Oh hello! It's been a minute or two. I know, I know. The good news is... I've been busy! Not like the oh yeah I'm busy, but the ohhh yeahhhhhh I'm really busy. Being busy is suchhhh a blessing though! I just hit my 7-month anniversary of branching out on my own so the fact that I'm living this dream is so worth all of the hard work and long hours I've been putting in :)

The truth is, on top of all of the amazing work projects I've been working on some other big life things -- mostly good with a little touch of holy crap what are we going to do! So here's a rundown of what I've been up to!

BFF visited NYC: After almost 6 years of living in NYC, my BFF Danielle visited the big apple! She came for a long weekend and boy did we do the city! Her Fitbit could vouch for us on that one too ;-) It was so much fun to catch up (I hadn't seen her since her wedding) and share some of the city with her.

Chris Moved In: You read that right! It may have taken over 5 years of dating.. but Chris took the plunge and said farewell to his apartment he lived in for 12 years. I KNOW! It was a big deal. There was a lot of packing.. donating.. and cleaning involved but somehow we downsized and fit all of our things into the studio. That is until we got some other news.. more on that later though.

Visited Washington: Just as soon as Chris got moved in and settled (ok well that was really me..) but once we got everything in order I headed back to Washington for 2 weeks! Thanks to the lovely Hardersens, I was able to head back west for a visit and to watch their pups while they embarked on a seriously ERT (epic road trip). I got to do soooo much when I was home (in between working) which totally reminded me of why I decided to jump into the world of entrepreneurship. I got to catch up with my Grandma, check out my Aunt's amazing lake house, catch up with one of my besties from PDX and show him some of the sights in WA, and of course spend some quality time with the fam bam. It. Was. Amazing.

Bachelorette Trip in Connecticut: As soon as I headed back east, I stayed in NYC for one night before hitting the road again. This time, up north for a bachelorette party! It was my first one and we had sooo much fun celebrating the bride-to-be! Connecticut casinos are no joke..

Apartment Hunting: Sooo back to that apartment news.. Originally our plan was for Chris to move in (his lease ended before mine) and then a few months later we were going to find a bigger place. After moving and getting settled we decided 1.) Man, we reallyyyy don't want to have to move again and 2.) While it would be tight we could suck it up for a year. The big man upstairs had a different plan in mind though.. While I was in Washington, I received a panicked call from Chris saying we got a letter in the mail saying my lease wasn't being renewed. Being across the country I immediately called my landlord's office (which wasn't open at the time).. let's just say it was a long 12 hours of waiting for them to open. I woke up early to call them the second their office opened and come to find out they're in the process of selling their buildings and aren't renewing any leases. I did not take the news well and was pretty upset.. I mean I just went through this 2 years ago with my last building! 

Sooo just like that it was back to apartment hunting, which as you've read on past blogs is a big pain in the b-u-t-t in the city. Plus we had so much going on in June and July.. it was just not something I wanted to have to deal with, but such is life. So I started stalking listings like the true apartment stalker I am and we saw apartment after apartment. It was a little early to start looking since we didn't have to move until Aug 1 (things are available immediately here or maybe a month in advance) but I mostly wanted to look at the market.

After seeing a bunch of places, being let down by brokers (sorry brokers but some of you really suck) I found a listing.. In fact, I prefaced the link for the listing to Chris with "Ok, this is kind of dumpy but it has a shared backyard and checks some of our other boxes" and they were having an open house that night. So I suggested we stop by on our way to the Billy Joel concert we were going to. I mean hey, the perk of NYC apartments is they take 5 mins to see. So we did just that and the place wasn't that bad.. andddd the "shared backyard" turned out to be a private backyard! It's not the fanciest place in the world, but as soon as we saw it and then found out they have unlimited laundry in the building we knew we needed to jump on it. It checked off our boxes, was available Aug 1, was no fee (YESSSS!), 1 bed, outdoor space, dishwasher (old but it has one) and decent storage. If we could have applied right then and there I would have -- because that's what you have to do here. Instead we had to wait until Monday because it was through a management company (my old management company actually!). So I obsessed and obsessed some more over the weekend. We showed up at their office right when they opened on Monday though, got approved within half an hour and signed our lease that day. So phewww after all that stress it all worked out and for the better! Sooo there will definitely be more apartment posts come the end of summer. Just wait until you see what I do with this backyard!!! So now we just wait.. but that's taken care of!

Chris' brother's Wedding: Chris' brother and beautiful fiance got married over the 4th of July weekend out on Long Island. They are just the best so it was so amazing to be there for their big day! It was a full weekend of love, delicious food, and lots of dancing! It could not have been a more perfect weekend and celebration!

Bachelorette Trip in Nashville: As soon as Chris' brother's wedding was over I was off to visit Nashville to celebrate another fabulous bride-to-be in Nashville! Nashville has been at the top of my bucket list to visit so I was pretty pumped for this trip! It did not disappoint either! All things country music, southern food and southern charm are soooo up my alley. I own way too many pairs of cowboy boots for a New Yorker.. haha. When I have another minute there will definitely be a trip highlight post because we had so much fun!

