So many things.

Well, we are just feeling a little overwhelmed here lately.

We moved into this apartment exactly a month ago, signing a two year lease to lock in our astronomical rent (this apartment is not rent-stabilized, meaning every year the landlord could raise it to whatever he sees fit).  We looked at a ton of apartments and settled on this one, because, well, it's big.  And in a nice neighborhood.  It has an elevator and laundry. That's pretty much it.  I'm embarrassed to say that I grossly neglected to really check out the bones of this place when we moved in and it seems like every day I find something else crusty and old and outdated in this apartment.  Every time we find a crumbling wall or loose outlet, the go-to phrase has been, "whoever did this/repaired this/built this - sucked at it."  It could be a beautiful, old apartment if someone had just taken the time to, when things went wrong, repair it the correct way, instead of - literally - slapping a coat or two of white paint over it.  I swear, this 'someone' even used white paint to fill in the missing tile grout.  This all sounds very negative, but don't get me wrong, I'm still really happy overall with our decision and think that this apartment is going to be great for us for two years (or more) while we grow our family.  It's just scary and disappointing to think that we're spending so much money on something so neglected.  Hopefully soon, we can stop spending money to fix this place up and just enjoy what we've created for ourselves.

Also, taxes. Yuck.

Also, insurance and medical bills.  Yuck.

Also, Andrew is still in rehearsals and gone 10 hours a day.

Also, it's freaking freezing STILL.

Ok.  I think I'm done.

Life is not all crap, all the time, I have to mention.  Lua is beautiful and the most amazing and funny kid ever.  So funny, that we're thinking of starting a twitter account to remember all the funny stuff she says. BabyKO2 is kicking and moving and hiccuping all day and this trimester of pregnancy has been a breeze compared to the first.  I love my new midwife and I can't believe we're already pretty darn close to having a teeny, tiny, weensie babe in our lives again :)

the move.

Let me break this down.  Mostly, so I can try feverishly to wrap my brain around the experience we just went through.  In NYC, they say, "finding an apartment is more difficult than finding a job".  Before now, Andrew and I had always gone out on the first or second day of looking, found an apartment we liked, made an offer, the offer and application were accepted and Bingo: New Apartment.

It works like this sometimes:  if you're extremely lucky you hear about an apartment from a friend, relative, etc. that is being moved out of.   You convince friend to inquire about apartment with the superintendent of the building.  The super says, "why, of course! it's going to be available right after the renovations are complete!  How much would you like to rent it for?".  Then you move in ;)

It works like this most times:  you have no friends with apartments magically up for rent.  You must then go through a broker who is going to try to charge you 15% of the annual rent for his/her fee ($2,000 a month rent = $3,600 fee).  You pay first month's rent and security deposit up front as well.  Starting to feel the burn a bit?  Oh, ya.  And with the application for an apartment, you almost always have to fork over $75 - $100 per person in order to run a credit/background check.

Pretty not awesome.  In our case, we applied for 3 apartments total.  The first, a BEAUTIFUL and HUGE apartment... loaded with bedbugs.  The second, a more modest, but updated 9th Floor apartment with GORGEOUS views of the sky ("what's that, you say?  Yes, the sky.  As in, we're not staring out our windows into the trash alley or neighbor's kitchen").  Number two's management company, which we later discovered was voted one of the top ten WORST management companies in NYC, never ever ever got back to us.  We waited for 2 weeks and had to move on.

And then we get to #3.  Ah, number #3.

I mean, Lua could build small forts in these closets.  

Is it in our favorite neighborhood? Nope. Is it within the budget we had originally intended? Nope.  Is it renovated?  Not even close.  In fact, it's so old and crusty, Andrew wasn't sure I'd want to take on such a project.  But I immediately saw something pretty special.  First of all, it's HUGE for a 2 bedroom in the city.  2 King sized bedrooms, an eat in kitchen and a living room that could fit a banquet.  Is the bathroom slightly frightening?  Yup.  But I'm confident that some elbow grease and a few plants will make it feel more like our home and less like a serial killer's.

And now we start the more fun process of moving in and making this space our own.  We decided it was time in our lives to stop asking our friends and family to lift heavy things (especially because they'd have to do it totally by themselves while Andrew is in rehearsals 6 days a week and I am not supposed to be lifting anything heavier than a bowling ball (ha)).  We hired movers on Friday after quite an ordeal with a NYC snowstorm and now my parents are here for an entire week cleaning, fixing, repairing, cleaning some more.  We can't even begin to repay them! More pictures as the nesting continues!