Slowly but surely

Everyone tells you it takes awhile to get settled, feel comfortable and find your way around a new area, and yes, it is surprising how much there is to do when you uproot everything and move across the country.  In many ways we have had a pretty easy adjustment.  The time difference is definitely a challenge and often I will think of calling someone only to realize it is 10pm Eastern time.  I have been staying up to date with my family with Skype calls, and FaceTime with Josh's parents.  I think I actually know more about what's going on with my brothers than I did when I lived in Ohio!  Its funny how more distance forces you to prioritize communication and it has been good to connect.  My Skype name is katiewilliamsrn for anyone that is interested in saying hello.  Usually I log in on Sundays once or twice a month.

Let's see, since the post about finding the apartment, let me summarize the last 7 weeks.  (I knew I wouldn't be good about updating a blog!)  Josh actually flew back to Columbus at the end of the week when our apartment search was over.  He and his mom spent many hours finalizing the packing, and cleaning our condo for putting it up for sale.  The movers arrived on Jan 26th and Josh was impressed with the care and attention to detail they took with packing up all our belongings.  They also made it out to LA in 7 days with a semi truck on our little street and unloaded all our things in about 45 mins on Feb 2nd.  We were able to start our lease here just in time on Feb 1st and we were relieved it worked out so smoothly.  We would highly recommend Allied Van Lines for anyone that has to do a big move.

Josh, with the company of his dad, decided to drive Josh's Jeep out to LA with Lucy instead of flying, so after a second round of goodbyes for Josh in Columbus, they departed early on the 29th and made a 4 day, 3 night journey.  The first day they made it to Springfield, MO.  The second night they arrived in Albuquerque and the third night ended up in Flagstaff AZ after they took a side trip to see the Grand Canyon.  The trip was a fun experience for both of them and their first time seeing the Grand Canyon, so it was neat that they could share it together!  Each night they stayed in a Drury Inn and Suites, which allows pets without any extra fees and includes breakfast for rates right around $100/night.  Also highly recommended if traveling cross-country with a pet!  They arrived on Feb 1st around 3:30pm just as I was picking up keys to the new place.  Josh's dad stayed until the following Tuesday and was a big help re-assembling and unpacking things with us.

We had our first guest the following weekend, when Josh's good friend Joe came to visit for two nights following a work meeting in San Diego.  We hung out around Venice beach for a jog and some people-watching, which was quite an interesting experience if you know or have heard anything about Venice beach.  We went to House of Blues that night for a show together.  I also had my first experience of In-n-Out Burger that weekend on Sunset Blvd, which is an LA must-try!  Josh and I are doing an ongoing burger survey which may last a while as there is an unbelievable number of burger places to try here!

Josh and Lucy job hunting

On the job front, I am getting more and more settled into my role here and the hospital I primarily go to each day, Cedars Sinai.  Josh is still doing job searching and interviewing.  He recently sent in his application for Social work clinical liscensure, which takes 60 days to process!  We have noticed throughout his job search how much California as a whole is affected by cutbacks and lack of funding especially in the social work arena and him finding something might be a longer process than what we first expected.  I am enjoying having him as my handyman as he has put together a cabinet, desk, chair, kitchen island and has hung a rack, shelf, and three curtain rods for me among his time with the job search!!

At The Grove

Josh at Point Dume

We have had fun exploring during down time.  We went to Point Dume with Matt, Corrie and Charlie at the end of January, and we recently got to see the La Brea tar pits and Page Museum, home to one of the richest fossil deposits in the world and less than 2 miles away from our apt.  It is also next to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which we'll have to explore soon.  We enjoy frequent trips to The Grove for shopping and food because we are within walking distance.  We have enjoyed finding our "food-way" around town, restaurants including Katana when Joe visited, Canter's Deli, and Frankie's New York style Italian to name a few. (where we went to on Valentine's Day and met Frankie himself!) We have barely scratched the surface trying all the great food out here.  We also have enjoyed the church we have visited a few times with Matt and Corrie, Reality LA, and we are feeling more and more connected each day.  Thanks again for all those that think of us and pray for us!

"Urban Light" outside of LACMA

Fossil of a sloth at Page Museum

The hunt

Monday morning arrived and it was time to get to know neighborhoods so that we could narrow down our search.  The two hospitals that I will primarily need to commute to are Cedars Sinai in Beverly Hills and Kaiser Permanente on Sunset Blvd.  From everything Josh and I have read about relocating to Los Angeles, as well as tips from friends we've known who have lived in and around LA, the main message to us was to live as close as you possibly can to where you work.  Since Josh doesn't know exactly where his commute will be, we focused on a location in the vicinity of the two aforementioned hospitals.  Matt was able to go with us Monday morning to take a look around West Hollywood and Cedars Sinai.  We walked around a bit and actually walked into one apartment a few blocks from Cedars just to get a feel for the size and price we were looking at.  We stopped for lunch at Mel's drive-in diner in West Hollywood.  We've noticed LA has some great burger joints and diners, but we'll save that for another blog!

