Apartmentality

I really didn't expect to be living in another apartment after buying a house.  But, in this city, there is no way to have a house...prices here are embarrassing.  So, I've been looking for the silver lining in living in an apartment again.  

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Pros:

+ Only 755 feet to clean = about 45 min. and I'm done cleaning every room!

+ Close quarters means that we feel connected to our neighbors and community.

+ We don't have to battle bamboo anymore; no more yard work at all  : )

+ Someone else will take care of any broken things or repairs that need to be made.

+ I love our new kitchen.  Though it's a little smaller, the appliances are upgrades and all of our stuff still fits in and can be used.  

+ Our apartment is in the most convenient, dog-friendly neighborhood in the city.  We're close to both of our work places, close to the L train which connects us to lots of other trains.  We are right next to the East River and we love walking along the river seeing the Brooklyn skyline, the families that gather in the parks on weekends, and all the bikers and runners.  There are soooo many good restaurants close by!

Nonetheless, there are adjustments that have to be made and things to endure:

- The lobby outside our apartment smells like fish soup a lot.

- We have to be much more cognizant of our noise level (Charlie) so our neighbors don't complain.  No complaints so far.  We don't really hear our neighbors much either, which is nice.

- Laundry is a bit of a haul.  The machines are in our building, thank goodness.  Some people have to take their laundry to laundromats down the street.  Ours is very convenient considering that, but it feels like we're in college again.

- Not having a car means we have to carry groceries back from the store.  It takes some strategic planning.  There is a citibike stand right outside our grocery store so we've gotten used to riding bikes back from the store.  The other day I was riding back and I had gotten a few too many groceries to fit in the little basket on the bike.  I was going to make it work, though, and as I was riding along, I hit a bump and the turkey lunch meat flew out of my bag in the basket and into the intersection.  I just had to give it up, it was smooshed by a taxi pretty quickly.  Oh well...lesson learned - bring a backpack or don't buy as much food all at once.

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On a different note: 

Most fun thing we've done so far: We rode a ferry over to Governor's Island for the Come Out and Play Festival.  A bunch of field day games for adults that were free!  We played real life Settlers of Catan, Quadball (a mix between soccer, football, and rugby), and Ramp Shot (a combination of beer pong and cornhole).  We played like kids and had a blast!!

 Real Life Settlers of Catan