Tag Archive for 'Home'

We have received our sofas

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I can’t seem to remember if I already mentioned this, but a couple of weeks ago, we ordered a set of sofas for our Eilinita home. Not that we don’t like our old sofa from London any longer, but the main issue is that it would have looked like a kid’s toy in the middle of our new living room, simply due to habitat size differences between London and California…

The whole ordering process was an experience in itself. We first had to drive to the the middle of nowhere (if there is a nowhere in LA), far beyond any place we visited so far. We then met with the sofa company owner, Mr “one eye” Pablo Carpio. Great character telling us that he can create almost anything… We then gave him the pictures of the Selfridges catalog (or was it Peter Jones) and after a short pause, he announced us a price that we simply couldn’t believe (beating Ikea pricing to death).

The next step was for Sarah to try to give Pablo the size of the sofa, while I was trying to catch Thia running between a fish tank and several sofas.

We European tend to use centimeters (vs. inches) and the poor guy had a brief moment of panic when we gave him the size… Once we realised that we had to divide everything by 2.54 to make it match his standard unit system, things changed rapidly and agreement was reached!!! Down-payment was made and delivery date discussed.

So there they are, less than 2 weeks later, with our tailored made, hand made, home delivered by Mr Pablo himself fantastic sofas.

The man took great pride in his work but we must admit that he really can. The work is impeccable, the quality of the finish is stunning and the comfort of the sofas beats anything I put my delicate bum on… All we need now is the rest of the furniture and our new TV to be moved into our new palace (HD cable TV was installed at the same time that sofas were delivered).

Thanks to Mr Pablo for the quality of the service and thanks to Yvonne for the tip…

We have a new home!

House in Montrose

We made it! In less than 2 weeks, we have found our new home!

It has been a long week but we signed the lease agreement yesterday afternoon and already have the keys!

Finding the place has not been a walk in the park and I guess that the 3 times 3 hours long relocation tours we had last week have paid.

After having visited several houses last weekend (thanks to the list provided by Yvonne, our relo guru), we had our eyes on only 2 properties. Once located in Studio City, close to Sunset and West Hollywood and spitting distance from the office. The only issue: The estate agent sounded really dodgy, wanted a double deposit as we are foreigners here and wanted it in cash on the following day. Adding to this that the guy sounded totally paranoid and high on drugs, decision was made to put this one on the back-burner…

Second property, at the bottom of the hills of Montrose. Sarah first felt that this was a bit remote, but as she walked around the house last weekend, she met with a dear, soon followed by 3 of his friends… This turned into a major selling point to us… Adding to this that the city center of Montrose, 2 minutes away from the house, is fantastic. Small town feeling, loads of mums and babies with a farmers market every Sunday. As they say here: “Fantastic community!”.

Sarah went back on Monday with Yvonne to see the inside of the house and decision was immediately made: This was the place to rent! 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, double garage and top kitchen!

So after a week of various discussions with banks, credit unions and other nice people, we signed the lease yesterday afternoon. The landlord seems extremely nice, agreed to minor changes to the lease (pays for water and gardner) and gave us the keys 2 weeks earlier than expected!

We then spent some time in the place, taking picture, walking to the communal pool (2 minutes walk, if that), meeting with our new neighbors and finally having a last drive through the town center…

Oh, I forgot to add that before signing the lease, we spent an hour in Montrose, bumping into Rosanna Arquette (shooting a TV show), having a bite and simply musing around. I already love the place. Especially after we found HUGE Cheese and Wine delicatessen!!!

More pictures of the place in our PrettyPix

New place, same old habits!

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Arnaud, Mike and Chris shown up with their respective families, and kids ran around with Thia for the most part of the evening, discovering hidden places in our new home, playing games and “watching the universe”

Excused were Philippe stuck on the east coast and James recovering from his Friday night (he might show up tonight, who knows!)…

MIA: Sylvain and family… shame! :)

Mike respected the inherited Russian tradition and brought salt and bread and we managed to try various types of beers and wines from around the world, as if we were in Europe (actually, even more diverse… Shocking!!!)

Conclusion of the evening:

Wherever you have a party in the world, it’ll always end up in the kitchen (in our case, we didn’t even leave the bloody kitchen).