Category: coop

where to begin?

~ jamie ~ 8 Comments

with, of course, a bulleted list.

» why no posts? I set aside everything else in my life to concentrate on school. just ask kirk, the man who got our new york apartment sold in the worst recession in fifty years, found us an awesome new house in reading, pa., packed us up and moved us there, and took care of necessary renovations in the new house. i’m the luckiest boy in the world to have him by my side.

» we did indeed sell the old apartment. bittersweet, but oddly enough i very rarely miss new york. i have lots of new friends here, through school and through kirk; reading is a pretty cool town in its way; ten years in new york was really enough in the end; and we had a great buyer. who paid full price for the apartment. in cash. how’s that for being blessed?

» i still stubbornly cling to my prized cell phone number though, the one with the (212) area code. i’ll lose it in september when we redo our phones for local plans. that’s my last tie to the city, and it dies really, really hard with me.

» love the new house. it’s in east reading, a few blocks from the mount penn city line. we looked at dozens of city row homes online, visited a couple of dozen, and picked this one because it had the right combination of good bones (updated electric, good furnace, mostly plastered walls with little of the ’70s paneling that seems requisite here, backyard deck nicely finished) and low price (got a good price in new york, and could pay cash for the house here with the profit + some savings). you read that right — no mortgage. the house is three stories, four bedrooms, one bath, with a full basement. coming from a smallish one bedroom apartment, it seems like acres of space. the cats get lost.

» the house is in the city, and has an urban feel which i like, but there aren’t many businesses within walking distance. so we have a car. that’s huge. it’s a ’99 saturn, another thing that kirk accomplished. although i did negotiate the price over the phone from new york. the city has good buses, though, so hopefully i won’t have to use the car to go to work. but given the way that the city is, you have to use it for most things, like grocery shopping. i do miss the subway, and walking everywhere. a lot.

» school finished up yesterday. i’m now a fully qualified medical office assistant. i can run the front office, process insurance claims, touch type at 45 wpm, administer parental meds (that’s shots in the ass, arm and other places for the laymen), draw blood, and other fun things. not bad for 18 weeks of training. into 18 weeks, they pack most of what most schools do in two years. that’s why i’ve been indisposed. i’ll bet i’ve gone through 2000 note cards studying for tests that came every day. but i got straight a’s, with some a pluses worked in. not bad for an old guy. i have an internship at the reading hospital beginning june 29. hopefully it will lead to a job.

» my complaints about pennsylvania? not many. i like the food, the people are mainly nice, and things are certainly cheaper. incredibly stupid liquor laws, though. at one point last night, i was going to title this post “pennsylvania is the stupidest mother fucking state on the planet”. we’re throwing a graduation party tonight, and i went out last night to buy beer. which, i learn, can only be purchased from “beer stores”. which apparently all close at 8:00. and you can get six-packs from some restaurants, but you pay an arm and a leg. and all wine and spirits are sold only in state-run stores, ensuring that the wine selection truly blows chunks. completely asinine. when we are re-employed, i’m taking a trip to pj’s in inwood and stocking up.

that should do it for now.

any questions? post them in the comments.

it’s official

~ jamie ~ Leave a comment

barack obama elected president.

and to celebrate, i got job-eliminated. that’s the polite term for laid off. it was a huge layoff at my company, so i had plenty of, well, company. so i’ll be putting president-elect obama’s economy rebuilding skills to a personal test.

it should be more traumatic than it is, but in truth, i’m looking forward to new challenges. nine years is a long time to work anywhere — seven years was my previous record. kirk’s been working in reading (his hometown) anyway, doing theater and corporate training gigs with his friend larry, so it’s a natural time to move on.

which is what i’m doing. moving to reading, pa, and selling the apartment:

$199K for a nicely updated prewar 1 bedroom, ½ block from the 1 train (via secret tunnel!) on a secluded bluff overlooking Van Cortlandt Park, 40 minutes to midtown.

