The move-out in San Francisco went smoothly. We were so thankful to have Dave and Zhanna there to help us with all our awkward and heavy items. They were stars.

As for the move-in, not so smooth…

When we arrived in Cupertino at about 5pm yesterday, no help arrived!! We tried carrying the sofa upstairs with just the two of us but my wrist gave out. We decided to sleep the night and figure it out in the morning.

It’s now early Sunday morning and it’s time to recruit muscle! The staff at our complex suggested go to Home Depot and recruit from the men who gather there to find manual labour jobs. Hopefully we’ll find a couple of guys who can lift our furniture up two flights of stairs.

We’ve officially decided we’re never moving without movers again.

Our new home is "The Hamptons" in Cupertino.

What we will gaining by moving

• Jesse can bike 5 minutes or walk 20 minutes to work at Apple. This will be HUGE considering he’s used to spending an hour and a half each way on the bus now.
• Our rent is $900 a month less than now
• Grass and trees
• A town more like London, Ontario – suburbia and cute shops, but more driving.
• A pool in our complex.
• Closet space, fireplace and a deck

What we’ll miss about SF

• Our new good friends Zhara, Abi and Emma, Zhanna and Dave, Sandra and Josh who live so closeby
• The dog parks – there aren’t any in Cupertino
• Always something to do in the city
• The breath taking views all around

We’re planning to come home for Christmas and then drive our Santa Fe back across the border and across the USA.  I big thanks go out to our friends in London, the Custeau’s, who have been burdened with our un-sellable SUV in the driveway all this time!!

More photos to come! Jesse has two more trips to China before Christmas so it will be a busy two months!

Tomorrow morning we finalize the deal and sign the lease.  What a relief!  We’ll try to post some photos of it when we can get inside to look around and take measurements.  Jesse had already booked all of our stuff to be delivered on September 2nd so we might have to do some wheeling and dealing to move in earlier.

On top of that, Jesse received his Social Security Number in the mail today so we can finally sign up for things like phone service.  I also got my Zipcard, which means I now can get from A to B in the shortest distance.

Oh, and thanks for mailing all of our Canadian mail Ginny. :)  We got it yesterday but it had been sitting at the concierge for a week and they didn’t tell us!

$2595 / 2br – Bright,super clean and all re-done unit in a charming Edwardian bldg. (nob hill)

This unit has hardwood floors,new light fixtures,marble bathroom,granite kitchen counters,built-in micro-wave oven,new refrigerator,new stove ….yes,all new !
The building is located in the heart of the city,one of the safest and the most quaint neighborhoods. Grace Cathedral is only 3 blocks away. Union Square/downtown,China Town,North Beach,and the major restaurants & hotels are all within walking distance.
That romantic cable cars (Fisherman’s Wharf bound) stop right in front of the building.
This is a place for the typical San Francisco up-town life.
For special viewing call PHILLIP at (415)xxx-xxxx
Also there is an open house going on between 10:00am to noon this Sunday.Jones St. at Jackson St.   google map

• dogs are OK – wooof

Too many of the places we found that were affordable and seemed “too perfect” were in fact in the higher homicide areas. Thankfully someone tipped us off to this nice little san francisco homicide map. We noticed that 3 people have been killed within blocks right near a loft we were looking at.

One particular apartment we visited was so gorgeous and it would have saved us hundreds a month.  On the elevator back down, we talked about how it would be “worth it” to try this lower income area just for the savings.  When we got to the bottom and went outside there were people smoking crack on the sidewalk!  We’ve definitely concluded that it doesn’t matter if it looks nice on the inside if we’re too afraid to go outside.  Just the fact that Jesse will be away for weeks at a time makes me want to find somewhere I’ll be comfortable going for a run or a walk with Parker.

We’re going to pay a little more and find a safe neighborhood.  And by a “little” we’re talking a jump from about $2000/month to around $2600/month.  Maybe when we get a little more city-savvy we’ll be more ready to brave the more “edgy” neighborhoods as they call them.

GDAS Update!

We think we may have found the place as of today, but we’ll find out for sure tomorrow.  It’s in the nob hill area just east of us.  It’s dog friendly (which has been the BANE of our existence)  AND it has two bedrooms so we’ll be ready for any of you to visit! Fingers crossed!

Impromptu Zip Car trip to Santa Cruz on Saturday.

Santa Cruz

Parker’s Park

Parker would not put this stick down.  She even carried it right into our apartment. I guess we forgot all her toys were in storage! We bought her a nylabone pronto!!