New Home in New Haven
I knew I was in the pizza capital of the world when I saw specialized receptacles marked “Pizza Boxes Only!” A short walk through Wooster Square Park and you’ll find yourself at Pepe’s or Sally’s Appiza. Jon Hull
For the past few years, Jessica and I have been scouring the map for a place to call our own. Finally, in July, we found it.
Our 850-square-foot apartment is tucked into a corner of New Haven’s Wooster Square neighborhood. The furnace needs replacing, the window seals are shot, and from the outside she’s no beauty queen. But she’s ours.
I’m most excited about two things: the location and the plan for renovations.
The Neighborhood
We’ve become accustomed to a certain lifestyle, which is a big part of why it took Jessica and me so long to find a place we liked. We've spent time in Helsinki and Panama, where we could walk to get most of what we needed on the weekends. Before that, I lived in New York City, where owning a car is practically a detriment. Jessica now finds herself in Singapore, where the same can be said.
New Haven, and our neighborhood in particular, serves the lifestyle we seek. It’s a “walker’s paradise.” Outside of a couple of major cities in the United States, this is pretty rare. I suspect this is part of the reason why I’ve seen New Haven come up on several lists for “undervalued” or “up and coming” cities in the United States.
Like any city, New Haven has its problems. However, it seems to me that there is a clear focus on building a better community. I've been glad to see investment in infrastructure for residents, not just for cars passing through. In recent years, the city invested in major upgrades to bike lanes, with more planned. There’s a new seaside park in the works. And right outside our door, the city is in the middle of a project to revitalize State Street.
At the moment, State Street feels like a wide stretch of asphalt you cross to get somewhere else. But soon, it’ll become a long green corridor with trees, bike lanes, and walking paths. Instead of serving as an ugly shortcut, it will be a place worth spending time and will connect our neighborhood seamlessly to Yale.
As it stands, I can walk out my door and be in Wooster Square Park, or head a block further for a pizza at Pepe’s or Sally’s. A few minutes in another direction puts me on a train headed south to New York City or east to Old Saybrook. Walk the other way, and I’m at the entrance to the Farmington Canal Trail, winding through Yale and all the way up to Massachusetts. Everything I need stretches out just a few minutes by foot, and—if you can’t tell—I’m pretty stoked about it.
Some snapshots from a September walk around the neighborhood. Jon Hull
Renovation
A large part of the motivation for Jessica and I being long-distance is that we want to enable one another to live a dream. For Jessica, the dream is living abroad and exploring Asia. For me, it is working with Dad to renovate a place and learn some of his skills. Like the city itself, our apartment is in the middle of becoming.
Mom came down last weekend and helped me make the space feel like home. It made such a huge difference. Jon Hull
We intentionally bought a place solidly under budget, so we’d have some money left over. Cause holy shamoley are materials expensive these days! I created a spreadsheet of all of the changes we’d like to make in a perfect world, and it came out to ~$50,000. Sheesh!
My hope is to get started in late September. Dad is coming down to spend a weekend this fall to help me get started. It may be slow going at first, but that’s part of it all.
Each weekend project, each fix, will turn this apartment into something more than just a place to live.
You can check out my first attempt at the redesign of the main floor below!
(Click or tap to enlarge.)
