About

It’s official. We’ve leaving Brooklyn. And we’re not leaving it for Queens.

We love New York. We loathe New York. We think that makes us typical New Yorkers. For years, we took the good and overlooked the bad. We paid an absurd amount of rent to live in teeny-tiny apartments with absentee landlords. We ignored creepers on the subway. We attempted to sleep through police sirens and fighting couples and crying babies and car stereos. We were in a cycle of moving to a neighborhood, watching it become filled with annoying hipsters, and then moving to get away from them. Or we’d get really stressed out by our jobs and our lives, and we’d fly out to the Caribbean to unwind (only a 3 hour flight from NYC!). It was all worth it, because we love New York. And then one day, we were kinda over it.

It became harder and harder to justify the amount of rent we paid for an apartment that was literally falling apart around us. The creepers were suddenly everywhere and more annoying than ever. Our neighbors brought home a screaming newborn. Our ‘hood suddenly became the next hot thing, and all the annoying hipsters we had just moved away from were all over the place. We thought about going to the Caribbean again, but it seemed like a really temporary fix.

That’s when we decided to move. Bradley was already spending a few days a week in Pennsylvania for work, so we started looking for houses in the area. Luckily for us, we happened upon a fantastic realtor — Daniel Young at Century 21 Killian— and he nailed it. He had us at “It was built in 1881.”

We love the look of old brick houses with their tall ceilings and wood floors. A back yard was non-negotiable. We didn’t want a cookie cutter house in the ‘burbs. We’d rather have something with character, even if it means doing some serious remodeling work. So, most importantly, we wanted a killer deal.  The less the house cost, the more we could put into remodeling it.

Fast forward to a couple of months later, and we are the proud owners of a 130-year old fixer upper. She’s all brick, with tall ceilings and hardwood floors lurking underneath some really hideous carpet. There’s a small backyard, which is perfect for our small dog. She needs some serious work, but we’re up for the challenge. I’m predicting a lot of trips to Lowe’s in our future!