The Pursuit of Happiness in Manhattan
It is true…I can’t quite explain why, it just did. I always viewed the Upper West Side (UWS) as a bit suburban (which is kinda how I view the Upper East Side today), elitist, and remote. Before moving to New York, I knew nothing about the UWS, other than knowing that Jerry Seinfeld made it the backdrop of his show.
[Photo: My Hell’s Kitchen apartment last fall. Vintage Burke swivel chair, Ikea cabinets hung on the wall, Weltron 2000 AM/FM 8-Track Stereo (circa 1970), red acrylic string lamp, and photography wall of iPhone shots.]
Before fulfilling my lifelong dream of living in Manhattan (and long before I was married), I lived in Seattle, Portland (Oregon), and Chicago. Each a great city unto itself. While I never had much money during those years, I always placed my priority on location over space when it came to housing.
[Photo: This is a beautiful room, although I think it could use a tad bit more red. Source – House and Garden UK, November 2012]
I am not an interior designer. But I do have my own distinctive sense of style. I know what I do like and what I don’t like. (I am also very fortunate and grateful to have a supportive husband who appreciates my sense of style, and lets me do almost anything when it comes to our home’s interior design.)
It was a mostly sleepless night after we saw the half classic six that week before our wedding, but by the time we got up on Monday morning, we knew we wanted to go back. We called the selling agent and scheduled a second visit for that next evening and upon arrival, spent a good 30 minutes looking the place over.
It was the Sunday before our wedding, only 23 days after we decided (thanks to my real estate attorney) to get married, and we needed a day off. A day off from all of the chaos surrounding the planning of a wedding, the travel arrangements for visiting family and friends, the back and forth with my attorney and real estate agent on the sale of my apartment, and the general exhaustion that both of us felt from lack of calm in our lives for the last month.
[Photo: The day after my proposal in Provincetown, MA. July 2013]
So the plan was this….
Yoav and I came to the conclusion early on (before I proposed, but after we said “I love you”) that real estate was going to be a top priority early on in our relationship. We both owned our own co-ops. He bought his small one bedroom, close to Riverside Park south of 110th Street back in the late 90s. I bought my very small studio (294 sq. ft.) in a pre-war doorman building in Hell’s Kitchen in 2010. It was fairly clear that we both wanted to buy a place together to make “our” home in, and not try to fit our lives into the others place (which would be impossible in my tiny studio). A place that we both love and look forward to building our future in.
Allow me to introduce myself…
My name is Devyn and I am not your typical gay middle-aged man. I was born and raised in Central California and from a very young age I had dreams of a life in Manhattan always followed by the fears of making that dream come true. Well, in 2007, after living in Chicago for eight years, I set my fears aside, sold my loft and decided to fulfill my dream of a life in Manhattan. I have never looked back.
Hi, my name is Devyn. This was my blog about the adventures of finding, buying, renovating, fixing up, restoring, DIY'ing, and decorating a part of New York housing legacy. We have left NYC for a new life in Philadelphia. Visit my new blog Our Philly Row and read all about our "fixer-upper-ing" an 1852 rowhouse
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