in with the new

closing?

I hope we can close next Wednesday as expected! We are in the process of getting the final details ironed out... homeowners' insurance, possibly a survey of the property, getting the title report. I hope it's all in a big neat pile by the beginning of next week! I should have had a checklist to make sure that no detail had been left by the wayside.

The past week has been pretty busy. I spent Yom Kippur in Long Island. I mostly spent that time with my 2½-year-old twin cousins. I taught them "Let's Go Yankees!" (they say it "Let's Go La-Lankees!" Hee!). I hope I got written in the Book of Life for this year just for that!

Will and I went to a pub crawl on Saturday. I'd never been to one... Why would I when the featured drink is beer? Ick. I drank it, though. But I couldn't drink enough of it to even get buzzed. I'm a pub crawl failure. Poo.

what not to do #2... interior design

This is a beautiful home on the outside. A really nice brick house whose inside forces you look beyond the decor, in order to imagine how wonderful it could be!

This orange/red wallpaper is okay, but there's too much of it! They must have had some leftover, and didn't want to throw it away, so they used it in the living room. Note the ugly wallpaper in the hall/stairs beyond the archway in the first picture!
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Scary curtains in the dark, drop-ceilinged library/den.

Strange mirror-ey wallpaper in the bathroom.

This is the WORST... The wallpaper in the kitchen and "breakfast nook" almost made me blind!
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house good news!

Will just told me that the woman who lives in our house found a condo! She's packing up all her plates and whatnot right now! Everything's on schedule for a closing on or about October 15! Things are moving along. Yippee! I'll be in there for Halloween! Woo Hoo! I can't stop smiling.

what not to do #1... interior design

I thought I'd post up some pictures of some of the terrible homes that Will and I looked at. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the first, MOST AWFUL home we saw. You'll just have to take my word on this one. Clear plastic bannisters, horrible wallpaper, horrible window shades and bed linens to match the horrible wallpaper (one room of gigantic violets all over!), big ugly shiny furniture... The owner loved it, thought it was the greatest home ever. I was dizzy when we left.

On with the ugliness! Here's one house for you. I'll post more next week.
(click on any picture for a bigger view)

This kitchen was "redone". They put in new cabinets, countertop and appliances, but left the wallpaper. How about some WHITE. PAINT. Please!
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the living room. bad ceiling, bad wallpaper, bad window treatments. nice floor... if it was FLORIDA!

more wallpaper that could make you blind! the master bedroom. there was a second picture of this bedroom. It had the television antenna in it. It was about 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide on top. All I'm sayin' is that this house probably isn't wired for cable.

the bathrooms. the one with the washer/dryer is the master bath. they aren't so bad, but they aren't so good, either.
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and the coup de grace... the the front yard. we wouldn't need landscapers or even a lawn mower, since there is no grass! What terrible brush. I think the house is playing hide-and-go-seek, and no one's found it yet!

roommate quality time

Last night we met Josh for drinks at Flatiron Lounge. It's a really nice space and they have the most fun drink menu ever! I had three different fun drinks! It was such fun to see Josh. I haven't seen him since before we moved out. He's really fun to talk to.

Then we walked over to Pipa for sangria and tapas. The food, sangria and ambiance was great. That's where we met Chris! When we lived in Union Square, it was Chris' room. He was in Berlin while we were living it up East Village style. It was so nice to meet him after exchanging emails with him for the past month and a half! Another really fun to talk to, totally nice person! I can't wait to hang with them again!

And here's a shout out to Chris' family, since he said they read my blog! Hi there!

CLOSED!

We got to the co-op lawyer @ 3, the appointment time. Our lawyer was already there. The buyers were doing their walkthrough (all was good). THEIR lawyer wasn't even on the road... Over 40 miles away.

We waited and waited. The buyers got there at 4. We waited some more... He got there at 5 frickin 30! We signed our 8 copies of the contract, got our checks and left asap.

Their lawyer was ridiculous. Not only was he late, he didn't know his cell number for us to contact him. He thought I was his client, Partha Pathmanapan. He said he signed all 8 contracts, he signed 2. We were amazed he was wearing matching shoes!

So that's done, and now we're driving out to LI for fun and celebrating! Yay! Oh, and thanks to our realtor for the great (early) housewarming gift.

contracts

the contracts (is it plural?) and deposit went to our lawyer for our house! yay! tomorrow we will (hopefully) close on our nj apartment. then we can spend the weekend celebrating the close of that chapter!

i've been spending time on craiglist looking for our sublet for the remainder of our ny stay. there'a a place on 22nd, just east of rocco's. we'll check that out soon.

nj trip

i went to nj today to get a chest x-ray. i haven't changed my doctors yet (i'm waiting for the LI move) so i had to go across the river to englewood hospital. i've had a cough for about 5 weeks now. i was on zithromax last week, and i've been taking claritin d, but this cough won't leave me be! here's a picture of me in the hospital gown before the x-ray! (yes, i know, i'm a tool!)

i had to take the bus from ny to our nj apartment. i haven't been in it since the morning of august 4, when it was full of furniture and boxes. now it is totally empty. it was weird and satisfying to see the empty apartment. we are moving on to way better digs. the area we lived in was good, it had decent restaurants and whole foods. but it was a co-op, and there were always people (who didn't say hi on a regular day) asking to come in so they could get you to vote for them for the board. ugh. i made a couple of friends toward the end. i'm sad i didn't meet them sooner. but i'll keep in touch with them.
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i fixed the necklace i made yesterday and even made a second one. now i get to have one, and my friend does, too! i'm wearing my new pink and green one now... i found a great wholesale bead store yesterday. it's called lita trading. i can't wait to get there in a timely manner (they close at 6) and spend a lot of time touching their stones! (hee!)

apartment update

small update on the apartment! will just called, we're closing on our nj apartment tomorrow afternoon, as scheduled! yippee! one closing down, one to go!

wine on the roof

last night we sat on the roof with josh. we talked for hours and drank good wine. we had vino verde and a white rioja. they were inexpensive, refreshing and delicious. it was really great to spend quality time with him. we lucked out getting him as a roommate!

i still have this cold/allergy/cough thing. i'm on day three of medication... zithromax, claritin d and nasal spray. i feel better than i did on tuesday, but still crappy. i was performing at a 71% level on tuesday, and now i'm up to 84%. hopefully the upward trend will continue.

yesterday, i went to the subway to take the 6 from union square. the 4 was stopped, the platform was full, there were cops everywhere. a man had been pushed onto the tracks after having an argument with another man. i walked to work, and later found out that he is ok. whew. scary.

no new news on the house/apartment front. we have the contracts for our house, so it's moving along.

bittersweet news... on tuesday, after the doctor, i sold my car to car cash. (check out their site. it has the worst navigation ever. i think an advanced 7-year-old must have put it together.) there's a photo album/memorial link over on your left. for 10 years, you served me well. bye car.