The Grand Tour of Our Apt

It's already been about 9 months since we moved from Perth Amboy to Newark and we still haven't posted up any photos of the new place. I know I know, many of you have asked how our new place looks like (especially my family and friends in Malaysia)...so here it is. The grand tour of our apartment.

We are now living in Forest Hill, located in Northern Newark. You guys must be saying...Newark?? Isn't Newark like a bit dangerous?? With all the shootings and extremely high crime rate? Well, this is not THAT part of Newark. There are nice neighborhoods in Newark too, you know :P You can read more about the Forest Hill neighborhood over here.

Anyway, this is our apartment building. It's not a current photo, I think I took this photo about 9 months ago, when we first moved in. It looks pretty much the same, except that trees and shrubs are all 'botak' now. Hey, it's still winter! :P

We live in a one bedroom apartment on the 6th floor of a 17 storey building. It's about 850 sq ft, a little bit small for some but it works for us. Rent is really a killer in these parts. I guess it all boils down to location or space...and at this point in life, location is more important for us. We do not need much space :D This is the entrance way that greets you when you step into our humble abode.

Let's make a right turn and this will lead you to our bedroom. It's pretty basic, nothing fancy here. Our bed on one side of the room and two large closets on the other side. Check out our guitars. The brown guitar is Kevins and the black one belongs to me :D I also like how my closet is almost twice as big as Kevins. You can't see it from this angle, but it's really deep.

This is our little computer nook/work space in one corner of the bedroom. I like how the bedroom is pretty spacious for a small apartment. Do you like the caricature of us hanging on the wall? We got that done in the city by one of the street artists in Times Square. Also checkout our clothes hanger opps, I mean exercise bicycle at the corner :P

OK, let's move out of the bedroom and head towards the kitchen! It's a galley kind of kitchen, not that big but I love how I can look out to a great view when I'm cooking. Kevin's favorite kitchen appliance is at the end of the counter. A wine cooler that one of our friends gave us as a wedding present. I also like what's next to it. A gourmet spice rack! Also another wedding gift. We use both of it lots! :P

The other side of the kitchen. I just love the counter space. One long uncluttered counter space for me to prep food and stuff. The photos on the fridge is not our kids (I would have to give birth to the boy when I was 15 if they were my kids) but our nephew and niece! We have also started to collect fridge magnets from our travels. It's still a small collection but it's growing. Please disregard the shaker set, blender and margarita mix at the end of the counter. No, we are not alcoholics :P

Moving along...the walkway leading to the living room. My collection of cookbooks which we inherited from Kevin's dad and Kevin's sailing/knots/I dunno some ships thingy books. Also on display are photos of our family and friends.

This is our dining/board games/working on notebook area. We have dragged the cables out from the bedroom so that we can work on our notebooks and watch TV at the same time. This is also where the occasional Podany Scrabble Tournament takes place. Kevin and I love playing Scrabble!

Alas, this is the last stop of the tour. Our living room. The futon comes in handy when we have visitors. Just pull it out and it becomes a bed that can sleep two people. I took the black and white photos that are hanging on the wall about 6 years ago. It's taken at various locations in Malaysia. I just love it! The guitar shaped CD rack is actually made of cast iron. It's really heavy. I love it to bits cause it's the first thing I bought on eBay when I first came to America as a student. Kevin doesn't really like it that much but too bad hon, it's staying :D

Now, the real highlight of the apartment. This is part of the view that you can get from the apartment. Shown here in the photo is Midtown Manhattan. We get a panoramic view (from our living room, kitchen and bedroom) of the whole NYC skyline, starting from the Statue of Liberty to Lower Manhattan all the way up to Central Park and even a little bit into Harlem. We can also see the Passaic River, which is the county line for Essex and Hudson county.

As the sun goes down, the city just lights up before your very eyes. The view is actually one of the main reasons why we decided to rent this apartment. It's just amazing.

So, this concludes the grand tour of our tiny apartment. Whenever you are in the NJ/NY region, come visit us. Our futon is always open to all our family and friends!! :D