In a Western Place

Hooray, the weather has taken a turn for the better and everyone’s happy again! I heard a rumor that we might hit the 70’s over the weekend — that’s a heat wave! Here’s a sunny scene from this morning (city is closer than it appears).

M couldn’t accompany me to pick up the keys last evening so I braved rush hour traffic and walked into our new home (as the official homeowner) all by lonesome. Maybe I set my expectations too high, but receiving the keys was fairly uneventful. Like, hello house, I guess I own you? I did spend a good hour in the new place, measuring for the new appliances and introducing myself to one of our next door neighbors. I especially enjoyed the warm evening sunlight bursting through our windows, something we rarely experience in San Francisco this time of year. As a matter of fact, after I returned to our current residence in the fog I had to turn on the heat. I’m definitely looking forward to our significantly lower gas and electric bill on the East Bay.

I snagged this shot during my commute back into the city. It’s my favorite view of the Bay Bridge, taken from Folsom near the Embarcadero. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, the Bay Bridge (not the Golden Gate) is a 5-mile long double-decker bridge that connects Oakland to San Francisco. Soon my life will revolve around getting stuck in traffic over this thing on close to a daily basis. I predict an increase in meditation mp3s.

A hiccup at the title office (don’t get me started) postponed our closing by a day. Alas, we’re finally getting our keys today! Then, crap… we gotta move from point A to point B!

Our loan papers are ready. I was really hoping we could sign today and close on Thursday, receive keys on Friday, but no. Matt can’t leave school before 3:30 (and it’s the end of the school year, so he can’t take any time off), the escrow officer can’t meet with us after 4, the seller’s agent is starting maternity leave (and due at any moment), and our Realtor is leaving to go on vacation. Oh, and our mortgage broker just rang to say that our rate lock will expire on Friday… so um, yeah, I’m crying uncle! Because Matt is in class all day, I’ve had to do all of the legwork on this gig and I’m officially tired of all the coordinating and communicating. Yeah, yeah, buying a house was my idea, whatever. Let’s finish this race already!

Anyway, speaking of moving… I now have a window seat at work! Granted the view is less than stellar…

I’m happy to report that the appraisal of our future home went without a hitch; the condition of the property is acceptable and no repairs or deficiencies were noted. Thank gosh — I feel so relieved! Because we’re buying the property as is — M and I had to do quite of bit of work on the house ourselves to get it appraisal-ready. Hell if I ever crouch around in that dusty, spider-web infested 5′ partial basement again. Despite the delay, we didn’t lose too much time because we were able to square away all our mortgage stuff. Now we’re waiting for all the final papers to be drawn then viola! We’ll be happy homeowners in the Laurel District of Oakland, California. Yippee!

Now that I’m feeling a little more confident and comfortable, here are some pictures of our future “staged” home along with commentary (all borrowed from the seller’s site.) Lowes, here we come!

Our living room with fireplace (and, thankfully, removable clock):

Our kitchen. Appliances tbd:

Our bathroom. Yes, only one (for now):

Our master bedroom. Warm sunlight included:

Our master bedroom, again, with subtle view of neighborhood and our lemon tree in the front yard:

It’s no secret that I work directly across the street from Pier 39. When the tourist tide is low, I like to stroll through the area during my lunch break to soak in some sun and say hello to the sea lions. Occasionally I catch some behind the scenes action, like witnessing the Goldman street performer touching up his outfit with a can of spray paint behind a fence… and the Bushman mucking about some bushes looking for new branches.

Feeling a tad burned out so, here’s a picture of my hand. My nails grow wicked fast. It’s a skill.