Settled in Style: 4129 Wilkie Court, Palo Alto CA 94306

Not much to look at from this photo, but we did it. We found a place and closed on it (its a lease, not a sale), just 18 hours shy of the moving truck coming. I'd looked most of this week and seen over a dozen places, mostly crappy or shoddy, and even though hand down this is the nicest of them by far, I think I wasn't ready for the search to be over, or at least I didn't expect things to pan out at the last minute like this. I hemmed and I hawed and I couldn't say exactly why... the kitchen was a little small and dated, the train closer than I wanted, the sun at the wrong angle (just kidding). Brian saw the video and was baffled by my response. He suggested that I go and hang out in the area this morning, and by the time I was done, it was a done deal.

Its big (2000 sq ft), all on one level (ranch style), has a lovely fenced yard, and is 500 ft from a park. The kitchen is a bit small and outdated, but the rest of the place is nice and huge (yes, huge). We've got 3 bedrooms, and office, a dining room, and essentially 2 living rooms - one of which will be the play room. Oh, and a big 2 car garage, a driveway that fits 2 cars, and the house is on a quiet cul-de-sac. Its centrally located, although it is on the "other side of the tracks" from old Palo Alto, which means that for the particular neighborhood, you get a lot more bang for your buck. The same rent near where the temp house is, just 8 or 9 blocks away, gets you 2 minuscule bedrooms in an OK house, or 3+ dilapidated bedrooms in a crappy house. Old Palo Alto vs New Palo Alto which was still farmland up until the 50s. Also, much of Palo Alto is near the train tracks, and this is a hair closer than I thought I'd be into, but after spending 2 hours at the local park and then the house I decided that we should take it.

Funny thing is - because it was on the other side of the tracks, I almost did not go look at it - really decided to at the last possible moment, called, and found out there was to be an open house an hour later. And this morning, sort of like when you see something on ebay and decide you might want to bid on it and get committed out side of reason, there was a bit of a frenzy for this place (someone after us offered $100 more a month, but a later start date), which we apparently won by a matter of minutes. In this market, to have several people go after the same house seems to be unheard of. You should have seen how flustered the rental agent was that people were even waiting for the open house.

Yes, yet again, a little patients and perseverance turned up what will hopefully be a diamond in the not so ruff.