Moving to Redwood City next week

Heylel

Heylel

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After months of planning, I'm headed to Redwood City, CA late next week. It's a corporate relocate, so I'm ahead of the house and family by a week or two. We found a decent little place to rent very close to my new job though, which is nice.

Any suggestions for places to go and things to see? This is dead center in silicon valley, about an hour from San Fran or San Jose.
 
Jackie Treehorn

Jackie Treehorn

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Eh, it's only about a 30-35 minute drive to the city when traffic isn't an issue. Personally I dislike the peninsula and Silicon Valley in general (I'm certain it has lovely places to visit / hike / eat at, I just think it's very bland and lacking character.) I briefly dated a woman who lived in Redwood City and had to slog my way there from Oakland frequently. Cool you found a nice place though! If you make your way to the East Bay and Oakland I can give you dozens of suggestions.
 
Vinen

Vinen

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Jackie Treehorn said:
Eh, it's only about a 30-35 minute drive to the city when traffic isn't an issue. Personally I dislike the peninsula and Silicon Valley in general (I'm certain it has lovely places to visit / hike / eat at, I just think it's very bland and lacking character.) I briefly dated a woman who lived in Redwood City and had to slog my way there from Oakland frequently. Cool you found a nice place though! If you make your way to the East Bay and Oakland I can give you dozens of suggestions.
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Take the 280 when you can. 101 is always a shitfest during the daytime. The only time I've made it into the city in 35 minutes from Redwood City is past 7PM or on weekends.

Checkout downtown Palo Alto for some decent restaurants. I need to dig up the names on Yelp since I always forget them. There are also some decent walking / running paths on Stanfords land... personally don't know about them but my boss has mentioned them in the past to me. She runs on them every morning or something.
 
Heylel

Heylel

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I'll be able to bike to work from the place we found, so interstates on most days won't be an issue. We'll be really close to Marsh Manor, so it's only a couple miles to the office.

I need to find a good park for the dogs, and work out a route for my wife to get into Palo Alto once her job transfers.
 
Vinen

Vinen

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Heylel said:
I'll be able to bike to work from the place we found, so interstates on most days won't be an issue. We'll be really close to Marsh Manor, so it's only a couple miles to the office.

I need to find a good park for the dogs, and work out a route for my wife to get into Palo Alto once her job transfers.
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Ohh cool. That is a decent area.

One restaurant that just popped into my mind is Fish Market on El Camino in Palo Alto. About 12 minute driving from Marsh Manor. Probably my favorite restaurant to grab a dinner/beer at before passing out at my hotel when I am visiting Palo Alto.

Depending on where your wife is working Palo Alto has a pretty nice bus system funded by Stanford. Goes out all the way to the Tesla, VMware, Nest, etc offices (which are on Stanford land).
Marguerite Shuttle | Stanford Parking & Transportation Services
 
Heylel

Heylel

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She's with the VA now, and eventually they'll get her job transferred. It's a bunch of bullshit red tape holding up the process, so she might find something else in the meantime. She's a gerontologist, so there's any number of clinical and research jobs in the area she qualifies for.

I can throw a rock and hit Delucci's Market from our new place. I managed to find us a corner lot rental house with an actual yard for our dogs to run around in. There's a train track nearby, and I have no idea how much noise that will generate, but it's the only house we saw that was either way outside our price range, or in a shabby area.
 
Vinen

Vinen

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Heylel said:
She's with the VA now, and eventually they'll get her job transferred. It's a bunch of bullshit red tape holding up the process, so she might find something else in the meantime. She's a gerontologist, so there's any number of clinical and research jobs in the area she qualifies for.

I can throw a rock and hit Delucci's Market from our new place. I managed to find us a corner lot rental house with an actual yard for our dogs to run around in. There's a train track nearby, and I have no idea how much noise that will generate, but it's the only house we saw that was either way outside our price range, or in a shabby area.
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My wife and I made the choice not to move out to the Bay Area when I was offered a transfer due to the cost of living. I'd get a modest pay-bump to cover it but it just didn't feel worth it. Our housing would have been ~6k/month (twice our current mortgage) for the 3 bedroom apartment we'd have wanted.
 
Heylel

Heylel

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We're paying $3.5k for a 3 bed house. It's older, but well cared for and privately owned by a local doctor. Base pay after cost of living is basically a wash, but the perks, bonuses, and RSUs are all things I didn't get in my last job. I'm treating it as a resume builder. Go out there for a few years to network, build my name, and then head back east once someone offers to move me back.

Moving coast to coast is tough for sure. Changing jobs, moving thousands of miles, and selling a house all at one time is just about the most stressful thing I have ever done.
 
Jackie Treehorn

Jackie Treehorn

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Heylel said:
We're paying $3.5k for a 3 bed house. It's older, but well cared for and privately owned by a local doctor. Base pay after cost of living is basically a wash, but the perks, bonuses, and RSUs are all things I didn't get in my last job. I'm treating it as a resume builder. Go out there for a few years to network, build my name, and then head back east once someone offers to move me back.

Moving coast to coast is tough for sure. Changing jobs, moving thousands of miles, and selling a house all at one time is just about the most stressful thing I have ever done.
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3 bedrooms for $3.5k, that's a damn great deal. I didn't even know you could get anything that cheap down there with that spec.
 
Heylel

Heylel

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It's an older place but fully renovated and we like it. Coming from owning our own home, it seemed like an easier transition than a condo. We did look at some 2 bed apartments, townhomes, etc. The prices were definitely high, and we aren't the type of tenant who would use all of the amenities. I'm not interested in subsidizing the pool for other people, especially when I have a full gym at work.
 
