Moving to Seattle: An Apartment in Ballard

In the wee hours of this morning, I signed the lease for an apartment in Seattle.  Yep, even though I'm still in Dubai.  Here's the story...

I accepted the job offer about a week and a half ago.

My start date is in early December, so this gives me 5 1/2 weeks to pack all my Dubai stuff, find an apartment in Seattle, fly from Dubai to Vegas and Reno to spend Thanksgiving with our 4 families, drive a Uhaul with Sven full of stuff from storage in Reno to the new apartment in Seattle, move in and unpack the basics, get a new drivers license, put Steve on a plane back to Dubai (cry), and then be ready to travel to Atlanta GA for my first week of work.

It's a lot to do in a relatively short period of time, so I knew I had to cut corners somewhere.  Finding an apartment online instead of in-person was a natural choice since it could be done early from Dubai and take off some pressure towards the end.

Sure, why not?  I already had a couple neighborhoods in mind from our previous time living in Seattle, and I'm an old pro at finding housing online anyway.  I knew if I did my research well and picked carefully, it would be fiiiiine.  And if the carpet isn't the same color as the photo, or the room looks smaller in person, or the counter tops look a little older than some other place across the street - meh.  That doesn't really bother me.

I do however, need to be within walking distance to a park for Phoebe, a gym for me, and public transit so that I actually use all them as often as possible.  One thing I keep re-learning about myself is convenience is key - when something is just right there I usually force myself to go regularly.

When the gym is within 4-5 blocks of home

When the gym is far

So I've spent a good portion of the last 10 days hunting for apartments.  After some hemming and hawing, I settled on a 1 bedroom in Ballard.  The apartment meets all of the criteria, and then some them.  Plus, the additional "pet rent" for PB is pretty modest.  I CAN have my cake and eat it too (minus the fact that Sven will still be in Dubai and I'll have a 40-90 minute commute).

Of course, I don't move in until the end of November.  But at least it's one more thing that's DONE!