Still "on the move"

Our cross-country trip is over but I still intend to update the blog with posts (past due and present). We still are looking for a house and of course we still feel like we just got here (because we did) so there's plenty of relocation thoughts still to come.

But for faithful friends who have been reading and wondering what we've been up to...

Temp housing - We are now in our second week of corporate temp housing. It's a great apartment -- 3BR, 3BA, which is bigger than our house in Sunnyvale! (And possibly more square footage too.) I've been enjoying having more space and less stuff -- I'm actually not really looking forward to getting all of our stuff from the moving company because it's been rather liberating living minimally since when our house was staged. Just goes to show how much *stuff* we Americans accumulate. Also a lesson for our next relo: get rid of stuff before, not after, you move. I already did, but I think there's a lot more that we could live without.

Exploring the new - It's been fun for me to explore the area. I enjoyed grocery shopping before (I know, bizarre), but now with new brands, new stores, new stuff (like WHITE American cheese), it's like an adventure for me. Some people prefer bush whacking in the jungle, I prefer finding new grocery stores. Last week I also made it a point to get into Lexington, our intended place to buy a house, once a day to get a feel for the town even more. I went to Wilson Farm for produce and the park at the center of town, even met a mom!

Getting around - Driving here has been an experience. It really is funny to see how the habits differ from coast to coast. My first venture out by myself was pretty insane. The GPS (thank GOODNESS for the GPS!) took me via local roads two towns over to the closest Target. None of the streets are straight nor intersect at 90 degree angles here so no wonder drivers here do crazy maneuvers to get where they want to go.

I was honked at no less than 3 times for not starting fast enough and while I thought I was abiding by the law by waiting for my right of way, I'd find Bostonians frantically waving me to go first like I was crazy not to take them up on their generosity. But when in Rome: I find myself feeling a little generous at times and waving my share of people into line.

Tobey has asked about the T a few times. And I'd love to take the kids on a T ride some time. But it seems like anywhere we'd go on the T is for "fun" and until we settle a little more, I'm afraid we won't have time for fun like that for a while.

Renting an apartment - Our timing was such that unless we went into 30-day closing the first day we got here, we'd have to find a rental apartment as an intermediate step from temp housing to buying a house. We wanted the flexibility of a short term lease so there were really only 2 available places in town, one old and one new. The newer one of course cost more but I could literally see myself hating the old place every time I had to do laundry in the basement or every time I banged my elbows on the narrow doors. And the kitchen of the old place was older than the kitchen in our house in Sunnyvale so in an effort not to move backwards in the housing food chain, we opted for the newer place. For local friends, we'll be at the Avalon in Lexington -- come drop by!

Finding a house - We interviewed 3 realtors, one of which we ruled out within 10 minutes of meeting him. Nice guy and humble, but just not the kind of realtor we need as people brand new to the area. We are still undecided between the realtor Sophie recommended after screening her realtor network or a realtor that a friend of friends used to buy their house in Sunnvyale. Each realtor has her strengths, both we like. We went out with the first realtor to see a couple of houses and were impressed with her attention to detail and willingness to point out the negatives of a house (and not just sell us anything to make a sale). We plan on going out with the second realtor as she seems to think outside the box, find properties early, act quickly. I feel like I'm on eHarmony, dating two realtors and needing to decide on committing to one in the coming weeks.

As for the houses themselves, we are slowly coming to the conclusion that the kind of house we intended to buy is at the tippy top of our price range, if not a bit beyond. So Lexington is still expensive although we still get more for the money than in Sunnyvale. We considered getting an older house on a good lot/location and then renovating it ourselves but even that isn't quite within range (or doesn't exist?? or just hasn't come on the market?). We opened the possibility of neighboring (cheaper) towns with good schools. It's just hard to believe that we made out so well selling our house in CA and we still struggle to find what we like here in Lexington. Makes me wonder if we are jumping a step from starter home to dream home. And I'm not even talking about dream home here, just home for the next 20 years kind of home. So I need to remind myself that God brought us this far and not to get too discouraged.

Friends - We do miss our friends back in CA dearly, but it has been nice to have some friends to reconnect with here in MA. We went over to my old roommate and college buddy Cecelia's house -- they live in Lexington and it was nice to vent about our housing search with them (as well as have play friends for Tobey and Eli). We saw many old friends at church the first Sunday we arrived. And tonight we're having our first friend over for dinner -- hosting at our tastefully decorated and furnished temp apartment that I had nothing to do with. :-) But we have no school friends yet (because no school) and no church family, and probably not for a while.

Family - The main reason for our move was to be closer to family and let's just say it's starting to pay off already. With our move to our apartment coming up, both my mom and Tom's mom offered to come up and help and while they probably would have (and DID) had we lived in CA, it's nice to know it's not such a big burden for them to come out and help.

As far as being within an hour and a half of Tom's brother's house? That's been GREAT. We went to their house last weekend (our first) to pick up our 2nd car which was shipped to their house. We just spent the day up there. This past weekend we went up for an overnight for the long weekend. It's been great to see the 4 kids play so well together. And their New Hampshire lifestyle certainly is like a vacation for us. It's nice to just spend the whole day basically at home or at the local playground, without feeling like we had to "do" something together. It's nice to be able to say goodbye without feeling like it will be another 6-12 months before we see them again.

What's next - We are starting the ball rolling on getting pre-approved. We are also getting ready to move into our apartment June 13 -- happy anniversary to us -- what a way to spend it. After we move in, we gotta turn around and head out to Indiana for my cousin's wedding, a week's vacation with my family and a nice little return visit to the Bay Area for Melissa's wedding that I'm standing in. After all that, maybe we'll start to settle in a little more.