They're back!!!

After 5 years of absence due to trans-atlantic moves and apartment living, Alain's famous tomatoes are back!!!!
and this time, I have 2 friends to help me water them everyday for the next 3 months...
The miror is fun for Elodie, but it's also very useful. It maximizes the number of sun rays hitting the plants.
Hopefully the tomatoes will mature before or after our trip to France!

New French Doors

We were thinking about creating an opening between the living room and family room even before buying this house. That was 6 months ago... The job was initially scheduled for Memorial Day, then Labor Day, but it was finally accomplished over in October the past 3 weekends. we did everything by ourselves, and obviously this wouldn't have been possible without Mister Ed's expertise, advice and time ! Thank you !

The project is not over yet, we still need to stain the doors, cover the frame with gypsum board, paint the family room (in orange?) and add the trim around the door... who knows ho many more weekends we'll spend on it ! but it's all worth it...

Why we love our new house...

We're In Da House !

Thanks to the much appreciated help offered by our friends and family, we were able to move all our stuff to the new house AND clean the old house in just one week-end ! Now it's time to rest, relax, enjoy... and yes... unpack and organize!

The Last Move ?

Judith, the previous owner, finally vacated our house, so our move has officially started. This weekend we'll bring small items and we'll remove the carpet, and next weekend we'll bring all our furniture.

This is our 5th move in 5 years !!!

In 2002, I left my apartment to move in with Stephanie.
In 2003, we left Summerwood to move into a house.
In 2004 we left our house to relocate to France.
In 2006 we left Paris to go back to California.
And now we leave our rental house for our own house!

Here are 2 pictures that we took this afternoon. Judith wanted to take pictures in front of the lilacs. It is the first time they bloom in 7 years! That must be a good sign, don't you think ?

Floor plan

Stephanie couldn't help but draw the floor plan of our new house on her computer. I think it looks awesome! The house is 1,610 sf or 150 m2.
Stephanie remembered that its floor plan is very similar to one of the house in which we met for the first time... It was at a party in Sunnyvale on Friday, June 23rd 2000 (my half-birthday ;-)

Done Deal!

Today we've officially joined the 57% of Californians and the 70% of Americans who own their home!
We closed escrow, the sale was registered by the county and our mortgage kicked in !
Funny how "escroc" in French means "crook" and "mort" means "death".
I really hope that the seller is not a crook and that we won't have to pay back our loan until our death!!!

House update

Yesterday, the seller agreed to pay the cost of fixing the chimney, therefore we decided to remove all contingencies, which means that the house will be ours in 15 days, no matter what happens...

Yesterday also, Joy helped us pick a loan. It took us almost 2 hours to settle on a 30-year fixed 6.25% loan, interest-only for the first 10 years, with no points and no impounds. It's very helpful to have a mortgage broker in the family (and way more useful than a software engineer ;-)

We found a house !

BIG NEWS: This evening, our offer to buy this house was accepted !


It's located in West San Jose (next to Lawrence & Moorpark) at equal distance from Stephanie's office and mine. Let's give you a quick tour of our future home, starting with the entry:


You arrive directly in the living room. The 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms are on your left...


On the right is the family room...


Next to it is the kitchen...


From the family room, you access the backyard. It has orange, lemon and apple trees!


Thanks to Vickie, our excellent agent, we only searched for a month and a half, and we made offers on only 4 houses, including this one.

What's next ? Tomorrow we'll have the inspections and appraisal done, we will close Escrow on March 8th, and then the owner has 2 months to move away, which means we'll probably move in at the beginning of May !

Elodie writes cover letters now!

10 days ago, we started to look around for houses to buy. Last Monday, we visited one in Sunnyvale and we liked so much that we decided to make an offer on it. Unfortunately, we were outbid by 5 other people.
Elodie put her best efforts forth to seduce the owners with this letter, but it wasn't enough :-(

Dear X and Y:

My name is Elodie de Raynal, I just turned 1 last month. Our family Realtor, Vickie J is writing on my behalf because although I am very bright and extremely adorable my typing skills are not yet fully developed.

My mommy and daddy love your home! It is everything they have been looking for and they know we will be very happy living there. My daddy says your garden reminds him of his grandmother’s garden in Northern France. I can’t wait to show my brother Etienne. He will be 4 in May.

My mommy, Stephanie, is a state licensed architect. She has been working for Bill Gould Design for the last 10 years. My daddy Alain, is a Senior Software Engineer at Hyperion. My aunt Joy is our lender and says we are very strong buyers! She has a lot of experience and is very professional. She will make sure every detail is addressed so that I can tell Etienne which bedroom will be his as soon as possible. This way he can plan on where to put his trains. You can learn more about my family and me on my website at http://www.deraynal.com/elodie/.

Vickie J has been practicing real estate in Santa Clara County for the last 5 years. She also has a lot of experience and will make sure this is a smooth transaction for all of us.

[...]

We would like to purchase your home. After all, Kindergarten will be here before we know it and Etienne likes to plan.

I hope to meet you some day. Until I do you can probably get updates on me at my website.

Thank you,

Elodie de Raynal

our new house

Yesterday we signed the lease for our new house in San Jose!
Unfortunately we won't be able to move in until our container arrives at the end of August, so here are some pictures that will give you a little preview...

From the front:


From the back:


Etienne and Elodie are already in love with the beautiful garden !
we can't wait to live there !!!