Looks like we’ll be sipping beers and eating burgers on the sidewalk at Jersey and 10th Street once again. Enjoy the beautiful weather!

Jersey City Independent reported that “the production company has made arrangements to secure the private parking lot on Erie and 10th.” Click here for full post. However, this information supposedly came from a letter that the production company sent out to residents, but I am a resident and I received no such letter…so…what’s up with that? Anyway, apparantly the number you can call for parking information is (973)925-8157, but according to comments on the JCI webpage, the people answering the phones aren’t much help.

The move to NJ is upon us, so the hubby and I took this weekend to do a few of our favorite Brooklyn things. Hanging out in Prospect Park is great during the summer (and all year), but we had never gone pedal boating at the Wollman Rink. So, on Sunday we decided to give it a go.

It was pretty hot, but a gorgeous day. We walked all around the park and eventually found our way to Wollman Rink. There was a line for the boats, but we didn’t want to give up right away, we would wait it out. It was $15/hour and a $10 refundable deposit. We were given our life vests and got on line. The guy said it would only be about 15 minutes, but it turned out to be more like an hour. We were getting pretty antsy and so were the bunch of kids waiting. Finally it was our turn and we couldn’t wait to sit down and relax. After about five minutes of pedaling furiously we were sweating and getting pretty worn out. This is harder than it looks! Then we took a look around at our fellow boaters and realized we didn’t have to pedal that hard, just get into a nice even rhythm. Once we figured that out, it was a blast!

Upon further digging, we found out that there was an old credit account showing up on my credit report that was from about 10 years ago and delinquent. What was it? Victoria’s Secret. WTF?!?!? Yes, the expensive panties that I had bought 10 years ago were making it impossible for me to buy a house. Ironically, I had given up shopping at VS years ago, when I realized their product was overpriced and inferior. Yet, here I was drowning in a mistake I had made 10 years prior.

That’s when I decided to fight back. I wrote a long letter to the underwriter that had denied us. I asked if this could be reconsidered. Why were we approved only 2 months earlier with the same credit reports, etc. Wasn’t this “Affordable Mortgage Program” made for people like us? If we weren’t qualified, who was? I made my case and sent the letter off.

Meanwhile, our Brooklyn apartment continued to fall apart. We spent a week with no electricity in 3 rooms because of some wiring malfunction. Strange noises have been heard lately in the walls (I don’t even want to know). The whole building shakes daily due to the 5 construction sites that surround us on our half (yes HALF) of the block. If we didn’t get the mortgage, what were we supposed to do in 2 weeks? We had to be out??? We frantically started to look for rentals in Brooklyn. The only drawback…we would most def have to sign a one year lease and delay our home buying process another whole year.

Twenty-four hours later, the underwriter made a decision. We got it! It was relief after the week from hell and living surrounded by boxes, not knowing where we were going to be in 2 weeks. We would be in our new home in Jersey City. One catch though…I had to pay for those 10-year-old panties.

Our first attempt was on a really nice place in Jersey City Heights. The apartment was 1,000 square feet, had exposed brick, brand new kitchen (!!!) — it had a lot of character. The seller was in a hurry, so we rushed through the contract. We had a home inspection and before you knew it attorney review was over and we had a closing date set! Then the property was appraised for $20k less than the agreed upon price we were paying for it. Our bank said flat out, NO WAY. We tried everything. We begged for another appraiser, even one at our cost and that was a no go. Then we turned to the seller and asked if he would come down on the price. He could not do it. Suddenly, the whole deal fell through and we were back to square one.

We set our sights on Downtown Jersey City, specifically the area around Hamilton Park. We loved it there. It reminded us a lot of Brooklyn (some areas that aren’t overly populated yet). Soon enough we found another place. It was smaller, but based on some research, this hood was a better investment for us. In a whirlwind of showings and signings…we were in contract again! That’s when the problems began. The seller was in a rush, so everything had to be done very quickly. That was OK by us because the building we’re currently living in (in Park Slope) is falling apart, literally. This time we were smart and we had the appraisal done first, before we paid for another home inspection. It appraised $18k higher than what we were paying for it! Hurray! That means we have $18k in equity the day we move in. Wow!! We were psyched! We started planning and packing and since we were a shoe in this time (all the financials and information that was being used was the same as last time) we gave notice at our Brooklyn pad. Everything was great, the inspection went fine and we were just waiting to hear back from the bank… TBC