After lunch, we took Matt back to their apartment in North Hollywood and Josh and I set out again to see Los Feliz and Silverlake, areas we were interested in because of their proximity to Kaiser.  We walked around again in Los Feliz, and drove around Silverlake a bit.  We liked the area, but there seemed to be limited availability as far as rentals.  When we got back to Matt and Corrie's that evening feeling a little tired without much to show for it, we logged onto Westsiderentals.com, another thing that was highly recommended to us to help with our search.  Matt logged onto Craig's list as well to start a search.  Matt and Corrie have looked for apartments in highly competitive areas of NYC, and they've been through this process multiple times so they were a great resource.  They told us that its really important to have things ready such a filled-out application, proof of employment, etc to hand to a landlord for a place that you are really interested in.  They even said that postings will sometimes only go up for a day or less if it's a great deal/prime location, etc.  As we were all browsing, Matt spotted a post on Craig's list for a two bedroom, listed near "Beverly/Fairfax/the Grove."  It had only two pictures but the location was ideal, so Josh called right away and made an appointment the next day with a woman named Naomi.  Even though the posting had only been up for 20 minutes or so, someone else had already called, and she told Josh that the first one to have a completed application handed to her would be considered first.  She also said the place was pet-friendly, and we had been stumbling across non-friendly places fairly often so that was another huge plus.

We asked if she could email us the application and showed up early to the appointment Tuesday with applications in hand.  We immediately loved the area, as it was within walking distance to a shopping area with a Farmer's Market as well as a park, and in a Jewish neighborhood with coffee shops and boutiques, much of which is walkable.  If you are from Columbus, imagine if Easton's shopping and the North Market were adjacent to Bexley, and that's the feel of the location.  Some maps label this area as West Mid-City, but it is just south of West Hollywood.  It is closer to Beverly Hills, but still right in the middle of the two places I need to commute to.  The map shows the two Red Pins (Cedars and Kaiser) and the green icon is the location of the apartment.  Matt and Corrie live in North Hollywood/Toluca Lake as indicated by the blue icon at the very top of the map.  

The man who greeted us when we arrived at the location was Joseph, Naomi's husband, and she arrived soon after.  They are a young professional orthodox Jewish couple, and were so gracious and sweet.  The apartment building was built in 1928, and has somewhat of a spanish-style inside.  The building has 4 units total.  The unit for rent is the bottom-right.  It has original hardwood, and has a lot of 1920's character and charm.  There is a washer and dryer in a separate room off of the kitchen (also a challenging find sometimes).   There is a small private garden area in the back that is entered from a small french doorway off of the master bedroom. There is one garage spot for parking.  After we arrived, another girl arrived, and as we were leaving another couple was walking in.  Naomi assured us that we were the first with the completed application and we told her we were extremely interested, and could have a deposit ready that same day.  She needed to run a credit check on us, but if we passed, the place was ours, and she could meet with us later in the early evening. It was about 1pm at that point, so we parked over near the Grove to find a place to eat lunch and look around.  We ate some tasty mexican food in an open-air food court/market setting.  After lunch, Corrie had an email from her modeling agency for 2 afternoon castings, so we spent the afternoon driving downtown to make it to those stops as well as get a cashier's check for the deposit.  We met up again with Naomi that evening with our deposit in hand and a few final questions and signed our one year lease!  We could hardly believe it that our search was over!  We hope to have more details and pictures to come.  Thanks to all of you that prayed we would find the ideal place, this really seems to be it!  The address is 411 North Spaulding Ave. Apt. 4  Los Angeles, CA 90036.  Please don't send any mail until we notify everyone.  We are hoping the place will be ours to move into by Feb 1st, but it could be as late as Feb 15th, we'll keep you all posted.

Love,

Katie

Street view of the building.

the private garden area in the back

The Farmer's market/food court at the Grove.  We ate lunch at Loteria Grill.

Matt and Corrie who helped us find our apartment!

Driving on Fairfax Ave. at sunset.  Charlie snoozing in his carseat.  He did so great all day in the car!

Welcome to LA

For some, a blog is overkill (or as you Redditors would say, TLDR) but we wanted a way to keep family and friends updated on our new adventure so here goes and we'll see how long postings last.....

We arrived safely in LAX at 5:00pm (Sunday).  Luckily our bodies had already adjusted somewhat to the time change since we had spent three nights in Mountain standard time from our weekend trip to UT.  I know, why did we go to UT before moving to LA?  Well, it was a ski weekend we had planned before we had even decided to go to LA, and when the timing of our move fell into place, we realized the 80 min. flight from Salt Lake City straight to LA for apartment hunting this week made sense rather than two separate trips.  We had a good time skiing with friends, and the new addition of our helmets was an extra measure of safety this time around. (Thanks Mom and Dad Williams!)

All luggage arrived intact, and we made it to Matt and Corrie Roush's apartment just after 6:30pm.  Matt and Josh have known each other since they were 7 years old, and Corrie since middle school.  Both of their families are from Columbus, but they have lived several other places as a married couple.  We visited them when they lived in NYC, supported them during their recent 2 year stint in Berlin serving at a church called Berlinprojekt, and they moved to LA after Thanksgiving of this past year!  When we decided the LA move was something we wanted to do, it was so reassuring to know we had close friends that we would be able to connect with (or commiserate with!) when we moved.  They insisted that instead of temporary housing or a hotel, we should stay with them while we search for apartments this week.  They are so gracious as they are barely settled themselves and also have a five month old, Charlie.  We are thankful to be with friends, and thankful for a God who provides.  

We ate at the original Bob's Big Boy in Burbank for our first LA meal, so already hitting a state "point of historical interest" on the first night here.  It is now 12:30am on Monday and a big day ahead of apartment hunting so more to come...

Thanks for the thoughts, well-wishes and prayers from you all!

Katie&Josh

PS.  Mom, TLDR=too long, didn't read.  :)

                                                   Josh with Charlie at Bob's Big Boy in Burbank