*Lyrics from Sara Bareillis‘ Many the MIles from her 2007 album Little Voice. This song was playing on Pandora, and then got stuck in my head (especially the ‘how far do I have to go to get to you?’) as we walked the little-over-a-mile from our current place to our new place, so it seemed fitting. One of the things I had on my wish list was a place to see the sunset from home, and now I’ll have that. And there are “too many sunsets I haven’t seen…”
BEFORE: The living/dining room, now with light! And a breeze! (The adjacent kitchen was too full of weird cleaning supplies to photograph.)
If you’ll recall, when we originally moved to Brooklyn, it was into a very small flat that we affectionately called a pied-à-terre. At that time we still had our big house, and were actually using The Pied as a mini-home base, mostly so Jeff could work with his office mates in person, and go to meetings easily (and begin the transition of his work life). Once we sold our house, and needed to be down here full-time – and after we moved down one flight so that we could expand our living space to include a huge roof deck – we jokingly called the next flat the pied-à-deux (even though we know full well that’s not at all proper French). It was our second move in Brooklyn, and it seemed like the right way to describe our tiny 350sf (I had previously estimated it at 320sf, but it seems I may have left out the measurement of the bathtub, my office nook, and tiny kitchen closet) domicile that really wasn’t fit to house two adults for very long. Now that we’re leaving our mini-empire, I can’t help but want to name the next place our pied-à-trois.
Please, French people of the world (and Francophiles), don’t hate us for playing with the language. I am, in fact, beginning to learn French (slowly – je ne parle pas francaise très bien) and our new neighbors are from France (like, actual Parisians! I’ll get to practice my language lessons! gulp), so I have nothing but love for the French. Still, allow me to introduce you to our newest residence in our little string, the Pied-À-Trois.
BEFORE: Our new “master” bedroom. Barely 10′ x 10′ (plus that weird extra space) it’s still bigger than our current place. Plus: windows that look out onto the NYC skyline. Score!
BEFORE: The “master” looking the other way. Would you bother painting? We’re on the fence.
We’re getting all of the wish-list things we felt we needed to make our time here feel homey, welcoming to family and friends, and more or less permanent: outdoor space, views, light, second bedroom (fit for my work/art/craft, as well as guests), space to dine, and space to cook. We’ve compromised on a few things, but overall, we know we’re lucky beyond most, and are deeply grateful for it.
BEFORE: The new guest room/office/art room. I’m so beyond happy to have this space. It’s a dream come true.
BEFORE: NYC reality: there is no such thing as privacy. But, the front bedroom is far from the back one, so that’s something.
There are still some obstacles we are facing at the new place – the building was wired for cable/internet, but the connection point is in the first floor unit, and the owners are out of the country(!), and some miscellaneous things that weren’t done correctly (like some of the closets are much less than the standard 24″ deep, and the water pressure is insanely weak, and the intercom system is a bit broken, and the mailboxes aren’t secure, and there’s not a laundry room yet), but all in all, we’re very happy with our choice. Of course we have yet to move in – that will happen over the course of the next few weeks – so who knows what other quirks will turn up.
Beauty Shot: I will admit to enhancing this image. However, it is more gorgeous (and restorative) in person so I’m not sorry. Please come visit.
And while this place means we have to stop looking to buy, we’re happy to move on from that heartbreaking experience to one of just living. We’ve enjoyed the sunset a few times on the roof deck (which you probably already know about via instagram), and we’re slowly but surely coming up with a floor plan, making arrangements to rescue some pieces from our storage unit, and coordinating move dates. We’ve even ordered a couple of new furniture items to help us to realize the vision we have for our life in NYC.
Naturally, as this is not a place we’ll own, we will be restricted in many ways. We can only do so much before we reach the edges of what we’re willing to invest into someone else’s property, and before we’re infringing on someone else’s vision (aka dollar amount they’re willing to invest) for the space. So we may or may not paint. We won’t be able to make any substantive improvements to the closet issue, and because the building was already wired for cable, some of the furniture placements have been pre-decided by the builders.
All in all, it looks like we’re going to have a really busy, but great summer.
Stick around.
xoxo