i’m exploring going back to school. if i do, it’ll be in the health-care field. if not, back to the world of work, hopefully with new and fresh responsibilities and challenges.

how’s that for change you can believe in?

walkscore.com

~ jamie ~ 3 Comments

walkscore.com — great idea for a google maps mashup site. you type in your address, and it gives an overall ranking of your living quarters on a scale from 1 to 100, in terms of walking distance to types of businesses.

here’s my walk score:


love it. i guess my distance from a movie theater drags my score down.

unsolicited recommendation: schwinn 431 elliptical trainer

~ jamie ~ 1 Comment

kirk and i have been paying way too much money for bally gym memberships for years and years. when we go, which is sporadically at best, the only machine we really use is the elliptical cross trainer. sometimes some weight machines, but generally just the cross trainer.

we have to go to the gym in the mornings, and because we have to be to work at 8:00, that means leaving the house at 5:30 or so — that’s why we’re rarely at the gym. so, in the interest of both saving money and exercising more regularly, we decided to let our memberships lapse and buy an elliptical cross trainer for our apartment.

after consulting some reviews on amazon and checking out consumer reports, we decided on the schwinn 431 elliptical trainer. it was free shipping and $100 off, making the final cost $699 with no sales tax.

that’s less than one year of gym for one of us.

the item arrived several days ahead of schedule. the assembly instructions were clear and easy to follow, the assembled unit is built like a tank, and there’s very little difference between this machine and the models you find at the gym. it feels solid, is ergonomically comfortable, and is a breeze to use. there are lots of preprogrammed routines, or you can go freestyle. it has a heart monitor (though only on the stationary handlebar, a minor gripe), a fan to keep you cool, forward and reverse motion, and is compactly built.

so far, with the exception of the heart monitor, i have no complaints whatsoever. it’s a product i’d highly recommend.

getting caught up

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with the holidays upon us, it’s been a while since i posted. here’s what’s been going on:

» we had a holiday/housewarming party. tremendous fun, attended by ~30 of our friends at one point or another. we had it on saturday 12/1 from 5pm until ???. the ??? turned out to be about 1:30am. old friends actually schlepped to riverdale, and given the number of manhattan-centric friends we have this was no small feat and a testament to the strength of our friendships. we also had quite a few new friends from the building. food cooked by us, some catering from the garden gourmet and mike’s deli at arthur avenue, lots of wine and spirits, duck fart shots (jack daniels, bailey’s, kahlua) courtesy of our friend suzanne, great conversation, good music, and some spirited wii competition.

» kirk and i flew to tampa to visit my mother. she’s in assisted living in sun city center, and it was a quick in-and-out short weekend, so please all my florida friends, don’t get upset that i didn’t visit you! she’s doing well, and it was good to see her, my sister, and meet my nephew’s new s.o. sherry. they just bought a house together. i know how they feel!

» kirk and i saw “the belsnickel scrooge” at genesius theatre in reading we visited kirk’s parents for the holidays this past weekend. kirk has to work the day after christmas, so we’re just staying home for the holidays this year. but we did want to visit them, and we had tickets for the aforementioned show, so two birds with one stone. the show itself was marvelous — it’s a pennsylvania dutch adaptation of “a christmas carol”, complete with the belsnickel. the belsnickel only visits bad children and beats them with a stick. talk about negative reinforcement. anyway, it was lots of fun, even for a non-pennsylvania-dutch-person.

» the apartment is pretty much finished. kirk did the last bit of painting (mainly window frames, and the bathroom). someday soon we’ll have the tub refinished, and at some point we’ll just redo the whole bathroom, but the big projects are done. let the myriad small projects commence.

» we saw kiki and herb at carnegie hall. last time they were there, we had tickets and forgot to go. not this time. it was a good show, with old classics and new material. nothing’s ever going to touch small intimate joe’s pub shows with kiki climbing over the tables, but it was thrilling to see them on that stage nonetheless. saw old friends as well — our friend jared, the show’s producer; and john cameron mitchell. saw alan cumming as well — what a cutie.

