Mission Accomplished!

We have an apartment! Yesterday, we officially applied for a one-bedroom apartment in the West 54th building that we liked so much. We decided not to go for the sublease, because we'd rather just rent from the building directly and know exactly what we are and are not responsible for. And this weekend they were having a leasing expo, which meant that if you rented an apartment this weekend, they would waive the application fee, so we decided to go for it! We applied online and then spoke to the leasing agent on the phone. Our lease has been prepared and is being FedEx-ed to us to sign and notarize and send back, and then we'll be official!

We're so excited to have this all figured out! Our next step will be to contact the movers that Eric's firm recommends to figure out how all that will work. They will pack up our current apartment and move us to NY, which will be SO NICE. Once we get that all scheduled, we'll talk to our current apartment about a move-out date. It'll be so nice to have this all settled!

So, anybody wanna hear about our new place??? Allow me to share some pictures with you! Below is the floorplan for our new apartment. Hooray for three closets!

The pictures below are taken from the building's website, just to give you an idea of what it's like, since we don't have pictures of our actual apartment just yet.

The building

The lobby

The Fitness Center

Bedroom (again, not our actual apartment, but ours will be similar)

Kitchen

Bathroom (how cute is the tile? Although it doesn't match our decor...)

As for the neighborhood, we're really excited about our location! In addition to being walking distance from Times Square, Restaurant Row, Central Park, Broadway, my school, and a dog park, we also figured out that the Colbert Report is filmed in a building on our block and the Daily Show is filmed just a couple blocks away! So it really feels like we're in the midst of all the New York happenings. I also found a good description of the Hell's Kitchen/Clinton area on a website called NY Bits:

LOCATION

The West Side of Manhattan, between 39th and 59th streets, west of 8th Avenue.

CHARACTER AND FEEL

Hell's Kitchen is a busy mesh of tourists, theaters, restaurants - and locals. Aside from the bustling tourist attractions (such as Times Square) and Theater Row, Hell's Kitchen boasts "Restaurant Row" (W. 46th St, between 8th and 9th Avenue) where one can find any culinary delight imaginable. The West Side overlooks the Hudson River, where cruise ships disembark on a weekly basis. Ninth Avenue is a busy walk of shops, cafes and galleries. West 51st Street, with its brownstones and quaint row homes, evokes a French flavor with many Parisian cafes and bars. The area is constantly busy and thriving, be it 4pm or 4am. Hell's Kitchen is the ideal area for those who wish to be in the thick of the New York bustle!

POPULATION AND DEMOGRAPHICS

Population about 42,000. Being slightly more affordable than other parts of Manhattan (mostly due to its lack of parks and residential feel), the area is populated with both younger and older business people, teachers (both F.I.T. and Parson's are nearby), and actors - who benefit from being close to the Theater District as well as the lower rent! Traditionally a blue-collar neighborhood, Hell's Kitchen has been gentrifying for decades now. 

SAFETY

Things have changed since the days when Irish gangs ruled Hell's Kitchen. Nowadays, apart from the sketchy Port Authority Scene (west and south of 42nd Street), the neighborhood is safe.

Needless to say, we're really excited! I'm so glad that it didn't end up being a terrible headache to find an apartment. And now, it's really starting to feel real - we're really moving to New York!