Even just typing out that headline has me in total disbelief – we’re moving to New York City. How is that real life? Growing up, my dream was to live in New York. I know it sounds crazy, but even as a little kid, that was the dream. I would have a small walk-up apartment, filled to the brim with funky décor, and just outside my front door the whole world would be waiting.
Before I get too far into this, let me back up. For those who are new to the blog, I live in Austin, Texas but I actually grew up in the Northeast in New Canaan, Connecticut – about an hour train ride from NYC. I went to college at Towson University in Maryland, graduated and moved to Tallahassee, Florida and then to Austin, Texas for work.
After about two years of living in Austin (in 2016), I accomplished my goal of moving from south Austin to downtown Austin. I had just started dating Ben and so we took full advantage of the location and spent our nights and weekends exploring every restaurant, bar and attraction the city had to offer.
I finally had my small apartment, filled to the brim with funky décor, and felt like I had the whole world right outside of my door. Even though it was everything I wanted – in the very back of my mind, I still had hopes that, one day, we would make it to New York.
Enter 2020
In January 2020, Ben and I got engaged (see that sweet story here) and instantly started making plans for the future. The goal was to get married in 2021 and hopefully buy a home in Austin. Life was moving fast and picking up and moving to the other side of the country was never really part of the plan. Well, as life plans often go, the Universe laughed at our attempt to control it.
In March of 2020 Covid hit, the world stopped, Ben and I both started working from home, pushed our wedding to 2022 and realized pretty quickly that we were about to get priced out of the Austin housing market. We spent months wondering what we should do.
Do we buy a house in a surrounding suburb of Austin so that we can at least be close? Do we stay in our apartment for a few more years and save?
And in the midst of those conversations, one of us would inevitably say, “should we move somewhere else for a bit?” I don’t think either of us knew where “somewhere else” was or even considered it a real option, but the idea of having an adventure together and trying something new definitely sounded appealing.
Then October hit and I made the decision to have a prophylactic bilateral mastectomy (read more about that journey here) and suddenly my world shifted. Not seeing family for a year + going through something so difficult and so personal made me reevaluate what was important and how valuable time really was. I wanted to live close to family in CT and NY before we officially settled in Austin and I didn’t want want to have any “what if’s” or regrets down the line. And just like that, the place we’d move, if we could move, had a face, it was New York City.
Making It Happen
So, that kicked off the process and we started to seriously consider it as an option. We both asked our companies about moving and working remote for a few years and anxiously waited for the yes or no. During that time, we didn’t tell anyone about our plans; bringing others into our little secret was nerve-wracking and sharing the news without a formal go-ahead made something that may not be real, real.
The day our companies agreed to the move was so surreal. For the first time in months, it felt like this may actually happen. I started picturing Ben and I walking the streets of our quaint little NYC neighborhood – of weekends in Central Park – of dinners at cozy restaurants – of Broadway shows – of family time.
Even with permission and the go ahead to day dream, there were so many moving parts and pieces that had to work out perfectly for this to become a reality.
Ben and I both leased cars – ideally we wanted to hand both or one in because where would we park two cars in Manhattan? Could we make that work from a timing standpoint?
Covid was a major factor – back in January of 2021, the vaccine hadn’t rolled out yet – we had no idea what the outcome would be or when the city would open back up. Did we want to go if it could be another year of lockdown?
And then there was rent – would be able to afford an apartment we loved, in a location we loved?
And moving – ahhh moving, how much would that cost? Would the cost be worth the reward?
Finances took over for a bit there as we worked through each part of the process. We would go on daily walks and our conversations would consist of “does this make sense?” “should we do it?” We both wanted to, but with this being such a big life and financial decision, neither of us really knew what was “right” in that moment.
We went along like that for months. We downloaded StreetEasy and started casually looking at apartments and then in March, Ben’s car lease came to an end and it was decision time.
Suddenly, we were at a fork in the road and realized that we could move forward, turn the car in and say “yes” to NYC…or renew the lease and stay in Austin.
We handed in the keys.
And just like that, we made a decision. We were moving to New York.
So What’s Next?
Once the decision was made, time flew by. We started looking at apartments and spent a ton of time trying to figure out logistics. Click here to read all about our apartment hunt!
Thankfully we found an apartment we LOVED and at the end of May, we’ll be taking a week long road trip from Austin to NYC (I’ll do a separate post on that trip just in case any other road trippers out there are interested)! We’re only bringing what we can fit in our car and we’re selling everything else – there’s just something about a fresh start 🙂
At this point, I’m excited, but I’m also nervous – nervous about making such a big change and about leaving the city we know (and had so many major milestones in) behind. But at the end of the day, I just can’t wait to be with Ben, in our little walk-up apartment, filled to the brim with funky décor. I already know that when we open that front door for the very first time, the whole world will be there waiting.
Sneak peak of our new apartment below!
