So it Goes.

Sometimes things just don’t work out the way you planned them. When Eva and I began to discuss moving off campus and out of the NYU dorms last year, we thought that we’d probably just stick together until we graduated. We thought we might stay in the same apartment for three years. While we settled here mainly for budgetary reasons, the Upper East Side of Manhattan seemed rife with opportunity—if not for adventure and bawdy good times, then at least for a different way of life than the one we’d grown accustomed to living just a few blocks from the academic temples of NYU. About that last bit, we were quite right.

Eva moved out today. I’m sticking around, don’t you worry. I’ve known about this for a while now, and have been hemming and hawing over just how to approach the topic here in blogland. I think this blog is fairly personal, and I hope you share that feeling, of course. But in the same breath, I don’t consider it a catch-all for nearly everything that happens in my life, and I certainly don’t see it as a repository for what happens in the lives of others. Since it is, after all, a blog about this apartment I keep gabbing about far more than it is a blog about me.

Suffice to say this wasn’t an easy decision for her, and it wasn’t an easy process for either of us. That said, it really didn’t have much to do with me. We were friends when we found this apartment, we were friends while we lived here together, and we’re friends now. Relationships of all kinds, including friendships, change and evolve and shift over time, and that’s what’s happening here. From strangers to neighbors to friends to roommates and now back to friends, it’s been quite a year and a half for her and I. Change is good. She’s moving back into NYU housing and I wish her all the best, sincerely.

About Daniel Kanter

Hi, I'm Daniel, and I love houses! I'm a serial renovator, DIY-er, and dog-cuddler based in Kingston, New York. Follow along as I bring my 1865 Greek Revival back to life and tackle my 30s to varying degrees of success. Welcome!

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22 Comments

  1. 12.22.10

    to me, the best {and the scariest} thing about life is that you never know whats going to happen next! a year and half ago you didn’t have this blog, now look at you! who knows what the next year will bring, but here’s to hoping its only great things in 2011!

    cheers!

  2. 12.22.10
    Laura said:

    I’ll move in with you! I miss you so much cheese! wuv.

  3. 12.23.10
    Girly said:

    *hugs*

  4. 12.23.10
    Natalie said:

    I discovered your blog a few days ago and i like it.. keep up the good work! I hope this room will not stay empty too long..

  5. 12.23.10

    Hug, hug, hug. (And F&B send a bunch of licks, too!)

  6. 12.23.10
    Fionnuala said:

    Best of luck to you and Eva both, Daniel.

    For what it’s worth, I too struggle with how to make my blog personal without putting my entire life in it, but I felt this post struck a good balance in tone.

  7. 12.23.10
    Melanie said:

    Hi Daniel, I’m normally a silent reader of yours, but just wanted to wish the best of luck to both of you. You seem to me to be an upbeat and self-sufficient person, so I’m sure you’ll be just fine. :]

  8. 12.23.10
    misa said:

    if i wasn’t twenty-eight, married, stuck in my house in colorado, and the owner of five pets, i’d move in with you. best of luck to you, and happy holidays!

  9. 12.23.10
    Nicole said:

    Good luck to both of you! I think you approached it beautifully, for what it’s worth.

    I think sometimes, in my personal experience anyway, getting a roommate is a fast way to take stock of your life and learn things about yourself you didn’t know before. And sometimes it causes you to make decisions that affect people around you–but it has to be done, all the same. That was the certainly the case with me when I moved in with my best friend. I live alone now.

    It’s weird how transformative the simple act of sharing an apartment can be. But for some reason it is.

    I am sure everything will pan out well for both of you :) You are both too awesome, if the blog is any indicator, for it to go otherwise.

  10. 12.23.10

    Good luck to you both! Living together is always different than being friends. For what it’s worth, I’ve had my own realizations of friends not always being the best roommates, but after time things truly went back to normal. I have the utmost confidence in you, even though my knowledge of you only comes from your blog.Thanks for sharing.

  11. 12.24.10
    jeannette said:

    i think you need to have a doggie in there. one who pays rents, obviously, but who would let you decorate. either a rilly rilly big one or a little teeny one.
    best to both of you and miss e.
    xxx

  12. 12.24.10
    ingrid said:

    I love this blog. I think you have a very bright, sparkly future ahead of you. Keep on writing and wishing and dreaming. Your life is about to get one million times better than you could possibly imagine.

  13. 12.25.10
    Brittany said:

    Wishing you and Eva all the best, Daniel. You sound like a bright and resilient young man, I’m sure you’ll pull through :)

  14. 12.25.10
    eilene said:

    i agree with everyone above… very well said. you are as good with words as you are with creating/rehabbing/constructing amazing things.
    but now you have more space to build & hack cool shit.
    you will find a new roommate in a flash if you want one, no one doubts that.

