Moved Again!

Hi Friends.

What an impact my instagram post had, surprising everyone that we had moved! AGAIN! I know I know, you all think I’m crazy which is fine. Sometimes I think that too. BUT, I thought I’d give you the details and the WHY’s behind it all. We got some good reasons, not that I need to justify ANY of them to you lovely strangers 🙂 But, I like to document my life and this is part of it.

So, yes, we moved on Thursday and surprised everyone. We made a calculated decision to not tell our online friends for several reasons, but the main one being we didn’t want all your opinions…mostly because I had mentioned it briefly a few months back and SO many of you had strong opinions. Of course we had many of you being supportive no matter what we chose (thank you!), but there were a few bad apples in the bunch. Obviously my husband and I will be the only ones who know what’s best for our family. So even though many of you meant well, I didn’t want to have to deal with the backlash because I have enough things to think about. 

Another reason I didn’t want to mention it was because I wanted to prove a point that people CHOOSE what they share online. It’s actually pretty easy to hide the busy, crazy, messy, unpretty parts of our lives and only show the more picture-perfect moments or photos, especially on Instagram. Heck, I hid my 3rd pregnancy for a few months before I announced it! So, moral of the story, just be aware that you’re only seeing a sliver of my life and no one’s life is perfect. I try to share actual “real” moments and I hope that shines through.

Our first meal in our new apartment!

ANYWAYS, we originally started looking for a home outside of the city. Around February, we had been feeling suffocated by our apartment and felt the strange but clear need to move and move now. I tried to push it away saying “it’s fine, we’re fine, we can last!” but that feeling to leave just kept coming back to us. Specifically to Gordon, very strongly. This prompted us to get a realtor and start looking for homes in Connecticut and Westchester. We actually had offered on two lovely homes and were even under contract for one of them. (Remember those train rides I took to get out of the city on insta-stories? I was looking for homes!) But it didn’t sit right with us, even though on paper there was no reason not to go through with it.

So we expanded our search to Manhattan for a larger apartment in a location we would LOVE instead of settling for the current apartment we had. We even looked into buying an apartment for a hot minute, but then this new apartment popped up onto our radar and it was love at first sight. Not because of how gorgeous and pristine it was (not even close!), but how much space it would give us. It’s quite a rough looking apartment because it’s older. But, we have dealt with places like this before and it didn’t scare us.

Here are a few more ‘specs’ of sorts that sold us on the apartment:

It has three bedrooms and one bath. Lots of storage and good closet space.
It is a walk-up, but really not terrible because we’re only going up one flight.
It’s on the upper west side in an amazing, highly sought after school (or so we hear)
Our proximity to Central Park and Riverside Park are unbeatable.
We can walk to church!
The school is extremely close to home, as are the grocery stores, though I still do instacart!
No washer and dryer in our unit, but we are going to try a wash and fold service (they come pick up your dirty clothes in the morning and then delivers them washed and folded in the evening.) I’m a little too excited to give away one of my Mom chores.
The rent is $1400 cheaper than our last apartment. Hello college funds! (How I’m justifying the wash and fold service, not that it’s that much more expensive than going to a laundromat.)
It’s a little further from my husband’s office, but he doesn’t mind the 30 minute commute because we have more room, so it’s worth it.

The school system in New York City is a little wacky, in my humble opinion, and is one of the biggest reasons we felt like we needed to leave before the end of the school year. We most definitely wanted both our children to finish school at their original schools; that was our original plan all along! But, after talking with some other parents on the UWS and learning more about our zoned school, we realized that if we wanted any kind of shot at having Blake attend Kindergarten at the same school as Brooke, we had to move before the end of the school year. Having a sibling in the school weighs Blake’s application heavier, thus pushing him to the front of the line.

Also, this elementary school has extra curricular activities which are great to add to Brooke’s middle school application. It’s CRAZY to think that middle school applications are similar to college applications in the city! But here we are, and this is how they do things here. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. There is a specific middle school Brooke has her heart set on (already!! Can you believe it?) so that could be considered to be another reason we moved.

We feel very lucky to have found a great apartment in the perfect location for our family with a kind landlord even though it might not be ‘pinterest-perfect’. We don’t need a gorgeous or brand new apartment to be happy. Heck, we were very happy in our last apartment! But, for whatever reason, felt like family life would be that much easier in these new digs.

So, that’s where we’re at and currently love walking around our new neighborhood and trying new pizza restaurants every Friday night 🙂

Thank you all for the support, encouragement and love! We appreciate you all!