A Hunting We Shall Go

Not so many posts lately because all our time has gone into finding a new home. Noel’s building notified him it was raising his rent about 16%, and my building raised my rent 33%, to $3160! So after some extended debate about whether we’d each move separately or whether we’d cohabit, Noel’s need to save money got the better of the argument.

I was very, very happy about that, since I’ve spent the last couple of years trying to convince Noel we should live together. He’s said no so far, mostly I suppose out of fear of the unknown. He’s never lived with a boyfriend in his whole life. It’s been a long time since I have lived with anyone, and I may be suffering from selective memory, but I remember it as a pretty good thing overall.

So we’ve spent the last couple of weeks looking for a two-bedroom, ideally in Midtown West/Hell’s Kitchen/Clinton (use your real estate term of choice), in the $3700-4300 range. We’ve seen a few total losers, but mostly the apartments we’ve looked at have had — big surprise — tradeoffs. Too pricey, or too small, or too far from work, not enough closets, whatever. There’s always something that could be better.

But now, with Noel’s lease up on November 1, we’re running out of time and Noel is becoming kind of paralyzed. His current dilemma is whether we should jump on one of the five or so places that were okay, but had one serious compromise or another. Or whether we should call in the broker he used last time, Luiz, and let him wave his magic wand at the cost of some more time (not to mention Luiz’s broker fee).

Stay tuned.