As I write this it has been almost five years to the day that our Journey began. Five years filled with twists and turns, a great amount of hard work, some fleeing and returning, and an enormous amount of waiting patiently, or not so patiently as the case may be.
I am Mark and my Husband is Phillip, the Goffengels, a combination of our two last names Goff/Engel. Or as a dear friend once told us… You know, the fifth house at Hogwarts... the Gay one! Hufflepuff, Slytherin, Gryffindor, Goffengel, and Ravenclaw. Makes me smile every time! We are from the Wine Country of Northern California in the United States
Our Great Adventure started in late 2015,
and yet truly began in March of 2009
Stepping back for a moment, the end of 2008 found us living bi-coastal in our home in Studio City California (part of Los Angeles) and in an apartment on the upper west side of Manhattan. An apartment we rented almost four years earlier when Phillip's work required his presence in New York City. I being West Coast born and raised could not imagine living in NYC full-time, so a deal was struck – two weeks in Manhattan followed by two weeks in Los Angeles. As they say ‘wash, rinse’ repeat!’, every other weekend on an airplane bound for the opposite coast. Phillip had spent years living in the city including his years spent at NYU, and loved it, I on the other hand… New York city and I tolerated each other, and I really came to learn the differences between the two cultures, Los Angeles and New York City, while living there.
In October 2008, two weeks at a time, we completed the work on our home in Los Angeles, and what do you do when a project is complete? Why sell it of course. It was the bottom of the financial crash of 2008 and we did not have great expectations, but the house really was fabulous; our real estate agent described it as – A Magnificent Mid Century Modern with Jetliner Views – Within two weeks the house was in contract with a twenty-day closing, and we were moving.
The easiest place for us to go was the apartment
in New York City… full time… I should have known better!
We had been looking all over the country for a new home base...
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