I love New York.
While I was born and raised here and have always considered it home, it wasn't until I had an apartment of my own in Williamsburg that I really felt connected. The location — right at North 7th Street and Bedford Avenue — was the perfect hub to from which to head toward friends, family and work. Those "spokes," per se, comprised such places as Astoria, Park Slope, Bayside and Seacaucus, N.J. Best of all, it was right on the Bedford L, one subway stop from Manhattan and literally 7 minutes to Union Square.
It was immensely satisfying to round out my meager belongings with furniture to fit the space.
In that shoebox of an apartment, I managed to fit such beloved items as a Persian rug I'd bought at a Santa Fe, New Mexico, consignment store when I lived there; my Stearns & Foster queen size bed, an armless houndstooth chair from Crate & Barrel (a floor model and on sale!), Ikea adjustable halogen overhead lamps in the bedroom and living room — with dimmers — and an Ikea Pax Malm wardrobe to compensate for the dearth of closet space.
The entire apartment was repainted in Benjamin Moore Weathered Stone with two bedroom accent walls in a custom royal blue derived spontaneously from a roll of 3M painter's masking tape. My brother, Marco, and I selected it at a Home Depot color-picking machine in order to overcome my palette indecision.
I couldn't have been happier with those choices, made after several agonizing attempts to pick something.
My reason for going off-track for a moment derives at least in part from wanting to contrast my relatively painless apartment makeover sprint to the arduous home renovation marathon in which I was now enmeshed.
I knew my current project would be much, much more work than a tiny Williamsburg flat. Except that part of me figured I'd get to the fun stuff much more quickly: I'd change a few fixtures, refinish the floors, spackle some walls and pick colors for all of the rooms.
So far, it's been way more involved than that.
Would I do it all over again? Absolutely. Only differently.
2 comments:
I'm checking with you on what 'differently' when I am ready to buy my place!
i think it's hard to not to think about what would've happened had you waited, i.e. now, when houses are selling for a fraction of what they sold for when you took the plunge. but really, a house picks you. your house picked you. i look at your williamsburg place, where i'd stayed more than one night. and i loved it there. but your place is a home. williamsburg with all it's double-decker bikes, and hipsters fakin' poverty... was never going to be a home.
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