Luckily, we did our research and really honed in on a couple of key areas during a separate trip where we basically walked half of the city (well, maybe only a quarter, but it sure felt like half on Sunday!). It may have been a bit excessive, but I am really glad we made the scouting trip. Upon our return to the city, we were able to focus our apt. hunt on just a few areas of Brooklyn, including Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, and Park Slope.

After two days of endless viewings, phone calls with brokers, and some serious pavement-pounding, we checked out a place on Smith St. that felt about right.

We liked the exposed brick, decent-sized rooms, and the old-school ornate ceilings, among other things.

The place itself was fine, but it was really the neighborhood and location that made it.  Smith Street is one of the main strips of the Cobble Hill/Boerum Hill area and offers tons of options for restaurants, stores, bars, etc…

The proximity to one of the city’s few Trader Joe’s stores was also a huge plus.

We were able to talk them down on the broker’s fee and the monthly rent, so that pretty much sealed the deal for the Smith St. place. Done and done. Once we signed the checks and the lease, we checked out some of the local fare at Chance, a nice little Asian/Sushi place a few blocks south of our new spot. The Chance lunch special and cold beers were a perfect way to finish out the apt. hunt:

All in all, I’d say the overall process with the multiple trips was long and a bit tiresome, but not as bad as I expected. It seems that we picked a good time to make the move to NYC. We recently made the official move — which was probably the most tiring part of this entire process — but I’ll spare those details from this account. We are now starting to really settle in to our apt., check out our new hood, and get used to the new digs. We can’t wait to really dig into all the NYC has to offer!

Check out the full photo set

Here are a few of my favs:

At one campsite, we found this enormous rock jutting out of the ground. My friend Andy and I took turns just settin’ on this thing and embracing the Alaskan summer. I think I may have even tried to write an essay about being on that rock because it was such a powerful natural setting…

Here’s the entire photo set.