Lights, Love, & Lunacy: July 2012

The next four days were full of adventure and misadventure. Our first listing appointment on Tuesday was at 10 a.m. in northern Astoria. We walked about 1/2 a mile from the subway stop to the apartment building, and loved what we saw as we went. There were restaurants, shops, charming brownstones, and a mass of people that appeared to be, at least, fairly normal.

We were quite sold already, but once we ventured up to the building door, we were unable to successfully buzz the tenant that was supposed to show us the apartment. I called the property management company with which I'd made the appointment, and she attempted to call this tenant several times. We waited and waited, but were never able to see the apartment. Disappointed, we walked back to the subway and hoped that we would be able to reschedule.

Since we had a few hours to kill and were already in Queens, we decided to check out another apartment where we planned to attend an open house that evening. It was a little tough to find, and we didn't love that there wasn't much within a reasonable walking distance. The disappointing morning was brightened by a yummy lunch at Sage General Store and our randomly stumbling upon the Supreme Court of the State of New York.

At around 2 p.m. we met with a broker at Citi Habitats on the Upper West Side. After warning us that we likely wouldn't find much in Manhattan with our limited budget, she took us to see a studio on W. 106th Street between Amsterdam and Broadway. I immediately fell in love with the beautiful building, and even more so with the presence of an elevator.

As soon as you open the apartment door, a gorgeously renovated kitchen space is on your left. I was surprised to find four burners and extremely tall cabinets. The living space was small, but bright, as two large windows lit the room. There was a tiny closet (the size of a small coat closet) and a fairly spacious bathroom. Despite it's "cozy" size, we loved the apartment for it's quality and location. Though we wanted to jump at the space immediately and put down a deposit ($500 to hold the apartment until an application can be processed), we decided to finish out the day and sleep on it.

Once back at the hotel room, I tried calling over a dozen property managers to book appointments for the following day. We were hoping to have at least one backup apartment, just in case the UWS studio didn't work out. Despite hours of phone calls, I was only able to secure an appointment with another broker in Astoria, Plaza Realty, who would show us a 1 bedroom apartment on Wednesday afternoon.

By morning we were still interested in the apartment and decided to put in an application. We met with the broker for the building's landlord and handed over a pile of documents that would be used to substantiate our application. Though we believed we would be approved for the studio, we still headed over to Astoria for our listing appointment.

Our broker held only a part-time position at Plaza Realty as he worked full-time as a New York City firefighter. He took us to see the 1 bedroom which we liked, but didn't feel was worth $100 more per month. Though we were against seeing an apartment we felt was too big, he convinced us to also go look at a 2 bedroom listing a few blocks away.

When we walked into the apartment we were first shocked by the kitchen that dwarfed the others that we'd seen. We had expected the layout to match what we envisioned when we thought of a modern 2 bedroom space, but this apartment consisted of several rooms that all flow together in one long line. We wanted to put in an application for the apartment immediately, but had no idea where we really were. We told the broker that we were going to explore the neighborhood, and get back to him in a couple of hours.

The building can best be described as an over-sized brownstone on a quiet street surrounded by similar structures. On the street over we found a laundromat, stores, restaurants, and bars. The subway stop is only a couple of blocks away, and so is a movie theater. After spending an hour or so getting acquainted, we decided to put in an application on this apartment, also.

By the next morning we heard that we had been approved for both spaces, and were faced with a tough decision: location or space? Both apartments had everything we would need within walking distance and both were a 20 minute commute to work (for me). Ultimately, we decided that it would be less of a culture shock to us Floridians to be able to spend as much time as we wanted in Manhattan, while having an escape to the slightly slower Astoria every evening.

That afternoon we headed back to the broker's office to sign the lease and take some pictures of the apartment (below). We celebrated with some pizza at Sac's, and met up with a friend of Jonnie's at the Frying Pan later that evening for drinks.

Friday allowed us to sleep in a bit before checking out of the Hotel Deauville and heading back to the airport to head home to Florida for a month. On August 1st we'll be filling up a moving van and heading to our new apartment in Astoria!