Stories From Apartment Hunting in Manhattan

Apartment hunting in Manhattan was a trip.  Now, we are pretty much seasoned apartment hunters given how many times we have done it over the years and Chicago is pretty large city.  But holy wow was it crazy, confusing, and just an experience.

We had the dilusion that we would be able to find a no-fee apartment by ourselves without a broker.  Hahahahahaha!  After months of scanning the web and trying to find buildings and property management places during our walks we gave up.  We did find buildings with no fee apartments... but there was no way we could afford them.  We did find apartments online... but they were bait - generic listings by realtors to get you to call them.  So finally, we just made an appointment to go in and meet with a broker.

We thought we were just going to see what was out there in our price range.  But basically, if you find a place you need to get your application in immediately so that it is in the top of the heap.  Good apartments move fast.  We sat there with the broker as he poured over the database of listings to find a few that meet our qualifications (which had taken a beating).  Then he passed us off to his partner with a set of keys and a good luck.

The broker that took us around mentioned how he walks fast and "zig zags" through so to let him know if we needed to slow down.  We set off at a solid pace for the subway.  Dan was wearing Jaime and I would soon be very grateful that it wasn't me.  We took the 1 from their office at Times Square to the first apartment at 86th St.

We zigged.  We zagged.  We ran up flights of stairs.  We snuck into a building.  We huffed and puffed and tried to keep up with the broker dude.  We were all over the Upper West Side.  We saw a six story walk up above a bar.  We saw a cockroach in a bathtub.  We saw a quintessential NYC walk up on a tree lined street.  We saw a pre-war elevator-building with a doorman.  We saw the smallest bedroom ever.

Back to the huffing and puffing upstairs.  We consider ourselves to be pretty fit.  I mean, I am not working out nearly as much as I used to but still, I can keep up with walking.  But this was the most exhausting day.  I was beyond sore.  After the fourth walk up, where the broker didn't break a smidgeon, I was trying to huff and puff quietly to not totally embarrass myself.  It might have been at this point that I mentally crossed off all the walk ups.  This would also be the point where Jaime decided he was hungry. 

And the point where we realized that while we started out intending to just get the feel for working with a broker and what was in our price range, we saw a place that could really work.  A doorman, pre-war, double closets, laundry... and an elevator.  And if I was going to start working the first week of November, it would be awesome to be settled.  So after deliberation while sitting on a bench on Central Park West, nursing Jaime, sipping on an iced latte, sharing a cookie... we decided to go back to their office and put in an application.

Finally, we were headed back home.  But after being out for nearly 8 hours, we really had to go the bathroom.  Sometime, ask Dan about taking Jaime into the bathroom at Penn Station... apparently the smell hit them as they walked in and Jaime made the most awesome face expressing "wtf!"  And it should be said - that kid is a trooper!  He was out with us all day and barely fussed at all, just hung out and enjoyed the ride.  The brokers were very impressed with how good he was.

Then the most ridiculous application process for an apartment began.  We had to give them more documentation than you might provide for a mortgage.  They needed printed and signed letters of reference.  The lease signing appointment started off with an interview.  It was madness.  And then it was over.

The apartment was ours.  We were finally moving into Manhattan.  Now to just get past the tropical storm headed our way.

Jaime's First Visit at the Farm

As I became weary of Jersey and saw a twinkling of a light signaling my job search might be coming to an end, I decided that we needed a trip to the farm.  Poor Dan didn't get to go - he was stuck going to work and taking care of the dogs by himself.  So after waiting for a few things to finalize with interviews, I booked the tickets.  The little bug was going on his second flight before his fourth month.

We woke up at 2:30am and made our way to Minneapolis.  On the flight from Chicago to Minneapolis we sat in the front row- Jaime sat there and grinned at everyone as they boarded, he then went on to flirting with the young woman sitting next to us, he would stare at her until she would look at him and then he would smile and giggle and then bury his head in my chest.  When we arrived in MN, Jaime was excited to find his grandparents waiting for him at the baggage claim.  We got ourselves situated and finished our journey with the drive to the farm.

I was curious as to how Jaime would do with so many people and so much more constant stimulation after being in a pretty isolated existance in NJ.  He did great and is quite the little extrovert.  He was very curious about his cousins and his wild uncle Ray and aunt Tamy, Grammie was good for snuggles and Papa was entertaining with mornings spent checking things out around the house.  He even got to snuggle with Mean (the very mean cat). 

While I was taking Logan's senior pictures, Jaime got to go on his first tractor ride.  And Grammie took him to the pumpkin patch to hunt down a Jaime-sized pumpkin. 

The early morning flight and time zone change made it a little tough for both of us, good thing the farm is a great place for napping if you time it right.  And we might have pittered out early a night or two, going to bed before everyone else. 

We went for a trip to visit Grandpa S (who passed away a month or so later).  And went on a quick shopping trip with Grammie.  Jaime was a charming little bug and didn't throw a fit until the night before left.  Since it is a long drive from the farm to the MN airport we drove up the night before and he started his night sleeping in the car, while I was getting ready for bed he decided that while those grandparents are cool he wants his mom in eye sight so threw a little fit.  Not bad. 

It was a great first visit.  We saved checking out the cows at Ray's until when Daddy is there with us (*cough*we ran out of time).

He did awesome on his flight home, we had a longer layover in Chicago and he tried to get a businessman to pay attention to him, no dice so he just continued to play with his stuffed animals on my lap.  By the time we landed in NJ I was exhausted and ready for a long nap without a squirming babe on my lap (love you bug). 