Alex

Alex

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Agree on using 280 instead of 101. More scenic drive and it saves time if you're heading into the city. I dated a girl in San Mateo for a bit so I know about awesome ramen places and Espetus (top notch Brazilian steakhouse) but I spend almost all my time in SF. Honestly, Caltrain is pretty legit. It just doesn't run late. You can also transfer at Millbrae to BART if you want to access different parts of the city. Saves you time and the horrible hassle that is parking in the city.
 
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Tenks

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Vinen said:
Pretty much what I was thinking. The 2 bedroom apartment my wife and I looked at (new, luxury) were running ~6K grand when they opened.
Studio - 2 Bed Apartments | Carmel The Village
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Jeez and I thought my rent was stupid high in Irvine. Thats pretty nutty.

Moving coast to coast is tough for sure. Changing jobs, moving thousands of miles, and selling a house all at one time is just about the most stressful thing I have ever done
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Just did it myself and yeah it sucks. Luckily my home sold really fast so that was a massive weight off my mind. I'm sure you get a corporate location contact as well and mine did a bang up job. Coordinated the movers when/where to arrive and my auto pickup guys as well. I couldn't imagine doing the move if I didn't have some sort of assistance with it.
 
Alex

Alex

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Yeah I handled almost the entire move by myself. Company didn't help me out too much. Fucking sucked. At least I didn't have a house to sell.
 
Heylel

Heylel

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We have corporate assistance, but the distance means it isn't possible to see places in advance. For the house we rented, the property manager went there in person and did a Facetime tour with us, showed us the neighborhood etc. Our assigned relocation specialist didn't really listen when we told her we wanted to see homes, not apartments. We spent a couple grand from our relo budget to go on a tour day with her and she had nothing lined up but apartments. They were nice, but I knew I could find what I wanted myself. Eventually, I did.

Would love to hear about that ramen. I won't have a car for a few days until mine arrives, so I'll probably stick close to the office next week. There's a hobby shop in Alameda I want to go visit because they have some fun Magic shit in stock, and I might try to brave mass transit somehow to do that. Or just Uber.
 
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Tenks

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I'm surprised they aren't putting you up in a hotel or an apartment. My company paid for a 1 month stay at a nearby apartment complex until we could find something a bit more permanent. Although I feel even a month wouldn't be long enough to get a great feel for exactly where I'd want to live so I just signed a year long apartment lease instead of trying to rush a home. Which sucks because home prices are just continuing to rise in southern California.
 
Jackie Treehorn

Jackie Treehorn

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Heylel said:
We have corporate assistance, but the distance means it isn't possible to see places in advance. For the house we rented, the property manager went there in person and did a Facetime tour with us, showed us the neighborhood etc. Our assigned relocation specialist didn't really listen when we told her we wanted to see homes, not apartments. We spent a couple grand from our relo budget to go on a tour day with her and she had nothing lined up but apartments. They were nice, but I knew I could find what I wanted myself. Eventually, I did.

Would love to hear about that ramen. I won't have a car for a few days until mine arrives, so I'll probably stick close to the office next week. There's a hobby shop in Alameda I want to go visit because they have some fun Magic shit in stock, and I might try to brave mass transit somehow to do that. Or just Uber.
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I live like 10 minutes away from Alameda. From where you're at, uhh...I think I'd just wait until you get your car in. It's either gonna be $50-60 round trip Uber, or by public transportation it'll be a maze of trains, buses, and BART taking an hour and a half each way. Which I suppose could be a fun experience for you to see some things, if you're into that. If I were going to get my car in a few days, I'd definitely wait and drive myself.

Also fun in Alameda:

An arcade with oldschool games that's $5 an hour / $10 unlimited I think.

High Scores Arcade

If you happen to be eating in Alameda:

Burma Superstar - Alameda, CA

Great classic diner:

Ole’s Waffle Shop - Alameda, CA

Dinner:

American Oak - Alameda, CA

German food:

Speisekammer - Alameda, CA
 
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Heylel

Heylel

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Tenks said:
I'm surprised they aren't putting you up in a hotel or an apartment. My company paid for a 1 month stay at a nearby apartment complex until we could find something a bit more permanent. Although I feel even a month wouldn't be long enough to get a great feel for exactly where I'd want to live so I just signed a year long apartment lease instead of trying to rush a home. Which sucks because home prices are just continuing to rise in southern California.
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They gave us 30 days in a corporate apartment. I just wasn't willing to have the clock start when I landed, especially when my wife is going to be a couple of weeks behind me. I'm not the type that leaves much to chance. Plus, we were pretty sure we would be downsizing a substantial amount and needed to know where we were going in order to determine what furniture and other items we ended up keeping.

We're nowhere near ready to buy anything, so renting for a year or two is fine. The massive disparity between housing prices in the Atlanta area vs. the bay makes it impossible to even consider. Our house we just sold fetched $188k, and is larger than what we're moving into. We're pocketing a reasonable amount to start a down payment / nest egg, but it will take some time.
 
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Tenks

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Yeah I went from a 1900 sqft house to a ~950 sqft apartment. In our price range depending on where I'm willing to live I'm looking at a 1200 sqft condo or at best a 1600 sqft detached. And that is all for almost triple what I paid for in Ohio. Luckily most of the stuff in our house was crap we just moved from when we both lived independently so it was cheap crap furniture to begin with and nearing 8+ years old. So we toss/donated the vast majority of our stuff. I think the bill for our junk hauler was $600 for all the stuff we got rid of.
 
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