The Move

Our VA living room. These pieces all came with us. Photo by Nicole Crowder courtesy of Society Social

Moving from Alexandria, VA (ie. Washington, DC) to New York City was no easy feat. It took us almost ten months from conception to keys, but here we are in New York City! In spring of 2019, we made the decision to relocate. What many people don’t realize is that we own a four level, four bedroom townhouse in Alexandria. This made the decision to move complicated, as we had to decide what to do with the house, and then how to move out once we did! It took us a lot of meetings with financial advisors, real estate experts, and many heart-to-hearts.

We ultimately decided to list our home for rent. Before we did so, we refinanced our mortgage which took quite a bit of time. We had to have the house inspected, make minor repairs, and clean it from floor to ceiling. We hired a professional photographer to come in and take photos of the space. We were finally able to list our home on Zillow in October. Having watched the rental market in our area, I assumed we would be able to secure renters by February or March of 2020. Little did we realize how fast our place would rent! Because we offered an option to rent our home furnished, we chose not start downsizing until we had renters signed and knew whether or not our furniture would be staying behind. To our surprise, our renters signed our lease the first week of December for a January 6th move-in. Because of the holidays and my travel schedule (I was in Las Vegas at a conference when things were being signed), it was suddenly a MAD DASH to get out of the house.

VA Foyer. Photo by Nicole Crowder courtesy of Society Social

Photo by Nicole Crowder courtesy of Society Social

We somehow put together a garage sale in five days. We managed to sell almost all of the furniture that we had listed! I also cleaned out all of my auxiliary closets, and had six clothing racks of clothes for sale. Our fear with the volume of our possessions was that even after downsizing we would not be able to physically fit it all into an apartment (that we had not yet secured).

Thank goodness for Potomac Concierge. Did you know that white glove, concierge moving companies exist? They were LIFE SAVERS. I can truthfully say if it wasn’t for them, we would never have made it out of our home. Potomac recommended a moving company for us, and we were thrilled with JK Moving. Not only did they pack us, but they also stored everything despite us having an indefinite move-in timeframe. They came in right on budget. We were incredibly impressed with the entire process. Potomac also handled getting us a PO Box in NYC, and sent our account manager over to our home to assist with packing! Susan Murphy with Potomac is worth her weight in gold. GOLD. She secured us a storage unit in NJ near my parents, and hired people to assist us with our cleanup. They hired a cleaning service and carpet steamers. They were invaluable.

JK Movers packed up our lives into neat boxes and loaded them and our furniture to head out. Packers came one day, moving crew the next. So efficient!

By January 6th, we had shipped off almost 120 boxes and pieces of furniture to the JK Moving storage; dropped off our wedding china, plates and dishes that had belonged to my grandmother, and any purses and shoes I needed to store at my parents; filled up a 10x10 storage unit in Brick, NJ with everything else miscellaneous; and had moved in for a 30+ day stay at the Conrad New York. It took four bell carts to move us in. We settled in for what ended up being a near two month stay. I had every single inch of that hotel room perfectly utilized. We have now logged close to 150 nights at the Conrad New York Downtown in the past few years. It’s the best.

Pro-tip. Do not binge watch YOU, right before moving.

The barware cupboard made for the perfect headband storage!

Using the talented Giampaolo Ienna as our fabulous broker, we finally found the perfect apartment. Say what you will about NYC brokers, we would never have survived without Giampaolo. Though the landlords for the condo we were renting approved us right away, we still needed to submit a 100+ page application with six letters of reference to the condo board. It took almost a month from first seeing the apartment to final board approval. We finally got approved and were able to collect the keys the very next day. We then were able to provide the movers with a two week notice and schedule our official move-in. Nate and I spent Valentine’s Day eating Greek food on the floor of our new apartment surrounded by WALLS of boxes.