Water City of Mtn View 650-903-6317
Cable Comcast 1-800-945-2288
PG&E PG&E 1-800 743-5000
Phone AT&T Customer Service 1-800-310-BELL
garbage Waste, City of Mtn View 650-903-6317
For anyone who's interested, I have contacts for the following (not publishing them for their privacy, but ask if you want the info):
Painter (interior) - come on by to see the paintjob if you want a reference.
Realtor - I really liked working with him.
Interior designer - She can do as much or as little as you'd like.
Mortgage broker - She's a personal friend, but I think that her help/reference was what got me the house.
Moving company - I used the same place Shane and Alyssa have used. They were great!
I haven't yet found someone to do normal lawn maintenance (mow and blow), so any thoughts on that would be appreciated.
Here (see extended) are some of the things I've learned with the new house...
1) Ants suck. RAID is good. It takes lots of RAID to make the ants stop finding ways to get into the house. On the upside, having ants is forcing me to clean up after myself in ways that I might not if there were no ants (i.e. no crumbs on counters, etc.)
2) Houses make noises. They probably make them all the time, but they are certainly more noticeable at night. When everything else is quiet. When it's slightly easier to freak out over noises you don't recognize. Locks on bedroom doors are helpful. They really wouldn't hold out someone who was determined to get in, but they allowed me to sleep easier for a couple of nights until I got used to the normal settling noises of the house.
3) Roombas are cool. They are oddly addictive to watch do their thing. I started watching it to make sure that when I set it up in scheduled mode that it won't knock anything over or get stuck or anything. Then it was fun just to watch it to try to figure out where it would go next. Then I realized how much gunk it was picking up (ick). It's kind of icky to clean out, but good that all that gunk isn't on my floors and/or transferring to my feet as I walk around the house barefoot.
4) Moving is a pain in the ass. You don't realize how much crap you've accumulated until you have to make decisions about whether to pack it, how to pack it, where to put it in the new house, etc. Mental notes for the next move (years in the future though it may be) - start packing well in advance. Even when you think you're done you'll find stuff you still have to do something with. Having movers do the work is a great idea though - much less stress on my back.
5) Decorating is both fun and a pain in the ass. I think you're always afraid you'll make a bad decision. For the most part that's fixable (i.e. if you bought something you don't like - put it away, sell it or otherwise minimize it). But for things like paint it feels more permanent. But even paint color is fixable if you have it done and then figure out that you hate it. Decorating is a chance to show your style or your esthetic, but what if your esthetic is always changing? I don't think the old idea of having one set of furniture for 20 years is going to work for me. So do I buy inexpensive stuff to minimize the cost of wanting to change styles (down the road), or buy what I like and make a decision later about selling it or donating it or whatever?
6) It's fun to buy furniture for a new house. Expensive, but fun. Makes me want to buy more. But now I'm poor and I can't. Now that I have the new furniture and it's all in place, I find that I'm actually dusting it. But that'll only last another week or two and then I'll be done. Scandinavian Designs had lots of stuff that I liked, and for reasonable prices.
7) Boxes - apparently you can never have too many when you're trying to move. Then when you're trying to get rid of them, you can't make them go away. It's amazing how much space they take up. Even when empty. Even when empty and collapsed.
8) Be careful when putting up curtains that the wood holding them up doesn't break. It makes the rod fall down, possibly on your head. (That didn't happen, but came very close to happening.)
9) Make friends with or kiss up to your friends who own trucks. You have no idea how often you'll need them after you move (even if you use movers). Trips to the hardware store, trips to get rid of boxes, trips to the plant center, etc. Also make friends with people who own tools if you don't have any. Especially electric screwdrivers - they are VERY handy.
More as I think of them...