally settle down, only we had no clue what to expect from the Bay Area. We rented a car in Los Angeles and drove our way up to San Francisco. On the way up, we stopped by Marie Callendar's in Valencia for breakfast and a little Thai restaurant in Pleasanton, about an hour outside our destination. We moved into a residential hotel in Nob Hill area where we could afford staying long-term, or until we'd find our palace.
After getting a feel for the real estate market (with the help of Craiglist), we found a beautiful apartment. It was part of a typical San Franciscan duplex over a garage. Both units were available and completely renovated, so we were lucky, but more so because we landed the penthouse. That's right - we got the top floor. A nice change after living on the ground floor for three years in NYC.
The neighborhood came first, then the apartment. We really fell in love with the Sunset neighborhood. Everyone warned us that it gets fogged in during summer months, but we didn't care. The location we convenient for public transit, for walking to a variety of restaurants, and we'd be only 2 blocks from Golden Gate park. In New York terms, this place was a steal! We could even jump on the N-Judah (the train that runs East-West a block away from us) all the way to Ocean Beach. Now that's a wide beach, beautiful when the weather is nice. We snatched it!
Moving is never fun, but especially when your stuff gets damaged by the moving company and you try to go after them. The damage we had wasn't horrible, but the movers did damage the side of our piano and then tell us to file a claim when they knew full well that they had to note it on the moving documents. This is a battle we are still dealing with, unfortunately.
We managed to settle in nicely, despite the early setbacks. We slowly unpacked, and filled the apartment with mostly used furniture we found on Craigslist and with art on the walls. We were excited to exhibit some of the art we purchased during our trip in SE Asia.
Here are some photos of how our place looks now:
Living Room:
Bedroom:
Dining Room:
Views from our apartment:
As you can see, we did OK. We've got a nice Japanese family underneath us whom we carshare with to go grocery shopping once a week at Trader Joes. The funny part is everyone in this city is always looking for parking. We managed to get a 2-car garage, but neither family here has a car.
It's nice to be home.
