Move in day - the new pad

Living room view

Yay! I'm sitting at my new desk on the 26th floor overlooking trains, traffic, and our work hummers. I'd be able to throw a rock at my office if there wasn't another tower directly in the way. That's good, I won't have to think about work when I come home - yeah, right!

This entry was carried over a borrowed wireless connection from one of my neighbors. Bandwidth tests varied strongly. The best was a 3.34mbps download and 434k upload to LA. I will plug into a 100 meg port and be a part of the buildings lightning fast backbone (I hope...).

The house is perfect. It comes minimally furnished. I wish that I had shipped more than the 800 lbs than I did (including my 400 lb bike). I'll have to figure something out for the guest room.

The entry to my tower is an automatic RFID based, super high tech sliding glass door that hides behind a security tower. My door is a heavy metal thing with a keypad for entry. The "doorbell" has a video camera, speaker, and mic to validate entry. It ties in to the Honeywell home automation system and has a 2nd terminal within arms reach of the master bedroom robo-pot. During testing with Sally I accidentally hit the "alarm" button instead of "speak" or "unlock". After disarming it with my card security was up to check it out - oh well. The home automation system also monitors power usage, sets the temperature, provides a weather forecast, calls management or security, and can be tied into your local phone system. I won't be using it much as my sticky note label system doesn't work on a touchscreen.

You'll immediately notice 2 things when you walk in the front door - an absurdly large set of shoe racks and an incredible view that only looks better at night.











Here are a few shots of my living room - soon to include a TV and electronics. The R2D2 lookin' thing is my air conditioner. The other units I saw were upgraded to have the unit in the ceiling.



The kitchen is nice. It includes gas ranges and a lot of cabinet space. It almost looks normal until you find the 2 refrigerators - not counting the smaller Kim Chi refrigerator in the laundry room. Schaal taught me a thing or two about redundancy - I'll be well taken care of.

The guest bedroom on the left will probably be storage space until someone commits to come to visit - hint, hint. Its bathroom is partially Korean style in that it's lowered and all tiled with a drain. Everything in there but the TP can get wet!



The master bedroom isn't huge, but it's nice. There's a tiled spot between sets of windows for plants. The mini-hallway that leads to the bathroom is like a walk-in closet with more storage room than I have clothes.

An interesting thing about the heating here is that it's provided by hot water in pipes under the floor. Each room has a separate thermostat to control that. Electricity prices are highly progressive here, so I'll have to be particularly careful.



Last, but not least, is my office. I'll be spending a lot of time here! On the right is the view outside the window.

After knocking on my neighbors doors I met a nice Vietnamese American, Army guy named 'Do'. He invited me in for tea and showed me his place. I'm not sure if I mentioned that my floorplan is the smallest in the complex. His unit had many upgrades, including the ceiling A/C and even better views than mine! His setup was very homey and tasteful. He's married, but I'm pretty sure that I outrank him - so I'm probably paying my landlord a bit more than he's paying his. Apparently when he moved in two years ago the towers were brand new and there were a lot of choices. Now these units get snatched up quickly. I'm ecstatic about my find here. Tomorrow I get my own Internet access and my household goods arrive on Monday. Do's cooking tomorrow for a group of his Vietnamese friends and I'm invited. Oh yeah!

There are a few more pictures here. Off to find some dinner...