I (heart) the MISSION

After two years of nomadicism this September I will finally (and officially) have a home address. Earlier this evening Chad and I signed a lease, paid the deposit and the first month's rent at

116 San Jose Ave. (btwn Valencia and Guerrero) @ 24th

I'm SO ready to unpack my shit from storage and finally have a home. It's right in the heart of the mission on a quiet little street surrounded by great dive bars, taquerias, coffee shops, restaurants, corner stores, produce markets and even a yoga studio. We are set to move in Tuesday, September 11th.

here's a short list of awesome places within a few blocks walking distance:
~ The Attic Bar
~ Bar Mission
~ El Farolito's
~ Papalotes
~ Muddy Waters (coffee shop)
~ Yoga Tree
~ The Revolution Cafe (Papa Toby's)
~ Big Mouth Burger
~ Boogaloos
~ Buffalo Exchange
~ Last Supper Club
~ Many Corner Stores and cheap Mission Produce Markets
and even more new places to discover.. . on foot!

It's not in an old style Victorian flat with hard wood floors and large bay windows like i would have preferred but it has a retro 60s charm i can definitely appreciate. The living room is spacious with large windows on one end, the other end opening directly to the kitchen with rockin green striped wall paper, the bedroom is moderately sized and a parking space is included in the rent. $1690 / mo.

The place isn't perfect but it's pretty darn close. These were my initial criteria when starting off the apartment search:

"~~ Central Location (near public transit, neighborhood i like)
Mission is #1, near Dolores Park not past Cesar Chavez
Other areas I'd consider: Hayes Valley, Lower/Upper Haight, Alamo Square, Western Addition, NOPA, Castro, Potrero, SOMA, Cole Valley, Inner Sunset and maybe Inner Richmond. No outer anything (mission, sunset, richmond), no marina, no north beach, no bernal heights or anything too far south

~~ Cost (living in SF, I'm willing to throw down a little extra cash for what I want) I've already seen 7 places. $1350 was way too small, but starting at about $1600 you can get a really nice place (although none of them included parking) .. which would probably tack on a few hundred extra bucks. So we're probably looking at $1700 - $1900 for a nice apartment with a parking space.

~~ Space (is there enough room for both of us and our stuff) # of closets, size of rooms. This could change if a garage/parking space is involved giving us more storage space and less need for additional closets. Also if we were looking in the cheaper range at smaller apartments we might also consider keeping my storage unit ($35 / month) and using that for extra storage of your camping gear, snowboard gear etc.

~~ Look / Feel: hard wood floors, big windows, view, room lay out, high ceilings, gas stove, new appliances, functional bathroom etc. These things are all extra bonuses I would want, but I don't necessarily need ALL of them."

We had seen between 10-15 places in the last two weeks. Open houses were frustrating as we filled out applications along with 20+ other qualified people on a weekend afternoon. So when I saw the add on craigslist yesterday (Tuesday) I immediately called to head over there and beat the crowds. I arrived, armed with our pre-filled-out Metro Rent Applications and a copy of each of our credit reports. When I saw the place (although it was not peeeerfect) I knew it was pretty darn close and the price was right.

I handed our information over to Rex, the agent, and set up a time to return the next afternoon with Chad and with our check books to pay the deposit and secure the place... (Over the last few weeks of hunting I've learned SF has a vicious housing market and you have to JUMP when given the opportunity).

On our second arrival earlier this afternoon we witnessed groups of people checking out the apartment for themselves. I was nervous, but Rex just asked us quietly to wait til they were gone. When everyone finally left (with 5 new applications already turned in to bid on the place) he informed us that we were still interested we still had priority. We immediately agreed to pay up and sign the lease.

After everything was finalized Chad and I took a walk around our new hood checking out all we have at our doorstep. We then went for a celebratory drink at The Attic, one of my favorite dives in the area.

So there you have it my housing saga, quick and relatively painless. Now I will have the time and mental energy to gear up for Burning Man coming up in less than 2 weeks!