We're here!

This post first appeared at Water, No Ice (www.waternoice.com)

My last post was written as we were getting ready to leave for New York; our stuff had been packed and either moved to storage or was on its way to Manhattan in the reliable hands of Fedex. We were staying at the home of our close friends and neighbors, Lata and Sriram, and pigging out every night as friends in the area called us home for farewell meals.

It pays to think ahead

I spent the week tying up other lose ends. We finally decided to rent most of the furniture for the apartment, from CORT furniture rental. We picked out a "1-bedroom package" which contains everything one needs, and will furnish (my son) Dhruv's room with IKEA furniture later. They promised to deliver on Friday afternoon, which is the day we get there. I emailed the building to reserve the elevator for our move-in. It was a good thing that Fedex was also scheduled to deliver the few personal effects we were shipping to New York on Friday.

I also called and ordered Cable TV and Internet service, with RCN. They could've installed on Friday, but since we would not have a TV to test it with, I asked them to come on Saturday. I figured I'd buy a TV from someone on Cragislist on Saturday morning.

One small hiccup we discovered into the week is that Fedex seemed to running a day late. So I anticipated having to tell the building management that our boxes will show up on Saturday instead of Friday. I know they won't like that, because it may inconvenience all the other tenants on a weekend.

I spent Wednesday and Thursday making arrangements for keeping my plane with a friend, and for our cars with friends / relatives. Simple as this may sound, there was a lot of paperwork, insurance stuff, etc., etc., to get done before we could rest easy.

Aisle-seat fracas

Thursday night rolled around, and we boarded our JetBlue red-eye flight. It was a "full-flight" (what are the airlines complaining about? Every flight seems to be “full”) and we didn't all get seats together - Dhruv and I were in 5D and E, (my wife) Sandhya was in 4C (across the aisle and one row forward). There was a single woman in 5C, so I asked her whether she'd be willing to swap seats with Sandhya. At first she misunderstood -- and said that she needed the aisle. I explained that she'd get an aisle - we were giving her the same identical seat, just one row ahead. She stood up and was on the verge of agreeing, when she saw that the folks sitting next to Sandhya (4A and 4B) had a baby with them. I guess she had made up her mind not to move, and this gave her an excuse -- so she said "Oh, I don't want to sit next to a baby. I'm sorry." At this point, I gave up. New York attitude? I hope not...!

First impressions

We arrived a bit early, to crystal clear weather in New York City. It was cold, but bright and sunny. Despite being a bit bleary-eyed after the red-eye, approaching the Midtown tunnel on the Long Island Expressway, we had a spectacular view of Manhattan in the rising morning sun. The Empire State Building towering over all the others, and the Citigroup Tower, reflecting the sun brightly off its steel and glass facade... Waterside Plaza (the place where we’re going to stay, on the East River) itself was also clearly visible, making the sight memorable in a personal way. Our home for the next one year! All the doubts and lethargy seemed to blow away with that one breathtaking view.

We drove to a friend's place (the folks who also stay at Waterside Plaza, since our hotel room wasn't ready) and then I went in to sign the lease, collect the keys, and begin the move-in process.

My friend dropped us off at our "hotel", and we checked in. The Envoy Club (www.envoyclub.com) turned out to be quite a pleasant surprise. At $165 a night, we got a large studio apartment with a kitchenette, large bed + living room, in a reasonably central location. Dhruv's school was a block-and-a-half away, and our apartment was a short 5-7 minute walk. It's not quite the typical hotel (nobody's reachable between 8 PM and 9 AM, for example), but should be ideal for families or people on an extended stay. 

Supervising delivery

CORT furniture showed up a bit late, but still within their promised delivery window, and with the exception of the dining table (which seems a little small), the furniture looks nice. They quickly installed everything, cleared out their stuff, and left.

The Cable guy showed up first the next morning, and he too quickly installed his equipment, had me test the Internet connection using my laptop (I didn't have a TV, remember?) and then he left.

TV-purchase outing

Sandhya and Dhruv showed up a little later, and I left them in the apartment and headed out to get a TV. I had emailed several people using Craigslist, and there seemed to be a promising prospect in the East Village, a short distance away. 

