Life continues to fly by meeting new people, preparing for Burning Man, hanging out at the Movity offices, working from cafes, and exploring SF (mainly restaurants and parks lately). Aside from this, I’ve started to get cabin fever working at home and am on the constant lookout for great free wi-fi spots where I can work…mostly cafes so needless to say I’m drinking more coffee than ever.

And, I’ve been on the lookout for great new startups…and found MyLikes which is a cool word of mouth advertising platform. I highly recommend this to all you super social media gurus (you know who you are…you’ve got over 1,000 friends) because it’s a great way to raise money for a cause (or make money for yourself) by doing what you already do: sharing what you like on facebook and twitter. So, checkout MyLikes.com!

First, there was the Craigslist challenge. There were hundreds of apartments, many posted duplicates over and over every day, most without pictures, often lacking key details (parking?, laundry in the building? dishwasher?). Luckily Movity.com will be coming along soon to alleviate the web’s lack of tools for apartment hunters. In the meantime, I found padmapper.com and love the fact that it puts all craigslist postings on a map!

Then, there was the location challenge. We had to be within a few blocks of either Bart or the N-Judah (muni light rail/subway). We had to be very close to bars, restaurants, and a grocery store. Some of these criteria were Vaughn’s, some were mine. I cared more about the cleanliness and aesthetics of the interiors, he cared more about location. And, we searched for many weeks. And, we saw over 30 apartments. And, in the end I came back to Seattle unsuccessful; we had not found an apartment after three weeks of full time hunting.

But, we carried on the hunt. I poured over craigslist every day, setting up appointments for Vaughn and he tirelessly viewed more and more places (sending me detailed photos of every one).

I was about to settle for a ground floor unit in Cole Valley (mainly because I liked the location and it was spacious) despite the fact that it had no natural light, kitchen cabinetry was falling apart, rear courtyard was a weed pile, and the living room window looked right out onto the sidewalk….and then I saw the ad for a modern loft in SOMA. It had everything we wanted. I frantically arranged a meeting, Vaughn saw it and liked it, we made an offer, submitted the app…then we waited. And, finally, we got the news: it’s ours!

I’m so glad we got a place before I showed up in SF with a uhaul full of boxes and furniture. It was such a pain finding a place that I’ll appreciate this apartment more than any I’ve ever lived in. Hope you enjoy the pics.

Video of Dolphins

From Kaikoura Day 2