Take Me Home

 

Pen, meet paper.

It was a black Paper Mate felt tip Flair pen, handed to me by Gideon Fountain, my fearless leader at WGCH Radio.

But, also, a realtor at Houlihan Lawrence here in Greenwich.

He promised me a month ago that he'd find me something after finding out we needed to move.

Well, he found us a new home.

I signed a lease on a new apartment a short time ago.

Greenwich, we're staying in town.

I was given a list of several apartments from Gideon roughly a month ago and one kept sticking out to me.

I kept looking at it, thinking it might be too classy for a couple of rogues like us.

But still, I knew the neighborhood. I've driven through there many times. It's not far from Lake Ave and Greenwich Hospital, which makes getting out to Brunswick and off to I-684 a bit easier. It's a bit off of the downtown area so the traffic isn't quite as obnoxious.

Even Greenwich Ave and WGCH itself wouldn't be too far away. It would be a fair walk. In fact, the Greenwich train station is reachable as well, for those mornings when I need to get on a train to go to a conference.

It doesn't check every box, but it checks most of them. No, there's no balcony or patio or deck, and I do love that about our current place. But there are priorities to consider and most of the other ones are in place.

Everything must be considered when looking for a new home. What is included in the rent? Are there laundry facilities? Does it cost to use the washer and dryer? Is there storage? What is parking like? Honestly, these are fairly basic questions.

And ... is The Cat allowed?

Everything came up positive and there's a small backyard area where I could put up a small tent or a pod and set up my lounge chair. So, yes, I can chill in our backyard, even if it takes a little effort.

Yet, it felt like we would lose it. I'd keep going back to look at the list of places and find that it was still open.

Gideon and I kept misfiring about finding a time to see the place in person.

Finally, that happened Wednesday morning.

Looking around, we saw that Sean would have his space and I'd have mine. There's a separation that will work quite nicely there. Beyond that, of course, there's a kitchen, living room, and bathroom.

There's also laundry and storage, even if we have to talk to it.

By Wednesday afternoon, I told Gideon that not only were we interested but we'd take it. Apparently, someone else was interested. 

Yet, somehow, the thought of a quiet father/son combo was more appealing to the landlords.

Yesterday, as the conference went on in NYC, Gideon was texting me to fill out an application for the place. Then he told me the landlord wanted to meet us.

I figured we were pretty close to the goal line (that's a sports reference).

He seemed to like us. At that point, I started feeling confident and that's a dangerous feeling.

But what's not to like? We don't entertain a lot, we're rarely loud (unless sports are on), and keep to ourselves. We just do our thing.

Today remained quiet until Gideon reached out. There was a broker serving as a go-between who wanted to know why there wasn't a signed lease yet.

Good question, I thought. Then again, why the rush?

But the broker was not happy to wait. Given I was working and had four lacrosse games tomorrow, we needed to find time.

And so, friends, I made it out of work, went to Gideon's office, and signed the papers.

With that, I finally feel comfortable saying that we've found our new home and we're staying in Greenwich.

I tried so many towns. Greenwich, Stamford, Norwalk, Fairfield, Stratford, Shelton, Brewster, Danbury, White Plains, Bedford, Mount Kisco, Port Chester and, of course, Carmel and Mahopac.

I considered all kinds of things. I worked with another wonderful agent -- Diane Farrell of Compass Realtors in Darien (thank you, Susan) -- who looked at a place in Stamford for me, going so far as to visit it herself and take me along via FaceTime. While that had potential, the idea of a fifth-story walkup with no working elevator did not appeal to me for the move-in process.

And, speaking of which, now comes that. We know we can move in pretty soon. Probably July 1. I'd love to find out if we can start moving things even earlier because it would be so easy to take some car loads over but that likely won't be possible. But we're looking forward to settling into our new home.

Unfortunately, I had hoped to not subject my cousin to helping me move into another second-floor apartment. I'm happy to say he did not disown me.

Honestly, I'm hopeful this will be a bit easier than moving from Mahopac to Greenwich and The Cat shouldn't be a big issue this time because it's a five or ten-minute drive.

So, yeah, if you'd like to help, we'll try to make it fun for everyone.

It made sense to stay here in Greenwich because of my work at Hunt Scanlon, 360 Service Partners, Brunswick, Greenwich High, and of course WGCH. Yes, getting back to the Renegades can be a bit of a haul but when considering all of the pieces this is right for us. But Sean also works at many of the same places and that adds to this being the move we needed to make.

We're grateful to everyone who tried to help us. Truly grateful. It was arduous and nerve-wracking. It felt hopeless at times. Yet, I know -- I did -- that we'd never be homeless. There were people who wouldn't allow that.

We felt the pressure of that move-out date. August 1 was hovering and I'm happy we got it done before the end of June since that's when we were initially supposed to move out.

We're so indebted to our landlords here in Bruce Park for allowing us to live in this location. This was the beginning of the next phase of our lives. This was where we began to heal from Mom's passing and move forward.

But we also knew this wasn't forever, unfortunately. That was something I accepted when we moved in. 

And I say "we" because Sean lived here when he really wasn't supposed to. Initially, he was only supposed to be here occasionally. Curiously, he began to be here more after all debts had been satisfied to his mother. That just means we only grew closer.

Things can always change in a flash. A few people asked about me moving to North Carolina (big shock, I know). With the right situation, I could still move on. And, let's face it, Sean will find his way. Will his bedroom become my office? I mean, who knows what the future holds?

And thus, it's time to find a work home that will allow me to afford a fair lifestyle. I've had enough promises pushed my way.

There's been enough dangling.

This is about settling into a new home.

This is the first step towards the rest of my life.

It's time to start packing.

Mahopac, you'll always be my boyhood home. The place that made me. You're never far from me.

But Greenwich, I hope you're happy with us.

Because we're staying.

*****

In the time since I started writing this, the broker in question basically harrassed Gideon to get me to write a big, fat check.  

Tonight. 

So I just went over to the apartment and did that.

Incidentally, that check hurt a bit.

But NOW is it official.