On my way out I saw the Fedex guys coming into the plaza, laden with our boxes, which looked a little travel-worn and out-of-shape. My heart sank as I wondered about the contents inside - especially our nice wine glasses and China dinner plates. I decided to put those thoughts out of my head, gave them directions to the apartment, and set off on my TV hunt.

The address I was looking for turned out to be in the heart of the East Village. While driving by I noticed all sorts of interesting dining options in that area - Sandhya and I should go back to dine there. But back to the TV -- the building itself was a small and narrow "pre-war walk-up", and the person I was buying the TV from lived in Apartment 17, which turned out to be on the top (fourth)  floor - so after trekking up four stories on a narrow stairway, I finally reached the small studio apartment. The TV was huge (27") and it was a regular old tube TV, so you can imagine it was really heavy. They had apparently received a new flat-screen TV for Christmas, which is why they were selling this one. But their cable was plugged into the flat-screen, and so I couldn't test to make sure the monster she was selling me actually worked. I guess I'm the trusting type, and so I believed her when she said "It works perfectly. If you have any problem at all, you can have your money back."

The lady staying there was really kind to offer to help me carry it (I had been speaking to her boyfriend until then, but he decided to "step out" at that moment, so wasn't there to help) and we both lugged it carefully down the narrow and well-worn stairs. After carrying it down, I figured that if it didn't work, there was no way I was going to bring that TV back, lug it up 4 floors, to get my money back!

Thankfully, there were no mishaps, and 20 minutes later, I had it back at our apartment, where to Dhruv's delight, the TV worked perfectly.

Craigslist to the rescue again! I received several calls that day, from other folks whom I had emailed, and I continue to be amazed at what a vibrant "market-place" that simple site has created.

Unpacking with our hearts in our mouths

I returned to find that the Fedex guys had taken about half the boxes upstairs and were continuing to work their way up. Sandhya saw stains on some boxes - it was obvious that something had broken inside and leaked out. We nervously watched as more boxes came and were stacked randomly all over our living room. And then the moment we'd both been dreading arrived -- one of the Fedex guys casually started unloading one largish box, and it slipped from his hands, to fall to the floor with a sickening "crunch". We quickly read the sign on the side of the box: "Glassware, Dishes" - we both knew what was in it - our wine glasses, China dinner plates, and other breakable stuff. 

We began unpacking soon after they left, and for some reason, we both kept avoiding unpacking that one box - till late in the evening, when we had no other boxes to unpack. The wine glasses were closer to the top, and we were pleasantly surprised to find that all of them had made it unscathed. The dinner plates were at the bottom (the part that hit the floor) and as Sandhya unpacked, we kept counting - 3 safe, 6 safe, 9 safe, but unfortunately the last batch of 3 had broken.

41 boxes, two moving companies (Nor-Cal and Fedex) and the final tally - a few Corning bake-and-serve dishes, a couple of Sugar / Coffee canisters, three China plates, and few plastic containers. Not bad at all. Whew.

Home delivery heaven

On Friday night, Sandhya had ordered a whole lot of groceries using Fresh Direct (www.freshdirect.com) -- and that arrived on Saturday afternoon. From apples to eggs, Oil and Toilet Paper, it all came in neat little boxes. That's one big difference we're going to have to get used to - of having things delivered. We've always picked up and lugged stuff home in California - and without a car, with all the parking hassles, and given the easy availability and relatively low cost of home delivery, we are sure to use it a lot. Almost a bit like India, where your friendly neighborhood grocer would be only too happy to have a “boy” bring you your stuff at home.

Dinner in Little India

We walked into Little India for a nice dinner of Kathi Rolls at a small hole-in-the-wall called Rumali. It turned out really nice - the Kathi Rolls were close to the best we've had in Calcutta. Little India itself was really impressive - tons of Indian Restaurants - some quite posh, some a little more "value-for-money" and even one that advertised itself as "Kosher"!! And it's just four blocks away!

