Photo essay: Phase I of move-in to new house

We drove up to San Pablo on Monday to pick up the keys to the rental house. We brought yet another carload of boxes and miscellaneous odd-shaped belongings, as well as the kitties — to leave them with my family — to spare them the agonies of having furniture disassembled and moved all around them, and to spare us the potential agonies of driving a U-Haul with the kitties sitting next to us.

We left LA as early as possible on Monday morning. It was raining (as it has been on every occasion that we’ve driven up to the Bay Area in 2009!) and the 5 was closed at the Grapevine, so we had to take a long detour through Lancaster, Tehachapi, Bakersfield, and Wasco.

Just about when we turned onto Hwy 58, our surroundings began to look like this:

Tehachapi is where our farmers’ market apple growers come from. I guess apples like cold weather. It snowed lightly as we drove through.

Lyapa was, as usual, a miserable and passive lump, but Tisha sat next to us and tolerated the drive fairly quietly. He doesn’t like being in the car, but once he figures out he’s not going to the vet, he’s more or less okay.

Every now and then he gives a meow, as if to say, “Just so you know, I still don’t like this.”

Closer to Wasco, the snow dissipated and we found this beautiful verdant landscape with rolling hills, funny scrubby trees, and rocks.

Much more interesting than the 5, even if it did take us an extra hour’s driving — but boy, did we feel the impact of that extra hour after we’d finally arrived and our tiredness had a chance to sink in.

We got to San Pablo, picked up the keys, and went home again.

The next morning, Tuesday, we loaded the car once again with stuff we’d previously brought to San Jose, then drove up to San Pablo. When we got there we found that the garage door opener wouldn’t work because the electricity had been shut off, and we were missing a front door key. We called the landlords and they got a locksmith to come over and let us in.

The house is funny because the front door is on the side of the house. You have to enter through a gate on the side of the driveway, and walk along a little sidewalk and up some stairs before reaching the front door.* There are ponds along the sidewalk, but we’re going to drain them and use them as planters instead. We don’t want mosquitoes.

The landlords had koi there, but raccoons came and ate them. 😦

The front door opens onto the living room, which is a decent size and has a fireplace.

The living room opens onto the kitchen, and there are big sliding doors in both rooms, so there’s a lot of wonderful natural light that comes through the whole area. When we open the doors, we get tons of fresh air, too.

The kitchen is well-suited for people who actually cook. 🙂 There is more storage space than we can shake a stick at, and a dishwasher and gas range (and fan!) and a filtered-water tap.

Since it was a rainy day and we didn’t have any electric lights, I didn’t get any good photos of the bedrooms or office.

But here is the view from the deck:
   

South side of the upper deck:

North side:

Stairs down and lower deck:

And now you know what all the fuss has been about! 🙂

*Don’t worry Lisa 4.7, you can come in through the garage and there are no stairs there. 🙂