We Put it On Hold!

We've probably seen about 15 apartments by now. 3 condos on Ocean Ave, 1 on Myrtle, 3 on Lexington, 1 on Kent, 4 on Greene Ave, 1 dilapidated house and 1 lovely but out of our price range condo in Prospect Heights, another way overpriced house in Sunset Park, a decent 3BR in Park Slope. I guess that makes 16.

But all this time, we've both been having difficulties envisioning raising our kids here in Brooklyn. What will their school days be like? We've heard a lot of mixed reviews, leaning towards unsavory, and we know we're in for a lot more research. But since we're not finding anything we're really excited about, and since we're not even sure we want to stay in Brooklyn for the long haul, we've opted to put our Brooklyn searching on hold while we reassess.

That means we're going to take some day trips out of the city to check out the surrounding areas. I'd like to stay north of NYC for the time being, and focus on the lateral band of Westchester, and from river to river. I think NJ would be a last resort, but that's a topic for a whole other post.

As we gather info on schools and where we might want to settle, I'll try and collect it here. Yay!

Houseing it Up

We're looking for a house. It's really hard. In Brooklyn, it's hard to find anything affordable. If it's affordable (to us), it's not in a great area (for us). "Not in a great area" (to us) means that either a) there is an uncomfortable amount of crime (as reported by the City crime website), b) the schools aren't ideal (as reported by the City school info website), c) there is some kind of unfavorable attribute to the immediate surroundings (eg: under/alongside a major roadway, very industrial, without greenery, etc).

Where are we looking?

Clinton Hill, Fort Greene, South Park Slope (ideal locations), and then there's Bed-Stuy, and increasingly the suburbs (Yonkers, Riverdale (not actual suburb, but close), Philadelphia). What's also tricky is that amidst this process, lots of questions about our vocations/careers/jobs are coming up. What do we want to do? Who do we want to be? Where do we want to live? I think it would be helpful to nail down details to some of these questions.

But the point of this blog is to document our process. To make note of places we've seen. And to hopefully have a happy ending to report on.