Yep. Still looking. Looking for a place in the Silicon Valley for the store / our home. Tick tock. Tick tock.

Palo Alto

We applied to rent 3 homes in the last 10 days. The first we could not come to an agreement on price. The second we got turned down and we still do not know why [their stated reason just doesn’t make a lot of sense]. The third we are still waiting to hear from but we were not the first to apply, so… it does not look so great.

This is a sellers market, and the way this game of musical chairs is supposed to be played out here is for each renter to apply to several places, and each property to take several applications.

But what happens is a property gives the okeydokey to a prospective renter, but that renter might prefer another place on their recent ‘applied fors’, so they hold off accepting. Meanwhile a renter who really wants this place, hoping for this place, is being stalled because if the first people accepted eventually go somewhere else, then they might actually get the place they really want after all…

So, yeah, musical chairs meets the lottery [or, more like Let’s Make a Deal. Do you want door #1, or #2, or…].

We, however, have been applying to just one at a time. We make such an investment in feeling how it would be to LIVE someplace, and how we can fit us and our businesses and our immediate and future goals into a place. It becomes THE place we can make work. THE place we WANT.

And then we don’t get it.

Not giving up, however, on any of these places yet.

Unlike most people, we are lucky enough to work out of the home – and so we spend a LOT of time there. We ‘give’ ourselves to the home, and bond with it, try to make it a better place while we live there.

This place below is a fine example…

This place in Palo Alto was one we had our eyes on for a long time – 5 weeks+. Spent sooo much time evaluating each aspect of this out-of-the-ordinary home.

For one – it has an elevator. An elevator! [there are not enough explanation points in the universe to express how much this tickles us :-)] For over 20 years we wanted an elevator so we did not have to lug 100 lb amps, 300 lb amps, even 700 lb speakers up the 45 stairs to our listening room in Boulder [and, of course, back down again].

Large parking area. Large-ish yard to separate us from the neighbors. Nice appliances. Lots of parking. A gate of sorts. Very nice.

But the rooms were small, and the Audio Note room would require some kind of pipe and draping [Neli thinks].

We haven’t come to terms yet on the price; it is currently just too much for us to feel comfortable with.

We are still jonesing a little for this place, but trying to move on… The other places we found are priced a little better, and all have their more or less lovable blemishes, so we shall see….

Starting to wear us out some, and no doubt you the reader as well…. :-/ Hopefully this will resolve itself sooner rather than later

Whew. Going to run out of Roman Numerals 🙂

Still looking for a place out here.

This Belmont place had an awesome, awesome view. You could stand at this window where the Acapella Cellini speakers are and look right to see South Bay and left to see the San Francisco downtown skyline – and everything in between.

This room was big enough, about 15 x 20 feet and even the dining room was big enough for the Audio Note E-size speakers [and with the same awesome view].

[You mean you don’t also put a system in your dining room if it is big enough? You are missing out! ;-)]

But it was really cold and windy here that day, which is not completely uncommon – which Neli hates – and it was a duplex [we suspected as much during the original drive-by, but it was not specified as such in their ad].

Sharing a wall – the listening room wall – with another home does not seem like it may work all of the time for the ultimate happiness of all concerned.

And there were other issues – basically coming down to us not feeling like we would like living here in the long run.

*sigh* onward we go….

As we make our way up and down the Peninsula looking for a place to settle our selves and our audio gear…

.. realize that we look at about 10 places for everyone that we go inside. Just by driving by we can figure out some of the access issues, the micro-climate, the neighborhood and more.

For example, in a quiet family neighborhood, we might be expected to get some pressure to turn down the music around 8 or 9pm when the neighbors kids go to bed. Now, mind you, *I* do not play the music loud very often, but Neli…. 😉

Large mid-Peninsula Home

The Acapella Cellini in the backroom at this house.

The house was big, with a large yard, and on a relatively busy street. With such a big house, with a big yard, and high noise floor outside, we expected to be able to play music at a reasonable high volume.

There were plenty of rooms here. And the price, while high, could have been much, much higher.

Not much of a view – but not too bad. We are starting to look at houses without views of the bay – we just aren’t seeing what we are looking for in houses-with-a-view right now.

Why didn’t we select this as our next home?

Well, for one, someone else had applied ahead of us [taking the choice out of our hands] :-/.

And, the busy-ish street… We lived in town in Boulder for a bit, when we 1st got the big Acapella Triolon speakers [and met Kevin for the first time – looking for a record cleaner I think], and THAT was on a busy street. Never could open the window because the noise was so bad [a busy street where the speed limit was around 45 mph]. This was nowhere near that bad, here, but still, we have some hesitancy about moving this place for that reason.

Still – it was a nice place…