Moving, part 2. AKA: packing

29 10 2008

Packing lasted late into the night / early morning. Around 2a.m. we hit box number 60 .. why stop there? The stress of the 8:30am arrival of our movers, not shakers was mounting … so we persevered till about 4am before clearing the boxes off the bed and crawling under the covers for a “nap.”

Conrad’s take 2 at the floors worked MUCH better. The first floor sander he tried was WEAK. Not good. So day 2 was spent with the gouge-the-floor-out barrel sander. And it went WELL. Apparently, now we have nice looking naked floors. Unfortunately, the super came a-knocking at 5:45 “reminding” Conrad that “work” ends at 5:30. So around he sat until 10 for the rental guys to pick up the sander, all while staring at the 6 inches of flooring around all the edges that the sander COULDN’T reach. And the realization that he’d have to rent yet another tool to get the edges sank in.

So we were up at 6am today so Conrad could be at Home Depot at 7 (note: he was actually there at 7:01am – I think we’ll call that on time) and be back before the movers arrived around 8:30. He did. They did. They packed. They helped break down some of our wall units & entertained us with the sound effects of shrink wrap … heck, they even shrink wrapped our mattress!

Now the apartment-on-a-truck is bound for the Brooklyn warehouse. Conrad’s up doing the edging. I’m about to present at a conference. Tonight we crash. Tomorrow we clean. Friday we return the keys for our apartment and begin to make Harlem our official home.

Will we make it? Are we doing the right thing? Are we happy? … As my magic 8 ball says, All signs point to Yes.


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Categories : family, house, new york

Moving.!?*()…

28 10 2008

I have no idea how to close that sentence .. it’s a flurry of emotions. Here’s a short recap:

Wednesday afternoon, Day 1

- pre-Closing: Visit bank, withdraw more money than we knew we could; depressed it isn’t more as we’re in the middle of a market collapse and the stocks we cashed in were at an all time low when we cashed them last week, but continue to drop lower .. does that make it a good loss then?

- Closing: Everyone in the same, warm room. Seller’s lawyer is a jerk. Wish we had him instead. Somewhere in the world, a forest is crying. Keep signing. Keep signing. Keep signing. Keys? Ok.

- Arrival: No furniture. No chaperones. Champagne. Dreams of tomorrow. Literally, tomorrow .. since we closed 3 weeks later than we hoped.

… also, my mom has major back surgery.

Thursday – Day 2: Planning the move. And the utilities. And the movers. And picking paint colors. And sending a plea out to NYC friends to help paint on Sat!! 8:55pm – get kicked out of Home Depot; in search of dinner; talk to mom, she’s wigggling toes! 10:30pm Try paint picks on the walls. 11:30pm – Uh oh, we don’t like 2 out of 3, that’s $40 of “test” paint down the drain (not literally of course).

Friday – Day 3: Noon – Open house in our current apartment – kicked out to Starbucks. Find a paint store with pre-mixed mini’s of Benjamin Moore. 6pm – Paint take 2. Love it. Yes!! Now we need paint. And supplies. Drive to Home Depot. By car. To the Bronx. Traffic. Store closes at 10. Lots to buy. Their color matcher is out of order. Stress mounts. Head to another HD. Success! Push OVERFLOWING trolley and arm loads of stuff to register 10 minutes after store closing. Check-out clerk hates us, nicely. Proudly present 10% off coupon. $80 off. Sweet! Find a diner. Conrad eats possibly the worst fish & chips ever cooked. Awesome. Drive home. Because that’s what it is now: our home. <Euphoric moment> Shoot. It’s late. Tired. Unload mini. Impress neighbors with just how much you can cram into a mini. Survey our new palace. And all the goods. Dred mounts. Need sleep.

Day 4 (Saturday): Head to Harlem. Wash walls in prep for painting. Turns out there are a lot of walls. Lay out drop cloths & supplies. Find Jimbo’s – get great breakfast sammiches and coffee. Hope they’ll learn to know us there – odds are good. Tape off molding & ceilings. One ladder. Shoot, sharing makes job go slow. 2 helpers arrive – Joe & Marty. Rock on. First coat of paint takes a long time. Pizza helps. Marty puts in overtime. Conrad and B finish 2 coats, remove masking. LOVE the colors. Even the veuve-inspired orange bathroom. Tired. LONG day. Tomorrow: pack.

