The Move

Like any other big thing I do in my life, the preparation before moving to SF was long and thorough.  Funnily enough, the actual move proved to be one of the most seamless processes I've ever been through! (Knock on wood. I do NOT want to jinx myself and go home tonight with my water turned off or something...)

I got into SF with my parents on Monday, July 4, 2011. One of my two roommates, Rachel, landed that day, too, and we were sifting through padmapper listings that evening trying to see which apartments we wanted to check out the next day.  We had received lots of advice as to how to go about apartment-hunting in SF.  Basic conclusion: Places go fast. We came to SF with our credit reports, financial statements, and job offers in hand; ready to pounce at any abode we found fit.

Tuesday morning rolled around and we checked out our first apartment in the Soma area. It seemed great on paper...and boy, were we HIGHLY disappointed when we checked it out. Talk about depressing! No natural light. Tiny. Sidewalk surrounded by homeless people. - Not okay. Luckily for us, the guy who showed us that place said he had a couple other places available in the Mission district (one that I was really interested in), so we went to check those out.

The 2nd apartment we checked out was gorgeous. And being that it was gorgeous...it was definitely PRICEY. The guy showing us around was smart, though. Using my lovely marketing degree, I recognized that he anchored us with the first DEPRESSING SHIT HOLE in Soma, and then conveniently showed us the amazing beauty in the Mission. So, you'd think that after my recognition of this manipulation/persuasion tactic that I'd be phased. Nope. I loved it. So did Rachel. Sure, it was above our price limit, but we quickly raised our limit. We loved everything about this place. Super secure, great area, beautiful decor, new building, great views, NATURAL LIGHT, rooftop deck, elevator...sigh, it was wonderful.

We talked to the 3rd roomie, Claire, who wasn't in SF at the time, and we all agreed that this place was going to be our new home. We signed the lease that evening.  And so goes the story of finding and acquiring an amazing apartment in SF in under 24 hours.

The rest of the week was now open to sight seeing and exploring with my parents, which was great! The last couple days we went furniture shopping (found a great little place in Soma that had an AMAZING sale), and we raided Walmart for all the apartment essentials. The parentals left on Saturday, the 9th, and after a day of apartment-prep and settling in...I woke up Monday morning ready to take on my first day as a Googler (edit: Noogler!)