» we saw the radio city christmas show. it’s the 75th anniversary, and they’ve beefed up the show considerably. it’s a rockettes-fest — they are everywhere in the show, much more than normally. lots of new numbers, all good, along with the classics you want to see. and they are selling fantastic souvenir martini glasses with rockettes’ legs instead of the stem. we see the show every year, but this year was special. if you have any inclination to go, it’s a must-see year.

» we sent out our annual holiday cards. this was my year to send them, and i wanted to ratchet down a bit due to last year’s “kirk and jamie sing holiday songs” extravaganza, which was great fun but very time-consuming. it was a simple but elegant card printed on silver paper. if you didn’t get a card for some reason, and you think i would have sent you one, let me know. and if your cd is not playing correctly, let us know. we’ve had some reports of cd-burnout (i think the ones you burn yourself don’t last as long), and we’re happy to replace your old copy.

that’s the major stuff. happy holidays, everyone.

thanksgiving plans

~ jamie ~ 1 Comment

first of all, a day early, but i won’t be blogging tomorrow — happy thanksgiving!

our plans?

usually, they involve lots of yummy pennsylvania dutch starchiness when we visit kirk’s parents, but this year we’re staying home. kirk’s parents had a previous commitment (on thanksgiving? whatever.) and it’s our first year in our new apartment anyway. so instead of a food network thanksgiving, or a southern-ish-style thanksgiving, we’re having a martha stewart living thanksgiving. the turkey recipe from the november issue, to be specific. here’s what’s planned so far, with more probably to be added:

» brined turkey and stuffing, a la martha — we got a fresh turkey from our local farmer’s market, and we’re soaking it in a spiced brine for 24 hours prior to cooking. yummo, as rachael ray would say to martha if they weren’t blood enemies. the turkey will be stuffed with some kind of yummy stuffing, the details of which i can’t remember. the most important stuffing note, though, is that the recipe calls for the stuffing to be placed in cheesecloth before placing in the turkey. that way, you can take out the stuffing when the turkey is done, and cook the stuffing longer so you don’t get salmonella or whatever. this is a major victory for me. kirk always worried about the ill effects of stuffing a turkey, so he’d never let me put stuffing loose in the turkey. never mind that i lived my entire life doing it, and never died as a result. ah, compromise.

» organic green bean casserole — they had a display of organic fried onions and organic green beans and organic cream of mushroom soup at whole foods, and the concept of organic green bean casserole cracked me up so much that i had to buy it. maybe we can have organic jell-o salad for dessert, to complete the ’70s vibe.

» cranberry salad — my family historically makes the standard cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries. one bag cranberries, one cup sugar, one cup water. boil. kirk this year made his aunt marcia’s cranberry salad, which has nuts, and oranges, and chopped fresh cranberries, and sugar, and oysters, and chopped chives, and other stuff i’m forgetting. well, not really oysters and chopped chives. but it’s far too busy a recipe for me. and nonstandard thanksgiving fare to boot. and he made at least 18 pounds of it. i’m skeptical. we’ll see.

» cope’s corn — no thanksgiving would now be complete for me without it. see, i can change.

» potato filling — this is mashed potatoes with celery and onion and bread and 11 herbs and spices according to the colonel’s secret recipe. actually, kirk’s mother’s recipe. but it is yummy. i’ve adapted to this, as well. great comfort food.

» gravy — lotsa lotsa gravy. made from pan drippings and roux, the right way.

» steamed broccoli — there has to be something green, right? or i may open a can of mustard greens.