Day 5 (Sunday): Plan to head to Camp Osmon to visit mom. Pack overnight & off-to-MA stuff. Start to pack. Shoot… no packing paper. C goes in hunt. Takes a LONG time. Frustrating. Comes home like a sherpa with about 50 pounds of paper strapped to his back. Pictures will follow. ‘Rents call & ask we come later. Frustrated: if I was a boy, driving alone would be a non-issue, but not worth stressing them out – so agree. Argggg. Stubborn. Head up to Harlem for delivery of floor sander. Mask shoe-molding. Drape kitchen in plastic to protect from mountains of sawdust. Remove doors to rooms. Shoot – tired again! :-)

Day 6 (Monday): SANDING day — yay! And packing day — boo. C takes Monday off from work & sands floors. B works from home. Really works. No time for packing. Movers coming on Wednesday and so far only 6 boxes packed. Stressed. C calls – floor sanding worked, sorta. B goes to condo to check out the work. Darn. Sander gets up finish but not evenly. Much of the stain is still down. Much deliberating. Choices: Pay professionals; Attempt a dark stain & hope it doesn’t look awful; Rent a more aggressive drum sander; call it rustic, put down clear coat – live with it and get lots of area rugs. Decide to rent the crazy-intense drum sander and try again tomorrow. Return home. Pack. A lot. On a roll now. Sorta. 25 boxes and only most of living room done. Need to be up by 6 to get to HD by 7 to rent sander — call it a night ~ midnight. Stress mounts .. clock ticks.

Day 7 – Tuesday: Early. Rain. Move car. Find out alternate side parking was suspended. C goes to HD for new rental. Delivery arrives in Harlem around 10:30, by noon-thirty, at least one room is down to raw wood floors. YAY! Now we’re on a roll with the floors. Hopefully we don’t screw them up too badly. 2pm. Kitchen almost packed .. boxes piling up around us.

… So that’s where we are now. Hope we make the 8:30am deadline on Wednesday, as that’s when the movers arrive!


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Categories : family, new york

Send poems, prayers and promises

23 10 2008

The day it all began! Ironically, also one of my fav rents pics.

My mom went under the knife today for back surgery. Thanks to everyone who’s sent prayers and positive thoughts for phase 1 (evaluation) and phase 2 (operation). We’re now heading boldly into uncharted waters … recoveryation … or in other words, “Mom, sit STILL.” It’s my father who will need the prayers for that one (though I’ve recommended hard restraints as a more effective measure).

Seriously though. If you want to send a card, she’d love to hear from you — email if you don’t have their address & I’ll set you up. Alternatively, e-hugs delivered via comment to this blog post can be shared as well… so positive thoughts in any form are greatly appreciated.


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Categories : family

Haarlem living

22 10 2008

Congratulations to our friend Kyra who just bought a condo in Haarlem, of the Netherlands.

… We just bought a condo in Harlem, of Manhattan!

We are now proud owners of 1,165 square feet … our own tiny piece of the rock. More soon – but we have the keys and the title to prove it!


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Categories : home ownership, new york

Economic advice in tough times

21 10 2008

I recently received the following e-mail forward from a friend. I haven’t checked the math, but the concept made me shaky… enough to share.

If you purchased $1,000.00 of Delta Air Lines stock one year ago you would have $49.00 left.

With Enron, you would have had $16.00 left of the original $1,000.00.

With WorldCom, you would have less than $5.00 left.

But, if you had purchased $1,000.00 worth of beer one year ago, drank all of the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND … Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : general knowledge, new york

Living like a local and taking wrong turns

19 10 2008

We had a great weekend in the city. Crisp, autumn air has rolled in, and we’re feeling fall.

On Friday, we called around to get a quote for some movers. Conrad found one that is more green than others (bio-diesel trucks and loaned plastic packing bins instead of carboard boxes). That means the boxes I stole borrowed from the office are laying around still unpacked as the guy from “Movers not Shakers” is coming on Monday to give a real quote and he needs to assess our goods. Soooo … that meant the weekend we had allocated for packing was now free. We watched our budgets, but we also watched the city … this moments are the ones that make us remember how much we love living here. Here’s some of the flavour, and links if you want to dig deeper yourselves..

But more than this, it was a reminder that sometimes it’s just best to get lost. Because though we planned a few stops on our visits, it was the surprise turns that really enriched our adventures. So next time you’re out and about, don’t be afraid to get lost, you never know what you’ll find.

