The Pursuit of Happiness in Manhattan
Today marks three years since we signed the contract for our apartment and three years since I started this blog to document our experience. It had only been a few weeks since our Manhattan Real Estate Shotgun Wedding, and were so very excited (and grateful) to have found our gem, a nice sized one bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Looking back at our hopes and dreams for our home at the time,
OK, I know…. You are probably tired of reading year in review posts and articles by now, but this one is important (to me at least) so pay attention, there is a quiz at the end, and a prize for the winner! 2015 has been quite a year for Yoav and me. We made huge progress in certain areas of our apartment, and fell way behind in others. As I was relaxing this past weekend, taking in the quiet moments in our currently clean and somewhat ordered home (before the chaos of renovation takes over our place in the next month or so), I looked back over the year and began to go through my posts to remember the changes. And changes were a plenty this past year. Whenever I feel like it is taking forever to get anything done, I just need to look back at where we were. Which in some ways is the entire point of my doing this blog, I wanted to document our process and share it with family and friends as well as anybody else who is curious.
Let’s go back and see just how far Yoav and I have come since January.
Last week marked a one year and a lot of change since Yoav and I sat down at a table with a group of disparate people, all with one common interest of varying degrees. Our mission, transferring the ownership of our apartment from the sellers to us, the buyers (or really our bank). Like most everything in New York City, nothing can be simple or cheap.
OK, I know you all have been patiently waiting with baited breath to see the living room in all its glory….
OK, I know two or three of my readers have been patiently waiting with baited breath to see the living room in all its glory….
Well, finally….. The living room reveal is here. But first a few thoughts and a bit of background….
OK… So I know I promised that I would have a full reveal of the living room last week, and I shot a bunch of pictures with my trusty iPhone… But after looking at the photos, it was clear that they didn’t quite capture what I was hoping to convey. Mea culpa…. Oy!
It was obvious to me that I needed to re-shoot the room and use a better camera to better capture the space.
Yesterday was The Big Black Reveal (Part I) where I described how I was enthralled with the idea of a black ceiling, yet terrified of doing it. And then after letting go of my fear and getting the approval of my husband, moved forward and painted our living room ceiling black.
Back in January I wrote a post (Embracing Black and the End of Mediocrity) in which I declared war on the status of mediocrity in a mini manifesto of sorts. I declared that I was going to embrace my true self and express my individuality (with my husband Yoav’s blessing) and basically not give a sh*t what people think about our home and how we have it decorated.
I don’t always have big things to write about, but there are often little things which I think are important enough to warrant their own post. To fill that niche, I am creating a series of posts to called Detail Matters.
God is in the details….. This phrase brings to mind my design ethos. Basically it is saying that attention paid to small things has big rewards, or that details are important.
Lest you think I have abandoned my new blog, rest assured, I have not.
Life has just been busy…. I mean like extremely busy. I have been too focused on other things to sit down and write. But I have several posts started, and there is much more to come… In the meantime, I am going to post a few teaser photos to keep you interested (I hope).
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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