» pumpkin cheesecake — a bit of a twist on tradition, but one i can handle.

i think that’s it. i’m probably forgetting something. but you get the gist.

here’s hoping your thanksgiving is as blessed as ours will be.

unsolicited recommendation: homedecorators.com

~ jamie ~ Leave a comment

for years, kirk and i just left our liquor bottles in a disorganized clump on the floor. with our holiday party coming up, we thought it might be nice to have a small liquor cabinet to put the bottles in, something that had a top that could double as a small dry bar.

so kirk found this lovely and well-priced corner cabinet at homedecorators.com, and he ordered it.

the website was well-organized and very informative, the ordering process was straightforward, and the shipping was expedient (delivered less than a week after the order was placed, good for such a large object).

we were especially pleased with the quality of the shipped product. it was partially assembled, and the pieces were clearly labeled, each with its own letter of the alphabet. the assembly directions were clear and literate, and it was fully together in about 20 painless minutes.

since our entire kitchen came from ikea, we are not strangers to furniture assembly. the homedecorators.com assembly experience was much better than the ikea experience, and considering how happy we were with ikea, that’s saying something. the parts were of superior quality. no pressboard, all hard wood, better hardware (bolts, screws, etc.).

for a price comparable to ikea, we got a higher-quality product and a better overall customer experience. we’ll be repeat customers with homedecorators.com, without a doubt.

happy halloween 2007

~ jamie ~ 3 Comments

kirk’s pumpkin on the left, my pumpkin on the right. click on the thumbnail to enlarge the picture.

i’m a strict adherent to the “triangles and variations thereof” school of pumpkin carving. kirk believes in making his pumpkins look as much like ike from south park as possible.

i’m looking forward to actually having trick-or-treaters — we’ve never had them in all these years of living in new york, but in our coop we are guaranteed to have them.

briefly noted

~ jamie ~ 4 Comments

» the last piece of the kitchen renovation puzzle is almost in place. the final cabinet (the one that replaced the microwave cart) has been assembled, and rafael our super cut the countertop to size. he did an incredible job — you can’t tell which is the uncut side and which is the trimmed side. kudos, rafael. we just need to screw it on, along with one side trim panel, and it’s done. except for replacing the fluorescent lights in the header. that comes much later. pictures to come.

» upgraded to the new version of wordpress, which includes tags. zim, who in a brilliant bit of thinking sees the world as a series of tags, rather than being separated geographically, will be pleased. if that thinking took hold in a widespread way, there’d be hope for us all.

» had a great dinner with our real estate attorney on tuesday night — she’s become a good friend. she says we were lucky to buy our apartment when we did. the mortgage situation is really touchy right now, and if we were trying to get the same deal now it would be difficult or perhaps impossible. thankfully we had good timing.

distracted easily by shiny objects

~ jamie ~ Leave a comment

now that the coop renovation is nearly complete, kirk and i are trying to get our financial house back in a bit of order. nothing outrageous, but we want to watch it a bit on the large expenses. don’t eat out so much, don’t buy expensive electronics like an iphone.

things like that.

anyway, we did pretty well over the weekend. didn’t spend much at all. helped along by my sickness and i didn’t feel like going anywhere, but that’s a minor point.

but, self-imposed rules be damned, there are times when money must be spent. and when one’s name is drawn from the magic hat, and one is given the opportunity to buy playoff tickets for one’s favorite baseball team, then one must buy tickets.

one must buy four, to be exact, and sell two at cost to a friend. which we are doing. and they are great seats, relatively: game two, loge reserved section 18. nice sightlines. you can preview your seats’ sightlines on the mets website.

assuming, of course, the mets get to the playoffs. given the team’s abysmal play recently, that is by no means assured.

but it’s probable.

probably.

my television-free life

~ jamie ~ 3 Comments

it’s been several months since kirk and i decided to drop digital cable, and stop watching television. there was some apprehension, and some trepidation (would we miss watching baseball?). it was a financial savings, to be sure — our cable bill went from $120 per month with time warner cable before the move (digital tv + premium channels + dvr + high-speed broadband cable) to $29.95 per month with comcast after the move (much higher-speed broadband cable only).

and the verdict?

don’t miss it a bit.

