Gracie Point = Home.

We found it! Finally. It's official. The lease was signed this morning. We managed to make it all the way to the Upper East Side despite the lovely nor’easter storm of which we are in the middle (I wore my polka-dot rain boots over my skinny jeans, a rain coat, and had a huge umbrella. I must have looked ridiculous but stayed quite dry, all things considered). It is SUCH a relief to have this wrapped up, and we are really, really excited. The house search has proven to be incredibly stressful, and with a limited amount of time left on our current lease, we decided to stay in the city. We both feel really good about it, but finding a new place to live (and getting out of our current lease) was quite the hassle. The housing market in Manhattan is blazing fast, and it is an exhausting process. But- We already have new tenants lined up (it was fast, and Mike did a great job playing real estate broker) to take over the rest of our lease, so as long as they are approved, we are into our new apartment in a couple of weeks.

Our new building is on the Upper East Side, in an area called Gracie Point. The building is beautiful, fairly new (est. 1996) and in a fun area. Our apartment is spacious, has great light, has a separate pass through modern kitchen, and best of all... has amazing closet space. The building itself has great amenities, is a few blocks away from a huge park & promenade on the East side of Manhattan (you can run all the way down to 30th street along the river- very pretty), and is a short walk to Central Park & the reservoir (a perfect about-5-mile run). We're happy to have them nearby. There are a lot of

shops and restaurants in the area (my staple, Banana Republic, is just a few short blocks away), which stands in stark contrast to the corporate feel of the Financial District. We’re excited to be in a neighborhood. As a matter of fact, when we were walking there this morning, we heard actual  BIRDS chirping on a nice tree-lined street. It was music to my ears. Another plus- our good friends Kellie & Jason Robbins live about 15 blocks away (via foot). Fun! Oh- and one more thing. Our church (the new Stake Center in Manhattan) is about a 10 minute walk from our apartment. Perfect.

A little bit more about where we will be, per Wikipedia (my source of all knowledge):

The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River.

The 1.8 square-mile neighborhood, with elegant rows of landmark townhouses, once known as the 'Silk Stocking District', has some of the most expensive real estate in the United States, and is believed to be the greatest concentration of individual wealth in the nation.

In the 19th century, and until the Park Avenue railroad cut was covered (finished in 1910), rich industrialists including Pittsburghers Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick began building stylish mansions and townhouses on the large lots along Fifth Avenue, abutting Central Park. One of the first sections to be developed was around 86th Street, where several prominent families of German descent, including the Schermerhorns, the Astors, and the Rhinelanders built country estates.

Yorkville as it was known, soon moved east past Lexington Avenue and became a suburb of middle-class Germans, many of whom worked in nearby piano factories, stables, and breweries.

A long high bluff fronting the river north of Beekman Place was dotted with fine suburban villas in the 19th century, the last remaining one being Gracie Mansion, now home of New York's mayors.

The Upper East Side is also notable as a significant source of political fundraising in the United States. Four of the top five zip codes in the nation for political contributions are in Manhattan. The top ZIP Code, 10021, is on the Upper East Side and generated the most money for the 2004 presidential campaigns of both George W. Bush and John Kerry.

Madison Avenue from 60th Street well into the 80s is the monied crowd's main shopping strip, recently vaulting ahead of Hong Kong's Causeway Bay to become the most expensive retail real estate in the world. Zip code 10021 has the highest concentration of stores in the United States with more than $1 million in annual sales each.

The Upper East Side stretches from 59th Street north to about 96th Street. Embedded within the Upper East Side are the neighborhoods of Yorkville, centered on 86th Street and Third Avenue, and Carnegie Hill, centered on 91st Street and Park Avenue and Lenox Hill centered on 69th Street and 1st Avenue.

Its north-south avenues are Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, Park Avenue, Lexington Avenue, Third, Second and First Avenues, York Avenue, and East End Avenue (the latter runs only from East 79th Street to East 90th Street).

The area is host to some of the most famous museums in the world. The string of museums along Fifth Avenue fronting Central Park has been dubbed "Museum Mile." It was once named "Millionaire's Row." Among the cultural institutions on the Upper East Side:

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Whitney Museum of American Art
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
National Academy of Design
Neue Galerie
The Asia Society
Frick Collection
Museum of the City of New York (north of 96th Street)
The Jewish Museum
Museum of American Illustration
Goethe-Institut New York
El Museo del Barrio

Next on my list of to-do's: Find a great color of paint to coat the walls before we move in (I'm leaning towards a light green or a light brown- maybe both, in separate rooms), sell our couch and armchair (we'll have more room- and the love seat just doesn't work when friends come over), and get rid of all of our rugs (they aren't high-quality, and they are trashed after two years of good use in our tiny apartment). Hooray! This is a GOOD to-do list in my book.