Looking forward to next week

We have a tour of Dhruv's school scheduled for Monday, and he'll start on Tuesday. I also begin my new work-related assignment next week, with a few meetings already set up. The weather has been great - Bright, Sunny, albeit rather cold. As I sit here, looking out over FDR and at the brightly lit Chrysler Building, we're both filled with excitement and anticipation at the coming weeks and months. The move has been quite smooth, and roadbumps, if any, have been very minor. Touch wood, and fingers crossed!!

Moving blues (without good reason)

I'm sorry I'm a little late writing this post, but you understand how things are around a move. Especially when you've lived 6 years in one house -- you tend to accumulate a lot of stuff.

Anyway, it's almost done. We spent the early part of last week getting the paperwork in order for Waterside Plaza, and while we were chewing our nails hoping things would be okay, Sandhya spent a lot of time talking to packing / moving companies. On wednesday, I get an email that contains this important opening line:

"This is to confirm that your application has been processed and approved for rental."

Woo-hoo!! New York, here we come! This is also the point at which the reality of it begins to sink in, because now we begin to sign contracts and make commitments - until now it's been a lot of window shopping. 

I head over to the Bank to prepare two big cashier's checks for the rent and security deposit, and promptly courier them over. Sandhya and I sit down with the research she's done on Packing companies, and prepare a detailed spreadsheet to compare apples to apples. 

Online Review Hell

We read the reviews of these companies on the web, and some comments really freak us out. It seems like everyone's either de-light-ed with a particular company, or so completely disgusted that they're incapable of expletive-free conversation. And the latter types are sure that all the former types are fakes, employees of those companies themselves. Oh-oh. How can we rely on anything? Certainly the anonymity on the web creates both sorts of problems - the opportunity to trash someone when they don't deserve it, and also the opportunity to game the system. A closed system like eBay or Amazon where you have to transact to rate someone is much more reliable. Open systems like Yelp or Epinions is just open to such abuse. Angie's list has a fee, which we balk at - what if we pay up and find that they don't have sufficient ratings on packing / moving companies? Note to self -- in future, whenever you use something, write a review on a few sites - you owe it to those who come after you.

We finally go with the safe option - Nor-Cal Moving - a firm that someone we know has used, and had a good experience with. It helps that their costs are also among the lowest.

Moving day arrives

We spent the day before the packers arrived sorting through our meagre possessions - this to storage, that to New York, this to the trash can, and that we'll take to New York ourselves. 

In retrospect, that was a day well spent, and except for one DVR remote that mistakenly got sent off to storage, (I think) that most of the stuff got packed and sent correctly.

The guys from Nor-Cal Moving were a real delight. They showed up on time; as many men as were promised came; they were courteous, professional, extremely hardworking, and packed the stuff pretty well (we'll know when we unpack). They finished most of the stuff for storage the first day, loaded a lot of it into their truck, and then drove off. 

No-proof nightmares

As I saw them off, one of them waved me a peculiar good-bye - almost like he was saying "Thanks for everything, sucker!". A shiver went down my spine - I didn't have a shred of paperwork showing that they had loaded up more than half our possessions into their truck and driven away! I lay awake tossing and turning that night, wondering what I would do if they had actually made tracks and didn't show up the next day. Fingerprints? Of course, they handled a lot of glass. Truck plates? I had quietly written that down on my Blackberry. I couldn't tell Sandhya of the fear that was gnawing at my insides - she may not have been able to handle it. There was also no sense in spreading my panic around.

I went over to our now-nearly-empty home at 7:30 the next morning to await the movers. 8:00 am rolled by and there was no sign of them. Then suddenly at around 8:10 the orange nose of their truck appeared around the corner. Hallelujah! I breathed a big sigh of relief and kicked myself for being paranoid. I must be getting old, I guess.

Packing completed

They made short work of the remaining stuff - most of what was left was going to New York, and Fedex Ground made more sense than shipping it using a long-distance carrier, because it was just 1,500 lbs. They packed it up for Fedex, and then left with a small tip of gratitude from us. I weighed and measured each box, and then carefully created 41 mailing labels on the Fedex.com website. I was impressed by the accuracy of the Nor-Cal estimator's estimate of weight -- Sandhya had roughly pointed out the stuff going to New York - part of this, some of that, some of these clothes - and the estimator had estimated 1,500 lbs. The sum total of our boxes came to 1,520 lbs!! I was also impressed by the usability of the Fedex site - it was extremely easy to enter dimensions, weight and estimated value of 41 boxes, and then generate all those labels.

