Mar 28 2013
By Adina Kay-Gross at 9:52 am
At the beginning of October, just a month after my husband and I closed on our house in the suburbs, I made a promise right here on the blog that I’d let you know how it all looked a few months in. Back in that blog post, I wrote about how nervous I felt at the closing despite my energetic spearheading of this move-to-the-’burbs project. I tried to stay upbeat, and wrote that the closing is really an “opening-up” and I recalled how the sellers got us excited by listing all of the wonderful things our new town has to offer.
I also explained that we were moving our young family to the suburbs because we wanted “more trees, more space, less noise, a basement!”
Update #1: We have all of those things now, and they are nice to have. Read the rest of this entry →
Nov 6 2012
By Abbey Wolin at 2:56 pm
Magnolia Park, post-Sandy.
On the eve of Hurricane Sandy, I sent my husband to Long Beach to bring my parents to my Northern New Jersey home. The local government was evacuating the island but my parents refused to leave. They said last year, they blew Irene out of proportion and nothing was going to happen. I was livid. So very very worried. And then the storm hit.
My brother went out to Long Beach on Tuesday morning to rescue them. Except, my parents were safe. Their home was one of the only ones that was NEVER touched by water. But for now Long Beach is devastated. The National Guard is roaming the streets. There is no power, no cell service, no sewer system. Broken shards of boardwalk are strewn all over the city.
The following photos were taken by my brother and his Long Beach friends during and after the hurricane (photo credits Jeff Rosner and Matsi Chinskey). Read the rest of this entry →
Feb 7 2012
By Adina Kay-Gross at 2:36 pm
We’ve outgrown our apartment. We rented it almost two years ago, when I was not-yet-pregnant, and Jon was not-yet-convinced that Brooklyn was the place to be. Now, he is convinced, and we have twin baby girls, and we have to move.
The home-hunting process is hard. I could gripe endlessly about the seriously gross places we’ve visited, houses “priced to sell!” where sellers didn’t bother to take out the trash before a viewing, simply because their home sits on prized New York City real estate and therefore, buyers will swoon even if a roach or two creeps out from hiding. Read the rest of this entry →
