Lights, Love, Lunacy, & LEASES!

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!

Bathroom

Bedroom

More of the bedroom (french doors!)

Second bedroom that has been turned into a closet

Kitchen

Living area (broker is standing in area between this room & the closet)

Floor plan

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!