Coming Soon

They say that if you don't force yourself to put yourself out there than sometimes things never happen.

So it is with that that I announce I am in the process of writing "Apartment Hunting Rocks / Apartment Hunting Sucks" The musical.

OK, i'm not writing a musical, but I am turning our adventures in home buying into a real book to share with the world.

No more information than that...but I've put it out there.

Stay tuned...

Sure the recession bites, but...

But that doesn't mean we can't enjoy something sweet. 

Some clever guys I know over at FRESHTHRILLS LLC (and this isn't a plug just because I happen to do a lot of work with them and may have been involved in the project), came up with a fun way to find some cheer during this time where it's lacking. 

And since the project is getting some props in some cool design blogs, I'd be rather amiss not to hype it up in my own. 

So please, take a moment and check it out. 

And who knows...maybe you can pick up some of your own in the very near future...

http://blog.freshthrills.com/

Mortgage Rates going down!

It's been a while, and not much exciting stuff to report. 

But got an interesting and exciting call from my mortgage broker on Friday. 

Looks like interest rates on mortgages are going down for people with good credit, so if you have a mortgage and are paying a higher rate, it might be worthwhile to talk to your guy (or girl) and see about getting a lower amount. We might be able to lower ours by over a point which can result in savings of over $4,000 a year!

Our first sleepover

Jackie and John stayed over last weekend, our first guests ever (staying over, not actually in the apartment).

They wanted to practice their salsa dancing, so we videotaped it. 

your welcome. 

A bunch for Brunch

Amanda pointed out that just because we have finally moved in, doesn't mean the blog has to stop.
So with that, wanted to just post that we are getting settled in to the apartment, and it's slowly but surely coming together. As I've already said, we're completely out of our boxes, and now we're in the process of hanging up our artwork. Well, to clarify, we are waiting on Ronnie (our designer) to come and tell us where he thinks the artwork should go. (This basically means that once again I have no say in much).

However, my aeron chair came today so I'm a happy pappy.

We had friends over today, our first guests for Brunch. The Barishes brought Max, and the Gedans brought Ari, and we had bagels, lox, quinoa muffins, cake, coffee and enough stuff to make your stomach stuffed for a long time.

Later in the afternoon Amanda's brother came over with Gabey the baby and the rest of the family.

Here are some pics

All moved in!

So...

After a year of planning, executing, renovating, fighting with the neighbors and god knows what else...I'm happy to report that Amanda and I are FINALLY all moved in.

It's pretty friggin wild.

And we don't really wait to get everything done. We're basically done. Seriously.
Here are about twenty pics of the apartment as it stands. Basically we have to throw out the broken down boxes and then hang up our artwork.

So check it out, and enjoy...there's still more to come. It's really really weird to be in new place.

Oh yeah, the move wasn't completely 'hitch-less.' they couldn't fit our box spring and headboard up the stairs, so we are currently sleeping on our mattress on the floor. It's cozy in a college dorm-room kind of way.

Luckily, we are taking tomorrow off so we can relax and recover, which is good b/c Amma has gotten a bit of a cold from all the dust. Oh...and we mustn't fortget that there is now photograph proof that I am capable of doing a few handy things, as evidenced by my putting a desk together, installing shelves into the cainets, and installing a garbage rack into the sink cabinet door. I know you are saying 'big deal, a 10 year old can do that Matt,' to which i have to say, 'eat it.'

Countdown to Move day

So Quick update.

Amanda and I are getting all our furniture today and are currently awaiting the electrician to come and fix one final problem. Hopefully we'll be good after that.
Yesterday we unpacked a lot of stuff, got the cable set up, went to Fairway, (and spent a fortune) before heading back to the city broken down and battered.

Thought we'd share a picture of our 'picnic' lunch and a video of the apartment.