After spending a week discovering all the new aspects of my new job, from the fitness center to the high level strategic issues, the challenge of this week-end was to find a permanent place to live. I had spent hours and hours online trying to select the best choices, to avoid spending too much time visiting places all around. And the first one was the good one! So I’ll be moving to Avalon on The Alameda, a nice residence with pool, spa and fitness center, on March 15th. This property has plenty of advantages: it is located close to a Caltrain station, so it is very convenient to go to Frisco whenever I want, close to work, and close to a lot of shops and restaurants, and even a car rental company. The apartment in itself is really nice as you can see on the picture, especially since I have the right to make improvements, like painting the walls. It is one bedroom and 735 sq. ft. apartment, with a dining room separated from the living room, and even a separated desk to install a computer station for example. The floor plan and even a virtual tour can be found here.
So now the next step for the week-end to come will be to find some furniture, painting and paintbrushes. Here is where I need your help: except Ikea, does any of you know great places to buy modern but not too expensive furniture? And the address of a Do-It-Yourself so that I can find everything I need to hang my paintings and paint some walls?
After a lot of hesitation, I think that I am going to try to get my driving license… Those who know me well must already think that plenty of fun stories will appear on this blog, since everybody has incessantly repeated me that I would be the worst driver ever, but I’m sure I can do that without killing anybody… At least I’ll try 
Apart from that, the weather is really bad, I’m definitely not in L.A. anymore! So I am spending my week-end catching up with the episodes I missed of my favorites series, even if there are not a lot of them due to the scenarists’ strike… Hopefully I’ll be able to go to San Francisco next week end!
Entries (RSS)
Ouah! ça c rapide
Bon, j’espère que tu regretteras d’habiter là. Le Caltrain ne roule que toutes les heures le WE, et il faut quand même du courage pour aller à SF. En tout cas je te conseille vivement de passer ton permis. C’est assez facile ici, le plus dur finalement c’est le code 
La conduite avec une automatique, c’est très agréable. Tu as juste à te concentrer sur la route. Prends quelques cours et hop, ce sera dans la poche 
… je voulais biensûr dire “que tu regretteras PAS d’habiter là”… oups. A Palo Alto il y a un DIY très bien: http://www.paloaltohardware.com/
Ahah, you must really have thought that I was going to regret it
!!!!
It’s just that without a car I didn’t have plenty of options, and I don’t really care about the direct environment during the week as long as the apartment is nice. However, I will probably not spend a single week end in San Jose, it would actually be way too depressing!
Thanks a lot for the link, it will be really useful! Do you know any modern furniture store in the area?
On University avenue and at the Stanford shopping center, you’ll find some modern shops
Coucou Fidji,
Il a l’air cool ton appart ! Tu vois finalement, tout s’agence parfaitement bien !
Je sens que tu vas bien t’éclater !
Bon shopping de meubles et peinture !
bisous
Thanks miss! Do not hesitate to come and visit me now
Vraiment beau l’appart…reste à le meubler comme sur la photo
Thanks! But you’re so underestimating me… I will decorate it even better than the picture
I’ll post some videos or pictures when I’ll move in!
oh no, i m sure you love the challenge! And, no i do NOT underestimate a woman who just moved in a new flat: when my girlfriend moved with me, she wanted to change almost everything… at least in your case, it’s a “fresh start(up)”
En esperant que tu n’ai pas le sydrome de la “page blanche”!
good luck with your furnitures and all the joys of a move in!
If starting from scratch paralyzed me, my expatriation would have been a much bigger issue!!! So no, no “syndrome de la page blanche”, fortunately
If your girlfriend has any decorating advice, I would love to read them, I am tired of looking at home&decoration mazines: they always give suggestions to decorate houses that already look like castles!!!