we thought that no baseball games would be the dealbreaker. turns out that listening to the games on the radio is a much, much better experience. the guys who call the game on wfan radio are brilliant at setting a visual scene through words. in this regard, i feel lucky being a mets fan — the yankees radio announcers on wcbs are boring as all hell, with their vast quantities of dead air. the wfan guys always have something interesting and cogent to say, and even their occasional off-topic wanderings are worth a listen.

so, baseball is fine. what about the news? get it from the paper, and the net.

what about lost? i don’t care who’s on the damn island anymore. if i did, i’d get it from netflix.

and there’s the cheat. if there’s something i really really want to watch, i’ll just get the dvds from netflix. i was a huge deadwood fan, so we watched the entire season over the course of a few days.

i always said the nice thing about having a dvr was that you watched only things you really wanted to watch, rather than having to watch whatever was scheduled. no wasted time, and all. it’s much the same now, only there’s an effort involved to watch something, so it’s even more efficient. i find myself mildly interested in whatever new shows are being flogged in the press, but i’m not driven to watch them. the only one that’s broken through the clutter for me recently was mad men. that’ll probably be something i’ll watch when it comes out on dvd.

so what do i do now that i don’t have tv taking up my time? it’s amazing how busy you can make yourself, when you don’t have the default option of television. since it’s baseball season, we have the games on the radio in the evening. sometimes i lay on the couch and listen, sometimes in bed. sometimes i listen while doing other things, which isn’t really a good option with television. i find projects to do. i cook dinner. i take walks, read books and magazines.

time passes without your help. no need to actively try to passively pass it with something as nonsensical (i now realize) as television.

it’s a drug. don’t believe me? try to do without it for a week. you’ll go through withdrawal. i did. but then, like any addiction, time passes and the weirdness and imagined agonies lessen, then disappear.

nothing wrong with television, mind you.

not much right with it, though, either.

apartment renovation update

~ jamie ~ 1 Comment

we’ve made some good progress on the apartment renovation front. and, in true me fashion, i can’t stop being obsessed with ikea and we’re planning more cabinets for the kitchen.

kirk wrote a bit about what we’ve been up to, and posted some pictures, and i posted some pictures on a great site i found — ikeafans.com. that’s the site that really inspired my latest addition to the kitchen. right now we have an island on the left of the kitchen (as you are facing it) and we had an old wooden microwave cart on the right. the cart is gone. in it’s place we’re putting a two-foot wide cabinet with drawers, and a matching wooden countertop with no overhang in the front (only a matching overhang on the side). the countertop will extend to the wall where the window is, to give us a bit of extra counter space, and a cubby underneath the counter (between the wall and the new cabinet) for a garbage can, etc.

i have to say i’m a complete convert to the drawer method of kitchen cabinets. instead of getting down on your knees and digging around for something that’s gotten shoved to the back of a cabinet, you just pull out a drawer. the ikea drawers are fully extending, so you can see the entire contents of the drawer — so no unutilized space. when kirk said he wanted all drawers, i thought he’d lost his mind, but i went along with it. except for one set of cabinets with shelves at the center of the bar.

i’m really glad i listened.

on saturday we put shelves up at the end of the bar, under the overhang for the countertop. eventually we’ll put a matching pair of shelves on the other side, under the matching overhang for the new cabinets on the right side. we’re putting all the cookbooks on those shelves, so that we can get rid of a big bookcase in the living room. getting rid of that bookcase will free up space for a true uncluttered dining area. and the drawers in the new cabinet will hold all of the contents of the recently departed microwave cart, and more.

as kirk mentioned, we also put a second clothing rod in the closet in the bathroom hallway, and we cleaned up and reorganized quite a bit. the new lighting is ready to go into the hallway — we just need the super, rafael, to give us a bit of help with the wiring. in the bathroom, kirk has finished painting, the new lighting fixture is installed, and there’s just a little bit of last-minute cleanup to do.

on this week’s punch list — finish the hallway lighting, finish painting the trim in the bottom of the hallway wall (i taped yesterday and was ready to go, only to discover that we were out of that color of paint), maybe paint some window trim, maybe hang some blinds.

