Small Spaces

What you’ll put up with for location, location, location.

My first NYC apartment was in the East Village with two girls I met on Craigslist. The apartment was a converted two bedroom. As in converted into three bedrooms making the only common areas the hallway, the “kitchen” and the bathroom. For three girls on different schedules, it was perfect.

[By “kitchen” I mean two wooden countertops on either side of you and a fridge.]

I’ll never forget my uncle, who hadn’t been to NYC in over twenty years, said, this is where you live? In a room? My bed and my couch all fit in this cozy space. He was flabbergasted. My response was that NYC was my living room!

In another apartment, in the Village, my brother-in-law, who had never seen a NYC apartment, other than the ones that Monica, Rachel, Ross, Phoebe, Chandler and Joey lived in…opened one of my closet doors (which happened to be in the living room) and as he opened it, said, is this your dining room? Obviously once he opened the door, he realized that the apartments featured on Friends were not real NYC apartments.

In that same village apartment, there was no oven. Really, let’s be honest. The kitchen in the East Village looked like a gourmet’s kitchen compared to this one. The ‘kitchen’ here was literally a countertop with some cabinets…in the foyer.

My mom, before seeing the apartment, said maybe it’s an old building (which it was) and maybe the oven is hidden in the wall that you can’t see. Um. Not so much. Under the mini stove, where you would typically find an oven, was a mini fridge. Stainless steel and granite countertops, which was great for um…aesthetics?