Thanks angelbunny and sheriG. That is useful to know. I really want mr londonteacher to have as short a communte as possible as he is going to be working really long hours so i guess we will start by looking at the areas nearest hiw place or work-i suppose a patio is the same as a yard. we call them gardens here and i need some outside space.

The company are flying us out for a week of househunting in a couple of weeks so that should give us an idea- I have never visited LA before so have just watched Chinatown as research- yes the valley looks very dry!His work is in the valley at a film studio.
I think the gunshot noises might make me sleepless so silverlake may well be out!

Burbank itself is a great place to live, my Aunt has lived there for 58 years. She raised 5 children there and ran a licensed daycare from the 60's up until retirement about 4 years ago. North Glendale is right next door to Burbank and is also a very nice area. Rent here for houses are high, about 1900.00 and up. You might want to concider looking into an apartment, condo or duplex..a two bedroom would run you approx. 1275.00 to about 1575.00. I wouldnt chose Silverlake if I were you, especially if you have children. Silverlake has a lot of gang activity and although it has some great old homes, it isnt the safest place to live, by far. Burbank and Glendale, South Pasadena & Arcadia have great schools, arent gang infested & are smaller making it easy to get to know your way around your new hometown.
By the way, Craigslist.org has hundreds of listings, but if it doesnt have a picture of the unit, dont bother.
I live in Van Nuys/Sherman Oaks, I have a 2 bedroom duplex, yard, enclosed parking, two large bedrooms, a huge enclosed patio,a large hallway with lots of linen cupboards, hardwood floors, appliances & a/c, I pay 1350.00 per month. I dont care for the Valley much because of the heat and humidity, but the area I live in is nice. I used to live in Northeast LA, in a beautiful victorian gingerbread house, but you could hear gunshots often especially on Holidays. I dont hear them here and am greatful for that.
I wish you much luck in your move.

Well, as far as rents go, I found a little tool that lets you price an apartment to make sure you are getting a good price based on other rents in the area.

www.rentometer.com/

I am not sure where else you could look, though you might find some ideas on some of the more popular social networking sites such as Tribe.net, Meetup.com, etc.

Thanks magnet mum

We would like to just have one car really- he has been with the company nearly 4 years so he was expecting 15 days but as he was a contracter for the first 3 years they are not recognising this service which is frustrating as the redundancy uk package was based on 4 years service. anyway we have made our decision and turned down that payment for the adventure of spending some time in california.

We both do wide eyed well so we are lucky!
I have always really warmed to most of the Americans I have met over the years- much warmer than us Brits generally.

It is good to know we will be able to get by on one salary too. I am sure it is not going to be for ever and we will return after a year if things are not right....so we are lucky to have that as an option.

LondonTeacher,

You'll learn there are differences between the UK and the US. Some you'll love, and others, you'll roll your eyes at. I have a dear friend who competes in the same sport as my family. This friend comes over regularly from England and points out what his issues are with the US, yet he keeps coming back.

Here, two weeks vacation is typical early in a new job, and that is one that will always come up as a difference with folks from other countries. Sorry. :)

As for the costs they've encouraged you to budget for, I don't use a cell phone, but I suspect $50 is close, but I can safely say internet service won't be $125. If you moved to Burbank, you might be able to get away with one car (you'll soon realize our public transport isn't as great as London's either). Use the Internet to shop around on everything. And if you wait on some things, you may find you don't need cable TV or other things that are likely on that list.

I saw in a post that you worried that it would take $80-90K to live here comfortably. I can safely say we get by on much less. But, others make double that and can't seem to survive. Much of the entertainment can be free or nearly free--especially if you haven't been here before--museums, public parks, you name it.

Keep the wide-eyed excitement. I've lived here nearly my whole life, and I won't leave Southern California.

Thank you Magnet mom and ms mom.I appreciate your responses. That is reassuring to know rent may come in under $2000. We are getting a little nervous about the cost of living since we got something from the company suggesting we budget 125 for broadband and 50 for a mobile- we pay significantly less in the UK. But I am hoping they overestimate these things and since we both have pretty modest desires I am hoping we will not simply scrape by.
My partner will be working at one of the studios in burbank and will have an early start so I do not want him to have to do a long commute before work.

We are so looking forward to coming in september but are reeling from the fact they have only given him 10 days holiday? Who can survive happily on 10 days holiday? I have 13 weeks holiday as a teacher and even he has had 25 days in the corporate world. We have been told by friends who have spent time living in the us that this is totally normal and all americans work long hours with few holidays.Still we hope we can make good use of the weekends and enjoy all that gorgeous countryside california has to offer so we are predominantly in a state of childish excitement!

You might actually like to live in Burbank. It has a lot of walking communities and Burbank has some of the neatest oldest neighborhoods in the area. Coming from the UK, you can laugh, because old in the San Fernando Valley is like 50-60 years old. There are some great smaller complexes, and some newer buildings, too. It's one of the places where you can find 3-units with a small yard.

You can always contact a realtor and see if they can help you get pointed in the right direction. I also found this site, which might help, too: www.burbankrent.com/

Good luck, and let us know when you get settled.

Hi LondonTeacher:

Welcome to Greatschools!

I live close to Burbank (actually a bit northwest of Burbank). You can start your search about Burbank using Google. Most of Burbank is very nice. It is it's own city, with it's own fire and police departments, and water and power department. My daughter attended a private Catholic high school in Burbank, and we were pleased with her education.

The Disney studios are located in Burbank, along with an NBC station. They have an AMC 16 movie theatre complex, with newly built housing built right across the walkway from the theatres. Houses are generally small (1-2 bdrm., 1-2 bath) on nice-sized lots. I don't know the renting price of houses, but again, you can Google realtors or apartments dot com to get more information on rent/leases. Burbank is, generally, a family-friendly place to live.

Some of the bordering cities are Glendale, Pasadena, Studio City, Toluca Lake and Sunland. $2,000 is a bit high, given the economy these days. You're sure to find housing in Burbank that won't be that expensive.

Good luck in your search!

Just looked a bot more round this site and realised it is dealing with educational queries- oops.
Does anyone know of a website where my question may be more suited?

Thank you