Why did you wait until after we desperately scrambled to pull together one month's rent plus one month's security in certified bank checks to let us know that we didn't actually have to pay rent for August?
This is so bittersweet.
7/29/10
7/28/10
Con-Ed, revisited.
So after getting a final turn-off notice, Sarah and I decided to address the Con-Ed problem once and for all. I called customer service to see if we could pay the ($1000+) bill off gradually ... and they said that, after an initial payment of $160, we could work off the rest of the bill in payments of $105 each month (in addition to our regular bill). We didn't really have a choice, so we went for it.
That was about a month ago. Today we got a letter in the mail stating that:
A TURN-OFF NOTICE IS STILL IN EFFECT.
Your payment for $160.00 was not honored by your bank account because it was altered. As a result, we assessed a fee of $12 on your account. We also cancelled your payment agreement.
I have no idea what the fuck happened, but I just paid the $160 again because apparently it magically didn't get paid the first time and no one decided to tell me. I've been on hold with Con-Ed for about half an hour, trying to get some sort of confirmation that the payment went through this time ... but I think it's time to give up and take a nap.
That was about a month ago. Today we got a letter in the mail stating that:
A TURN-OFF NOTICE IS STILL IN EFFECT.
Your payment for $160.00 was not honored by your bank account because it was altered. As a result, we assessed a fee of $12 on your account. We also cancelled your payment agreement.
I have no idea what the fuck happened, but I just paid the $160 again because apparently it magically didn't get paid the first time and no one decided to tell me. I've been on hold with Con-Ed for about half an hour, trying to get some sort of confirmation that the payment went through this time ... but I think it's time to give up and take a nap.
7/27/10
I almost forgot ...
... about the most important addition to our household:
This is Jack. He is 24 pounds of love and fluff. And he is our adorable new baby.*
*He's actually 11 years old and fairly geriatric. But in my head he's still a kitten.
This is Jack. He is 24 pounds of love and fluff. And he is our adorable new baby.*
*He's actually 11 years old and fairly geriatric. But in my head he's still a kitten.
This apartment hunt was still a lot easier than the last apartment hunt.
So we got the lease on the new place and, after a brief conversation with our current landlord, realized that he wasn't actually interested in letting us stay for a significant amount of time. So, we're moving a whopping 0.5 miles down the street to a sweet new chick pad.
The fact that our new lease starts on August 1st, while our current lease doesn't expire until August 15th, means that we have a leisurely two whole weeks to move ourselves to the new place. We will have to enlist the help of professional movers to take care of the beds and couches ... but other than that, we have a small army of parents and brothers (plus maybe my brand new boyfriend?) to help us out with more portable items.
We're getting better at this!
The fact that our new lease starts on August 1st, while our current lease doesn't expire until August 15th, means that we have a leisurely two whole weeks to move ourselves to the new place. We will have to enlist the help of professional movers to take care of the beds and couches ... but other than that, we have a small army of parents and brothers (plus maybe my brand new boyfriend?) to help us out with more portable items.
We're getting better at this!
7/18/10
The apartment hunt, round 2.
About a week or so ago, Sarah and I stopped denying the fact that our apartment was being sold and decided to look for new places to live. This was a fairly quick and easy process that later got complicated.
We started out with a broker who sucked. Before our inaugural apartment-hunting excursion, he let us know that we'd be doing a lot of walking and that having my dad drive us around would probably be helpful.* So, my dad drove into Brooklyn and brought us to the decided meeting place ... only for the broker arrive an hour late, in his own car. So my dad drove back to Manhattan, and we drove to three apartments that sucked. We didn't call him again.
Then we met a broker who was nice and not stupid. He showed us a really nice apartment very close to where we live now (a few blocks from the Beverly Road stop on the Q), and we decided to apply for it. Then he told us that there was already an application in on the apartment, but we decided to apply anyway in case that application fell through. Then that application fell through. So we got first dibs.
By this Friday afternoon, all of our paperwork was in and we were good to go. Then a broker showed up at our apartment to show it to a potential buyer ... which meant that the apartment hadn't been sold yet (even though, when I called the landlord last week to ask whether the apartment had actually sold, I'm pretty confident that he said yes and not no). We called him again, and he admitted that the apartment wasn't selling, and that he'd be willing to let us stay for a little while longer.
Meanwhile, we were approved for the other apartment. And giving it up means losing the $500 deposit that took it off the market and the $100 we paid in application fees.
So, we need to talk to our landlord. If he can let us stay for close to a year, then it seems worth it to stay (and maybe he will be nice and pay us back for the apparently unnecessary money we spent looking for a new apartment while he lied to us and told us that our apartment had been sold). If he wants us to stay on a month-by-month basis, at the whim of the real estate market, then that doesn't really work for us. If we can negotiate our lease on the new place and have it start on September 1st instead of August 1st, and then stay at our current place for just one more month ... then maybe that would work. There are a lot of factors and people and monetary exchanges involved.
