Home Sweet Home in The Big Apple!

We made it. We're finally here. After three months of transition and adventure in New England, we finally drove our packed Pilot into Manhattan and unloaded it for good. To be completely honest, I was nervous I wouldn't like New York. But I have to confess that after just two nights here, I already love it. Sure, it's loud and dirty, but there is a magic to this city that has charmed me. Every little store, every street, every building is a little mystery to be discovered.

Our apartment also rocks. 450 sq. feet never felt so huge. I love our little home base in the middle of this bustling metropolis. When I walked in for the first time on Friday, I could literally feel my chest relax; we can live here, yes yes we can. Above is the view from inside our front door.

Forgive the mess, but Will's closet lacks a hanging bar at the moment (no worries: there is a hardware store at the end of our block. Holla!). Will's room is the first room on the right when you walk down the hallway. There is a twin bed eagerly awaiting visitors (that means you! come visit us!). Like the drapes? They don't go down to the floor, but considering they came from a Walmart in NJ that we visited early on Saturday morning before we said goodbye to the dear Pilot, they ain't going back. They cover the window--so they work for me!

Here is Will's new crib. Where did this come from? Somewhere deep in Brooklyn. How did we get it? MY SISTER IS AWESOME. She and I drove to Brooklyn to pick up this bad boy from a family selling it on Craig's List. Why didn't I buy a crib in, say, a neighborhood closer to us (which would pretty much be ANY neighborhood)? Because I am a naive transplant who freely admits she is way out of her league in this city. But hey, it's a handsome crib, huh?

Okay, here is our living room. Let me point out a few key features:

1. The TV. Got this for free off craig'slist from a woman who simply wanted it out of her apartment. When Brittany and I drove to her apartment on Broadway, we realized why: this TV is HUMONGOUS. It must weigh 400 pounds. With the help of a towel and an elevator, Brittany and I manage to get this from her 4th floor apartment to the front door of her building. In order to get it into the car, I had to bat my eyelashes at 6 Canadian guys walking by on the street. Bless those boys. They--and my awesome husband who helped get it inside our apartment--are the reason we are able to watch Food Network (me) and football (Clay) right now.

2. The rug. Bought this in 3 minutes at Lowe's. Hilarious. But its perfect.

3. The lamp. Clay, Will, and I walk 25 blocks to buy four lamps today--and then 25 blocks back. A cab would have been the easy way out, right? We like making things harder :-).

4. The curtains. We live on the first floor. Our first night here, everyone who walked by could see everything we were doing inside. Shopping list item #1? Curtains :-).

This is the still the living room; I took this in front of the window in the picture above. Our fridge is in the living room, yes, but thank God we have a full size fridge!

I wondered all summer what Columbia's understand of a "kitchenette" was. Now I know. There is room for ONE person and ONE person only in this space. But instead of this making me cry, this makes me laugh. Am I crazy to say that this might be my favorite kitchen we've ever had? It is so cozy! Now if only we could find inexpensive dinnerware so we have something to eat on...

As I said, we got rid of the car on Saturday at noon. Friday night Clay and I realize that we really need to make the most of the time with the car that we have left, so Saturday morning we wake up and drive out to NJ so we can hit up Walmart (I really don't like shopping there, but hey, we needed food AND house stuff--and we're on a tight budget--AND we had a time crunch. Walmart, here we came...). I am not joking when I say we filled up FOUR carts. USAA froze our credit card because they suspected illegal activity. Hilarious. I mean, WHO ARE WE???? WHAT IS OUR LIFE??? I was THAT woman in Walmart buying 12 cans of beans and 6 bags of pretzels. I would have had a meltdown if I had had time. Instead, I shopped and shopped and shopped for the next 9 months. Who knows the next time we will see prices like these? NYC is expensive!

Here's our lovely bath. It looks like every other bathroom I have ever seen in NYC.

Here's one side of our bedroom. Look at how much room we have! Crazy! Clay has already been hard at work at his desk. Classes start Tuesday!

Here's the other side of our bedroom. See those side tables? Those are totally GOD. I may have had a minor, er, major meltdown today (it was bound to happen, right?) over bedside tables and dinnerware. Don't ask me why; it was just the breaking point. In the midst of this meltdown, Will wakes up from his nap, so he and I decide to get some fresh air by walking around the block. What did we find? A display of FREE STUFF outside someone's apartment building that included these TV tables and plates. Dude, someone was watching out for us. Amazing grace, indeed.

Here I am with sweet Sue and Sandy. Sandy is my grandmother's sister-in-law, and Sue is her daughter. They are the angels from NJ who drove into the city and picked up our car to drive it back to their house for safekeeping. When my mom comes (!) next weekend, we will head out to New Jersey, pick up the car, and drive it south. It will live in Kentucky for the year. Today was our first full day without a car. I know its easier to NOT have a car in NYC, but man, having a car sure makes getting places (and stuff to and from those places) easier. Now we are officially car-less!

Brittany comes back tomorrow from her friend's bachelorette party weekend, so we can't wait to see her again before she heads back to the west coast. Tuesday is Clay's full day of orientation and class--but then we have our first date in the city when we head to the Yankees-Orioles game! Mom comes in on Thursday, we head out of the city on Sunday, and then the adventure continues...

What we are doing is exhausting and expensive and challenging in many ways. But we know it is the right thing, and that peace grounds us more often than we expected.