Goodbye Idaho....Hello New York!

Well, its been about a month since Clint and I left Idaho for our east coast adventure....and its been an adventure!  When we left Idaho we only took what would fit into our mini van.

We didn't even bring the kids! They went to my parents for 3 weeks while we did all the traveling, house hunting, furnishing and set up.  THANK GOODNESS!  While we were getting everything ready the kids were able to have a great time with grandparents.  During that time, Malia watched the olympics and loved watching the athletes!

Owen must have been watching too because he started crawling!  And he's fast!

Clint and I were able to make the 2,511 mile trek in 4 days.  We didn't really stop to see anything cool, we were just anxious to get to our destination.  I did snap a few pictures as we were driving:

 Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, & Ohio = corn as far as the eye can see!

(No wonder corn is in EVERYTHING!)

Pennsylvania was COVERED in tress....so beautiful!

Making our way into the big city!

Once we got to Brooklyn, it was time to start the next step... find a place to live.  For a couple months before our move, we had been looking on craigslist for different listings, and had called a few of the brokers.  They all told us we were looking too soon, and that in New York apartments don't stay on the market very long, so it would be better to be there in person to get things figured out-ugh.  So we started walking the streets of Brooklyn looking for "for rent" signs....NEWS FLASH they don't do that here!  So we started our search on the world wide web.  

A big difference here when renting an apartment, is that on top of paying your first months rent, security deposit(usually same as a months rent) you have to pay a broker's fee which is set by the broker and we found that they can range from 8%-21% of the annual rent.  All of this is due at the time of signing....which really feels like you are signing your life away.  And then we got really "lucky" and happened to pick a building where you also had to pay your last month's rent at signing.  So for any of you that have ever wondered how much it would be to live in New York....let me break it out for you...

1st month's rent:   $2,200.00

Last month's rent: $2,200.00

Security Deposit:  $2,200.00

Broker's Fee:        $3,168.00

________________________

"Grand" total:       $9,768.00

You're probably wondering what kind of place this money can buy!

This is the front of our building.  We are actually on the left side, above the restaurant sign.  Giovani's is the italian restaurant that is right below us and is AMAZING.  They are Olive Garden priced but serve excellent more authentic food AND on Monday nights after 10pm the entire menu is 1/2 priced....makes it even better.  AND our building usually smells of delicious italian food.

Here are some before and afters...

Hallway/Front Door before

Hallway/front door after

Hallway from the front door

Kid's room before

Kid's room after

Bathroom before

Bathroom after

Kitchen before

Kitchen after

Living room before

Living room after

Living room after

Master bedroom before

Master bedroom after

Well, so there you have it.   All of this can be yours for just the small price of $2,200.00/month while in Idaho.....

This can be yours for the same price!

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Anywho....we are doing great, and getting things figured out here.  We have so many cool things to see that are all so close!  We're excited to take it all in.

We hope this finds all of you well.  We miss having family so close, but have met many great people to surround ourselves with.  

We love you all!

(we've got a great air mattress waiting for visitors!)