oh did i mention that the in-laws are coming on saturday? kirk’s parents are making the trek from reading, hence the flurry of activity.

it’s really coming together pretty nicely.

the last move of my life is complete

~ jamie ~ 2 Comments

well, the last one if i have anything to do with it. i’ve always thought that i’d love to retire in nyc — i want to retire in a place where i don’t have to drive a car. and since kirk staunchly vetoes sun city center, florida, where i could drive a golf cart to the grocery store, nyc it is.

anyway, yesterday was horrible move weather. torrential rain interspersed with occasional downpours. a string of wackiness made me doubt that it would go smoothly — the movers showed up two hours late, and the moving company kept trying to pull guys off the job to go elsewhere. but the guys themselves turned out to be very careful movers, for the most part, and got the job done well before the building’s 5pm cut-off time for moves.

too much negotiation over the price for my taste, though — one of those situations where cash tips talked loudly. i hate that — i’d not do very well in a lot of cultures around the world. i want to pay the asking price (or not) and have it done with. i hate the dickering.

anyway, the boxes and furniture are in, the cats are roaming freely around the new apartment, the building suffered no damage, a good chunk of belongings were put in storage with more to go, and kirk and i slept on a bed and had clothes to wear to work today. not bad.

hot water would have been nice. it was shut off during the plumbing renovations, and we couldn’t figure out how to get it back on. hopefully that will be fixed tonight.

the unpacking will go pretty quickly, i think. more than half the boxes are books, so once we get the bookshelves in place a lot of boxes will be emptied quickly. and that will give us room to work to get the rest done. we unpacked the four enormous wardrobe boxes last night, which gave us comparative acres of room in the bedroom.

new couch is delivered friday, along with the sink that ikea forgot the last time. then we can finish putting the kitchen together — it’s done now except for the sink installation.

it’s definitely starting to feel like home.

if you don’t like the weather

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…then just wait, because it will change. or so the saying goes.

at this time last week, i was bemoaning the heat and humidity. we were painting the new apartment, so you can’t close up the windows and turn on the air conditioner. fumes, and being overcome, and all.

this week we are having the floors refinished. and while heat and humidity isn’t ideal for that, i sure would settle for that weather right now.

because it’s raining.

in torrential downpour style, with no end in site for several days. and the only weather worse for refinishing floors than hot and humid is raining, which is of course 100% humidity.

aaaaargh. the weather means that we probably aren’t going to be able to get into the apartment until after this weekend, because the floor will most likely not be dry until then. and with the move date on monday, that means we are moving into a largely unfinished apartment.

but, as i keep telling myself, it’s our very own unfinished apartment.

benjamin moore aura paint: an unsolicited recommendation

~ jamie ~ 8 Comments

i thought kirk had lost his mind when he said we should buy this special paint from benjamin moore.

i went along with getting our friend deana, the color specialist, up to the apartment to choose paint colors. up until this point i had been an enthusiastic advocate of ceiling, trim, and walls all in the same color, preferably white. but i knew i was time to break out and get some color on my walls.

so she brought her voluminous paint sample books, and we chose several colors:

» jalapeno pepper eggshell finish 2147-30 for the bedroom walls
» moroccan red eggshell finish 1309 for the kitchen, one living room wall, the front door, and under the archway
» dash of curry eggshell finish 2159-10 for the living room walls
» driftwood eggshell finish 2107-40 for the bathroom walls
» sandlot gray eggshell finish 2107-50 for the hallway walls
» pale sea mist matte finish 2147-50 for the bedroom ceiling
» alpine white matte finish 2147-70 for the rest of the ceilings and all of the trim

whew.

that’s a lot of color for someone who liked his white walls so much.

and kirk really wanted this aura paint. i guess you can get less expensive benjamin moore paint, and i’m sure you can go to home depot and have them mix up an approximation of the color, but kirk really wanted this specific paint. it’s their best, and it covers well and is more environmentally friendly and has fewer fumes and needs a special machine to make it and blah blah blah.

fine.