Moving: Now back to that apartment thing... we're a week away from packing up and heading to the new place. So there's that too!

I know, I know, when I said I've been busy I was not lying! If there's one thing life has taught me in the last 3 months it is that it doesn't slow down for anything! Which is equal parts exciting and nerve-wracking at times! It does all work out though one way or another! So now you're in the loop! Stay tuned because I do have some fun shenanigans to share that I've squeezed in between all of life's craziness! 

For one reason or another, apartment brokers generally do not tell you the square footage of apartments in the city. It’s always seemed strange to me since square footage is usually one of the first things you’re told. So why is this? I’ve heard a few answers from brokers, including it’s because when the apartments were built they did not keep count of square footage and because the layouts have changed over time. I never really bought either of these responses though because it doesn’t take a mathematician to do an estimate of square footage, especially when we’re dealing with small spaces.

Personally, I’ve always assumed it was actually because of legality issues and my suspicions have furthered since continued outrage over the last year about a push for micro-apartments that are 325 square feet. There’s been reports that the units are “breaking the law” because of a law stating apartments must be at least 400 square feet in NYC. I did a little research on this so called law and surprisingly couldn’t find too much info on it, other than it was enforced in 1987 and that apartments could not be built smaller than 400 square feet. Like I said, I’m not super educated on this law, but I’m going to go ahead and assume that it only applies to new builds because the majority of apartments ARE NOT 400 square feet in the city. And since my apartment was built in 1915, if my assumptions are correct, my apartment missed the law by a lifetime!

Case and point, I did apartment hunting this summer. Now I was looking for studios on the lower price range and they were tiny. Think, an oversized bedroom. I was totally okay with what my money could buy and was just excited to get my own place. So imagine my surprise when I scored what I thought was a BIG one bedroom on the Upper East Side that I could afford. Say what?! A one bedroom!? Is this real life? For those of you that have been reading, you know how excited I was about my score and every time I described my apartment to my friends and co-workers, the word “big” (by New York standards of course) always came out of my mouth. 

So after 5 months in my apartment I decided to figure out just what “big” meant and I got the tape measurer out. My apartment is pretty much a long rectangle so I started by doing the measurements of each room and then added them all up. I have a few slightly slanted walls in my living room where the window is, so my number is just an estimate, but what I ultimately came up with was…. 383 square feet. 383 square feet?!? My BIG one bedroom apartment was only 383 square feet?!? I mean I knew it would be small compared to other cities, but I wholehearted believed it was close to 500 or maybe 450, but 383? Oh boy.. Not what I was expecting that’s for sure! And what’s even scarier is if 383 square feet is a “big” apartment — for my price range of course — then the other apartments I was looking at couldn’t have been much more than 200 square feet, if that. Much lower than that 1987, 400 square feet law.

So my question is.. if old buildings are exempt (I’m assuming) from the law then why don’t people talk about square footage? What’s the big deal? Is it the atrocious price per square foot? Is it the fact that the number might scare people away? Is it because the brokers simply don’t know? What is it?! Which then leads me to also ask, what is the big deal about these micro-apartments? Yes, they’re small, but clearly most New Yorkers are already living in smaller spaces that weren’t actually built to optimize every square inch. A lot of questions, and not many answers! All I know is, I probably won’t be using the term “big” as much in reference to my apartment, but I’ll love it all the same!

It’s official, I’ve been living at my own apartment for over 4 months! That’s 1/3 of a year.. Say what? That went by fast. While I’ve loved all of the people I was lucky enough to call my roomies, it is nice to be on my own now. I’ve always been an independent person and living alone has been a goal of mine since living in Portland (throwback 2009). I had to take a back-step when I decided to move to New York, but I’m really happy and proud of myself for finally making it a reality. 

So what are my favorite things about living alone?

1.) Decor options! I can do whatever I want, whenever I want without offending anyone else’s taste. Not everyone loves my bright, patterned and glittered decor, but I sure do! 

2.) Buying less of everything! I bought a 4 pack of toilet paper and it lasted two months. I’m also still working on the 1/2 bottle of dish soap I moved with. This would never happen in any of my past apartments.

3.) My apartment — my rules. If I want to veg out and watch a whole day’s worth of House Hunters, in my pjs, no one is going to look at me twice. Not that this was ever a big issue with any of my past roomies, but it’s nice to be able to be a bum all by myself. 

4.) If I want to run around the apartment and have a dance party to Taylor Swift songs — I can.

5.) Can you say — the whole fridge, every cabinet and drawer are all mineeee {insert evil laugh}. No need to label anything or forget whose apples are on the bottom shelf or worrying about where I’m going to store those winter coats in the summer!

All and all, Scoots and I are pretty happy campers in our own place!