Friday night:

  • Game night! With friends out of town and others doing chores, we decided to save money and stay in. We ate left overs, and played games that ended in O .. Rummy-O and UnO.

Saturday:

  • Lunch in the West Village - a quick Google search of good eats yielded a place we would have walked right by and barely blinked: WestVil. I got a plate full of veggies, and Conrad, hot dogs and sweet potato fries!
  • Banksy - infamous British graffiti artist – hits NYC. We made the trip down to the West Village to see his installment … a first in anamatronics / no graffiti … called “The Village Pet Shop and Charcoal Grill” … pictures don’t describe, you’ll have to watch on You Tube. This was a strange site. About 20 people gathered on the street gave it away as something awry, but really, there were no signs that clued in passerby’s, so it was hard to be in the know unless you knew in advance, you know.
  • Three lefts and a right. The rest of the day was spent ‘splorin. It’s our favorite NYC activity. We just meander around and wander into new neighborhoods to see what we see. We are also addicted to the NYC street fair. So we found two of ‘em and walked through. Got some baked goods, tried a new coffee shop (where they transformed the cream atop of Conrad’s coffee cup into a spider web!!) and found a church bizarre with some fun wool hats .. 2 for $5! (Not to mention an awesome wooden console table for $30 .. unfortunately, already sold.)
  • BIRTHDAYS! I love em!! So happy birthday Natasha, thanks for giving us a reason to celebrate!! Oh, and to play with a Wii Fit. Love that too! When Conrad and I give up Cable TV, I think this may be something we put the savings towards acquiring :-D

Sunday: A sleep-in, lazy kind of day

  • Lower East Side Apple Day & Go Green festival on … of course .. Orchard street! The theme was green, so many vendors were hawking enviro-friendly wares, or telling you how to compost from within the cramped confines of a NYC apartment, and the like. We bought pork and pickles. Mmmm. Still full.
  • And I forgot to mention, we walked the wrong way out of the subway. That was awesome … we found two great things …
    1. China town borders a lighting and light-bulb district! Who knew?? (Many restaurants in the city have really neat old-style light bulbs we’ve been envying for a while, now we know where to find them)
    2. Polo on a bike! … or what I’ve now learned from wikipedia is called Urban Cycle Polo. Yeah … someone chasing a ball, towards me, with a stick, and of course, no helmets to be found. It was VERY fun to watch (but not something I’m going to rush to sign Conrad up for anytime soon! :0)
  • Lower East Side BBQ dunch (we were aiming for brunch, but we ate so late I can’t imagine eating again!)
  • Tour of the neighborhood. We felt like we were in a foreign world. This little pocket of Orchard Street on a Sunday was very slim on tourists, high on 08′s version of beatniks, and many cafe windows surrendering the warm interiors and secret dens of the dinners within, tempting us to join them. Alas, we declined. After exploring a few more blocks, we called it a day and retreated to our own nest for a hot cup of tea and to recharge our batteries in preparation for the week ahead.

Preview of the week ahead. If .. if .. things go right .. this week will hold a walk through of a new home, a closing, and a new set of keys for our key ring. Cross fingers & stay tuned!


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Categories : Uncategorized

Inspiring acts of simplicity

16 10 2008

Our friend Barry bought a building. Yay Barry! It is one of the few remaining old buildings in downtown Durham. Downtown Durham is still kinda scuzzy. But not to Barry. Barry sees it as the wonderful Oz; yes, maybe a little abandoned, maybe the munchkins look a little rough around the edges, maybe some weeds are peeking up in between the road … But Barry has a vision. Barry is buying a little piece of the magic, weeding the road to unveil the shinny, golden, yellow brick road.

Barry, we are drooling over your feverish, fearless (reckless?) pursuit of your dreams.

But it’s more than that. You see, Barry is one of those dreamers who, wants to make a profit on his saavy investment, sure, but he really wants to clean up those Munchkins and make Oz a happy place for everyone once again. And that is what makes Barry and his dreams so inspiring. Barry will invite you in, give you a tour, help you weed the garden and then send you home with a bushel of mint and an invite to come back anytime and take what you need.

In true Barry spirit, he and his friends decided to paint the ugly boarded up front of his new building. (Remember, Barry’s bought a dump and is painfully … I mean painstakingly restoring and reglamorizing it into a mixed commercial-residential main street kinda place.) Anyway, they didn’t just decide to paint it. They decided to let the community paint it. So they gathered spray paint and ladders and offered them both to random passers-by. The result? Believers. People who want to join you in the exitement to make it better. Make it lively. Make the changes we all want to see in the world.

