The Pursuit of Happiness in Manhattan
To know me is to know that I have long been a methodical type of person… The tortoise in the race with the hare… Slow and steady wins the race right? This explains why I am also a very driven person when I set my mind to something, which is the reason I hold the following quote very close to my heart.
I have thus far avoided the topic of politics on Half Classic Six. Mostly because I believe politics and a renovation and decorating blog don’t mix well. However, in light of recent events, I cannot help but feel the need to at least acknowledge the impact of what I believe to be the biggest election of my life. I also want to be very clear that this post is not about who you did or didn’t vote for, that is your choice. But it is about how the current state of affairs has impacted me in a profound way. Things are just different now.
Yesterday marked two years since we closed on our fixer-upper apartment on the upper portion of the Upper West Side of Manhattan (that was a lot of uppers, yes?). Taking a look back, we are both incredibly grateful for having done it when we did. Crazy thing about New York real estate is that our place would cost so much more now. Had we waited to buy as we originally planned, we wouldn’t have gotten our amazing apartment.
Two years ago today, Yoav and I were super excited to finally be sitting for our board interview for the purchase of our half classic six. We had been waiting patiently for nearly three months since that first open house when we fell in love with our apartment after having attended about fifty open houses over the previous year. We were quite relieved to finally be at this point in the process after the long arduous process.
After waking up in our new bedroom for the very first time on Tuesday morning, the feeling that we are home really began to take hold for both of us. We are home.
It doesn’t matter that there are still 120 plus boxes to unpack,
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.
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.
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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