"I was really impressed with how everything is configured,” Ms. Okuji said. “I think it is great that the bed can go up; it really opens up the space.... The dishwasher looks like a regular drawer, and a mini-oven doubles as a microwave,” she said. “The only drawback is the size of the bathroom: The sink is tiny. But having amenities in the building were icing on the cake."Click on the photograph of Okuji's tiny-house-modular apartment. Assuming the sound-proofing is top-notch, I'd be happy living there if I were an unmarried woman.
There's nothing about noise in that article, which is in the NYT, but I ran across this other article "Please Stop Making That Noise," about misophonia, which literally means the hatred of sound.
When I lived in New York City, I was much more sensitive than my roommates to noises from adjacent apartments. When dogs are left outside barking late at night, I fixate on the noise and cannot fall asleep. Chewing noises, particularly from behind me, are enormously irritating, as are people who perpetually sniff their mucus back into their nostrils....
For me, one of the most frustrating aspects of misophonia is what I call the “incredulity factor.”...
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59 comments:
"Murphy Beds, charming to the unsophisticated." - Mel Brooks.
Sadly, that sounds like a good price for that setup in NYC. I had a friend who paid about that much for a similar studio in Murray Hill a decade ago.
The problem will only get worse as NYC continues to pursue idiotic housing laws that discourage the supply increase that it'd take to bring down prices.
It looks bigger than my dorm in college. Which I shared with 3 other people for a semester. Plus it has a kitchenette. And presumably a bathroom.
It occurs to me that she doesn't need that high a ceiling. Waste of space, there. She could put in an upper story and rent it out.
I think my oldest son my have misophonia. Or something like it.
While he constantly needs to make noise himself, while doing schoolwork or just about anything else, he hates it if his brothers or his sister hum or break into song.
I've lived comfortably in less than half that space. That apartment looks quite nice for a single person. I'd hate to pay $2,600 a month for it but then I have no desire to live in New York City.
Mobile homes are back. But the ground must be too expensive for double-wides in NYC.
Little boxes made of ticky tacky and they all look the same....
Apparently ok in NYC; in the suburbs, not so much.
I have misophonia! It's awful. And is getting worse as I get older. Mouth noises are the worst and I have to sit some distance away from others when we are eating despite perfectly acceptable table manners on their part. I can hear the chewing going on inside their (closed) mouths and it's terribly bothersome. I can hear throat sounds as people swallow. Awful. Can't unhear.
I also can't stand other noises such as my daughters dragging slippered feet across the wood floor.
Noises that are repetitive but not completely predictable drive me crazy.
It's not worth it. It is always amazing what people would prefer to have than money.
I'd be happy living there if I were an unmarried woman.
Where are you going to put all of your shoes?
Just kidding, I don't think you're the shoe type. My wife, and my daughter...that's another story.
I loved my Murphy bed back in the day, but I wouldn't pay that price for that space.
Murphy got a patent on his bed over a century ago, but the company did a poor job maintaining its trademark in the name. A federal appeals court said 25 years ago that the term had become generic.
Eric,
Get your kid an instrument and see if it takes.
Housing advocates say the creation of more micro-apartments could open up many more reasonably priced living options.
Ha! $2K a month is more than our mortgage on a 2600 sq ft home in a very nice neighborhood. Flyover country indeed.
Birches--right?! My brother lives in a very small but nice 1 bed apartment in a medium-fashionable part of Seattle for a hair over $2100 a month. My mortgage payment on 2700 sf on a quarter acre in a nice neighborhood is $1650.
22 of the units will be designated as affordable housing.
Separate entrances, of course. Those Coastal Elites can't bear to be seen with the regular riff raff.
Jack and Linda Sproule, both in their late 60s, have lived in a 300-square-foot apartment on Central Park West and 83rd Street for almost 13 years. “We were won over by gorgeous views of the park, and an elevator,” said Ms. Sproule, who as a self-described “old Upper West Sider,” is happy to have settled in the neighborhood.
Yep, I'm sure I'm sure most of these micro apartments will be so well located. Snort.
I know there is no end to the examples of how the NYT's is out of touch, but this article, for me today, is taking the cake.
Austin Texas is the most "economically segregated" city in the U.S.
http://www.kvue.com/story/news/local/2015/02/23/report-austin-is-most-economically-segregated-metro-in-us/23902309/
Is there an endpoint to social justice?
$1,000 a month covers our mortgage and taxes on all the house we want. 1,7500 sq ft plus 1,000 sq ft basement on four acres in a very nice suburban neighborhood. Spectacular mountain views, wildlife, just minutes from downtown, the university, the airport, the ski area, or world famous trout streams. It IS a long way from New York City. Fly over country, indeed.
I'd be happy living there if I were an unmarried woman.
Maybe, but real estate photos can be deceptive. Also consider that $2,000 - $3,000 a month is pretty high. Okuji should consider attending school elsewhere.
I can't sleep in the presence of a ticking clock... But I think that's not so much misophonia as much as a general disgust with my own mortality.
