Sunday, September 23, 2012

800ft² - Bright and spacious 2 bedrooms


Over the past week, we have spent a fair number of hours apartment hunting so we can finally get out of my dad's hair and his basement.
  1. The first place was overlooking a Naval yard and was viewed by Chuck when I was at work. He called to let me know that the walk from the train station included about 8 separate projects and that place was quickly nixed. 
  2. Place the second was literally across the street from our current living space. Upon falling in love with it, we discovered it was out of our price range. After discussing ways that we could possibly afford it, we sent an email suggesting a negotiation of terms. We proceeded to set up appointments to view places.
  3. That evening, we had plans to view a house that was just a quick walk east of us. We had made a habit out of viewing the property's exterior on Google Maps prior to viewing it. While doing this search, I discovered that a murder had occurred on the stoop just over a year ago. Chuck quickly cancelled our viewing appointment!
  4. Our third apartment viewing was at 9:45am and a relatively lengthy 20 minute walk from the nearest train station. While not an awful space, we were not wowed. We continued to not be wowed when the man showing us the apartment informed us that his fee was $3,000. Broker fees are outrageous here and we knew we could get a place without going through one with a little more footwork.
  5. This afternoon, we walked a few blocks west to view a place just a few minutes from a branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, the grocery store we frequent, an express train line and a farmer's market. The landlords live on the garden floor and were the ones showing it. After feeling really good about them and loving the space, we called them on our walk home to say we were interested!
TL;DR (too long, didn't read)
We're awaiting a meeting to sign the lease and pay the deposit but our move in date should be October 1. Below are the pictures from the Craigslist advertisement Chuck replied to. Promise we'll post pictures of our own once we're in the space, especially since these are from when someone else occupied the space.

The view of the space from the middle of the living room. These windows face east and a beautiful amount of natural lighting.
The view from the windows in the living room.
The kitchen which is adjacent to the living room, making it a pretty good space to entertain!
This is the view from the bedroom into the living room.
This is the bedroom. Those windows were a major selling point for me!
This is the second bedroom. If everyone in Phoenix counted rooms the way people in NYC do, by including closets, most people would have mansions.
Can't wait to have everyone come visit!!

Monday, September 10, 2012

Workin' in the City

So the dream of never working, sleeping till whenever, and waking up and exploring the city or visiting friends has come to a close. Both Jordan and I are dutifully back at work, sigh. She commutes into Sunset Park, a pretty seedy area of Brooklyn. I commute from the bed to the desk that is right next to the bed. She works in pretty casual attire. I typically work in gym shorts. It's a pretty funny dualism.

I have yet to be set up in our Manhattan office but I am anxious to go out there and see it. Being in the house all day can be a little tedious at times. The key is just to get out I suppose and see the world for a few minutes.

One of the luxuries is that I can listen to music/tv/movies as much as I want while I do my labors, so that is pretty great. I imagine working from home is akin to home school where I will get out of it as much as I put in.

The past week has been somewhat of a blur. We eagerly finished our work week and explored some other areas of Brooklyn. We are putting in research of the various by commuting to them and getting a sense of the type of people that live and if there is any nightlife to be found. As we imagined, the areas we like are borderline unaffordable and our hopes of getting a one bedroom in a desirable part of town may not be realistic.

On Saturday I met Jordan's dad who was back from Portland. He's a very thoughtful and calm person, but genuinely a very nice guy. A successful bohemian might be a good way of describing him. Saturday afternoon was spent at the American Museum of Natural History. Holy crap was that place awesome! Some of my favorite pictures at the museum were:

Actual Asteroid...It was pretty big, I guess
Outside the Hayden Planetarium. 
This was the nicer of two tigers.
 One of my favorite rooms in the museum. This whale was massive.
 Jordan is learning about the gems I will never be able to afford :)
 I cannot remember the last time I saw dinosaur bones in person so this was a treat.
 Remember how lame the stegosaurus was in Jurassic Park?
 Still crazy to think that this is now my home. This is the south end of central park backing up to the city.

At night we went to their friend's house on Saturday where we discovered the property used to be owned by the founder of Yuban coffee. They only owned a section of the now-split home. I cannot imagine someone needing all that space to themselves. Apparently it was just the founder and his wife in that space! Mischa and Jothi were both wonderful and inviting people that I am positive we will see more of.

On Sunday Jordan, maybe foolishly, agreed that we could go watch football with Kyle and his friends. Since it was opening weekend the bar we went to was packed and everyone was there to have a good time. We proceeded to order pitchers and pitchers of beer, got free tequila and then did some jager bombs. Pretty extreme Sunday for our first one in the city. Jordan had a good time, as did I, so we may make that activity a habit (probably slow it down a little though).

So we start a new week this week. I think some goals are to see other parts of the city yet to be discovered, swap our beloved and never-expiring AZ licenses for NY ones and maybe do something touristy? Should be a pretty great week.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Philly friends!

So, we successfully made it to Philly & back without taking any photos with an camera not attached to a phone. Because of this, there are no photos of Alyssa :( and no photos without an Instagram filter. We promise to try and be better about this! Luckily, it's only an hour and a half train ride so we will get another chance soon enough.
A good omen!


East coasting!    

No distance between these two anymore!
Fish bowl at the Graffiti bar
Alyssa & Tim took us to an authentic Philly block party!
At PYT, a bar/restaurant in the Northern Liberties area, a few of us met "Jeffrey" - the drink that you're better off not meeting.


Chuck & I are both back to the daily grind this morning. Let me tell ya, working from NYC is still work.