Tía Wendy grew up in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. When she found out we were looking for our first place, she suggested her family’s old apartment. The landlord was great and it was a three-bedroom. THREE. I have never lived in a place with three bedrooms. And the price – oh, the price. It was perfection.

Since I wasn’t blog-minded when we moved in last August, I didn’t have the sense to take any pictures of our place before we spruced it up. We put in a lot of work – let’s just say people online make painting look really easy and fun. It’s not.

Anyway, after a lot of elbow grease, this is what our place looks like now.

We have one narrow hallway that has been decorated with some of your dad’s flare and a sweet print I picked up from Urban Outfitters.

The third bedroom is a walk-in closet of sorts. This is actually considered pretty tidy.

We spend a lot of time in the living room, since it has the biggest TV and a table. Believe it or not, we eat all our meals on that tiny coffee table from IKEA.

Originally, we were excited about this apartment because the aforementioned three bedrooms would mean we’d have room to grow. For you. There isn’t room for much – a full-size bed, a tiny set of drawers (Malm from IKEA), a watercolor from Burma (a gift from a friend), a fan, and a rug (also from IKEA).

I’m having serious paint-regret in the living and guest rooms. We should have tested samples on the walls before going all-out and painting them. Oh, well.

Through the narrow kitchen where ST makes all sorts of yummies (he’s a much better cook), there’s a backyard with our grill, a small deck, and wild roses.

By Brooklyn standards, our place might as well be a mansion. While I appreciate the space, I do have some problems with our first place and renting in general. Some say that NYC isn’t a buying town, it’s a renting one. I’m not sure I agree. Since we’re planning on staying in NYC for a long time (according to ST, he won’t live anywhere else), I’ve compiled a list about the pros and cons of owning a home.

CONS

• We don’t have to fix anything if it breaks.
• Currently, we don’t pay any basic utility bills. Water, heat, and electricity are all included in our rent.
• At our current budget of about $350K, renting is cheaper than having a mortgage.
• We have a lot of space. We might not be able to afford a similar apartment (3 bedrooms and about 1,200 square feet).
• We will have to cut back on non-essentials such as vacations and shopping. However, we’d have to cut back on these things anyway when we have you so this might be a neutral point.

PROS

• Home prices are low right now and are supposed to stay low for the next few years.
• We’ll have a magical thing called home equity.
• We can make improvements that will be investments for us and not a landlord (even though our landlords are a very sweet couple that we love).

Even though the cons list is longer, I still want to own our home because our current apartment is plagued with mice.

After shedding tears (I was hysterical at the thought of mice crawling and pooping over our things) and paying a $700 exterminator bill (for which our landlord only paid half), we got the problem under control.

It wasn’t as bad as the Hoarders episode with the guy and his thousands of “children” (one of my favorite shows) but I was stressed out nonetheless.

Our exterminator also told us that the mice issue must be very old, judging by the amount and size of the holes. Mental images of FB playing on the floor with mice made me nauseous. Yuck. If we owned this apartment, we’d do everything possible to ensure a mice-free future for you. However, since we’re renters, we’d be increasing the property value for someone else. No bueno.

Who knows where you’ll end up growing up?