And it was time to get started on the nanny search with only a couple of weeks until my first day of work.  A few days after we were back home, parents called with the news that big huge storm was headed our way.  My smartass response was that we will just get a canoe.  More on that to come.

Merry Christmas!

Just a quick hello to say merry Christmas! 

More to come on Jaime's first Christmas...

Daily life in Rahway

We have mostly posted about the things we did to get out of Rahway, very little about what life was like for those months in Rahway.  I make no attempt to hide the fact that it was not even remotely a tiny bit of the type of place where I like to live and I spent most of our time there scheming and dreaming about finishing our big move east.  But as much as we didn't care for being there and were living out of boxes, it was the setting for James' first couple of months.  He didn't care if it was Rahway, Chicago, or New York.

Our little bug was such a tiny peanut when we moved to Rahway and when we moved out four months later he was becoming such a little kid.  A couple days after we emptied our moving truck Dan was back to work and leaving me, the little bug, and the pups to our own devises in a town that didn't even have a coffee shop.  

We spent a lot of time in the apartment.  Throughout the day Jaime and I rotated through activities and naptime.  While he napped I job searched, did diaper laundry, showered, and more job searching.  When he was awake we had a rotation of tummy time, reading, chatting, fluttering with the bugs (hand and foot finders), diaper free time and exercises (bicycling the legs, sit ups, reaching for toys, etc) making faces, visiting with the baby in the mirror, and as he got older more active things like airplane.  Since Dan had our only car at work and there was next to nothing to walk to (we did make trips to the post office to ship prints every now and then), we were pretty much limited to the apartment.

I really wanted to be active to get back some muscle tone... that was tough.  I thought if I had a stroller I could go for walks with the baby and the dogs.  Yeah right, it was a nightmare.  The dogs would be totally out of control so I would be going back and forth between trying to be a totally calm/with-it mother that doesn't lose it in front of her kid and totally biting their heads off for pulling to hard and wandering in front of the stroller.  I gave up on trying to do the walks and just endured the guilt from the neglected looks they gave me.  Then I tried to run... by the time Dan was home from work I was ready for talking with an adult and just being done for the day.  A couple of times I took Jaime to the exercise room - but I usually had a bit list of job searching to dos so felt like that was priority. 

Jaime and I also snuggled a lot.  I did pretty good with him learning to sleep in the crib but usually by the last nap of the day he just wanted to snuggle.  And while the sleep books might say never break the rules, I think he napped on me every single day at least once.  He is only this little once and before we know it he will be way to busy playing ball at the park to have time to snuggle so I enjoyed the moments that I know are fleeting.  Loved those naps.  Sometimes I got grumbly bc I was so tired and needed to nap myself (not comfortable totally sleeping when he is sleeping on me) but I still loved the moment. 

We made it our routine to take the dogs for a family walk when Dan got home from work.  It was pretty exciting, let me tell you.  There was a river path just a half block from our apartment complex.  It was nice... but very buggy and humid.  Most of our walks were spent doing a circle around town.  We sometimes drove to the park to do a lap around there. 

If it hadn't been for Jaime I probably would have gone nuts.  But he was happy just hanging out with us so it helped me keep it in perspective.  When you have a baby smiling a completely pure, content, happy smile at you it is hard to not be pretty happy yourself.  When the little one went to bed,  Dan and I watched the Breaking Bad series and ate either mint klondike bars or talenti mint gelato (omg so good).  I read a bunch of books.  And clearly did not blog or do photo work. 

The time flew.  Our little peanut was a big kid that was sleeping through the night and on the verge of standing (assisted) by the time we moved, he had gone from having to be swaddled to sleep to insisting that it was time to retire the swaddle by breaking out of it every single time.  Rahway might not be the town that I would pick to settle down in but our months in that apartment are certainly filled with great memories.

Neighborhood Hunting, AKA a Reason to go to The City

So our little NJ town didn't exactly offer the type of lifestyle that we have come to know and love.  And being home with a newborn with no car and a very small, limited town to walk around made me antsy for a reason to get out and do something on the weekends.  My best rationale for a visit to the city became that we needed to explore neighborhoods so we would know where we wanted to be when it was time to find an apartment.  Pretty smooth.

Since the train stop was visible from our apartment you would think that it would be really easy for us to jump on the train and zip to the city.  Wrong.  We missed the train repeatedly.  This usually included us running around the apartment like lunatics trying to pack Jaime's diaper bag in 30 seconds to get to the elevator and have one of them broken so it would take eons to get out of the building and then have the train pull away as we were waltzing up the steps.  A couple of times we decided to drive in at that point and take the dogs.  A few times we just waited for the next train, cursing being in the suburbs the whole time.

We always loved a nice walk through the city.  Jaime often slept for a lot of it.  When he was awake he would look around with big wide eyes taking it all in.  He was asking us "why are you keeping me in that small tiny town when I could be here?" 

We didn't just miss the train for heading into the city.  We also missed it heading home.  One Sunday afternoon we were headed home taking the Path to the Transit and we just made the Path train and then sat there as it crawled along and then missed our Transit train... so we cursed not just getting dinner in the city but made due with a bbq place in Newark since it was an hour wait for the next train.  Jaime was a such a sport.  He never fussed on these trips.

After our first visit to the Upper West Side that was it.  We were done with exploring neighborhoods in the name of home hunting as there was no question that this would be the neighborhood for us.  Then I just had to convince Dan that it was time to make the leap of faith that one of the jobs I was interviewing for would work out and start the apartment search.