New York Revisited
They say that their people in New York
live like no one else; this is certainly the case for two residents who have taken up the task of living in apartments the size of a walk in closet. I had the great fortune to get to sit down with two women, Felice and Genevieve, who live in a 90 square feet and 105 square feet.
When it comes to living in a tiny space Genevieve told me you need “a place for everything and everything in its place” to make it work. Organization was something that she felt was really important for living in such a confined space. In the 4 years she has spent living in her 105 square foot apartment she has become quite masterful at maximizing space. Tiny House folks often talk about the “100 thing challenge” a method where-by we reduce our belongings to just 100 things.
There are, however, those things we simply can’t part from, for Genevieve it was shoes….62 of them to be exact! With no closet she uses a bookshelf and baskets to store all her clothes and shoes. From looking at all the clothes, it’s obvious that everything is kept “in it’s place”.
Felice put it well when she said “if something doesn’t have a place, do you really need it?” I couldn’t agree more and from talking to these two it was obvious that they were very conscious about what was in the space.
Every item was intentional, thought out and agonized over out of sheer necessity. As a professional home organization expert, Felice spends allot of time in other spaces with people who have allot of stuff. She often starts out with clients by asking not what do you want to keep, but “What are the things you really want?” To select these items as if your house was burning down, which would you try to save first? By this method Felice is able to reduce her items to the things she loves most; In the case of her closet, when she opens it, she loves every piece of clothing there, if she doesn’t absolutely love it, it gets donated.
After talking to lots of people about living in their Tiny Houses, I have noticed that people stress the need to go vertical, in the case of Felice and Genevieve, this was the case as well. Even in apartments with 9 foot ceilings, they stacked to the ceiling, in the case of their beds, they were lofted.
Sleeping in such a small place seems to be across the board be approached by the use of lofting the sleeping area. With only 23” of space between mattress and ceiling, Felice felt closed in when she first moved in, leaving her wondering if she had made the right move. Nowadays, she loves the coziness of the bed.
That feeling of coziness is something that translates to the whole apartment. “It feels cozy, I have a friend who lives in a big one bed room 2 blocks away, and we hang out at my place.” It is similar to living in a dorm room, where you have to fit all your worldly processions in a tiny space, but still make it livable, if not loveable.
Many of you know that I love to cook, so I had to ask about cooking in these places. Both apartments don’t have real kitchens. They instead have a cooking section where they can throw together food, I was impressed to hear that Genevieve is able to pull of eggplant parmesan in here “kitchen”. Living in New York does mean that they have access to great restaurants and stores, but when it comes to cooking at home, meal planning ahead of time is key. Genevieve is really big on meal planning and planning ahead. She makes meals that serves easily and can be eaten for several meals. “Planning helps keep costs and makes cooking easier.”
Doing dishes is an interesting affair, without a sink in the “kitchen” they end up in the bathroom, even having to wash dishes in the bathtub and air drying them on a wire corner rack (check out the photo, you can see dish soap in the tub lol).
In such a small space I have always wondered how much you can really get done, but talking with these two it seems that you can pull quite a bit off. From making fancy meals, to having 3 guests spend the night, or in the case of Genevieve, running a blog about beer (check it out at thehopshoney.wordpress.com) . Felice did talk about how sometimes she felt that getting out of the space to do work was necessary to focus, but at the same time she does cherish free time at home. With being in such a great location, she has her pick of great places to go to. From parks, restaurants, cafes they are all right outside her door.
To read more about these two check out my two blog posts about Tiny NYC Apartments:
Small Apartments in NYC
Cozy Couple in NYC
Many thanks to Felice and Genevieve for such great info
New York Tiny Apartments
So on the coat tail of the Cozy couple, lots of folks have lined up to talk about their tiny house extremes. One such apartment is 12 fee long by 7 feet wide, all for the reasonable price of $800 a month!!! Granted it is in Hells Kitchen area of NYC and most New Yorkers wouldn’t bat an eye at this, but wow…just wow!
