Let the Hunt Begin

Our day began bright and early with the alarm going off at 4:45 a.m. for an 8:10 a.m. flight. Aside from a fairly long line through security and a mildly turbulent flight, we made it to Laguardia airport without a hitch.

Since we're here on a budget, we insisted on taking the bus/subway into Manhattan instead of taking a $45 cab ride. Once we waded through the sea of people (LGA could seriously use an expansion),  we discovered that the Metrocard machine in the airport was out of order. To avoid the pricey cab ride, we had to buy some $4 gummy worms and ask for $4.50 worth of change to take the M60 bus.

We didn't have to wait long to catch the bus, and hopped off after only a few minutes to catch the N train in Astoria (Queens). We rode the N to Lexington & 59th street, while listening to a VERY angry man spout off expletives and express his racism because a man didn't hold the subway door for him...welcome to NYC!

Sooner or later we made it to our hotel on 29th and Park - the quirky and fun Hotel Deauville where we're staying for $115/night and with a shared bathroom that's located a few floors beneath us. It's a fun space with an old school elevator, staircase, and even room key.

Luckily our room was ready soon after noon, and we were able to drop off our luggage and head off to a listing appointment on the Upper West Side a bit early. After taking 3 subway trains and getting a bit turned around, we made it to the appointment a couple of blocks west of Lincoln Square. As we checked in, we noticed that the building doorman and both listing agents made sure to mention that the unit they were showing us was small, but we still weren't quite expecting the 150 square foot space they showed us (it included a small bathroom and kitchen). This apartment was teeny teeny tiny - smaller than my freshman dorm room, and was actually still a steal at $1395/month. That's Manahttan for you...

After a quick lunch we headed back to the hotel to make some more listing appointments for Tuesday (which means that I made listing appointments while Jonnie napped). Once the rain settled down we had a yummy Mexican dinner at Blockheads in Murray Hill followed by some time wandering around the City.

Tomorrow we have a few appointments all over creation. Wish us luck!

 Our room at the Hotel Deauville

Shared bathroom

-Kelly

Moving to NYC...is an epic pain in the @$$

After months of anticipation, Jonnie and I (Kelly) will be moving up to New York City in August so that I may begin a job with the public accounting firm, Ernst & Young. To keep track of everything we plan on seeing and doing in NYC, we decided to create a blog. We're hoping that it will serve as both a personal journal, and a medium through which to communicate with our family and friends that will be miles and miles away.

Before we can become pseudo-New Yorkers, we have to find our NYC home. As such, we'll be heading up to the City next Monday, June 25th, to find maybe not our dream apartment, but one that will provide a roof over our heads, allow Jonnie some space to spend hours on his laptop, and house both my shoe and book collections. Though we're not particularly picky about a living space, or really even the location, finding an apartment in any of the New York City Burroughs has proven to be more of a royal biotch than I ever could have imagined.

Firstly, the rental market for apartments functions similarly to the market of homes for purchase - except on speed. Listing sites have dozens of apartments, the composition of which changes daily. Because of this, we had to wait until a mere 36 days before we move to start looking for a home. Even worse, we will only be able to book a few listing appointments before we arrive in the City, as the apartments we have been eyeing all this week will likely be off the market before we even set foot off the plane. For someone who likes to plan any and everything, this can be painstakingly frustrating.

Further, landlords in NYC demand basically an entire life's worth of paperwork and your soul before they will lease to you. I've collected a pile of bank statements, tax returns, pay stubs, employment letters, reference letters, cancelled rent checks, forms of identification, asset statements, cover letters, and my left pinky toe to turn over to the lucky landlord that shows us our future home.

Our plan is to have a lease signed by June 29th, our last day in the City, and to be moved in by August 3rd. I'll be posting next week from the Hotel Deauville, hopefully in a state of euphoria because every apartment we had seen was amazing (though I foresee a lot of scary small, dark, and depressing apartments in our future). In the meantime, you can check out our NYC to-do list that we would like to complete before we move to the next city. Wish us luck!