June 15 is the day

One-way tickets have been purchased.
The movers have been booked.

June 15 is the day!

(now we just gotta pack...!)

Apartment decorating tips?

Does anyone have any apartment decorating tips?

I'm under the weather today, so I've been spending my time being chill on the computer - researching out decorating ideas/making the most of limited space.  So far I have found two sites with some great ideas: Ikea Hacker and Apartment Therapy.  Apartment Therapy is sometimes a little beyond my budget, but it does give some great ideas to spawn from.

Spawn is a fun word, eh?

There are other sites out there, but I was wondering if anyone could suggest anything rather than me Googling for hours on end.... or if you have great space saving/storage creating ideas - please share!!

Here is a growing list of ideas I have found - a resource for me.
I just found this on a site "5. To save space in the kitchen use pretty hooks (can be found for pennies in New York's second hand shops) to hang your pots and pans on the wall. This will free up your cabinets for food or whatever else you need to store. Plus, hanging the pots and pans gives your kitchen wall a great, three dimensional arty look!"  Seems like an obvious tip, but one I hadn't thought of.  I had thought of a shelf or something instead, which could still work, but I do like the idea of the pretty hooks...they don't have to match, but all have some sort of theme to tie them together.  There is enough space on the wall opposite of the counter top...the one I failed to get a picture of.

 

Or...maybe get some pegboard, spray paint it a fun color that goes with our decor and just use simple hooks.  I can picture that, along with a shelf for cookbooks, the crock pot, and other larger/bulky items that I still want in the kitchen.  Hmmm....

I also noticed this space next to our stove:

 

 

I wonder if I can squeeze in some sort of shelf there?  Something L shaped to take advantage of both the back wall and the wall under the window.  An Ikea Hack perhaps! :)  I'm also thinkin' after a while I'll ask to switch out the hardware on the cabinets, saving the current ones to replace when we move out.

Everything else...

You all know that in the four full days we were in NYC we were able to secure an apartment that succeeded our expectations, but what did we do the rest of the time we were there?

We ate pizza.

We hung out with 2 very awesome people, Sarah and Shaun.  I met Sarah when I lived in NYC previously, she was a bridesmaid in my wedding-and despite that we haven't seen each other for two years and we aren't very good at keeping in touch-we picked everything right back up.  It was wonderful to see her and meet her fiance Shaun.  Who is fan-tas-tic!  He's a great man.  Henry loooooves his "Uncle Shaun"!

 We hung out in Central Park where Henry had a ball at the giant playground.  He was thrilled they had a little step up to the drinking fountain so he could do it himself.

As Joe mentioned, we had Shake Shack.  Yum.

We admired the amazing views out of Shaun's apartment windows!

 

 

We showed Henry Times Square.  He just kept laughing and laughing.  It was pretty cute.

 

 

 

We checked out the TR building.

 

  

We avoided the giant screen with the series finale of Lost on it.  We had plans to watch it the next evening at Shaun's.

 

 

We were in awe of the fog one morning that was so thick it made it appear the Empire State Building was missing!

 

 

 

 

 

(that's Shaun's apartment building in the background)

 

 

 

We played at another park.

 

 

Henry got a giant "Cookie Monster" cupcake at a deli/bakery near our new home.

Mommy relaxed a bit while DaDa and Henry went to a little park at Shaun's apartment complex.  They are down there, I promise. :)

 

 

 The next day we went to the real park at Shaun's apartment complex.  It rocked.

 

 

 

(post chin incident.  an italian ice makes all things better!)

 

And...we played at another park!  We wanted to make sure Henry had fun too and wasn't just being toted from apartment to apartment in the hunt.  This is the park where he busted open his chin.

 

Everyday I saw the Flat Iron Building, and everyday I would marvel.  Such a wonderful building!

And in case anyone is interested, here are pictures of one more apartment.  This is the one we saw the same day at the inside of the one we chose...its the very large, and very pink, apartment.

 

This was the view when you first walked into the apartment, you are in the dining room with the living room to the right.  You can see some of the pink carpet, and the current tenants had put down an area rug in the living room.

 

This little room was at the other end of the living room, it's basically what Henry's room will be in the place we chose.

 

Living room and dining room.  Pink.

 

The kitchen.  It was just a teeny bit bigger than the one in our apartment, but its darker and not quite as nice.

Pink bathroom.  Pink walls.  Pink sink.  Pink tub.  Pink potty.

 

The larger of the two bedrooms.  We weren't 100% certain our lovely king sized bed would fit,but it might have.

 

The smaller bedroom.

One HUGE benefit about this one over the one we chose was closet space.  It even had a pantry off the kitchen that was big enough for linens and food.

Here is the outside, it was a very nice building.

The space would have been nice, it's basically like the one we chose, but with 2 extra rooms and closets.  But I know we chose correctly with the smaller place.  I'm so excited to call it home and have been decorating it in my mind since we signed the paperwork!!  I just wish I would have taken more pictures of it so I could remember all the details.  The current tenant was inside the apartment when we viewed it, so I didn't want to get any pictures with her in them knowing we'd put them up here.  In hindsight, I could have easily blurred out her face.  All well!  It will be like a little surprise when we arrive in about 20 days!!