San Francisco is also known as city of hills, with 50-plus hills, it's considered the 2nd hilliest city in the world, next to La Paz, Bolivia. We can't play balls in front of the house without chasing ball rolling down a hill. How about backyard, can we throw a BBQ party there? Nah....it's too windy and foggy! Fog might be charming for many people but not me, seriously. In summer, you will see the fog that blanket over the city, sometimes obscuring from sight all but the tallest buildings. Just imagine our kids wear thick jacket in summer rather than just short and Ts. Not fun, huh?
Despite of its hills and fog, San Francisco is one of the most attractive cities in America for picturesque and diversity. We have been discussing about moving for a while...Yes, No, Yes, No. Until we got the helper who helped us make a final decision easily. It's the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) who assign each kid a public school to enroll, started at kindergarten. Although we currently live 3 blocks away from the elementary school nearby, SFUSD has assigned Max, who will be in kinder this August, to the school across the city in the most dangerous area!! What? Really? Are you serious? We rejected and filed petition just to find that no more school assignment for Max now and we must wait to submit again in August, yes..just right before school starts, to see any seat available in any school. Ok....we are done. Time to move on!
We started shopping for new house, sounded fun.. but.. not really. We've looked at few cities nearby to make it convenient for hubby to commute to work in SF. We narrowed down to Walnut Creek and Corte Madera. And the winner is...drums please....Walnut Creek! Hubby lived in Walnut Creek few years ago and he loved it. We have visited Walnut Creek many times in the past just to enjoy sunshine with outdoor activities. We did research about schooling system there and we satisfied with it.
Next step, house hunting! The time we seriously looking for house was the time with lowest inventory. We saw the same group of people shopping around for houses wherever there was open house. Almost of them are the families with 1-3 kids. Just wondering, are they from San Francisco? Same reason of moving? I've heard many families moved away from SF because they couldn't stand the messed up schooling system.^__^"
After looking quite a bit, we put offer on one house. No...we didn't get it. I was sad but relieved in the same time. Why? It's a swimming pool...hmm...nice... but wait...I don't want to take risk with my 2 monkeys who don't know how to swim yet. Ok....we moved on.
And...TA-DA... finally, we found the perfect one for us. Just to clarify, perfect here doesn't mean either big or elegant. It just answered what we need.
Outside:
1. Flat area, no hill (MUST)
2. Good school.
3. Safe neighborhood.
4. Big street but NO TRAFFIC.
5. Spacious backyard for kids to let out energy.
Inside:
1. High ceiling with good lighting
2. Enough rooms for me to have my own craft room..he..he
3. Not too much of Fixer-upper. We don't want to spend most of the time fixing instead of enjoying family time. But we don't mind doing little by little. Now you know why I name my blog 302 Little by Little. 302 is our new address.
Okay..okay...no more talking. Let's see our future home. We have not officially moved in yet, but we've started calling our house already :D
We are hiding behind this little rose garden and few trees. In Walnut creek, any tree taller than 4.5' and larger than 9" diameter needed to require permit to cut. Note: Because a tree drops leaves or needles is not valid reason for removal.Cool!
Behind the garden, here we are! We need to change roof before moving in. Stay tune for "After" photo.
Big street with no traffic :D Love it! Mira is exploring the neighborhood.
We will move in soon after roofing done. Please follow my blog if you want to see what we will do to our new nest, the 302 Little by Little blog.
