Oakland Zoo

We took Kai to the Oakland zoo to see Elephants.  They are his favorite, you can just see the smile in the first photo!  The zoo was nice but I think we will stick to our SF zoo!  He also had a chance to pet and groom the sheep.  Another favorite past time!

We Bought A Home

Ugh, the housing search in the bay area right now is crazy.  Every decent home gets caught up in a bidding war.  After months and months of searching for anything worthwhile to consider, we put our first offer on one home in San Carlos, a cute two story 4b/2.5bath with a small but very nicely terraced backyard including some views.  There ended up being only 4 offers, we put in a little over what our realtor recommended (still at 200K over List Price) but two other offers were 150K over our offer (yes, that is 350K over asking).  Yeah, crazy town.

The next weekend I found this property and emailed it to Ahmad.  He asked me not to toy with his emotions.  We ended up not checking out the open house that weekend, however, we just could not stop thinking about the home.  I emailed our realtor on Tuesday to see what her thoughts were on the home and to say I would really like to see it.  She set up a showing at 2:30-3:00pm (others were coming in at 3:00pm with a structural engineer so we had to be done by 3pm).  Upon arriving, I got goosebumps of excitement.  We were hooked.  We found out offers were due the next day by 2pm.  Ahmad and I went home after work and ran the numbers.  We assessed and assessed and assessed what kind of offer we were going to put in, slept on it and at 5am Thursday morning I wrote our realtor to say we were in, we were going to bid.  Of course, any serious bid has to have no inspection/property or financial commitments (YIKES!).  So, there you have it.  We electronically signed all the paperwork by 1:30pm and the offer was into the sellers by 2pm.  On our way home from work, Lisa our realtor called and said "is Ahmad with you... its yours.  Your offer was the strongest!"

We later found out that 5 offers went in, 2 of which were "Sharp" offers... A sharp offer is one where you put in an offer but add that if there is another offer more than your offer, you will top the best offer with a % or $XK over the best offer.  This apparently annoyed the sellers.  Apparently, the other key to our winning was the personal letter we wrote (including pictures of Kai and the doggie, of course).  It was easy to write as we just truly felt we found our dream home.  While of course there is work we want to do to the house, the land and house is really unique ...!

STATS:
3b/3baths (2 master suites), 2,600 sqft, pool, artist cottage; 0.46 acres in Burlingame Hills, CA
We are close to work and the city.  In a 5 minute drive we can park and have access to public transit into the city.  We close on Aug. 2nd and we can not wait!  Here are some pictures from the listing for you to enjoy!

Little 'Cottage' / office/ playhouse

 

Side Garden

Stanford

We are starting Kai early!  Maybe in 17 years he will be here with out his night night.

Genentech Gives Back Concert

This weekend we went to the Genentech Gives back concert at the AT&T ball park.  There was food, drinks and music.  Kai's first bands included Demi Lavato, Train, Pitbull and Radiohead.  I have to say he surpasses me in best first concert!  Don't worry family, we have earplugs for him!

Fist muni ride

Train

He ate 3 hot dogs and 3 chicken fingers

Pitbull

up in the stadium far away from the music

Point Reyes and the Beach

This weekend we took Kai out to Point Reyes.  Our first stop was the little downtown where we ran into their yearly parade.  Kai loved checking out the Fire trucks.  Next, we did a hike out to see some Elk (more pictures on that later).  We ended the weekend with a trip down Pacific Coast Highway 1 to check out tide pools and the beach.  Here Kai got a chance to fly his first kite!  

New Swim School

After our classes ended at USF, we tried a new swim school.  This school is especially designed for little tots.  Here Kai joined the Toddler and me class.  He was by far the youngest, but in no time he felt so much more independent in the water.  It may help the water is warmer and the pool size smaller.  La Petitie Baleen, here we come.  

First Hiking Trip

This weekend we bought a backpack carrier and took Kai to Mt. Tam.  It was a rough start, a little boy was very tired and did not care very much for the backpack carrier.  But, after a nap on the way up the trail and lunch, we was in great spirits for the hike back to the car.  

Passed out / asleep that night