As part of the process of renovating our house, we had to find a new place to live—the changes we are making are much too dramatic to allow us to stay at home during construction. We initially explored a few different options, including buying an RV to live in for the duration of the project and selling it when we were ready to move back into the house. I have some friends who made that work and lived to tell the tale, but it’s worth noting that they have just two children, both of whom were under the age of twelve at the time. It’s not at all clear how many of us would survive a year in an RV with two teenagers and a first grader.

So, we elected to pursue a more conventional strategy and began looking at apartments, townhomes, and houses to rent. We started out with a couple fairly strict requirements: enough space for Julia to have her own room and a Felix-friendly neighborhood not too close to very busy streets. The fact that we’re still, as I write, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic added some additional wrinkles: we needed enough space for each of the kids to do distance learning, and I needed a space in which I could work from home and participate in meetings without completely disrupting the kids’ classes.

Despite the pandemic, the rental market in the Bay Area remains somewhat absurd. It became clear very quickly that it was going to be difficult for us to stay within the housing budget we’d set up. And we learned from a few experiences early on that we couldn’t afford to hesitate when we saw a unit we liked: almost everything was snapped up within a day or two of appearing on the market.

One place we could afford was a cute little house just a block away from home, on Ellen Avenue. It was a cute little home of about the same vintage as our own, and seems likely to have been built by the same builder: it shared some of the design flourishes that we’ve grown accustomed to over the years, especially in the kitchen. It was a bit on the small side—getting all of our stuff in likely would have been a challenge—but the price was right. The problem was that the owner was looking to begin a remodel herself and was only looking for a tenant to stay six to eight months, or long enough for her to get her building permit. Our project is scheduled to take eight to ten months, assuming nothing goes wrong, so ultimately there wasn’t a way to make it work, as nice as it wouldd have been to be a five-minute walk away from home.

After that option fell through, we—well, mostly Julie—kept looking, checking the online listings daily and making appointments to see anything that looked promising. Finally, she came across a very nice looking house a near downtown Campbell that seemed to check all the boxes: bedrooms for Julia and Joe; a separate office; and a large, two-car garage to help store all the stuff we’d be pulling out of our garage, workbench area, and attic. As an added bonus, it came with a feature that I had never really considered: a swimming pool. Julie and Joe went to see it after school one afternoon and quickly came to the conclusion that it was likely our best option, despite the fact that it was at the upper end of our price range. There were a few other places still on the table, but none of them had the same appeal. With that in mind, despite the fact that I’d never actually seen the house in person, we put in an application, fearful of losing our chance if we waited.

Even moving as quickly as we did, there were other applications in play, but we were lucky enough to to be selected. The house is owned by a very nice family with two older kids—one just out of college, and one in high school; they were moving to a larger home in Almaden Valley because the wife’s parents were moving in with them. We started the lease a couple weeks before our planned moving date of September 8, which in turn was a couple weeks before the tentative start of construction on September 21. The hope was that this would give us plenty of time to empty out our house before the construction crews started knocking down walls, and the plan mostly came together, a few late nights notwithstanding.

The rental itself has been wonderful. Julia and Joe have plenty of space to deal with school comfortably, and we’ve more or less dedicated the living room to William’s schoolwork and toys. The office is more than adequate for my needs—in truth, it’s probably nicer than the office will be in our house when it’s finished—and after school, when William wants to play Minecraft with his friends, I move over to Joe’s room, as he usually doesn’t have too much in the way of homework. The boys have been making good use of the pool, jumping in a few afternoons each week, and there’s a lovely park about half a block down the street with a playground for William and plenty of open space where Joe and I can play catch.

The only minor downside is that the house doesn’t have air conditioning. We thought we might have timed things such that we would miss the hottest part of the year by moving when we did, but the weather has not cooperated: temperatures have reached the middle or high 90s as often as not the last couple weeks. It’s been a little uncomfortable during the day when I’m cooped up in the office in meetings and my computer is continuously generating heat, but on the other hand, the hot days have given us more opportunities to use the pool before the rainy season starts.

To convey a sense of what the house looked like before we filled it with all of our stuff, we’ve posted a few pictures taken in the days immediately after our lease started. It’s a bit messier now, but we’re settled in and as comfortable as we can reasonably expect to be as we face what looks to be an interesting year ahead.

Gallery: Rental