Renting out our home

In the midst of all this, we also signed the lease and collected the security deposit and first month's rent for our home in Fremont. A young couple, the Sanchez's, are going to rent it out for a year. He works at the local Toyota-managed Auto Plant, NUMMI. When I called my mother with this news, she drew my attention to an amazing coincidence - their house in Bangalore is also rented out to the local Indo-Japanese Friendship Society, which is managed by Toyota!

We managed to rent our home out in a tough market, and thanks must go to the aggressive efforts of our rental agent, Barry Ripp. Unlike other agents we met, Barry exuded confidence in his ability to rent our home out quickly, and sure enough, he came through. His confidence was reflected in his fee stucture - purely a % of the rent - so till we had a tenant, he wasn't going to make a dime. The others wanted an up-front fixed fee, and a fixed fee for managing the property.

We had our home (should I start calling it "house" now?) cleaned today, and it looks quite forlorn without the furniture, art and artifacts that make a house a home. I hope the Sanchez's take good care of it - it does feel nervous to rent your "baby" out. 

Final touches

We leave for New York on Thursday, so these few days after emptying the house have given me opportunity to reflect on these 10 years in Fremont. 

I went to Hayward Airport, the place of my first solo, and also where we landed after suffering an in-flight total electrical failure on our way back from San Diego. 

This is where Dhruv, the joy of our lives, was born and came home for the first time, 5 1/2 years ago. 

This is where we met and built some of the closest friends we've ever known. They threw a lovely farewell for us on Sunday, and while I know that we've promised to stay in touch, the planet hasn't become small enough that staying in touch from New York is as easy as staying a short drive or walk away.

If it takes a village to raise a child, we had the best village of all -- a community of like-minded adults with similar values, aspirations, cares and concerns, all within a short radius of where we lived. Dhruv thrived growing up in that little village, and while he may not know it, I know he will be the poorer without it.

New York is a lot closer now, and daunting. I keep trying to focus on the long-term positives - the work, the museums, the concerts, the parks, to avoid being overwhelmed by the short-term challenges that accompany any such move. It's been working so far - this move has been incredibly smooth, given the magnitude of the change - and that's why the blues don't have good reason. I hope it stays that way. 

I'll report from Manhattan next week!!

Apartment found!

I'm writing this as we're on our way back from our great New York excursion to look for apartments. We caught the red-eye to Newark via Charlotte, NC, which turned out to be a cute little airport set amidst the forested hills of Appalachia. With Bank of America's continued relative strength, the place seems to be doing well.

Apartment hunting

We arrived to reasonably good weather (for January in New York). It was cold and a light snow was falling as we taxiied to the gate, but it cleared up pretty quickly, and we made our way to the city to meet our broker, who was also a classmate from high school.

We began on the Upper West Side, with a nicely outfitted ground-floor (almost basement) apartment close to the Hudson. With the exception of one horror, most of the apartments we saw were interesting, and certainly liveable. Older buildings ("pre-war" in the New York lexicon) with character, quaint layouts (one of them had a little "maid's bathroom), and progressively getting closer to Central Park. One of the last apartments we saw on the Upper West was really nice - quiet, with huge living room + open kitchen, and an excellent school. More importantly, it was right behind the Museum of Natural History, one block from Central Park.

Crossing over to the Upper East Side, we did see some really nice apartments, including "white-gloved doorman" buildings that fit the New York stereotype of the snooty Upper East Side. One that we really liked had an indoor heated pool, party room for tenants, play room for kids, and high ceilings.

Day two was spent in the Murray Hill / Kips Bay area, and then downtown. Murray Hill / Kips Bay is really active, with lots of interesting dining options, active neighbourhoods, and a vibrancy that we didn't quite see in the Upper East or Upper West. We also have friends staying in that area, and since the school there is very good, we liked what we saw.