They do their dishes in the shower, sit sideways on the toilet and need to watch their weight just to fit into their bathrooms.
But these cramped New Yorkers wouldn’t have it any other way.
A week after The Post told the story of Zaarath and Christopher Prokop and their 175-square-foot micro-studio on Sunday, other New Yorkers lined up to share their tales of living small, including a 55-square-foot apartment in Hell’s Kitchen and a 90-square-foot home on the Upper West Side.
“To me, it’s all about location,” said Eddie Rabon, 24, who lives in a microscopic Hell’s Kitchen abode. “I’m in an amazing neighborhood, and the money I save on rent alone lets me really enjoy New York for what it is. My apartment is a place to hang my hat and catch a few hours of sleep. That’s it.”
55 sq. ft., Hell’s Kitchen
When freelance event planner Eddie Rabon talks about his itty-bitty pad — just one square foot larger than a Rikers Island jail cell — the excitement is clear in his voice.
“It’s fantastic,” he said. “It’s a great neighborhood in the greatest city. It’s about $800 a month. You won’t find that price anywhere else in this area. I feel like the money I save not having to get on the train to get around because I’m in the center of everything is worth it.”
Rabon said the longest wall in his apartment is 121/2 feet, and that includes the apartment door. At its narrowest spot, he can spread his arms and almost touch both opposing walls. He said he has trouble turning around in his little shower, and said taller friends have been unable to close the bathroom door if they need to sit.
“The bathroom has an airplane sink turned lengthwise,” he said. “So I can’t actually fit in over the sink
90 sq. ft., UWS
The first night Felice Cohen, 39, slept in her tiny apartment — with a full-size loft bed only 23 inches from the ceiling — she had a “panic attack.”
“But now I love it. It’s cozy,” she said of the 12-by-7-foot place, which rents for just over $700 a month.
Her tiny bathroom is a challenge, though: “I had to learn to sit sideways on the toilet so I don’t bang my leg on the tub.”
105 sq. ft., Greenwich Village 
Genevieve Shuler, 31, always knew she wanted to live near Washington Square Park, the neighborhood her parents once called home. “When I first walked in, I thought, ‘This is really incredibly tiny,’” she said of the $780-a-month pad. “There were no closets, no real kitchen. But I knew I could do more with it . Once I knew my loft bed could fit, I took it.” When it comes time to do the dishes, because the kitchen sink is so small, “I do them in the shower.”
Source: ANGELA MONTEFINISE 12/2009
Cozy Couple In A Tiny House
If they can make it there, they can make it anywhere.
Zaarath and Christopher Prokop — and their two cats — live in the smallest apartment in the city, a 175-square-foot “microstudio” in Morningside Heights the couple bought three months ago for $150,000.
At 14.9 feet long and 10 feet wide, it’s about as narrow as a subway car and as claustrophobic as a jail cell. But to the Prokops, it’s a castle.
“When you first see it, the first thing you say is, ‘Holy crap, this place is small,’ ” said Zaarath, 37, an accountant for liquor company Remy Martin. “But when I saw it, all I could think of is, I can do something with this. This is perfect for us. We love it.”
The co-op is on the 16th floor of a doorman building on 110th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. But it’s only accessible by a staircase on the 15th floor.
It has two small windows with views of upper Manhattan; hardwood floors; a tiny kitchen with a mini-fridge and hotplate; and a closet-sized bathroom with a shower, sink and toilet.
“I’m amazed we can fit two people and two cats in there,” Zaarath said. “But it’s harmonious at this point. I have friends who say they could never live with their husbands in a place this small. It’s a good thing we like each other enough to live there.”
The couple wakes up every morning in their queen-size bed, which takes up one-third of the living space.
They then walk five feet toward the tiny kitchen, where they pull out their workout clothes, which are folded neatly in two cabinets above the sink. A third cabinet holds several containers of espresso for their only kitchen appliance, a cappuccino maker.
They turn off their hotplate, and use the space on the counter as a feeding area for their cats, Esmeralda and Beauregard.
