Apartment Hunting, Part 2

So, did you find a place?

Yes! Well, sort of.

Part 2 of our Great New York Apartment Hunting Venture (or GNYAHV for short) was, well, a little odd. I, Greg, drove up to the city first thing Monday morning, after having beseeched everyone who would listen the day before to pray for us to find an apartment, because, as I kept saying, "Once we find an apartment, everything else will start falling into place." 

On Monday I saw exactly one apartment. One. I did have the strange feeling as I walked in that I had already seen this one -- the previous time we'd come up to the city, though we saw it with a different broker. I think. Am I seeing this place twice for a reason?? It was decent: quiet enough neighborhood, parked pretty easily, fourth floor, 3 bedrooms. Hm.

I absolutely wanted to see more, but each broker we encountered lamented our limited budget and told us they didn't have much to show us.
Yep, that's right: $1700/month is a limited budget. Sheesh.

Tuesday I saw a couple with a different broker (who has been exceedingly helpful to us the whole time), but no real options. I told him about the aforementioned 3BR apartment, and his immediate response was “Why didn’t you get it?” Hm.

Lots of discussion, prayer, waiting, and simply a dearth of any viable alternatives led Bethany and me to conclude that this was the one to go after. On Wednesday I made copies of all the documents I needed (driver’s license, Social Security cards for all five of us, W2’s from last year, 3 recent pay stubs, and a letter from Priority 1 confirming our employment and salary), and was ready to meet the broker. After waiting almost the entire day, I ended up having to meet her down on 149^th when she was between appointments. I packed up my stuff, drove carefully down 32 unfamiliar blocks, met her, and filled out the lease application in my car, idling by the curb as rain began to fall. I signed, shook hands, heard the words “ten to fourteen days,” then whipped out my phone to figure out how in the world to get out of the city.

Crazy NYC rain

Sweet New Jersey rainbow

Rain fell harder and harder. I’ve only driven in such bad rain for such a long time a couple of times before, and this time I was trying to get out of New York City during rush hour. It was a stressful drive, but God gave me quite the light show driving home, complete with a New Jersey rainbow at 8:42pm.

Technically, our search is not over. We have to schedule a face-to-face meeting with the management company for the apartment, then presumably sign the lease. We’re hoping and praying that these things are merely formalities.

Will there be a GNYAHV Part 3? We’ll let you know.

Apartment Hunting, Part 1

Could our dreams be at the
end of this hallway??

Well, we learned a lot.

Our first foray into the big-city-apartment-hunting process produced no concrete results. The best we can say is that, well, we learned a lot.

Here’s what we’re looking for, and yes, this is our ideal wish list: 3 bedrooms, not on a main road, available and free parking, 3^rd floor, decently quiet, located between Priority 1’s current apartment and Ginny’s school, and family-friendly. Oh yeah, and “affordable.” [Author’s note: That last word is in quotation marks because what New Yorkers consider “affordable” is what most others may call “exorbitant,” “ridiculous,” or “highway robbery.”]

Yes, our wish list is long. We know this. We understand that whatever place we ultimately choose will have positives and negatives, and that there is very possibly no place at all that meets all of those wishes. Our primary concerns are the location and the cost, and after satisfying those two, the other stuff is negotiable. It’s funny, though, how our definition of a “good price” has changed since beginning our search. “Really? That 6^th floor walkup 2-bedroom 1-bath that needs new floors, paint, appliances, and fixtures is only $1510 a month? Wow!”

Juliet and Amber, our Children's Ministry Coordinator

So Bethany and Juliet (our 13 month-old – the older two girls stayed home with their grandma) and I saw at least four different places with two different realtors on Monday. We weren’t overwhelmed by anything we saw. The next morning I, Greg, awoke before my alarm went off, confused that I was no longer asleep, but also increasingly concerned with the growing sensation in my stomach that something was wrong. Skipping ahead in the story, I had picked up a stomach bug and was rather useless for the remainder of the day. Bethany, remarkably, was still able to see a couple of apartments in the same building where Priority 1 already maintains an apartment. On Wednesday we squeezed one more apartment in, but none of the four realtors we had interacted with had anything else to show us, nor had anyone we had contacted on our own through various Internet searches responded to us. So we got out of town, stopped for bagels along the way, and returned to our older two daughters.

So we felt a bit stifled, but we knew that it was highly unlikely that we would come back to PA having signed anything. We did learn a lot about the process, about what paperwork will be required of us to apply for a lease, and what questions to ask.

There will be a Part 2 of this blog. In fact, I’m going through Part 2 as I write this: I’m in the city once more, this time wife-less and baby-less, and may well return to PA with a signed lease under my belt.

That, or there will be a Part 3 of this blog. We’ll see.

Scouting Trip

I was stingy with my vacation days in 2012, so I had a full week left that I had to use by the end of January, so Bethany and I took a long weekend (with the support of Bethany’s mom who watched our girls while we were gone – thanks Gayle!) and came up to the Bronx for what we’re calling a scouting trip. We have several basic questions to answer about moving to the Bronx this summer:

• Where will we live?
• Where will our girls go to school?
• Should one (or both) of us get a job of some kind, even if only part-time?

Each one of these questions will take considerable time and energy to answer. We understand that. They will likely not be answered quickly, or with one visit, or with one meeting. We understand all that as well.

Doesn’t mean we like it, just that we understand it.

Foggy fire escape at night

Regardless, you gotta start somewhere. So we made several appointments with several people with the goal of making progress toward answering one or more of our basic questions.

We talked to a friend of ours, Dorine, who works closely with Fellowship Chapel and the breakfast ministry they run, and who works for the public school system. We had lunch with her and she told us some good stuff about how it all works in the city, because it’s rather different from school systems in PA that we’re used to. For example, elementary schools are based on where you live (that’s the same), but for high school, kids can essentially go anywhere they want in the city (that’s not the same). There are private schools and charter schools and Catholic schools and good public schools and less good public schools.

OK, good. Lots of stuff to think about.

From Dorine's balcony

Then she showed us her apartment on the 25^th floor. Quite the view from 25 floors up.

The next morning we had an appointment at Manhattan Christian Academy, a K-8 school that's been around since the 1970's. We knew of the school because Priority 1 has helped out with an after-school program called Operation Exodus that operates there. We got the tour, poked our heads in a couple of classrooms, and got to have a decent talk with the principal, as well as to share with them who we are and what our story is. I told the husband/principal and wife/admin counselor that I really liked the "spirit of the place," that there was a good, peaceful feeling there, and they responded that they've heard people say similar things before. We really liked the school. One possible concern: They said that for next year's 1st grade class, we would essentially have to apply now. Eek.

Then we went straight to the World Vision Storehouse and met with the director, Tim, to talk very generally about what we were doing and if there were any options for partnering with them there. Priority 1 has been bringing groups there for a long time, because they always need help (anybody relate to that?). What with my several years of warehouse experience, we thought there would be potential there. And there still may be, but not right at this moment.

Thanks, Diana and Daryl!

And that’s where a lot of this stands: Possibility exists, but it won’t work out right now, in this moment.

Our questions remain unanswered, but we met some great people, got to walk around this town some more, and got to worship with some great people on Sunday morning (I even got conscripted into playing my guitar and singing backup, which was fun).

We had a couple of smaller tasks before we headed home Tuesday morning, but they mostly involved food we intended to purchase and take back with us. Chambersburg, we love ya, but you can’t match the bagels and Parmigiano-Reggiano we can get here.