We had originally thought that Kavya and Ellie and I would stay at Kevin's parents' house in Los Gatos, but the more we thought about it, the less ideal that seemed. It's a beautiful house, with a big fenced in yard for puppy to run around in. But it's far enough from Berkeley that Kev wouldn't want to drive up and down every day. He was thinking that he might rent a little room in Berkeley and stay there some nights of the week. It would be okay, but instead...
...it turned out that Heather and Tim's landlord was willing to rent us his basement apartment (where Heather's sister used to live) for about the same cost as the room Kev was going to rent. It's unfurnished, and a bit dark and dank, but it means that Kevin doesn't need to spend any nights away. It has a fenced in backyard where the landlord's dogs play, so that's good for Ellie. And I think I'll see a lot more of my friends if I'm in Oakland, rather than being based entirely in Los Gatos. We'll probably still go down to Los Gatos most (if not all) weekends, so there'll be some babysitting from the grandparents and the chance for Ellie to play with Kev's sister's dogs.
So that's the plan, and I think it's a pretty good one. We may need to borrow some furniture from friends, but that should be do-able. It should be a nice fall. :-)