Sorry for not keeping ontop of updates this week – it has been very busy and very boring (in some respects) – certainly for Grandma, Granddad, Elliot and Oliver – who have been mostly confined to the car 🙁
We soon focussed in on Los Gatos as being the place that we wish to live, given the wonderful town centre and the parks and general rural feel of the place. This of course makes it more expensive than the other options but we feel it is worth the additional premium.
The initial house that we liked was in Los Gatos but it was really for sale and there is (as of mid week) a pending offer to buy the house meaning that it is not going to be available to rent in the short term.
We have been AMAZED at the price of housing over here – a small (less than 1500 sq feet) wood home that looks like a caravan that has had it’s wheels taken off and some plants dumped around it is still selling for $600k – incredible. So this of course means that such a place commands more than $3000 per month in rent 🙁
The place we have found (and subsequently contracted to rent from the 1st April 2010) is a 2 year old detached home in a community on the outskirts of Los Gatos – it actually has a San Jose address but is only 8 minutes drive from the town centre of Los Gatos. It is in a relatively small community and has a very small front area for BBQ and tables and chairs etc, with a double garage underneath at the back. There is plenty of space for kids to play out on bikes and will be relatively quiet since the only traffic will be people returning to their homes etc. there is also a park just 300 yards down the end of the street with children’s play equipment etc in it.
We got a shock when we went car shopping – we did the english thing and went to Cadillac – a 6.2 litre V8 Escalade was the option (nice 🙂 ) and when it came to checking out what it would cost, the guy soon closed up on the fact that we were not US and did not yet have credit in the place – in retrospect, makes a lot of sense – but we were still shocked at how he decided that he was uninterested in us at all.
We are seeing a car dealer that has been recommended to us today before we head to the beach at Santa Cruz. He has been recommended to us and Simon has spoken to him a couple of times – he seems to think that it will not be a huge issue to locate a couple of cars to suit out needs. An Audi Q7 / BMW X5 and a Toyota Prius remain at the top of the list. The Prius we hope to pick up cheap given all the publicity recently 🙂
Monday, we fly down to LA to relax in a more holiday environment – been a heavy week this week, so we REALLY looking forward to it 🙂