Before: After

The long awaited post of apartment pix. Nathan and I have now lived in the city for over 4 months. I can safely say that we're not only starting to feel more at home, but very much settled. Now that the last of the boxes (that conveniently hide in the corners) have been sorted, I took some shots of the place so you can all enjoy our little home. Enjoy!

Bedroom, Mid-Move In:

Bedroom, After:

(View from Closet)

(View from Far Corner)

(View from Balcony through the door is the small hallway with bathroom to the left, kitchen to the right)

Balcony:

(Complete w/ our discounted IKEA furniture! View facing the Financial District...Ground Zero would be just to the left of that tall black building)

Kitchen, Mid-Move In:
Kitchen, After:


Living Room/Dining Area/Etc, Before Move-In:


Living Room/Dining Area/Etc, After:

(Living Room)

(View of Living/Dining Room through the kitchen)

(View of Kitchen from the Dining area...there are two bar stools at the counter space)

The End. We have some lovely pix taken from out balcony that I'll post later. For now, that should be enough to satisfy my friends that keep buggin' me about these. Haha.

Home Cooking among the boxes...

For our first meal, I made us some yummy pasta with wine in coffee mugs! Here's a fun shot of Nathan at the table with our "feast."

Where we live.

On my first day here, I took a couple shots of the neighborhood. We're basically located right in between TriBeCa and the Financial District. Just a few blocks north is Ground Zero and the World Trade Center. Just to the southeast of us is Wall Street and all that stuff. It's definitely not a very neighborhood-y feel, but lots of people all over the place. Construction like crazy. A new school opening soon and lots of families. Good stuff.


This is a view of the Hudson River with the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in the distance. A south facing shot.


We're in the Liberty Terrace Apartment Complex. Appropriate for the whole statue in the distance thing, eh?


This is the plaza on the river side of the World Trade Center. This is a few blocks north of us. Photo is facing south.


We're on Rector Place. =) That's our building in the background.


There's a great running/walking/biking/skating path that goes all the way around the area where we live. This is a south facing shot with our apartment being the one on the right with the pointy top.

Painting...fun project!

Let the painting begin. Here are the before pictures. It took us 2 days to do two rooms....somehow I didn't remember that painting was so difficult.

Nathan in our living/dining room after we finished taping it up.

This is the living room area (photo taken from the window) with me in the kitchen. All taped up and ready for paint!

Me, in the living/dining room. Looking great with the facemask.

This is our bedroom, all taped up and with some borders.

This is more bedroom painting. Nathan's an expert at this point. Our bedroom was day 2.

After pictures coming soon...

Marathon Shopping

Nathan and I decided that we would rent a car and head to Jersey to do most of our shopping because the sales tax is much lower in some of the counties and it would be IMPOSSIBLE to get everything home on the subway....so, after renting an SUV at 9am (for only $85!) we drove through the Holland Tunnel and started our adventure....dude, it was insanity. If anyone knows me well, they know that I hit my shopping wall at about 2 hours...

9:45am--Arrive at Home Depot which has only 3.5% sales tax!! We bought paint and painting materials. Our bedroom is going to be Arizona, which is basically a yellow-orange and very bright....I know, I know. Could be wild, but hey! It's paint! The living/dining room is going to be Contemplation, which is much more green-blue than this online swatch can show.

10:45am--Head to IKEA in Elizabeth, NJ, which is also famous for the 3.5% sales tax....so much so that they even post it on their official IKEA Elizabeth Site! We spent a full six hours year and only paused for 2 bathroom breaks and lunch. Thank God for the IKEA cafeteria, you know? Anyway, we are fully set with all the things we need....except for the pieces that were back ordered that we'll be returning to get at a later date and all the things we're realizing we need....eep!

5:30pm--Headed to the Short Hills Shopping Mall to buy our very first desktop computer as a married couple. Well, first computer bought as a married couple, period. Yay for educational discounts at Apple and free printers. We're now fully equipped with a machine that won't overheat or randomly decide not to work or whatever. My laptop has 0% memory left and is so full that our external hard drive can't manage it. Poopsmith! Anyway, none of that.

6:30pm--Eat at Joe's Bar & Grill for great burgers....then we were on our way home.

That was a marathon day and it was finished off with our search for a parking spot near our building that involved a wrong turn taking us through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, me asking a cop how to get back to Manhattan for free (b/c the tunnel cost us $5!), and us finally getting a spot from someone who basically sold us his spot for the night.

The end.

I'm here.

Today I got the keys to our new place. I'm in our apartment in New York. This is so strange. More to come.

Our New Home

For those that want to see where we will be living.....here's a google street view of our apartment in Battery Park City.
(ignore the random limo drivers in the shot....kinda funny though)


View Larger Map

We're on the 23rd Floor of this building, though it doesn't really show a great view. We're on the South West end of Manhattan, and have a view of the Hudson River from our apartment. Here's a map view of it:


View Larger Map

Home Hunting

I was tempted to call this post "house hunting" but I knew that it might lead to the misconception that we're actually buying a house...which in fact, is not the case. (though, that might be fun!) If you know me well, than you know that I always refer to the place that I live as my "house" or "home" even if it's just a small apartment. So, anyway, that is what is underway at the Chase house....serious home hunting!

Nate leaves in the morning, actually a few hours from now, for New York to scope out the various apartment listings we've found online and meet with a broker. I'm excited about a couple of the places, especially one in Brooklyn. I'll know for sure by Tuesday! I'll update that soon.

This is all happening so quickly now! Eeek!