Posted by admin on January 14, 2009 under Uncategorized | 
Well, we just returned home from a 3 day apartment search in NYC. Talk about a whirlwind. We landed on Friday morning at 7am, went to my brother’s apartment and changed, and were wandering through the first apartment at 9am. We went through a dozen or so places while we were there. There was something wrong with all of them, but that’s just NYC. If there wasn’t anything wrong with them, we couldn’t afford them. But they weren’t grotesque, just always something off. We saw a couple of beautiful places…on the ground floor (one looking out at a barbed wire fence). A few of the other nicer ones were co-ops, meaning it would be a lengthy decision process, one in which meant disclosing every last detail about our life. For a rental? No thanks. Ok, you’re probably thinking, gee, what do they have to hide? Well, nothing, but if I am just renting an apartment and paying somebody else’s mortgage, I’m not interested in an invasive fact-finding mission. We’ll have to do that when we prepare to buy a place. Anyway, we saw another nice one that was a tad small, but we would could find a way to manage…if it had any natural light whatsoever. Anyway, that’s kind of how NYC apartments are. We ended up with two finalists–a nice, yet outdated place on Central Park West, and a funky, 1 bedroom with a loft just around the corner on West 86th. There were pros and cons to both. The place on Central Park West, well, for starters, it was on Central Park West. We have a puppy and having the park across the street would be ideal (and to be honest, so would having a CPW address). It also had tons of closet space and beautiful hardwood floors. The place on West 86th was a cool spot. It was a beautiful brownstone with 8 units (apparently Tom Cruise, Robert Downey, Jr. and Sarah Jessica Parker all once called it home). It was really cute. But the layout of the place was less than desirable. There were no closets and it was kind of a maze (not to mention I shuddered at the idea of climbing up the ladder to grab my clothes each morning). But it had an outdoor deck and a lot of character. We were leaning towards taking it, but decided to sleep on it. As you’ve probably guessed by now, we woke up Sunday morning and after talking about it for only a few minutes, we were in agreement–the place on W. 86th Street, as cute as it was, just wasn’t practical. We went back over to Central Park West, the first place we looked at on Friday, and after seeing a dozen or so other places since, it looked a lot better. We could see ourselves there. I called the management company, talked them down $100/month in rent and we left for the airport. Mission accomplished.
Posted by admin on December 22, 2008 under Pre-move (San Francisco), Uncategorized |
Ah, progress (in a baby steps kind of way). Today we had our first moving estimate. Ok, so I realize that this may not seem like substantial progress to you, but it means something to me. Given we have known about our move for a few months and have yet to do anything about it (mostly because there hasn’t been much we can do), it just feels good to finally make our first dent.
My wife called United Van Lines last week to set up the appointment and they sent out a sales consultant named Mike this morning to assess our load and provide us with a quote. Because my wife was at work at the time of the appointment, I was on my own. Great. Anytime you invite a salesman into your home, well, you know, it’s annoying (it’s hard enough dealing with the neighborhood kid who stops by to sell you a newspaper subscription or some candy!). Read more of this article »
Posted by admin on November 29, 2008 under Pre-move (San Francisco), Restaurants |
Today we bought quite possibly the most important planning tool out there–the 2009 New York City Restaurants guide from Zagat Survey. There are a lot of quality websites and guides out there that cover New York City restaurants, but in our opinion, the conversation begins and ends with Zagat Survey. They’ve been doing this in NYC for 30 years now and I’ve never gone wrong with their recommendations (I happen to know which “naysayer” I am). Over the next few weeks, as we sit around nervously trying to decide what we need to do to prepare for the move, we’re looking forward to flipping through the Zagat guide looking for new places to try once we arrive in NYC. Read more of this article »
Posted by admin on November 25, 2008 under Pre-move (San Francisco) |
Is that the countdown in Times Square I’m hearing? Because it sure feels like millions of voices are screaming in unison at the top of their lungs, “10, 9, 8…”. Ok, so it’s only in my head, but with Thanksgiving only two days away, I found myself gasping for air today thinking about our move. Don’t get me wrong, we’re very much looking forward to a having a few days off of work and spending Turkey Day with family (Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays), but as Thanksgiving comes and goes, so, too, does another milestone that lies between us and our journey to New York City. The reality of our move is beginning to set in. Not that we are having second thoughts or anything like that, we just need to start trying to put the pedal to the metal so that the next two months aren’t any harder than they already promise to be. Read more of this article »
Posted by admin on November 22, 2008 under Pre-move (San Francisco) |
