Yesterday we drove all around Westchester County looking for an
apartment. We’d intended to check out the four apartment complexes
listed in Mt. Kisco, NY first; however, after arriving and having a bit
of lunch, we discovered that none of them were open on the weekend.
How incredibly lame. What kind of apartment manager closes shop on
the weekend? I’d love to say this is unique; but this is also the
management style adopted by the place that piqued our interest
in Rhinebeck, NY. You’d be better off closing on Monday and Tuesday
than on Saturday and Sunday. Seems obvious to everyone I’ve spoken
to.
Tomorrow I’m going to call the offices of all the apartment
complexes to find out details of their one and two-bedroom apartments.
The budget seems to indicate that we can barely afford $1400 per month
if we want to pay off our debts, save for a down payment on a house and
raise a small crop of children. If they hit the mark on price and allow
all four cats, I’ll try to schedule a visit next week. I’ll
probably have to use a vacation day in order to get up there to see
them. What a waste.
I’ve written before about our search for a new apartment. We thought
we’d found an acceptable apartment in CT; but we got a weird and bad
vibe from the management after following up on it. So we scratched that
option.
Yesterday we explored what may be the perfect town: Rhinebeck, NY.
The apartments we saw are exactly 6 tenths of a mile from the village
center, which includes three coffee shops, an ice cream shop, a pizza
joint, a Chinese restaurant, a Tex-Mex restaurant, and a weird combo
restaurant serving Italian and steak. On top of all these eateries, the
village has a small cinema that shows art films, a small department
store, a shoe store, an arts supply store, a tobacconist, and two
pharmacies. Of all these businesses, only one is a chain (a CVS
pharmacy).
The apartments are 2.6 miles from the Amtrak station. Not really a
walkable trip to the train, but easily bike-able. On those days when
I’d want to drive, it would take about 10 minutes to drive there. I can
also drive to the MetroNorth station which is about 30 minutes down the
road.
The apartments are really affordable: $845/mo for a 1 bedroom and
$955/mo for a 2 bedroom. That includes heat and hot water, which is
damn good because our gas bill this month is $250. Furthermore, the
management has no problem with cats and doesn’t even charge a deposit
for them — much less an additional monthly rent per cat like most
of NJ and Westchester.
Now the bad news: the total commute from door to office would be
around 2.5 hours. The train takes 1:45 to get from Rhinecliff station
to NY Penn station. If I were to bike to the station, that would
probably take 30 min. At the other end, I expect 15 minutes to an half
hour subway to get to the office.
So, is all this wonderful stuff worth five hours every day? I
don’t know. If I did bike to and from the station, I’d get about an
hour of exercise each day, which is exactly 60 minutes more than I
currently get. And on those days when I feel lazy, I can drive (or be
driven) to the station.
Our lease expires at the end of March. And we’ve decided that we
really don’t want to live in Jersey City or anywhere else in New
Jersey. Without even trying, I could fill page upon page with all the
things that are wrong with New Jersey — starting with the taxis
that don’t take credit cards. We’ve been considering both New York and
Connecticut as future residences for the North East branch of the
Watkins clan.
We drove up to Connecticut again yesterday. Specifically, we visited
South Norwalk and Stratford. S. Norwalk is a smallish historic district
that looks to be in the early stages of urban redevelopment. There are
quite a few restaurants, a bar or two and an horrifically overpriced
coffee shop in the neighbourhood. In walking around the SoNo (the local
name for South Norwalk) area, we spied a theatre that hosts The Director’s View Film
Festival and also seems to be associated with a film post production company. In
addition to the restaurants, there is a micro-brewery in the area.
We looked at a nice apartment in the old Corset Factory for the
princely sum of $1400 per month. Of course, this would be a savings of
just over $1100 on our current rent. The apartment is only 4 to 5
blocks from the Metro North train station, which makes it about 60
minutes by train from Grand Central. My total commute into Manhattan
would be about 1.5 hours. Long, but endurable.
On the way home, we drove through Westport and Darien, which we both
agreed looked a lot nicer than either Stratford or Norwalk; but both
are considerably more expensive and don’t seem to have many apartments
available.
We haven’t rented anything yet; and the clock is ticking away…