The Drunk's Apartment

One really surprising experience was an apartment that was occupied at the time - but the building manager said that the tenants were out. We walked in to a strong odor of cigarette smoke and alcohol - obviously the remanants of a party the previous night. High heeled boots lay strewn on the floor, and dirty dishes and glasses were piled in the sink. We tried hard to ignore all these signs, and concentrate on what the place would look like empty, clean and unfurnished. And then we opened the door to one of the bedrooms, and found one of the residents of the apartments fast asleep in a druken stupor (at 12:30 in the afternoon)!! The manager made apologetic noises and showed us the rest of the apartment. It was actually quite nice, and high on our consideration list, despite this bit of drama - and was referred to as the "Drunk's Apartment" in all subsequent conversations.

The apartments downtown and in Battery Park were quite different - some of them were converted from older office buildings, and therefore had really odd layouts. The neighbourhoods there didn't seem as child-friendly - with narrower streets, shops with garish neon signs in their windows, and a little too rough for our taste.

Reflections on a Broker

While on the subject, I want to reflect on the role of the broker. As I mentioned, the broker we worked with was a classmate from school - so perhaps our experience was special. That said, a good broker can really make a big difference to the search. In our case, he really "got" what we we were looking for, and the lists he sent us in advance of our trip, as well as the apartments he showed us, were all in the ball-park, save a few. They were in the right school districts, had the right configuration, were at the right price points, and were good candidates. 

When we hit the ground, he had a sensible itinerary that gave us enough time to see each place, soak in the neighbourhood, and yet see a lot of places in the time that we had. He had made appointments beforehand, made sure we were on time, and except for one apartment where the owner changed his mind between our making the appointment and our showing up, we got to see all the apartments we were scheduled to see. He also gave us good perspective on the pros and cons of each apartment, even going so far as to point out flaws to consider in apartments that we otherwise liked - flaws that we hadn't thought about, but turned out to be deal-breakers when he brought them to our attention. There's no way we could have found a place in 2 1/2 days of searching if it wasn't for this high level of preparation and diligence.  So a special hat's off to Lalit (Al) Chhibber of the Corcoran Group for a job well done.

The wild-card wins

At the end of two days of apartment hunting, we thought we had narrowed it down to 3 or 4 choices. One each on the UWS and UES and two in the Murray Hill / Kips Bay area.

On Friday evening we went for dinner with a couple I went to business school with, and Sandhya fell in love with their apartment complex - Waterside Plaza. It is located right on the East River, a few blocks South of the UN, and comprises several buildings. The complex has an indoor, heated, pool; health club, a play area for children, and lots of amenities that none of the other places had. It is some distance from the action in the area (4 blocks, perhaps), but they have a shuttle bus that runs into town every half-hour. 

So we've decided to apply - I now have to get the paperwork together and submit the application. This link has some photographs and videos of the place - and while we will have a city view (not a view of the river, unfortunately), we'll still be on the 11th floor, and it should be nice. Having our friends living there will help us settle down quickly. Saravanaa Bhavan, Vatan and Pongal are just 4 blocks away, and unlike the one we have in the Bay Area, this Saravanaa Bhavan serves breakfast 7 days a week!! We've gone from wanting to be four blocks from the Met, to four blocks from Saravanaa Bhavan in one week!

The pain of the move is beginning to set in now. The thought of packing our stuff in Fremont, dismantling all our furniture, moving it to storage, buying or renting furniture in New York, assembling it, unpacking, and then settling down is quite tiring. And then we'll have to do that all over again when we return in a year. Hopefully it'll be worth it - we must make sure that we pack our weekends with all the activities that will make the experience worthwhile.

Flight woes

We had a bit of drama on our way back - we were scheduled to fly US Airways from Newark to Charlotte, NC and then to San Francisco. Our flight out of Newark took ages to get deiced, and then the deicing truck decided to breakdown right in front of the aircraft. By the time they found a tug to move the plane out of the way, we were late enough that we missed our connection. They then tried to route us via St. Louis, Phoenix and then San Francisco, but finally we got through, 7 hours late, through Phoenix. Our bags haven't arrived yet, 12 hours later, and we have our fingers crossed.

