We discussed the reasons I might move to New York in the previous few posts. The last post was about finding a good living situation, if a great deal came along that would override all considerations. I promised to write more on my friends SST's place there that I visited the day before yesterday. Here it is!
After our morning lunch (review incoming, mediocre brunch high prices) we walked over to ST's place. It's in the literal heart of Chinatown, above one of the more popular NYC hotspots. The building is old and crappy, I figured the apartment would be somewhat of a reflection of that. Oh what a pleasant surprise I was in for!
First, they have an incredibly large living room. It even has a massive dining table that could easily seat and serve six people! They have a large couch, a couple of chairs, and a 'tv area' in addition to that. You might easily fit in 15-20 people, with half or more among those folks sitting on chairs, inside that room. By the City standards, that's stately!
They've got a real kitchen too! By which I mean: a full set of stove with a working oven underneath, two 'stove-space' worth of prep space, which is sufficient for most kitchen tasks, and a large sink. It's slightly smaller than the counter-space in my kitchen, but it's New York for gods sake! Two people could be making food at the same time, easily!
Their restroom is modern, fancy handwash, all tiles, and looks and smells wonderful. Best of all, it's got a window, which means no awkward air-ventilation issues!
My friend's room has one massive window that faces the East, and while it's not as large as my current space, it's sufficiently large! She has a large queen bed, a large dresser, a closet, a desk to work on, a bedside table, and more floorspace to dance and do the salsa... It is incredible!
Best of all, her roommates are really really nice, she cooks with them! Cooks! Meaning she saves so much money by not eating out. It's not a big deal here in Seattle because yuck, but I'd like to be cooking regularly in there, that's how you 'show it' to the world! So down-to-earth and reasonable! These are the kind of people I want to be spending time with!
All of this for a veerry reasonable sum of money that's actually less than a thousand bucks. Put differently, the three people in that apartment are paying less than what my friend SK pays for his single-bedroom fancy new-construction building in the East Village. In my fantasy world, he'll take the entire apartment, lease me my friend's room for 1k, and we'll use the third bedroom as guest room, or when his family comes in.
I've told my friend to never, ever, ever leave the apartment, keep it in her family if she possibly can, because what an incredible deal that is! Yes, she does have to share the place with two dudes, but they're people she likes, and she spends so much less money in NYC(!!!) even after food and much pricier phone bill (lol, we talked about it) than I do in Seattle. It's not apples-to-apples, but of course NYC is MUCH better than Seattle, everything else being the same!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Tell me what you think. I'll read, promise.