I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately to the old adage that, in life, “timing is everything”. With Citigroup recently announcing they’ll be laying off an additional 52,000 employees–many of whom work in New York City–job losses in New York City continue to mount. I realize that it may sound selfish, but I can’t help but wonder what this all means for our move to New York City. On the one hand, given the massive layoffs that have taken place on Wall Street and elsewhere over the past few months, we likely stand to benefit from a housing standpoint. As job losses continue to grow, which even the most optimistic of us must concede is likely, more than a handful of the soon-to-be unemployed will throw their hands up in the air, capitulate and abandon their dreams of making it in Manhattan. They will pack their bags and go back to wherever they Read more of this article »
Posted by admin on November 20, 2008 under Pre-move (San Francisco) |
The excitement for our move to New York City was tempered last night by the sad news that my uncle unexpectedly passed away. I really didn’t see this one coming at all. Although he was a smoker (an unfortunate but necessary disclaimer), he was only 58 years old and had never been seriously ill. My understanding is that he wasn’t feeling well last night and a friend brought him to the hospital where he was brought in for emergency surgery and suffered cardiac arrest. What a loss. He was a very decent man who was easy to talk to and had a great sense of humor. There was no pretense with him–what you saw was what you got. He was refreshing that way. As sad as I am about his premature death, I really feel more for my grandmother, my mother and her siblings more than anything else. Thankfully, I saw him not too long ago at my brother’s wedding and my last memory of him is standing outside with his brothers and sisters laughing hysterically. That’s a good way to remember somebody.
For those of you who are religious, I’d ask that you please keep my uncle in your prayers.
Posted by admin on November 19, 2008 under Pre-move (San Francisco) |
Everyone knows NYC is expensive. There are no two ways about it–you pay a premium for living in Manhattan. That’s just the deal. But as expensive as it is, the fact is that we’re moving there from San Francisco, one of the other most expensive cities in the United States to live in, so that should help soften the blow. We sat down recently and examined what we’re paying now for housing and transportation and compared it with what we’re anticipating we’ll pay in NYC. The results weren’t as scary as we thought they might be. Take a look for yourself:
San Francisco
Rent: $2,300/month
Car: $432/month
Car insurance: $90/month
Gas: $80/month Read more of this article »
Posted by admin on November 18, 2008 under Pre-move (San Francisco) |
Ok, so the decision has been made to move to New York City. From an emotional perspective, that’s the hardest part (that and sharing the decision with our friends and family here in the San Francisco Bay Area). But now it’s time to get into logistical details, which doesn’t promise to be much fun either. Our timeline is mid-January, so we still have time to get things in order, but where to begin? We’ve spent some time looking at apartments online (we’re looking at the Upper West Side), but given how the NYC rental market works (good apartments are snapped up quickly and rental companies are looking for tenants who are willing to sign a lease that is effective immediately), it’s really a pointless exercise other than to get a gauge for what it will cost. Even if we see a place we love (and we’ve seen a few that fall into this category), we’re not in a position to be paying for both our place in San Francisco and a place in New York City for two months and there is no way that a place that we see and love now will still be available once we’re ready (if it is, there is something seriously wrong with it). So we’ll continue to look (mostly because it’s fun), but we won’t get serious about it until after the New Year. We’re planning on taking a trip to NYC sometime in early January to go through as many places as we can and, hopefully, secure an apartment before returning back to San Francisco to move our stuff. Read more of this article »
Posted by admin on under Pre-move (San Francisco) |
You only face so many life changing decisions over the course of your lifetime. Sure, you make important decisions every day, some of which have a more direct impact than others, but rarely do you make a decision which creates a seismic shift in the direction of your life. But we’ve all made such decisions at one point or another. You know the ones I’m talking about. As a child, you had to decide which local sports team to pledge your lifetime allegiance to. In middle school, the choice was French or Spanish (a seemingly innocuous decision at the time but one that had fairly serious implications down the road). Later on you chose a college, declared a major (for some of you this may have happened a few times), and accepted your first job. At some point along the way you decided to strike up a conversation with the person you’d end up sharing the rest of your life with. You catch my drift. There are key decisions you make in life which shape you and determine the direction your life will take. It’s like the old series of novels Choose Your Own Adventure where you’d jump from page to page depending on which decision you made, with each decision affecting the outcome of the novel. As in those books, in life, too, we face forks in the road and are forced to choose. How we choose will affect our path and all of the subsequent series of forks in the road hinge on our decision. Which brings me to my point (albeit in a roundabout way). My wife and I recently faced one of these forks in the road and made a life-changing decision. After an agonizing deliberation process, we made the decision to pack our bags and move to New York City. Again. Read more of this article »
