Details....Details.....Details Part #1

Well, am sure you all have been waiting for the details - so here they are! Am going to split this into a couple of posts for easy readability.

Anyhow, as I had mentioned in my previous post - we moved into our apartment on Friday. Mayur & Purvi came back in their Lexus RX 350 (SUV) and picked us up at 9:45 am along with two of our big suitcases, two pieces of hand baggage and two laptops - boy that car sure has a lot of space. We drove to Ardenwood Forest and there met Emerald at the leasing office. After we managed to get the lease in my name ( as it was originally in Mayur's - since I didn't have a social security number at the time when we signed up originally), she handed over all the paperwork, and asked for a cashiers check(note - it's check here as opposed to the British cheque). Apparently a cashiers check is similar to a demand draft. 'Twas a learning experience for us, as I had no clue as to what a cashiers check was! Anyhow, we went to our bank "The bank of America" (drum rolls in the background!!!), and got that made for the requisite amount, and were back in record time. It was only after that, that she handed over the keys to us, at about 11:45 am!!

With the keys in our hands, we drove up to the apartment, and had the first look.Another learning lesson: Ground floor is known as first floor here, while the first floor is known as the 2nd floor, and so on. So as per US terminology we were on the 2nd floor. Mayur and Purvi help out in moving the luggage in, and then left in a while, as technically, it was a working day for both of them. We started to unpack as much as possible, as Anil, Vikas, and Kiran were due to arrive by 1:30 pm in his Toyota Sienna Van to help us move the remaining stuff.

By the time they arrived we had managed to fill in the cupboards and ended up emptying most of the suitcases from the first trip. We then went back to the guesthouse to pick up the remainder - two more suitcases, the cookwares, dining table & chair, and a couple of cardboard cartons. Stopped for a quick bite at Taco Bell en route, and reached home by about 3:30 pm.

After moving everything in, the first thing to do was the milk boiling ceremony. Mahi carried it out perfectly and then also made some Kheer. As is evident from the photographs, all of us enjoyed it immensely. Anil, Vikas and Kiran, left by 5 pm as Anil still needed to get back to work. If there is one thing that I can say about Anil, it's this: "He goes out of his way to help you out - and it's very hard to come by his kind these days. The amount that he has helped us out is no small feat - I wonder if I would ever go to that extent myself."

Anyhow, once they left, we kind of settled down a bit, and unpacked some more. We finally crashed out in the night, looking forward to Saturday.

Technorati Tags: ardenwood, apartment, fremont, housing, friends, ramesh, ramakrishnan, lexus, toyota, sienna, van, moving

it's been a while....

...and we've been busy. And I mean really busy!!! We moved into our new apartment in Ardenwood Forest on friday, went car hunting on saturday, bought the car on saturday, left the car at the dealership for the accessories and for lack of an insurance, went grocery shopping on sunday, made mountains of food on sunday, assembled the dining table on sunday, went to office on monday, bought insurance online on monday, brought the car from the dealership on monday back to the office, showed it around to colleagues on monday, drove back in the evening.......and then took a sigh of relief.

If you'd like the details on all these activities, you would need to wait, as I'm still cataloging the photographs, and these posts will be up soon - very soon....so see you soon.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Technorati Tags: honda civic, ardenwood forest, home, geico, insurance, ikea

Our apartment in Fremont, CA

Hi everybody!. We have finally managed to find a decent apartment in Fremont, CA. We have been scouting for the last 3 to 4 weeks - two weeks from India and the rest here, in the US.

We were looking for a one bedroom apartment with an inbuilt washer and dryer, as opposed to a commonly shared one. Apart from this, the other criteria that we had were a good school district, safe neighbourhood, and a convenient location - either near work or the general shopping area.

Incidentally, a lot of the rates for apartments in the US are decided on a bunch of factors. Apart from factors such as proximity to shopping areas, malls, public transport systems, the key factor is the school district. Most of the education in the US revolves around public schools and people residing in a particular district can send their children only to that district's Public school. The better the school, the bigger the influx of people in the district, which in turn leads to the rise in apartment rates in that area. We checked out a couple of places in central Fremont such as The Avalon, The Estates, Mission Peak, Presidio, Archstone, Waterstone, etc. and the rates ranged from $1245 to $1600. Astronomical and way over our budget!!!

We scouted some more, and finally managed to find an apartment in Ardenwood Forest, about 1.4 miles from work. This is a really nice place. There are a total of 862 units(apartments) here. Very well laid out. It also has basketball courts, tennis courts, swimming pools, saunas, club houses etc.

As of now we will be moving into a two bedroom apartment, as the waiting time for any of the one bedroom apartments is almost 6 months. But then again, by virtue of us becoming residents of the community, we will be placed on a priority list, and so the moment a one bedroom setup would be available, we would be intimated.

The inset photographs are the ones that I pulled off the web. Once we move in, which is next month I'll post some snaps up.