One gem was this conversation with a really rude "Special Services" agent who was handling passengers from our flight with missed connections. It turned out his computer system said that the plane left the gate in Newark 1 minute early and so he blamed "Air Traffic Control" for the delay and was refusing to compensate two ladies standing next to me. I chipped in to clarify that the delay was not due to Air Traffic Control, but was due to their (US Airways') deicing truck breaking down. 

He glared at me over his glasses: "What do you know about ice?"

"I'm a pilot. I know about ice." I replied.

Several passengers around me also piped up. 

He nervously picked up the phone and called someone to clarify what had happened. He obviously got brushed off by whoever was on the phone, because he came back and said "Ice is not in our control. It is natural."

I replied: "The ice didn't cause the delay. Your deicing truck breaking down is what caused the delay." 

He refused to budge. "That's not within our control."

I guess he didn't have the authority to do any more - and we all gave up. 

Of all businesses that are likely to come to Congress for a bailout, the Airlines probably garner the least sympathy from the public - and these silly attempts to hoodwink the public are the reasons why. When will we get a Passengers' Bill of Rights and delay compensation like the one in the EU?

Manhattan beckons...

Almost a month ago, my boss called me (very seriously) into a conference room. Given where the economy's at, I wondered whether this is one of those meetings everyone dreads (I'm just kidding). He started out (as is his style) quite bluntly: "There's no way to say this other than to ask. Will you be willing to move to New York for a year?".

After the initial relief had passed (that I wasn't being sacked), I promised I'd speak to my wife and give him a quick answer. She was (like she always is) unreachable at home and on her cell-phone, so there was no way to tell her this news till I returned home in the evening. In fact, she'd been trying to get a table at Berkeley's famous Chez Panisse for many months, and that evening we were finally going there to celebrate our 14th anniversary. This topic promised to be meaty enough to keep us busy all evening (after 14 years I have to build an agenda of discussion bullets to occupy 2 hours together).

Thankfully, she was reasonably excited at the thought of living in the New York area. We've both visited New York in the past, and have come to love its energy and vibrancy. We developed deep roots in the Bay Area, having lived in the same zip code for the past 10 years, but we both felt that living in the New York area was probably worth the dislocation this would cause all of us. She insists on staying in the city; I'm not sure we can afford it, but have reluctantly agreed.

If this goes through, it's undoubtedly going to be a very exciting year for us. Walking to the Met! Listening to concerts in Central Park! Opera! Broadway Shows! I thought to myself: "I've got to use this to get into a regular blogging routine and share our experiences with friends." That's the background to this new blog. I hope you enjoy it; I'm going to try to write a new post every Sunday night.

Researching the move

We spent the weekend calling friends and family in the New York area, getting their inputs and researching living and schooling options on the web. By Sunday evening, we had put together the outline of what it would take and it seemed doable (the depressed economy seems to help a great deal - rents are incredibly reasonable, relatively speaking!). I reported back to my boss, and the ball was set in motion.

So here we are, three weeks later, on the verge of our first trip to New York (this week), to look at schools and apartments. We've spent a major part of the intervening time on the web, researching schools (www.greatschools.net seems to be a good resource) and places to stay. Given that we have a kindergarten-going son, we identified schools with a greatschools.net rating of 8, 9 or 10 (out of a possible 10; he currently goes to a school that's rated 10). The New York Department of Education's website gave us a clear idea of each school's "cachement area", so we knew where we were looking for apartments. We called a few of the schools, and were pleasantly surprised by how friendly and welcoming they were. Where's that New York attitude they talk about?

Other web resources, such as the New York Times' Real Estate Classifieds section have been very useful, but Google in particular, has been tremendous. I created a map highlighting each school's cachement area, and then used Google Real Estate search to find places to stay. A broker friend also sent me a list of properties, and I plotted all of them on the same map too. Google street view allowed me to view each neighborhood, and see how far an apartment was from the school and the local subway station. Some good samaritan had even created a map of all squash courts in Manhattan, so by overlaying that map, I could even see which apartments were close to a public squash court!!

We therefore venture forth, as armed as we can be, to give ourselves a reality check. Stay tuned for the post-visit blog post next week!