The End of an Era & A New Apartment!!!!

There has been a Hope College Alum in this building for over 8 years...now the end of an era has come:

After seeing about 30ish apartments in 3 neighborhoods, 12 realtors, & having some crazy/nasty stories to share along the way (see old post & old post)... Joel & I have FINALLY found a new apartment! YAY YAY!

We've learned for this particular situation it really paid off to:
1) be extremely picky (we really strongly dislike our current place)
2) take our sweet time (we'd been hunting for about 2 months). We had actually been wanting to move for quite some time now, but with my health 'hiccups', well, that had to be postponed for over a year.
3) with taking our sweet time, the apartments we were shown got bigger & cheaper as time had passed into the fall season.

Thank you Lord for giving us the perfect place! :)

Some things I will miss about the old place:
-many memories with friends over the past 8 years.
-having a lovely friend live upstairs from us who brings us yummy homemade treats (we'll miss ya Julie!)
-inexpensive (by NYC terms) rent
-overlooking a cute garden in the backyard
-a cute front yard
-the big closet in our bedroom
-a nice landlord
-our 'faux' 2-bedroom
-not having to give directions to friends since they know exactly where we are
-being super close to Panera & the movie theatre

Some things I will not miss about the old place:
-the thin walls
-no insulation between floors
-the lady below who pounds quite rudely on her ceiling with a broom
-her son who will basically threaten us if we don't 'keep it down' (past 8pm)
-hearing the son snore below us
-hearing the folks below us talk, sneeze, caugh, drop a pan, etc...
-feeling as if we always have to vouch for whoever comes over or what we're doing to the folks downstairs
-the nasty shower that has no hope no matter how hard you scrub it
-the bathroom being so close to the kitchen
-living on the first floor so that we hear every peep as folks enter in the front door
-feeling like we live in a cave because of lack of windows
-not having any lights on (inside or out) when you enter the building at night, we've been told to turn these lights off many times...not good, even though it's NYC law (sec 27-2039) to have lighting.
-although there is a wonderful front yard, we can't use it because it's "not nice" to do so with the noise (even though the apts surrounding us all have balconies, basically serving the same function as the front yard)
-this apt has been like my 'recovery home' for over a year...some not so wonderful memories...

Some things to look forward to in the new place:
-still being super close to Manhattan
-a huge foyer when you walk into the apartment & beautiful lobby as you walk into the building
-lots of closets
-a wonderful eat-in-kitchen
-LOTS of windows (even one in the bathroom!)
-corner unit
-5th floor (elevator, not walk-up like some of the places we looked at)
-laundry in the building that is cheaper than the laundry mat we currently go to, 3 blocks away.
-1 block to the subway
-dear friends living super close
-renovated kitchen
-the cuteness of the hood & all of the lovely trees
-being able to sit outside & enjoy the weather & neighborhood
-nice neighbors
-the cute church across the street that has a pumpkin festival!

Oh, there is SO MUCH......
Joel & I are incredibly grateful & are looking forward to having a place that is ours.
He moved into my place when we got married so most of it was my stuff & already in place...now we can work it out together to make it our place.

YAY YAY YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!