After almost ten years of living in our rent-controlled apartment in the Outer Sunset, we decided to start looking for a house to buy in San Francisco. We agreed that we wanted to live as close as possible to Golden Gate Park, where we love to run, walk, and picnic with friends. Colin wanted to live as far into the city as possible so that his Muni ride to work took less than an hour. I liked living closer to the ocean, and my school was in the Outer Sunset. We had been casually looking on Redfin and going to random open houses that we walked by in our neighborhood. When Colin got a new job in October, buying a house started to feel like an actual possibility.
Our current apartment with a luxurious “2” car garage (it’s a tight squeeze) 
Our current bedroom- pretty roomy by SF standards. 
Our current kitchen. On the other side of the apartment from the living room- not great for entertaining or hanging out. 
Long hallway in our current place.
On January 26, after eating in the Inner Sunset, we walked by an open house on Kirkham, so we stepped inside. It was a lower floor flat with no garage space, so it wasn’t for us, but inside we met the listing agent for the home, Jennifer Rosdail. We chatted for a while and she said she wanted to help us find a home. Jennifer was experienced in San Francisco real estate, especially in our ideal neighborhood, she was warm and friendly, and she had helped other SFUSD teachers buy homes. As we drove away from this open house, we talked about how we had absolutely no idea what to do next.
Before we could reach back out to Jennifer or take the next steps on buying a home, I came down with a terrible flu on January 29 while scoring a writing test at my school. I developed a cough and chills, although the thermometer said my temperature was 98.6. The next day I woke up with a fever over 100 degrees and some serious body aches. I called in sick to my job for the first time in my life. I took Thursday and Friday off of work and returned on Monday, very tired but no longer feverish and definitely on the mend. The students all joked that I had coronavirus, which I brushed off at the time, but who knows? It took a long time to recuperate. I couldn’t taste anything for weeks and I was honestly afraid of leaving the house. I kept thinking, “but what if I have to LAY DOWN?!”
Once I was fully recovered, which took weeks, it was our eleventh anniversary! When I got home from work that day on February 21, our cat Mara was not herself at all. She was listless and limping around the house. I immediately knew something was wrong. When Colin got home, I noticed that her ears were very warm, and we drove her to the emergency vet. They confirmed that she had a fever but they didn’t know why. After staying up all night and worrying, we went to collect her in the morning and found out that they still had no idea why she had a fever. “This is the most drug-resistant cat I’ve ever seen,” the ER vet told us. They had tried to sedate Mara do to the tests, but it took many tries. Follow up tests were inconclusive but she was very slowly improving with antibiotics, anti-nausea, painkiller, and appetite stimulant. Luckily we had pet insurance so this made only a small dent in our finances.
When Jennifer reached back out in early March, the news about coronavirus was getting more serious, but we didn’t think it would affect San Francisco real estate too much, so we agreed to meet Jennifer at her office. It was daylight savings time so we were a bit tired in the morning but we agreed to work with Jennifer to find our home! It felt a bit surreal. As first time home buyers, we knew we needed a lot of help and advice. We agreed to go out and look for homes with Jennifer the following Sunday.
In between our meetings with Jennifer, coronavirus took hold in the US, and San Francisco started shutting down. On March 10, Colin’s workplace said working from home was now “recommended” as opposed to “optional.” On March 12, SFUSD released a statement that they wouldn’t be closing, and then on March 13, they announced that schools would be closed. On Sunday, March 15, we piled in Jennifer’s car, slathered on her homemade lavender scented hand sanitizer, and went to a bunch of open houses.
This was the weekend when the hand sanitizer and hand washing really hit a fever pitch. We sanitized before and after seeing each property. We waved at listing agents instead of shaking hands and we cautiously avoided other people at the open houses, taking turns in rooms and hallways. After seeing many different properties, we hadn’t found the perfect one yet but we felt like we had taken our next big steps in looking for a house.
Over the next month, adjusting to both working from home took up all our time and mental energy. At first I laughed at the phrase “new normal,” but it was also terrifying. Going to the store was our only interaction with the world outside our apartment, and it was terrifying. I distinctly remember rolling up my sleeves the first time I went to Safeway during the pandemic. During that trip my mind was so full that I also forgot my credit card! I left my cart full of groceries at the Customer Service desk, near tears. A really helpful employee reassured me when I returned that this was no big deal. I’ll never forget that kind reassurance, I was so stressed.
By March 23, Colin’s work had shut down and working from home was no longer “recommended” but was now “required.” We brought my old Ikea table desk up from the garage and I brought home my desk chair from school. Now we were both working at our desks or taking meetings standing up in the bedroom at the dresser. I also worked in the kitchen sometimes. The 650 square foot apartment was starting to feel pretty small. We’ve never been at home all the time for this long, and certainly have never worked from home at the same time.
On April 26, we discovered mold mites on almost every single window sill in our apartment. They cleaned off easily but this was the last straw in our little apartment. We resumed looking for a house.
On May 2 early in the morning, I saw a 2 bedroom 1 bath house on Redfin in our nearly perfect neighborhood. It was also on our “Listings for your Consideration” page from our realtor. I showed it to Colin and he said “it looks good!” I texted Jennifer and her team about it and that evening, we were seeing it in person!
The owner was out of town so his neighbor and listing agent showed us the house. It had all of his belongings in it, so we wore masks and kept our hands in our pockets. We didn’t feel like we got the greatest look at the house, but it was in our price range and it was the size we wanted in our nearly ideal neighborhood. When we walked back to the car, we commented that the blue and gold Cal colors of the house were a sign. (I mentioned that I wanted something less garish and Colin insisted that it was fine. Interestingly, his Prius Prime is the exact same color as the house.)
The next day, on May 3, we decided to make an offer. Jennifer was super helpful and did a great job, so our offer was accepted the next day! We couldn’t believe it. We were buying a house!