“We don’t cook,” Zaarath said, adding that their fridge never has any food in it. “So when you don’t cook, you don’t need plates or pots or pans. So we use that space for our clothes.”
Once in their running attire, the two change the cat litter box (stored under the sink) and start their small Rumba vacuum — which operates automatically while they’re out, picking up cat hair.
They then jog to their jobs in Midtown, picking up along the way their work clothes, which are “strategically stashed at various dry cleaners.”
Just in case the cleaners are closed, both have emergency clothes at their offices.
“I have a closet at my office,” Zaarath said. “You don’t want to be standing outside a closed cleaners at 8:45 in your workout pants thinking, ‘Greeeeeat’ . . . It’s a great strategy. You always have fresh things to wear.”
The only other furniture in the apartment is a 27-inch flat-screen TV attached to the wall; a brown leather storage bench at the foot of the bed that stores linens but also acts as a sofa; a cat climbing “tree,” and a shelf/wine rack system that holds a radio, cable box, and several bottles and glasses.
One of the kitchen cabinets is full of champagne because Zaarath’s job allows them to order cases of it.
They don’t have a trash can. The second something needs to be thrown out, they walk to the chute in the hallway.
Their bathroom — about 3 by 9 feet — has a small pedestal sink with mirror, and a stand-alone shower.
“Every bit of space is utilized,” said Christopher, 35, also an accountant, who beamed as he showed off the apartment. “We really have everything we need.”
The Prokops, who met in Texas where they worked, lived in New Jersey before moving to the Big Apple. They started with a 1,600-square-foot apartment in Glen Ridge, then moved to a 900-square-foot place in Jersey City. Once they decided on Manhattan, they wanted to go even smaller.
“We used to be kind of frivolous,” said Zaarath, a California native. “I used to collect vintage clothing, for example, and the cost of storing it and moving it was just not economically viable. So when we decided to move to Manhattan, we realized we’re not home that much because of our jobs. We don’t need that much space. We could go smaller. When I saw the ad in the paper, I knew I had to see it. And I knew it was right for us as soon as I saw it.”
Real-estate broker Steven Goldschmidt, senior vice president of Warburg Realty, showed the Prokops the apartment, which used to be one of about nine maid’s quarters in the prewar building.
“We converted eight of them into four apartments,” Goldschmidt said, with each apartment going for a little less than a half-million dollars.
“But we could not configure that one room within any of the floor plans we were looking at without spending oodles of money. So I came up with the idea to just make it the smallest apartment and see how it goes. I know a number of the luxury buildings are selling servants quarters and they’re not this small.”
He said he got “a lot of calls” from parents looking to find apartments for their Columbia students or business people looking for a pied-à-terre.
“It was not on the market all that long,” he said. “And the Prokops made us a great offer, and that’s it.”
The couple will pay off their mortgage in two years, when they plan to remodel some of the apartment, adding a Murphy bed and larger windows. They will then be saddled only with their maintenance fee, which is just over $700 a month.
“It’s like having a rent-controlled apartment,” she said. “We’re going to own something in Manhattan in two years. How many people can say that? And we’re very happy doing more with less.”
She added that because they save money on their home, they can spend money in “areas that make our lives better,” like restaurants and vacations. The two just got back from Beijing and have been to Japan and other countries.
“We get to really experience life and enjoy ourselves,” she said. “We eat out all the time. On the weekends, we’re outside exploring the neighborhood. We’re at Riverside Park all the time. We’re not nesters. This apartment is perfect for someone active. If you want to stay home or entertain, this is just not the apartment for you.”
She joked that the tiny apartment gets her out of hosting duties and dissuades long-term guests.
“No one ever stays too long,” she said. “It’s too small.”
She said Christopher’s parents stayed in the apartment while they were in China, and the two suitcases they brought was too much.
“They were sort of fumbling over each other,” Zaarath said.
With the holidays coming, the Prokops plan to hang a wreath and put up Christmas bushes — but in the hallway.
“Maybe I’ll just get Christmas-tree pajamas and wear them around,” laughed Zaarath. “That’ll be good.”
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