The New Pad (can you keep up?)

Yes, we are moving again!!! This will be our 3rd apartment in less than 3 years in San Francisco, but this one is here to stay (at least for the next 4 or so years we think!!!).

A friend-of-a-friend lived at our new abode for the last 6 years, leaving only because they decided to buy a home and therefore are moving to the 'burbs. We jumped (i.e. did everything but accost the property manager and owner) at the opportunity to apply for the apartment. Let me expand on the features:

* 2 BR (we are in a 1 BR now)
* Dishwasher (and I don't mean the elbow grease hands we have now! a REAL one!)
* Washer/Dryer (that we share with 1 other family - and NO QUARTERS!!!)
* Garage and therefore PARKING (whaaaaat? We have done street parking for the last 7 years - this is the true vision of luxury! No more parking tickets! No more racing around reading the Street Cleaning signs to determine if we are going to be towed that day from 10am-12pm! Yessss!). Although very, very tight space, we can hang our bike (we only have 1) from the ceiling...no more storing it in the living room, then rolling it into the bedroom when we have people over!
* Living Room AND Dining Room (they are separated by pocket doors...as in, there are two separate rooms that we can open as one or separate!
* Private Deck! It's on the south side and appears to get all of the sun - it's HUGE!
* Side area for storage and - gasp - our own grill! We've had one of those travel-grills (the kind that fit 2 burgers comfortably or 4 if you really crowd them). Now we have room (and can legally use) a real, grown-up grill!

Here are some pics:

Front door...2-unit building


Living Room


Dining Room


Private Deck!


Nursery...awwww!

As you can see, this is a complete dream in San Francisco apartment-land. The process was slightly stressful (it always is):
1) Get email from friend-of-friend stating they are going to move and the apartment is not yet on CraigsList!
2) Contact friend-of-friend immediately and set up time to see the apartment that day (giving little to no consideration to mom-group that was over at apartment at the same time...not worry, I'll just crawl over the cute little munchkins)
3) Fall in love and contact property manager the next morning via phone and email to get rental application Word doc.
4) Submit application the same day including "extras":
-- Bank statements (savings & checking)
-- Credit reports
-- Salary history
-- References
-- Personal plea as to why we are fantastic tenants, referencing stories from previous apartments where we "saved the day" by working from home and being available to deal with building crises.
5) Wait.
6) Wait.
7) Wait.
8) 9 days after submission: Get call that we were approved for an INTERVIEW!!!! Nervously stumble through interview with owner and property manager, again emphasizing how much we are looking forward to making this a true home for us. We are asked if they may come to our current apartment to see it. This was new to us, but refreshing that an owner actually cares who his tenants are!
9) Send link to photos of our current apartment within 10 minutes of arriving home (thank you, Blog!)
10) Wait.
11) Wait.
12) Panic.
13) Wait.
14) 2 weeks and 2 days pass and it's the last day they say they will make a decision. Gather confidence and CALL to find out status. Voicemail.
15) Receive call back within 10 minutes - WE ARE IN!!!
16) Freak out and celebrate for the next 24 hours, toasting water, champagne and everything else that arrives in a glass.

So, we are leaving the Marina (our current neighborhood) for Pacific Heights (equally as yuppy, but closer to mid-30s rather than early-30s for age-range...strollers abound). We move on July 1st!