liquidjill

If you haven’t read part one yet, just click here

We got home that night and Melissa went to bed exhausted. I could not sleep, the weight of the decision we had made was heavy and I found myself Googling our new neighborhood. What I found was bleak. In the past few weeks there had been multiple assaults mere blocks from our property. Many of those assaults took place in the area we would be walking to and from the train.

Needless to say I was despondent.

I sent a text message to our property manager, Erick, and said that I was concerned that by living there I may be risking my well-being to a statistical level I was uncomfortable with.

In other words, “omygod I completely screwed up please please please help”.

I’m embarrassed to admit this, but it’s all part of the story, and I think it paints an appropriate picture of where I was emotionally at this point in the search.

Erick called me. It was 12:30 at night and I texted him and he called me right back.

I was amazed.

We spoke for around an hour and by the end of it he said he would do what he could to get us out of the place.

God bless him. Seriously.

I slept for about 3 hours that night, restless, worried, preoccupied sleep.

The next day Erick let me know by phone that he was able to get us out (can I get a hallelujah?). We were essentially back to square one now. It was another difficult reality, but it was better than the alternative. I let Melissa know and we prepared mentally as best we could. That afternoon she and I met once again, had a dinner of Pho , and began the now familiar trek from property to undesirable property, scoffing at a collapsing ceiling or quaking at the resemblance of a particularly huge building to that of the one Wesley Snipes commandeered in New Jack City.

Things were bleak.

Then, just when we thought it would be yet another wasted night, light shone on us from above and angels started to sing. Wait, no, sorry, I was delirious at the time and that certainly seemed to be the case, but really – we found our place.

I could have wept with joy. Actually, I believe I did weep with joy.

The apartment is small and quaint, and it isn’t perfect. The kitchen looks kind of miniaturized and the lovely shower curtain I bought is now superfluous as ours has sliding doors. My bedroom is akin to a wide closet with a window at the end.
But – the location is perfect and the neighborhood rocks and the train is 3 blocks away. I could sing. Who am I kidding, I am singing.

It’s on 4th ave in Park Slope South. On 5th ave one can find some of the best bars, live music, shopping and restaurants in Brooklyn. Including the delicious Mexican place we had that ill fated dinner, when I really thought all may have been lost. I located a gym within 5 blocks and a bike shop that hosts weekly rides within 10. It isn’t perfect, but I think that it’s perfect for us.

So overall we are delighted. There isn’t a fee, but it isn’t cheap. I’m getting a bit of a break taking the smaller room so that’s good, but because of the overall size much of our stuff is not going to fit. I am totally cool with it though and look forward to paring down on my possessions, I mean, do I really need Grandma’s Formica kitchen set? Um. No.

So now I’m in recovery mode. One evening I had to take a particularly sketchy train to meet Melissa in a icky neighborhood and I was pushed in between the train and the platform. In my efforts to procure an apartment I put off treatment of the nasty gash on my leg, now it’s time to attend to such matters.

In the end it did really work out, and I am delighted, it was just insanely difficult and I know that some things could have made it a LOT easier. We have our place though. And it’s awesome. And you should come and visit me!

I’m going to jot down a few tips on what I wish I had known before I started out on this journey, I encourage you to reply with suggestions of your own. If I had followed this list my life over the past 3 weeks would have been very, very different. aka – less blood, sweat, tears and overall stress and malaise.

1. EAT. Eat a good healthy meal before embarking out on apartment hunting. You’ll never make a poorer decision than the one you make when you’re exhausted and hungry. You cant control getting tired, but you can eat.
2. Research the City. Learn the neighborhoods intimately. Know the streets, know the trains. Bring maps and use a blackberry or iPhone with GPS. Don’t trust someone to tell you the truth. Bring the truth with you.
3. Use a property manager/broker. This does not mean you have to pay a fee, it means that someone is going to drive you around to the properties. You’ll see 10 times as many, and if they tell you a property has a broker fee, tell them you don’t want to see it. Don’t tempt yourself. Plus, once you say that, you’d be surprised at how many fees miraculously disappear.
4. Do not give up hope. It’s trite, I know, but it’s true. Sometimes, where you’re looking at place #4,567 and it feels like you’ll never ever ever find the perfect spot, it’s tough. It was at times like these that I tried to go grab a beer, chill out for a minute and focus on the positives. Because there are a TON of positives. In the end, you get to live in New York, and what more of a positive do you really want anyway?

By the way, this 2 part entry should be an anomaly, I just really wanted to document this entire mess. Look forward now to lots of more fun, pictures and the occasional piece of appropriate wit. And I promise to keep things brief, or at least, brief…er.

Adieu!

Related Posts

1. Finding an apartment Part uno
2. We signed a lease!!
3. finding balance
4. Finding equlibrium