Em Stand by

Ontem o Fê foi dormir mais cedo e eu fiquei lendo um livro na sala. Quando voltei para o quarto, tudo estava obviamente escuro, exceto 5 luzinhas espalhadas pelo cômodo. Além dos nossos 2 idênticos rádio-relógios com os inconfundíveis números vermelhinhos, havia 5 bolinhas de luzes de eletrônicos em stand-by: o umidificador, Dvd, Tv, conversor, régua de tomadas (e ainda faltava o meu computador, que estava na sala). Fiquei chocada com a quantidade de luzinhas que mantemos 24/7 na nossa casa e a energia elétrica se se vai. Post bobo, eu sei. Mas fiquei espantada.

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Silly post dedicated to the humongous amount of stand-by lights in my bedroom: total of 5 (+ 2 red lighted alarm clocks) and they all live close by each other. I was astonished and had to write about it, what amount of electricity is wasted on them?

Anti-magnet fridge

Our really nice, fancy and stainless-steel fridge is not magnets friendly. We've been collecting magnets since we arrived in the US from every place we visited and now we have a fridge that is not going to have them. It seems Ga (my sister in law's husband) was right, nice fridges shouldn't have magnets and GE agreed with him. Not totally, as I was still able to put some magnets on its side, but it just wouldn't have enough space for all of them.

So the first picture of our home, it couldn't be different, is from the kitchen! Also it's the only place that is already completed and with no boxes around.

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Eis que descobrimos que uma super chique geladeira de aço inox não gosta de imãs. Nós começamos a nossa coleção de imãs aqui nos EUA, comprando um em cada lugar diferente que visitamos. É, o Gá tinha razão, geladeiras bonitonas não combinam com imãs multi-coloridos e até a GE concordou parcialmente com ele, fazendo uma geladeira em que só se pode colocar imãs na lateral. Ah, mas nesse espacinho não iria caber toda a nossa coleção e também os que estão por vir, então eu tive que dar um jeito.

Pois é, a primeira foto da nossa casa, como não poderia ser diferente, é da cozinha, o único lugar pronto e sem caixas pelos cantos.

Buying furniture in NYC?

So after three weeks here and so many hours spent looking for all our furniture I decided to write about it. There is not a single store that could sell and deliver things perfectly. I'm not sure if we were unlucky, or if this is just a typical characteristic of setting an apartment. I really appreciate any comments everyone has from all over the world, I will publish my own opinions about all these stores, but everyone is welcome to criticize and praise them as long no bad words are written.

There should be a first one. Not the best, not the worse (or you can conclude by your own opinion). We went to [Straight from the Crate] recommended by a friend as "an Ikea that delivers and assembles". We bought 2 dressers (cômodas), a desk and 3 floor lamps. So the dressers were fine, Ikea quality indeed, but that is what we expected. Lamps were terrible: we ordered black, they delivered silver, there was one that would take extra 6 weeks to be delivered and one that was supposed to have a "marble finish" that seemed like 2 huge scratches. We returned it all. Oh, and the desk? Hm, have you heard of Marabras? Really similar, and a translucent glass became a clear one.

[Bed Bath and Beyond] is a nice place. Things are not the cheapest, but they deliver on the same day for $15, nothing compared to other delivery fees. Good place for sheets, kitchen stuff and bathroom - there is a super nice [OXO toilet plunger] (desentupidor de privada) and many [OXO] stuff, good brands and not super expensive.

We also went to a place called [Jennifer Convertibles] for our sofa. Things went well, delivery date is scheduled to only 4 days after what was previously said, but prices were good, less expensive than [Crate & Barrel] and [Macys], but still good quality. The guy from Jennifer recommended us a store called [Lee's Art Shop]. It's a design store, they carry super duper expensive things and China version. Yes, I'm not mean, it's exactly what happens there. So we bought 2 cute stools and a dining table with 4 chairs. We only received the table and 1 chair when they first delivered our stuff. After complaining and explaining that we won't take turns to sit on the chair to have dinner, they also delivered a second one, previously on their display. So today we called - these people never call! - and we were informed that our stools are coming 1 week after promised, but our other two chairs will take 6 weeks. WHAT? Oh yeah, baby. "We don't call customers, there are so many."

Last but not least, famous [Ikea]. That's a 50 minutes trip to Brooklyn and extra $89 for delivery (no matter what you buy). Things were pretty good, I have to admit that I enjoy assembling their furniture and things were supposed to be here the day after. They tried. But the delivery guy broke our coffee table glass into a million pieces as well as our picture frame glass. So it was returned and we would get it in 3 days, IF the delivery company didn't try to bypass the system and blamed us for their mess. That's one of those moments that a lawyer comes in handy to solve all my problems and by the end of that week everything arrived.

Ok, so you might be asking: If almost everything is there, why are there no pictures? Well, not only our furniture is here, but our 45 boxes also arrived from California two days ago. Until things are neat, no pictures will be published, what I do hope to be able to do ASAP. You are only curious, but we are living with boxes all over.

The Sun

When we first saw our apartment, we knew it was really bright. Our windows are huge, imagine a 11'x13' bedroom and 83"x83" window (3.3x4.0 meters bedroom and 2.1x2.1 meters window) and it's south, which as the opposite to the south hemisphere, is the one that gets most of sun light during the year.

So there are 2 sides of it: one we have an amazing view of the sunset.


And second... I didn't sleep well for the past 2 days. During the night the city lights dive into our bedroom, and after sunrise it gets too much light that it's not possible to sleep after 6am - not for me, even using a mask. So we still have the super sunset view from our living room, but from today until the end of the month our bedroom windows are covered with aluminum foil, until new curtains with an extra layer of black out curtain are installed.

Our new place

Yesterday we walked and walked and walked around Manhattan. Oh, I really thought my nice shoes were going to be donated somewhere, as we walked so much that I would never be able to live in this city wearing them. So after a tiny non-fat Starbucks sandwich we saw a nice building and decided to have a look. It wasn't in our list of "nice available places to look for", but we decided we should look. I have NO idea why.

It was super nice, we applied for the apartment that same moment and waited until this morning. I have to say that we both could not sleep and decided to check some interior design websites until 5am. Even our family was anxious to hear from us that they were checking the blog and emails constantly. And this morning... we got an answer.

Yes yes yes! We have an apartment! And it is so nice because:
- elevator distance from subway station
- same subway line that goes to JFK Airport
- 10 blocks (= 1 subway station apart) from Central Park
- 15 minutes walk from Felipe's law firm = 2 subway stations
- 15 to 20 minutes to wherever I need to go
- 1 subway station from Columbus Circle ([Whole Foods]!) and Lincoln Center (Movies!)
- walking distance from Broadway shows
- blocks from Times Square
- many items to be discovered.


And if you know this crazy Camaras couple you might know what we did after signing the contract. We went to a mattress store, and it'll be delivered tomorrow morning. We went to [Jennifer Convertibles] to buy the perfect sofa, and finally we went to a super nice store named [Lee's Art Shop] recommended by the sofa store guy. It is an amazing store that sells modern furniture from all around the world. Obviously there are really expensive items, but we were able to find really good stuff for amazing quality.

Lu, I have to tell you and hope you don't get mad at us: I tried my best to look for 2 orange stools that would match our Le Creuset to be pots. But they didn't have orange. And... we got red ones! To be delivered in 4 weeks (stools, no pots until Xmas gifts). Until then, we still have the Ikea Sofa bed mattress on the floor to seat on and wait for our moving company to ship our 44 boxes.