JLK100's Profile

I so admire people with vision, who can see past the creepy old original kitchen and make it home. Nice work!

Long time since the last update!

Ha mandymod! I'd love to see pics of what you decide to do.

Judy, what a welcoming home. The bunk beds are genius and save so much space for NYC. It's your art collection, though, that I envy most.

The NYC real estate market is unique (OK strange/awful) in many ways. It's so hard to buy (you need a minimum 20% downpayment and can spend $1million on a nice studio apartment; you'll still be outbid by people making all-cash offers. Renting is also very, very competitive. I get the sense that Marshall's hunt was limited to SoHo for child custody reasons. That's a pricey neighborhood with little availability. As a result, landlords don't have much motivation to update or upgrade apartments: they will rent for a premium anyway.

I suspect Marshall's credentials (as well as the personal ties to the previous tenant) helped him swing such a deal of trading a month's rent for labor. Financially, not such a great transaction but to make a place feel more like home...it makes sense to me.

In case you're curious, I blogged about my own NYC apt search:
http://onechicklette.com/?s=apartment&submit=Search