  15. 12.25.10
    joetheplumber said:

    on a completely different note. Did you paint the window like that? What is that part of the window called? Do you have any tips or resources on how to do it?

    • 12.26.10
      Daniel said:

      Nope, the windows are all new(ish) metal windows and the original finish on them is a dark brown-black color. This kind of window is really standard in NY apartments, but I think you could just tape off the trim and paint any normal window like this with latex paint!

  16. 12.26.10
    Mohamad Saleh said:

    I am unsure if the photo above was taken for it’s sole use in this blog entry but I don’t believe you would allow paint splatters to be all over the floor like that, or maybe it’s one of those little things that nag you that you didn’t really mind changing because the thought of having paint splatters on the floor excited you, as they are are not something you usually plan, they just happen.. Unless of course it’s some type of painting that one has up in an art gallery for the price tag of a whopping 20 million dollars.

    I believe the photo actually fit the post quite well, it gave off an feeling of loneliness and emptiness, it lacks all of the color that your other images contain, it has made a void, time for you get your favorite music and a boombox(I think a boombox would work quite well), sit in the middle of the room start off with something that allows you to release some emotions, maybe that is punk or rock, but I think you should start off with some classical music, something like a requiem from Mozart, next you will need to find something bland, the only thing bland on the other side of the house would be that extra can of paint that you found under the kitchen sink that was left by the previous tenant, get a screw driver and pry it under that rusted cap, pop it open and put it to some use, get a paint brush and just paint a wall in that room, don’t focus on what it is you are painting just make “splatters”.. after the song has ended and your painting is complete, you will need to take a picture,

    After the picture has been taken you will need to raise your energy levels back up again, and to do this you will have to go back in time, to a place that we all cherish, that place is called Childhood, how is it that one goes back to childhood you ask, well it’s quite simple and doesn’t require much thought, just hit the red radio button on the boombox..wait a second.. oh.. this song is familiar you think to yourself, what is it’s name? The song playing is Send me on my Way by rusted root, it has brought you back in time to the moment when you were watching Matilda on tv, playing with your yoyo learning how to do tricks like walk the dog and the elevator… yeah that is a large old “watermelon tv.. yeah that is a solid wood table that the plate of cookie crumbs sits on, you wonder if it is possible to remember how those cookies tasted, well it is, your mother is in the kitchen baking chocolate chip cookies while on that one phone.. wait what is that a..ah.. a CORD! It’s been some time since you have seen this setting, it reminds you that life is forever changing and will continue to change, imagine your parents, they were once in the same place that you are now, and their parents before them and before them and so on, the technology changes but human nature still remains. They were all also once kids, with dreams aspirations and ambitions!

    I apologize if I have written a bit to much, but I find enjoyment in writing these type of responses, it allows me to look back at my personal life experiences and mix and mash information to create stories, it’s been great for my growth as a human being. I am also a 21 year old living in New York, and have been through a similar experience in the past year, all I can tell you is hang on, the ride has only begun, maybe that image that you have taken of the painting can sell for a couple of thousand which will in return allow you to travel the world and bring back some of that international flavor and spice into your home. Traveling the world changes all, thanks for sharing your experiences with us through your blog.

    • 12.26.10
      Daniel said:

      teehee, I already cleaned up the paint on the floor. It happened when Eva painted the room in the fall, but the messy parts were hidden under her bed so she couldn’t scrub it off herself. But it’s fixed now!

      (and yes, the picture was taken about 20 minutes after she left the apartment. the chair is hers but it didn’t fit in the car so she’s picking it up when she moves into the dorms)

  17. 12.26.10
    Mary-Ellen said:

    Wishing you the best in the New Year and I cannot wait to see what you do with this space. Take care of yourself.

  18. 12.27.10
    Vera said:

    Wishing both of you happy futures. Just discovered your blog when it appeared in Lifehacker, but stop by to see what’s up now on a regular basis.

  19. 12.27.10
    JS said:

    Like Melanie above, I am normally a silent reader of this blog, but just wanted to wish both of you the best.

    It is amazing how our friendships evolve over time. I had a university friendship end. I truly treasured that friendship. We tried to reconnect about 3-4 years later, but there was still too much rubbish between us. A few years ago, about 5 years since our last meeting , I went to work 2 hours earlier then I normally did, got off the tram at a different spot and as I was crossing the road, I saw her. She was living in a different country and had come home for Christmas, and was just coming in from the airport. Long story short we never should have met up again, we did and we now have a different but I believe much stronger, more mature and more understanding friendship.

    You both now know what it is like to live with each other, and you are still friends, not everyone can say that.

  20. 12.28.10
    Kat said:

    I love your blog, partly because you come across as practical and awesome, with naturally, additional design flair! Have a super New Year, and the best of luck for 2011 :-)