Reality Can Be a Bitchy Bitch

October 6, 2014 0 Permalink

There are times when the realities of life can be a bitch; slap you hard in the face and leave a welt. When I (we) make plans, God just sits back and laughs…. Right now feels like one of those times. Fortunately, all is not lost… Far from it.

Reality number one:
Despite my being unconvinced at times that I am a middle-aged man, I am painfully aware that I no longer have the stamina of 20+ years ago, nor the physical abilities

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We Are Home… And Our Home has a Soul

[Photo: Looking up the street from our kitchen window, you can see the carpet of green tree-tops and the handsome corbels over our bedroom windows.]

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,

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It’s Official!!! – Now The Tour

It’s Official! (Finally)

We are now the owners of our very own half classic six apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. And we are damned grateful for it. The closing went very smoothly, it involved getting nine people in a conference room for about 90 minutes, and lots and lots of signatures and checks floating about. At the end, we walked away with a new set of keys and 30 years of mortgage payments.

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But Wait?!… I’m A Modernist!

We are only days away from finally taking possession of the keys to our new home (I promise a video walk-through) and I’ve been dreaming about all the amazing things I can do with our 785 square feet. I am relishing the idea that I will actually get to decorate more than just the living room and bathroom of my prior 294 square foot studio. While our new home may only be a one bedroom apartment, I count six spaces to design and decorate.

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Bittersweet Indeed

August 10, 2014 1 , Permalink

[Photo: Looking up at our Half Classic Six.]

Before the end of this month we will be the owners of our dream apartment… Or to put it more clearly, the dream apartment within our budget. And at the moment, all I can say is that as exciting as this is, it is very bittersweet at the same time.

When we sat for our board interview week before last, excited and relieved to finally be at this point in the long arduous process, I felt a familiar vibration on my butt from my phone and the tone of a Facebook message rang out. A bit embarrassed and thinking it was a reminder notice instead, I ignored it and went on with the interview.

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Before There Was Two, There Was Always One (Video)

[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.

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Backstory Part V – Entering Contract and Renovation Plans

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.

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