So this one’s for you Barry. For bringing sparkle to the dinge. Laughter to the children. Inspiration to the work-weary.

Oh, and if you want to follow his adventures, and I encourage you do, read on at www.308westmain.com (also linked permanently from the right side).


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Categories : city living, friends

Livin’ like a local – Autumn in NYC

6 10 2008

Andy: I have to stay in Canada for another week!

Reyes: Why don’t you spend the weekend in NYC then – silly to go all the way back to London?

Andy: Ok!

And he did. Our friend Andy flew in for a random weekend that turned in to a culinary adventure around NYC. Memorable … and tastey!

Friday night – Taste of Korea in k-town (32nd street) … where restaurants put on a sample menu for a fixed price. I’ve never had Korean bar-b-que and I didn’t know it was sweet — but now I have and it is! :-) The boys stopped for a “cask ale” on the way home. I didn’t know what that is either — and that’s one thing from the evening I wouldn’t recommend, unless warm beer is your thing. Ugh.

Saturday we ventured down to a little tiny spot in the West Village called Daddy-O‘s that my cousin introduced us to. Better than their infamous, spicy bloody marys are their tator tots and BLTs. From there, we walked around as the mid-day sunlight filtered through the air the way only it can when autumn is in the air. The walk brought us east and north to 14th Street / Union Square where a hundred or so vendors pile the sidewalks on Saturdays and tempt tourists and citygoers alike with locally grown colorful everything … from flowers to pig to heirloom tomatoes of every color and bulbous variety. We had some apple cider and a donut while I picked up the makings for a Sunday batch of butternut squash soup.

Andy wants to see our new apartment. We’ve been reticent to mention it on the blog as the deal is not yet done. But .. we are planning to buy a little piece of the rock up in Harlem. So we wandered home to drop off my gigantic $2 bundle of kale (what AM I going to do with it all!!?) and then took the bus on a scenic ride from the jewish bialy stop of 86th street up to the hairbraiding mecca of w 122nd street. We couldn’t go inside, but we showed him the facade of our soon-to-be-new-home as well as the neighboring park. We found respite and much needed caffeine and fuel for the day in Settepani, a near-by coffee shop. I just happened to throw a game in my purse while we were at home, so coffee and a game brought us new friends and conversation over java. Then it was back down to the homebase while we made dinner plans. In lieu of lodging, Andy’s company will take us to dinner. We will not abuse nor squandor this opportunity … so steak house it was. But we were pretty tired from a long day of exploring, so we stayed local and made our way to Roth’s Steakhouse.

Turns out, on Saturday night, Roth’s has a live jazz band. Turns out, the singer was this old guy I wish I could have photographed. His smile invited you to ask him about the million and one stories that seemed to be lying in wait behind is playful eyes. He had to be about 80, and he ambled up to the stool to join the stage with guys in their 30s .. maybe 40s .. and he outdressed them all in his three-piece black velvet suit, complete with purple baseball cap (no logo). As I was digging into my petit fillet and side of sauteed-in-just-the-right-amount-of-butter onions and mushrooms, he was diging into a little number he co-wrote, a piece he thought, we might, just maybe recognize. And then little Jimmy Norman showed those white kids on stage just how to sing jazz as he crooned “Time is on my side.” After we got up off the floor, Conrad promptly bought the man’s CD … and I escorted the boys out of the restaurant before they could interrogate poor Jimmy about the days gone by …. as surely this lyricist legend had a few storeis to share … but we let the idea marinade in our memories like the butter and fat from the tasty steaks lingered on our tongues.

Sunday was a bit more low paced with a casual breakfast around the corner at Le Pain Quotidien where opening a soft boiled egg in an egg cup is still something will we strive towards perfecting. After breakfast we headed to the local UWS sunday green market in hopes of finding an Obama t-shirt for Andy to take to London, alas, the only one who bought a t-shirt was me … along with a fat purple heirloom carrot and some fresh flowers. Andy departed just after noon for London, and Conrad and I promptly collapsed on the couch with the Sunday Times and smells of our butternut squash dinner bubbling on the stove.

Great weekend. We love when friends come to down and give us an excuse to eat our way through Manhattan :-)


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Categories : food, friends, new york

Palin? Really??

3 10 2008

I think Fark said it best …

Palin + Question =


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Categories : Uncategorized


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