and when, in the store, i found out that the paint was $60 a frigging gallon, i gulped but just whipped out the amex. i’d never paid more than $10, maybe $15 a gallon for paint. and, when my ex caitilin and i painted our house in st. augustine, caitilin’s dad got us the paint in 5-gallon industrial buckets, and i’m pretty sure he “borrowed” it from a construction site.

let me tell you. that paint is worth every penny of $60 a gallon, and more.

it went on smoothly, covered a myriad of wall problems, didn’t run down the wall or drip off of the ceiling, or off of my paintbrush onto the floor. the quality of the paint made it a pleasure to paint, and i hate hate hate to paint. the paint made it easy for an amateur painter to get professional-level results.

and the colors are absolutely stunning, and vibrant, and chameleonic. by chameleonic, i mean that the color shifts subtly in various levels of light. the sandlot gray in the hall has an eggplant-y hue in one light, a grayer hue in another light, and a greenish cast in yet another. it’s amazing. you can’t imagine how good they look. i’ll have to post some pictures when i get a chance.

so, benjamin moore. you made me a believer. i’ll never buy cheap home depot paint again.

and really, you shouldn’t either. the extra money you spend is more than mitigated by your spending less time painting. and your time is worth something, right?

and the results. my god, the results.

outstanding.

can’t stand the inactivity

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a month ago, i was complaining that there was so much to do to close on the apartment, but because of timing there was nothing i could start on.

i don’t wait well. i have a list in my head of what needs to be done, and i know what the deadline is, and i see the clock ticking, and it drives me bonkers that i’m just waiting, with no ability to get things done, because other people have to do what they are doing first before i can begin.

i’m back there.

a month has gone by since i posted that, and we’ve closed on the apartment and torn it apart.

and, as soon as the ceiling, the kitchen wall, and the floor are done, we can start our work — the painting, the installation of appliances and kitchen cabinets, the choosing of new faucets and light fixtures, the replacing of ugly light switches and power outlets, and so on.

we visit every day, and there’s progress every day. and our new super has been, well, super, and has worked and coordinated and sweated along with us to help get it all done.

i. just. want. to. be. done.

now.

aaaaargh.

i’ve gotta be more patient.

new apartment–exhausted and exhilarated

~ jamie ~ 3 Comments

well it happened. we closed on thursday and have spent the last two days tearing out the kitchen and getting ready for the renovation.

we’ve pulled out all the kitchen cabinets and flooring, we’ve prepped the walls for priming and painting, we’ve scheduled the plaster guys to come in next week and redo the ceiling, we’ve scheduled some tile guys to come in and redo the kitchen floor, and we’ve scheduled a floor guy to come in and redo the wood floors.

whew. not bad for two days, but that’s the exhausted part.

the exhilarated part? we’re doing it all for our very own home. amazing.

you want details? kirk wrote a great post about the closing process, and we have pictures of the empty apartment before the renovation started, and pictures of the apartment after everything was pulled out. along with some bonus pictures of the view, the closing and some other stuff.

tomorrow we take the day off (sort of) and go to ikea to buy kitchen cabinets. and in the afternoon we have a block party with our new neighbors. good timing for us.

pins and needles

~ jamie ~ 1 Comment

that’s what i’m on, waiting for the closing date for our apartment. kirk and i, if you haven’t heard, are buying a coop in riverdale, in the bronx, in new york city. we’ll be homo-wners.

sorry — old, bad, joke.

i’ve done everything i can do, which is the big problem. when there’s something i can do to manage the process, or move it forward, or coordinate efforts, or whatever, then i feel like i’m accomplishing something.

but when i’ve done everything there is to do, and the waiting game sets in, that’s when it gets bad for me. i have to make a concentrated effort not to drive everyone to distraction with constant fruitless pushing. that’s the stage i’m at now.

if all goes right, we’ll be closing on the place next week. the bank does its last bit, and then we get the closing date. i can distract myself for that long, and not drive everyone bonkers.

i hope.