Need More Space In Your Apartment? The New York Times Suggests You Just Buy a New Apartment!
Have you ever had that dream where you find yourself in your apartment and discover that there’s a whole other room that you never knew existed? I have that dream all the time. I take it as a sign that my subconscious is trying to tell me that I need more space and that my life is going to be unfolding in new and unexpected ways and that everything I think I need is actually already inside me, I just need to know where to look. Um, I pay way too much attention to my dreams. But maybe what it really means is that I need more space. The problem with that, of course, is that space in New York is limited, and we all need to come up with pretty creative solutions to carve out more of it for ourselves. Luckily, the New York Times is on the case, and has a pretty simple answer to your square footage problems. What’s the answer? Oh, no big deal. Just buy a whole new apartment. That’ll solve your space problems in a jiffy.
In an article titled “A Getaway Apartment, In Your Own Building” that is totally relevant to most New Yorkers, the Times reports on New Yorkers who need more space, but aren’t satisfied with just buying the apartment next door and knocking down walls. No, these New Yorkers want noncontiguous space, but they also don’t want to have to leave their buildings, because that would just be too much work. So they buy smaller apartments in their own buildings so that they can just get away from it all. “It all” being their families, I guess.
One Park Slope woman, Anne Adams, has embraced this trend. Adams used to rent “an office 20 minutes’ walk from her two-bedroom duplex in a Park Slope co-op,” but soon found that this wasn’t working out at all. Adams explains, “I loved it. But it wasn’t convenient. If the weather was inclement I would find reasons not to go.” Yeah. I can’t even imagine what a hardship it would be to walk through the rain to go to work. I’d probably just throw up my hands and spend the day watching Orange Is the New Black and feeling bad for myself. That’s the responsible adult thing to do anyway. But Adams went a different route and just bought herself a new apartment in her co-op building, so that she can work from home without really being at home. Also, it’s a nice place for her daughter to have sleepovers.
At a time when Brooklyn rent costs continue to sky rocket, isn’t it just so refreshing to hear about the people in this city who—when in need of more space—can just buy another apartment? Yes. So refreshing. And also, it’s an important reminder that those of us who can barely afford to scrape together rent each month are just whiners and should probably, you know, move to Tampa or something. Until then, I will continue to dream about additional rooms in my apartment, secret spaces that will just have to make due until I can afford to buy a second apartment. And, you know, a first one too.
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