And then we have to ask our broker to either lower his fee or allow us to pay it off later ... since neither of us actually has the necessary amount of money in our bank accounts.
This was almost totally painless!
* Sarah has a stress fracture in her foot. We're not that lazy.
We started out with a broker who sucked. Before our inaugural apartment-hunting excursion, he let us know that we'd be doing a lot of walking and that having my dad drive us around would probably be helpful.* So, my dad drove into Brooklyn and brought us to the decided meeting place ... only for the broker arrive an hour late, in his own car. So my dad drove back to Manhattan, and we drove to three apartments that sucked. We didn't call him again.
Then we met a broker who was nice and not stupid. He showed us a really nice apartment very close to where we live now (a few blocks from the Beverly Road stop on the Q), and we decided to apply for it. Then he told us that there was already an application in on the apartment, but we decided to apply anyway in case that application fell through. Then that application fell through. So we got first dibs.
By this Friday afternoon, all of our paperwork was in and we were good to go. Then a broker showed up at our apartment to show it to a potential buyer ... which meant that the apartment hadn't been sold yet (even though, when I called the landlord last week to ask whether the apartment had actually sold, I'm pretty confident that he said yes and not no). We called him again, and he admitted that the apartment wasn't selling, and that he'd be willing to let us stay for a little while longer.
Meanwhile, we were approved for the other apartment. And giving it up means losing the $500 deposit that took it off the market and the $100 we paid in application fees.
So, we need to talk to our landlord. If he can let us stay for close to a year, then it seems worth it to stay (and maybe he will be nice and pay us back for the apparently unnecessary money we spent looking for a new apartment while he lied to us and told us that our apartment had been sold). If he wants us to stay on a month-by-month basis, at the whim of the real estate market, then that doesn't really work for us. If we can negotiate our lease on the new place and have it start on September 1st instead of August 1st, and then stay at our current place for just one more month ... then maybe that would work. There are a lot of factors and people and monetary exchanges involved.
And then we have to ask our broker to either lower his fee or allow us to pay it off later ... since neither of us actually has the necessary amount of money in our bank accounts.
This was almost totally painless!
* Sarah has a stress fracture in her foot. We're not that lazy.
7/11/10
Employment updates.
So the past few weeks of blitz-attack job applications and repeatedly dumping my portfolio on every creative director in New York has finally paid off. I have three very part-time jobs, and I'm meeting with a lot of people in the graphic design world in an effort to make sure that the graphic design world knows who I am by the time I graduate and need a real job (I guess that's called "networking").
First, the jobs.
1) Computer slave for a computer-illiterate rich man.
An old friend connected me with this one. Basically this middle-aged dude doesn't know how to use a laptop, so he hires children of the digital age to do things for him. Right now I'm making his son's Bar Mitzvah montage for $20/hr.
2) Office assistant.
For my aunt. Who's a gynecologist. I'm learning a lot about girl parts.
3) Assistant art counselor.
This is decidedly my most enjoyable gig. I do arts and crafts with children. There is glitter involved ... and lollipops.
So all that is making me money and keeping me busy. My supposed networking efforts are going well too - it's good to meet people in the industry and gather their sage advice, and a lot of people have given me really helpful critiques of my portfolio. Granted, they're not immediately scooping me up and offering me contracts ... but I didn't expect that to happen. At least I have a solid list of people to contact a year from now when I need a job that doesn't revolve around pom-poms and rhinestones.
Also, I'm taking out loans next year. So the constant stress of looking for silly part-time jobs can end in September when the federal government decides to pay me to go to school.
First, the jobs.
1) Computer slave for a computer-illiterate rich man.
An old friend connected me with this one. Basically this middle-aged dude doesn't know how to use a laptop, so he hires children of the digital age to do things for him. Right now I'm making his son's Bar Mitzvah montage for $20/hr.
2) Office assistant.
For my aunt. Who's a gynecologist. I'm learning a lot about girl parts.
3) Assistant art counselor.
This is decidedly my most enjoyable gig. I do arts and crafts with children. There is glitter involved ... and lollipops.
So all that is making me money and keeping me busy. My supposed networking efforts are going well too - it's good to meet people in the industry and gather their sage advice, and a lot of people have given me really helpful critiques of my portfolio. Granted, they're not immediately scooping me up and offering me contracts ... but I didn't expect that to happen. At least I have a solid list of people to contact a year from now when I need a job that doesn't revolve around pom-poms and rhinestones.
Also, I'm taking out loans next year. So the constant stress of looking for silly part-time jobs can end in September when the federal government decides to pay me to go to school.
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