House Hunting Continued
I just got back in from *another* eight hours on the road looking for a place. Today I didn't see as many places, but instead tried to get a feel for the alternative neighborhoods that people suggested in response to my first house hunting post. I started the day in Palo Alto to get a better look at one place, then took off and explored Los Altos (I got lost - with GPS even, it was a neat trick), all the way down to Willow Glen and Los Gatos before checking out Mountain View's downtown. I wanted to get a feel for places farther South.
The answer is, yeah the other areas are nice, but I want to be in the Palo Alto area. It's actually really nice down in San Jose right now - all the rain has made the mountains really green, so the views are gorgeous and the neighborhoods are cute and "real" if you get my meaning. If I worked at Adobe, my first choice would definitely be Willow Glen, but it's just too far south for me at the moment. Craig's List is a bit amusing as they put houses in Willow Glen and Cambrian all the way down to Almadan in the same listings, so I checked out a bunch of places within striking distance of 85, which would be in theory a straight-shot to work, but are really on the other end of the universe from SF. San Jose is mind-blowingly big. I didn't take the highways at all to get there (to get a better idea of the areas) and wow, it just goes on forever.
I came back up and discovered Castro Street in Mountain View, it's really nice! I *just* ate at the Tied House the other night after MoMo, but arrived from another angle and left the same way, so I had no idea of the city center that was just around the corner. It'd be great, but I checked out a few places in that area though and none were what I wanted, so I headed back up to check out a couple more places in Palo Alto, and then finally went back to look at the *very* first place I saw yesterday morning in Menlo Park. Believe it or not (isn't this how it always works out) that is the absolute best place I saw. It's a great location, on a quiet street, close to University, three gorgeous bedrooms, back yard, garage, and a reasonable price. I mean it's mind blowingly great.
So I called to see if it was still available and the owner said he'd come over, show me the place on the inside and give me an application. I was *so* excited about getting the place I may have blown the Blink interview. I tried to express how much I had been looking and how great the place was, but I think it came out badly (I'm too tired... I was trying to be chipper. It wasn't working. :-)). It's such a great place, he's had a couple other applications already so I'm not keeping my hopes up. But it'll be really fantastic if I get it. I have a back up house I'm applying for in this area which is a really cute little nook! It's down the street from the Caltrain station and shopping and has this great park nearby which during the summer has music during the weekends. It's great as well, actually, just not nearly as nice as the one in Menlo Park.
Oh yeah, that gorgeous place pictured in my last post? It was on Greer like the Eichler place, but on a side street even closer to the highway, I could see the cars on the overpass as I pulled up to the cul-de-sac. No way. Chris McKay called the noise "urban surf" in a comment on my last post, which I thought was hysterical because that's what it's like, only a lot less calming. :-)
So... I'm wrecked. I just ordered a pizza and am going to veg out in front of TiVo for a while. If you happen to know of anyone with a house for rent in that area, have them give me a call, hey? ;-)
-Russ