Relocating in SF

Ever since I moved to San Francisco back in August, I wanted to live with familiar faces and friends.  Instead, I went the route of Craigslist and focused on a specific area of the city I wanted to live.  I ended up in a beautiful area of San Francisco called the Presidio.  It's quite literally a forest within a city.  While I've enjoyed living in the Presidio and getting to know my roommates, I found that I missed not living with people I knew.

It was neither in the cards nor my intention to move out of my Presidio house.  As Megan Esch '07 continued searching for permanent housing in SF, she found a five-bedroom house on Craigslist, with a November 1 availability.  She asked me if I wanted to check out the place.  It was an awesome Queen Anne house in a great area of the city, right off Clement Street (read: young crowd, fun bars, and great restaurants).  We decided to take the place and signed the lease with an '07 Lehigh graduate transplanted from Boston.

Ever since, the pressures been on to a.) find and meet two roommates that we want to join our new house and b.) to find someone to take over my lease for my room in the Presidio.  This whole process seems like a full-time job.

Craigslist is a funny thing.  You post or respond to an ad, and it's anyone's guess what kinds of responses you'll get.  We posted "looking for two young professionals like ourselves" and get responses from 39 year olds.  What gives?  Don't get me wrong, 39 isn't old, but you have to wonder what possess a 39-year-old to be like "Yeah, let me email a houseful of 22 year olds..."  Desperation, maybe?  Who knows.  The crazies are out there on Craigslist, be aware.  These emails provide some chuckles, but we're all business and quickly riffle through the responses to find people we think would be a good match for the house.  I do a lot of emailing for work, and I swear, I find that responding and keeping track of interested people is a second full time job.  Somehow, I manage.

I know that when all is said and done, we will have a great house filled with good roommates.  My roommates and I will be happy that we spent the time to find the right people.

This is just part of the process of living in the "real world."