Things Happen FAST!!!

I feel a little bit crazed right now. Okay, a lot crazed. Due to various circumstances with Jeffrey's schooling, we've decided we need to move to San Francisco, the sooner the better. Our lease here ends at the end of June, so we figure we'll look around for the perfect place and try to time finding a replacement for our current lease so that we're not paying two rents at the same time. We figure this could happen fairly quickly or take the next six months. But I didn't think it would happen almost instantly!

We spent much of our christmas vacation driving around San Francisco looking at various places, most of which we could cross off our list without even viewing the inside. And of the places we did see inside, most were crap. It's amazing how much money people will pay to live in crap in San Francisco. So we saw two really nice places inside. One was just two small - two bedrooms, under 1000 square feet, which is small for three people and two cats.

But then we saw an amazing place with 3 bedrooms plus a study, a garage, living room, dining room, 2 and a half bathrooms, a great updated kitchen, and a wonderful back yard. It's a bit pricey at $3500 a month, but actually a good deal for San Francisco. (Did I mention that rents and home prices are totally insane here?) So at the open house we looked around and said to the realtor "We'll take it!" Unfortunately, at least 3 other people did the same thing. So we drove home and emailed the realtor all our application info and waited, thinking we'll never get it. Then came follow up calls from the realtor. And a conversation with the owner's sister. (The owner lives in Florida, the sister is local). Then the realtor telling us that the sister really liked us and things look good.

In the meantime, I put an ad on craigslist to find someone to take over our lease. A precarious juggling game, to say the least. If we don't find someone, we're stuck paying $3150 + $3500 a month until this place is rented!

As soon as I put the ad up on new years day, people started emailing and calling. I set up the first showing for the following morning. A really cool couple came by and looked around for about 5 minutes and said "We'll take it!". They sent their applications to our landlord, who accepted it. Now all we can do is wait until we hear about our new place.

So 15 minutes ago I get the call. They owner chose us! We got it! The only catch is that the place is available now and the owners don't want to wait until February 1 to start collecting rent. They want to start mid-month, which still means paying two rents for half a month. But wait - the people taking over our lease would actually like to move in early if possible. I'm stunned at how this is working out. I still need to call the owner of our new place and negotiate when to actually start the lease (I'm hoping for the weekend of the 19th), but I think this will all work out perfectly.

Of course the downside to this is that we're moving again. soon. very soon. panic inducing soon.

The new place is in the neighborhood known as The Richmond. It's the area north of Golden Gate Park and south of the Presideo. We will be pretty far west, about 10 or 12 blocks from Ocean Beach on the pacific ocean. What this means is when the infamous San Francisco fog moves in, it covers us first. In the summer, the fog should lift late morning and return early evening or even late afternoon. I can deal with that. I can deal with being half a block from Golden Gate Park. I can deal with being walking distance to the Pacific Ocean. I can deal with being in a nice house in San Francisco. It won't suck. Not at all.

Now is the time to go crazy with moving, setting up utilities at the new place, renting a truck, and all that fun stuff. Anyone want to come help us move?