LA vida: 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