Adventures of Closing & Moving, Fueled with Plenty of Wine

David and I closed on our condo August 13, and moved a week later on August 20.

Closing day -- after the whole business with various lawyers and signing piles and piles of papers and handing over a big chunk of money we never knew we had -- was an euphoric experience for us.  After we closed, we made our way to Park Slope and set foot in our condo as official OWNERS for the first time.  We took with us a bottle of champagne and fancy glasses, and had a blast frolicking about.

Perrier Jouet on our very own balcony terrace!  It was a hot sunny day, perfect for celebrating in the bright apartment.

It's a good idea to stretch before frolicking...

... and turning around along the long living room....

... Oh, look!   There's a Vegemite by our Viking range!  

... And TimTam's in our brand new fridge!

(We thought it would be funny to take some Aussie specialties as first items in our new apartment.  Items courtesy of Craig and Maria Wood.)

Following the closing and the celebrating, we had to buckle down to reality and finish packing up our Manhattan apartment.  The week leading up to the move was quite exhausting.  Packing, packing, packing, all day and night, followed by wine, repeat.  Who knew we had so many dishes and glasses?  And so much STUFF in general?!  Where did they all come from?!

David became an expert bubble-wrapper of fragile breakables.  These are snapshots of our final packing efforts in our now old apartment in Hell's Kitchen...

And then we were off to Brooklyn!

Goodbye Manhattan, hello Brooklyn!  (View onto Manhattan -- with downtown Brooklyn on the right and Jersey City on the left -- from our Park Slope balcony.)

The movers were fantastic, and the move itself went very smoothly.  We arrived in Park Slope with all of our belongings (as far as we know, anyway) -- except for our plant, which somehow never made it across the borough.  I don't know if it died in transit (the movers warned us that they don't usually take plants because they could die in the truck due to the heat), or it jumped off the truck because it was so deeply a Manhattanite plant and did not want to come to Brooklyn.  Anyway, although we mourn its disappearance, David and I have concluded that it did not want to move to Park Slope with us.

Here are the boxes neatly moved into our new condo (not all belongings shown).

A big thanks to Robin, who helped us on the moving day and has been a stellar friend in this process -- because of David's knee situation, it would've been very difficult without his help.

These boxes are ALL kitchen-related items.  And not even pots and pans, which are in bigger boxes and not shown here.  We have a lot of kitchen stuff.  (Moby our whale is very happy with the bigger floor space.)

Sunset multi-city view... we can see the subways going by... all very beautiful.  We love the kinetic, full-of-motion view.

Sunset over the harbor, the other view from our balcony.  Just stunning.

We have a lot of unpacking to do, along with organizing, sorting, and making sure items on our punch-list are taken care of and fixed by the construction crew.  Everyone has been very nice so far.  Although there are bound to be teething problems in a new condo like ours, we are so grateful for the space and the VIEW.  We step out onto the balcony as often as possible.  It's our very own sanctuary.

And even though I worry that I will forever live amongst boxes and bubble wrap, these moments of fear are fleeting and manageable, given some good cheer, a GREAT partner, and a lot of wine.

It got chilly the last couple of days, but that hasn't stopped us from bundling up and sitting outside to eat our take-away dinner looking at the city.

Here we are, Brooklyn-style!

Photo tour of the whole place, soon!!! xoxo