We’re Making Headlines!

There is something about the little family compound we’ve created in our building with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law that seems to be intriguing to people! While it’s not uncommon for families who are native to New York City to live in the same building as relatives, that’s not usually the same for NYC transplants! Today, our NYC renting story is being featured in the “New York Post”! You can check out the full article here: “These New Yorkers actually like — and even love — their neighbors”

But this isn’t the first time our NYC renting story has been published as a feature article! The first article was published in 2017 in “The New York Times”. You can check out the full article here: “In Queens, a Rent-Stabilized Family Compound”.

While it’s been fun to read the articles about our story, today I wanted to share my own version of the FULL story about our arrival and renting history in NYC. Our simple life in the city continues to be a bit extraordinary!

Our NYC Renting Story

In August of 2011, Emily and I packed a U-Haul with all of our belongings for the long drive from Lexington, Kentucky to New York City, New York! We asked my dad to come along, and together we drove to our new apartment in NYC.

I asked my dad to drive the final leg of the trip through the city (this was his first time EVER to NYC!) and I remember Emily and I looking at one another as we saw the skyline, and just smiling. We were so very excited, but also very nervous. We’d spent several years planning and dreaming about what life in the big city would look like, and to see that big dream become a reality was nothing short of amazing.

Our One-Bedroom Apartment

We settled into our little one-bedroom apartment in Astoria, Queens, NY. Measuring in at a whopping 500 square feet, we were so excited that it had an eat-in kitchen!

My dad stayed for a few days to help us unpack and paint the space. We needed to transform the orange living room to a more calming shade of blue! When he left, he said, “I may not understand why you would want to live in a place without a yard full of grass and trees, but it’s certainly going to be an adventure!”

On our first night alone in the city, we wanted to go out and do something, but we didn’t really know where to go or what to do. We had no friends here, knew nothing about our neighborhood, and didn’t have smart phones. So we went to the one place where we thought everyone in NYC goes… Times Square.

We had moved into our apartment on August 1st and I started work at my new school a couple of weeks later. We spent those first few weeks organizing and decorating our apartment. It’s crazy to look back at photos and see our beautiful white couch and white rug. Oh, the little joys of life before kids!

By September, I had begun the new school year as a 4th grade teacher! It was exciting to set up my new classroom, and see the Empire State Building across the river, right through my classroom window!

I also started attending graduate school at Columbia University. Attending grad school was the impetus for our decision to move to NYC and I was so very excited to begin my studies!

In May of 2013, after two years of study, I graduated from Columbia with my Masters Degree in Comparative and International Education.

After graduation, Emily and I had a decision to make: continue living in NYC or head elsewhere? But at around that same time, our NYC story changed forever when Emily’s sister, Audrey, flew up to interview for an open social work position at my school.

At the time, Audrey was working in Waco, Texas and was about to get married to my now brother-in-law, Braden. Audrey and Braden had both visited us several times, and Braden was ready to start his acting career. Long story short, Audrey landed the job at my school and they made plans to move to NYC after their wedding.

At the end of the summer, Audrey and Braden moved to Astoria and settled into a one-bedroom apartment, 9 blocks from our apartment. Emily and I actually found the apartment listing for them, walked through it with the broker, and claimed it for them! They moved in after only seeing photos! Our adventures in the city together began right away!

Our Two-Bedroom Apartment

About a year later, Emily and I saw a listing for an available 2-bedroom, 3rd-floor-walkup, 700-square-feet railroad-style apartment only two avenues away from our current apartment. We hadn’t been actively looking to move into a new apartment, but checking out apartment listings online was a hobby of mine. It was a space we felt we could definitely grow into with future children. We moved in, and set up the second bedroom as a lounge area with a couch and bookshelves, and it felt so luxurious.

In the summer of 2014, we learned that we were expecting our first child! We joyously transformed the lounge room into a little New Yorker nursery.

In April of 2015, we welcomed Mabel into the world and brought her home to our apartment in Astoria. We began settling into life as a family of three. We loved having Audrey and Braden living nearby.

When Mabel was a baby, I was working full-time at school and Emily was working part-time as an occupational therapist. We hired Braden as our nanny and he came to our apartment to watch Mabel two mornings each week.

Our Downstairs Neighbors

In the spring of 2016, I learned that an apartment in our building was available, and I jumped at the opportunity to share the news with Audrey and Braden. Not only could they live downstairs from their niece, but Braden’s commute time would literally be 10 seconds!

Audrey and Braden chose to move into our building, and continued their roles of doting Auntie and Uncle to Mabel. While we were all a bit nervous at the prospect of living so close to one another, we trusted that the benefits would far outweigh any stresses.

In April of 2017, around the same time that we welcomed Matilda into the world, our NYC renting story was first published in The New York Times.

And not much has changed about our renting story since then. Other than all of the room switches (see The Great Bedroom Flip), and the addition of new little ones to both apartments.

Our newest little downstairs neighbor, our niece Davy, joined us on my birthday this past year! And when our new baby arrives (see Our Third), there will soon be 8 members of our little family compound!

There have been so many benefits to living in the same building and we are truly blessed to have one another so close. We make a great team (see The One with Cash Cab). We often get asked if we have plans to move out of NYC or to move into a different apartment in the city, but we are still so happy with our living situation and have no plans to change that.

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