Home Sweet Home

As some of you may have read on my Facebook, we now have a home!

At 12:30 today we met up with Broker Kim and went into the apartment that we saw the outside of yesterday...the one with all the beautiful flowers.  As a reminder:

So pretty.

We entered through the main door which empties into the living room:

The pictures don't show the true size of the room.  It really is pretty large - it can easily fit our furniture.

When you are standing with your back against the main door - the door in the picture above - Henry's bedroom will be to the left.

It's a pretty small room, and doesn't have a closet, but it will work...and it has lots of light due to it being the front room with a big band of windows.

On the other side of the living room is our bedroom.

Again...the pictures don't truly do the size justice.  It is a very nice size with a row of windows on the wall, a small closet and is definitely large enough for our king sized bed!  YAY!

The the door that you see in the picture above is the kitchen.

I really, really, really like this kitchen.  It's not huge, or anything fancy, but the light is wonderful and it's just plain homey and cozy.  There was a small table to the left of where I am standing.  We'll probably put a butcher block type cart there instead and a small dining table in the living room.

Here is the other side of the kitchen.  The door at the end of the kitchen opens into a tiny little entry way with another small closet and a door into the main entry way/hallway area.  So, there are actually 2 doors into the apartment.

Just off the kitchen is the bathroom.

The toilet is to the right of the shower.  Yep, it's tiny.  And nope, there isn't a tub.

And you saw the outdoor space yesterday.  We failed to get a picture of the main entry way, but just picture a decorated hallway.

We were pleasantly surprised at the size of the rooms.  There are only 2 small closets, so we'll need to be a bit creative, but we take that on as a challenge!

Of course as we were leaving the apartment our rockin' Broker Kim notified us she had another one for us.  Earlier this week she had nothing...now we have options.  She rules.

The second apartment today was on the second story of a house on the same block - just on the other side of the main road.  It was BIG.  But the bedrooms were tiny.  And there was no outdoor space.  And the landlord required there be carpet, and didn't want to change what was currently in there...hideous, old, stained pink carpet.  And not just any pink...it was gag-me-pink (blue in the bedrooms).  Along with a pink bathroom and a bit of an outdated kitchen.  However, it did have an awesome amount of closet space and was still just slightly below our budget.  One cool tidbit, it was next door to George Cotanza's mother's apartment from the tv show Seinfeld.

Despite the pink-ed-ness, the size and the closet space made it a strong competitor.  It was a bit hard to say no to that much space.  But the putrid pink carpet was hard to deal with.  And the landlady lived downstairs.  While she was very nice, she seemed quite particular about things and Broker Kim had never dealt with her before.  Having an iffy landlord can make life more difficult.

So, we weighed our options.  And the cute flower apartment won out.  The landlord is a sweetheart and very easy going, the rent was cheaper, we have outdoor space, and hardwood floors.  And really, truly, I like the apartment overall much better.  It just had a better overall fit for us.

After we signed everything, met the landlady's son that lives downstairs (he's a contractor and fixes up everything in the apartment - very nice to have him downstairs!), paid the deposit, rent, etc.  Broker Kim remembered in the past that when she rented this apartment the utilities were included.

Say what?

Yep.  A quick phone call to the landlady's son verified it.  Utilities (aside from cable and internet) are all included.  Wow.  Unheard of!

Outdoor space.

Prime location.

Below budget.

Utilities included.

We thank everyone who has been praying for us to find our home.  This is far beyond our expectations and is not easily found.  God is faithful and so, so good.  Joe and I are very excited to move and settle into our new home!  

Later in the day we were playing in a BEAUTIFUL park that is pretty close to the new place and Henry busted his chin open.  It's a nasty gash.  He's okay and the bleeding stopped quickly.  We purchased a sweet treat and some Toy Story band-aids.   That along with a smiley face sticker from a girl at the park, made him feel better and he very soon wanted to be zipping down the slide again.   At first I thought he was going to need stitches, but thankfully, he doesn't.  Please say a prayer for his healing.

Tomorrow morning we say good-bye to New York.  But, in about 20 more days we'll be back...to stay!!!