How about $1,100 a month for a 3,600 sq ft, 6 BR, 3 1/2 bath on 2.6 acres across from the golf course in a beautiful area of southern flyover country?
I too live in a suburban single family dwelling and since it is where I live, it is what I prefer. Much of the reason I like it is that I share the space with a wife and three children.
If I was a single guy who worked in a city, a small apartment might be desirable. Sure, my mortgage now is less than the rent on a small place but I could forgo other expenses: A car payment + insurance + parking could easily add up to $1,000/month. I wouldn't need or want a car if I lived in Manhattan. Property insurance on our place is about $700 per month--that would be included in the rent cost.
NYC still has rent control, doesn't it? Isn't that a big reason why housing supply is so low?
across from the golf course in a beautiful area of southern flyover country?
As long as it is not on the slice side of the fairway.
Three hundred square feet is 20 x 15. And that includes an area for storing food, sleeping, working and taking a dump.
And that's worth 2000 dollars?
Take it from a NYer, its not worth the cash.
This may be shocking but some people want to live in a city and are willing to pay!
I have a car but I don't drive much. The past month the city has been hell to drive in. Commuters were in their cars for 2 hours 30 minutes driving 10 miles. I can walk and take public transport (which wasn't bad in my hood).
I have seen license plates, wheels, and big chunks of car parts all over the city. Now there are thousands of huge potholes around the city. The last thing I would want to do is get in a car.
There was an interesting article in the Times today about more people-especially younger, and well paid people moving back to the cities. And now businesses are moving back in rather than out to the suburbs.
Seinfeld had a great episode where Kramer, in one of his schemes decided to rent out the drawers from his extra large bureau, as bedrooms for Japanese tourists. Since they are used to small spaces.
Suddenly he seems prescient.
Go for one of the outer burrougs. for 2000 bukcs you can get a nice one bedroom with maybe 650 square feet and a short subway ride to the city.
For $2000 a month I can afford to own a home pretty much anywhere else in the country, including places like Seattle or Denver or Portland.
Heck, if you pay $1500 a month then you can afford to fly out one long weekend a quarter to visit NYC and stay in style somewhere.
Spending a crap ton to live in a city that happily elects de Blasio?
And they claim Southerners are dumb?
Ms. Okuji wants privacy for another type of international affairs, if you know what I am saying.
Titus,
In a city, you're also paying for the privilege of parks where anonymous gentleman go to test the boundaries of legal and social tolerance.
Can't put a price on that!
Thanks for sharing!
Laughter is the shock absorber that eases the blows of life.
thank you.
There was an interesting article in the Times today about more people-especially younger, and well paid people moving back to the cities.
I am sure it is true then. Hey, it might even really be true.
The funny thing about rural areas is income inequality is hugely less out here in the "land of the low sloping foreheads."
I love walking everywhere-restaurants, grocery store, spa, salon, yoga, gym, crack waxer, etc.
Remind yourself: You can only deal with the present moment. Everything else is a memory, a hope or a fear.
Both my sisters live in the country on acres of land-I could never be there by myself.
Tears are words the heart can't express.
thank you.
Why anyone would live in NYC is beyond me.
We pay less than that per month for the house we will soon own, and for the large scenic piece of planet it sits on. This young woman is a fool, feeding herself into a system that consumes fools...
...and I was going to make a crack about misophonia but the cat just found her new catnip squeak-toy in the next room and it sounds like she is butchering a flock of sparrows...
The funny thing about rural areas is income inequality is hugely less out here in the "land of the low sloping foreheads."
Actually, any place not run by Democrats tends to have far less income inequality as a general rule.
Why they want to run on that issue is lost on me. What success stories do they have of Democratic governance not exacerbating that problem?
Make your life be like toilet paper....long and useful
I'd like better pictures--i don't care (who would?) to see how it's built, I want to see how it's lived in. That said, I lived in a 400 sq ft 2-bedroom apartment in Hell's Kitchen during law school and my share of the rent was $950.00 so these prices for this location seem pretty good.
To all the people comparing this to their own mortgages, stop it. You're being silly. You don't live on a small island where millions of people want to live.
What they need is a Murphy floor which would be on the other side of the Murphy bed and when the bed is up it would unfold and replace the bed with a couch. When the bed is down the couch side fits into a recessed floor. Raising the floor to accommodate the recess would use up maybe two feet of the nine foot high ceiling which wouldn't matter when you are lying on your bed. There are cardboard pop up books that show how to do this.
Also you could have more closet space by a lazy-susan arrangement in which a box protrudes from the side of the building and a turntable on its floor gives you your choice of summer or winter clothes.
And if these units were custom built then they could befitted together like eggs in box without hallways and you exit the building by going down a slide. To get in to your front door they fire you from a cannon with a (bungee cord attached for emergencies). True, only the young would like this but that goes for the whole set up.
Look on craigslist Detroit. You can buy a house for a few months rent.
For a years rent you can almost buy a neighborhood and be a slumlord.
To all the people comparing this to their own mortgages, stop it. You're being silly. You don't live on a small island where millions of people want to live.
