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 The kitchen is a bit small and outdated, but the rest of the place is nice and huge (yes, huge).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.

The Value of Roughing It (Guest Blogged by Brian)

Our first two weeks in California have been fun and exciting, but they have not been easy. Yes, we have enjoyed fun day trips here and there, and we're very much appreciating the mild, sunny climate. But while waiting for the movers to bring our possessions over from snowy Boston, we've had to do without some of the basics for a while: basics like furniture, warm blankets, and television. Even our internet access has been intermittent. While these hardships have been trying, I think they have brought us closer together as a family and will make us stronger people individually.

I am not above "roughing it" or "camping out." I am a man's man, and I own flannel shirts. I think the fact that we have to drive two miles to Starbucks every morning for our lattes is exhibit A that we can harness our wild environment.

But this week we have been sleeping on airbeds; sitting on milk crates with plates in our laps for our meals; relaxing on a set of blankets spread out on the hardwood floor that we refer to as "the couch" (in times of destitution it is important to maintain one's aptitude for irony); cooking with rudimentary facilities and limited supplies (we have only two pots and one small frying pan); dining out at places that don't have tablecloths or stemware; and trying to watch movies on a laptop screen.

But what has buoyed us throughout all of this is the knowledge that there are people in the world who are far worse off than we have been. In some third-world countries whole families must live in a room the size of a hamper. They are forced to eat nothing but the tamarinds and coconuts they find on the beaches. Instead of bifocals, they all have monocles and can only see out of one eye at a time. And their drinking water comes directly from sewage pipes, where they must hold out their demitasse cups to be filled and sipped, filled and sipped, filled and sipped. It's a monotonous and dangerous life in such places (I know this firsthand, because I saw it on television once).

Our time in this desolation has left me pensive moments to reflect on my family, and I have concluded that if we focus on the misfortune of others, it helps us to better appreciate the things that we already have. But if we spend too much time focusing on them, we won't have time to think about all the cool stuff we could be buying.

And I think that is a lesson for all of us.