Operation Relocation: Phase 1

Planning a 700-mile move during the last month of graduate school is not easy. I have learned this through experience.

I thought the hardest part of “Operation Relocation” would be finding and choosing a place to live. Home in North and South Carolina finding an apartment is easy. Finding an apartment that will allow a fifteen pound dog is not difficult. And if you decide to buy – well in the South three hundred thousand dollars can buy you four bedrooms and a backyard.

The same is not true of Hoboken, New Jersey. For those of you who don’t know, Hoboken is located on the Hudson river and is only one train stop away from Manhattan. In Hoboken, decent 1 bedroom apartments for rent under $2500/month generally stay on the market for less than 24 hours, the majority of them have a no pet policy, and well, $300,000 will buy you a studio or a small one bedroom. And maybe not even in an elevator building. (Imagine taking a dog on potty walking when you live in a seventh floor walkup – or even going to check the mail.) Not to mention a parking space can run you another $175-$300 a month.

In South Carolina, I was a little spoiled. I lived here:

A three bedroom, 2.5 bath townhouse with a tiny backyard for Riley to run around in circles and a two car garage.  Then this happened:

So for the past several months I’ve been living with my parents and all the furniture from my beautiful townhouse has been staying in one of these:

Needless to say, I’ve become a little less spoiled. Corey and I decided that purchasing a condo would be the best financial decision so we toured numerous condos (walk-ups in historic brownstones, modern elevator buildings, etc.) and finally decided on one.

We went into negotiations with the seller and came to an agreement fairly quickly. THEN, when our contract came under attorney review, things became problematic. The seller’s attorney didn’t want the price to be negotiable after the results of the home inspection. And they were not willing to budge on this. Our attorney thought this was absolutely unacceptable because we shouldn’t be locked into a contract if significant problems were found with the pipes, wiring, etc. So, we did not end up purchasing the condo.

Back to the drawing board we went and decided that maybe we did want to rent after all. That way if Corey gets a promotion or I end up not getting a teaching job then we will be free to move sooner. The day this lovely apartment came open to rent, we snatched it up and signed a lease. Coincidentally, it is literally right next door to the condo we almost purchased and we will still be able to see the Empire State Building from our living room.

For some reason the kitchen is the only room I have a picture of. No worries, there will be plenty of posts of this apartment as I decorate it.  

Finding a place to live that would allow my sweet puppy and that was of decent size, had in-unit laundry, central air conditioning, and parking was most definitely a challenge. It was the hardest part of “Operation Relocation” but I have to say finding movers is proving to be a close second.