Nobody said millions of people were necessarily smart.
Most of the idiots who would tolerate that also voted for Obama...
Titus: "There was an interesting article in the Times today about more people-especially younger, and well paid people moving back to the cities. And now businesses are moving back in rather than out to the suburbs."
Wow.
Cutting edge Titus catches up with a phenomenon that goes back to the 70's.
Thanks for being on the pulse of "what's happenin' now" Titus!
http://www.pbs.org/pov/flagwars/special_gentrification.php
It's never too late to try and catch up....even when you're decades behind.
Don't worry Titus, no one holds you accountable for those, like garage, who are incapable of "catching up".
Our apt in Marina del Rey is a little over 300 sq ft with Murphy bed,, sofa,desk and hall from living area lined with mirrored closet doors with bath sink, mirrors, dresser at end with bath off to right., plus balcony off living area. We can see the ocean from our 3rd floor breezeway on one side and turn and see the snow covered mountains on the other. Cost? $2500/mo. We are a two block walk from the beach down Washington. st which divides the Marina from Venice. Only drawback is that one HAS to drive everywhere so is muy expensive. (Although the area has a pretty good bus system, but takes forever.) We are there from just after St Pats day thru the summer with almost constant 70 degree temps avoiding New Orleans' heat & humidity, returning in time for the LSU football season so not a bad deal..
damikesec -- I lived in NYC; feel no urge to go back since everything there that mattered to me has been dissolved into a trendoid mass.
"The problem will only get worse as NYC continues to pursue idiotic housing laws that discourage the supply increase that it'd take to bring down prices."
How do the housing laws discourage the building of new apartments? New apartments do not fall under rent control or rent stabilization laws. If anything, this should be an impetus for new apartments to be built. However, there is no interest by developers in building living space that is "affordable," (or that meets a normal person's notion of "affordable"). They only want to build mega-luxury buildings where apartments sell for millions. It is greed that discourages the building of affordable housing in NYC.
Titus, life IS like toilet paper. The closer you are to the end, the faster it goes.
Oh, I bet it's loud. My old apartment on 86th I swear must have had only one layer of drywall. I not only heard everything my neighbor said (if he only knew. His fave phrase was "it's crazy!" I could also smell his cologne! At least he wore fragrances I enjoyed and was a really great neighbor. When these Norwegian guys moved in upstairs to start a techno disco (or so it seemed) that was another story.
I hear everything with my current neighbor, but we are both so quiet it doesn't matter. However I have to stop myself saying too loud, "God bless you," when she sneezes since that's kind of weird.
My brother lives in a very small but nice 1 bed apartment in a medium-fashionable part of Seattle for a hair over $2100 a month.
My daughter's mortgage payment on a house near MLK and Cherry is than 2/3's of that. Your brother is paying too much.
Of course, my daughter is proficient with firearms.
"Is there an endpoint to social justice?"
When all parties involved agree on who got screwed and the extent of the screwing: yes.
I am Laslo.
"on a house near MLK and Cherry"
Some nice tucked-away homes there; the problem is what they are tucked-away from.
I am Laslo.
Why it's worth $2,000+ a month for 300 square feet in NYC.
The problem with NYC is that, although there are a lot of interesting people there, they make up about .01% of the population. The rest are just in the way.
"$2K a month is more than our mortgage on a 2600 sq ft home in a very nice neighborhood. Flyover country indeed"
Shhh. Don't tell these highly nuanced urban sophisticates how we inbred drooling toothless hillbillies are living better for less money. Remind them that we lack an all-night tattoo and massage parlor next door.
Robert Cook said...
"The problem will only get worse as NYC continues to pursue idiotic housing laws that discourage the supply increase that it'd take to bring down prices."
How do the housing laws discourage the building of new apartments? New apartments do not fall under rent control or rent stabilization laws. If anything, this should be an impetus for new apartments to be built. However, there is no interest by developers in building living space that is "affordable," (or that meets a normal person's notion of "affordable"). They only want to build mega-luxury buildings where apartments sell for millions. It is greed that discourages the building of affordable housing in NYC.
2/24/15, 8:51 PM
The GREAT thing about America is that if you see a problem, you are usually free to try and solve it. If affordable housing in NYC is such a problem [that worries you], why don't you and some of your friends pool your money, build some "affordable" housing and prosper? "See a problem, solve a problem".
More likely, the answer is that due to the construction and regulatory climate in NYC, businesses can not afford to build "affordable" housing. Additionally, due to the current housing shortage, landlords can get high rents for those that do exist but lets instead just blame "greedy capitalists" and not the liberal regulatory environment that enables/forces them to be such.
wildswan:
What they need is a Murphy floor which would be on the other side of the Murphy bed and when the bed is up it would unfold and replace the bed with a couch.
- - - - - - - - -
No the solution is much easier than that - here's one model:
http://resourcefurniture.com/product/penelope-sofa/
"Shhh. Don't tell these highly nuanced urban sophisticates how we inbred drooling toothless hillbillies are living better for less money."
You're not living in NYC? How could you be "living better?"
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