00:00Hi, welcome to my sweet day. My name is Hong and I live here with my partner, our dog, and
00:05our cat
00:05who is a princess. Come on in. I paid $3,775 for a one-bedroom apartment at the very edge
00:13of the
00:14West Village. It may seem a little excessive and at times it does feel a little excessive,
00:18but we also live in a very special building. We live in one of the best neighborhoods in New York
00:24City. We have like a really beautiful courtyard outside, so yes, I definitely think it's worth it.
00:30I love this neighborhood because we've been in here for so long. It's actually going to be five
00:34years soon, and we've just gotten to really know the people. I really love the vibrance of the
00:39community, and another perk is that we also know where all the store cats are. This is our kitchen
00:45where we cook and just stand around. So one of the things I love about my kitchen is that it's
00:51very
00:51open, so it makes the space feel a lot bigger. But unfortunately, the space is actually quite
00:56small. My favorite part about my kitchen is this gift for my friend. It's a cross-stitch that says,
01:01my cat was right about you. I think this is about as me as you can get. I love cross
01:07-stitching. It's a
01:07hobby that just completely defines me. We actually don't have a designated dining area, which is quite
01:13unfortunate, but we just have to stand at the kitchen counter and make do with what we got.
01:19Another reason why we do that is because we just don't want our dog to get into our meals. Another
01:25thing I love about my kitchen are the cat butt magnets that Asher got for me for my birthday last
01:31year. He's so precious about keeping the cat butts together because he wants them to all play together.
01:37Sometimes behind his back, I like to sneak one off just to freak him out because I could be a
01:41real
01:42butt about it. This is our living space where I spend the majority of my time. It was really
01:53important for us to have a very functional space. So we needed to have a space for our books as
02:00well
02:00as just a workspace for when we need to work from home and as well as like a really comfortable,
02:05cozy
02:05living space. So we took the couch and we just basically split the living room in half and we
02:12put the desk behind it. We fell in love with this apartment simply because the lighting was really
02:16great. As soon as we walked in, the apartment was flooded with light, which was such a huge relief
02:23from our last place. Our old apartment didn't have any windows at all except for in the bedroom.
02:29And this one, I feel like it's a total upgrade just because it has so much lighting. It's way bigger.
02:35So we actually have two fireplaces in this apartment, which I feel like is very unique for New York.
02:40One in the living room and one in the bedroom. They both do not work, which probably explains why
02:45we don't get Christmas presents. Because Santa. One of my favorite pieces in the living room is our
02:51dinosaur lamp. We got him from Target and his name is Broccoli because he's green like broccoli. He also likes
02:57to dress up for the holidays. One of the items that's displayed very proudly in our living room
03:02are the presidential campaign pins. These belong to my partner and he's been collecting them for
03:07over, I think he's been collecting them his entire life. He actually knows like the history and the
03:13story behind each pin. But for me personally, I think it's just a piece that really, really represents
03:19who he is. So that's what makes it more valuable for me. Another thing that I like to hang in
03:25my
03:25apartment is my own photography. I love capturing the city, especially during like moody days when
03:31it's raining and it's a little dark. And sometimes they're just special photos to me that I love
03:37hanging. The biggest splurge in our apartment is our article couch. Our last couch was so bad that our
03:44dog didn't even want to jump on the couch. We definitely wanted something more comfortable,
03:49definitely bigger. And I'm so happy I got it. This is our bedroom where I like to say the magic
03:57happens because I like to cross stitch in here. So for the bedroom, we wanted to keep the decor
04:02really calming and simple, mainly because it just helps us go to sleep a lot easier and we just don't
04:09have too many distractions. We're really lucky to have like an actual walk-in closet. We utilize the
04:15vertical space by adding more shelving in there. We were able to fit a whole dresser in there, which
04:20is really awesome because then we don't have to put it out here. And our cat, she loves our closet.
04:26So
04:26she likes to sleep in all of our sweaters, which also means that most of my sweaters have holes in
04:31them. My partner and I always refer to our home as our cat's home because she definitely kind of
04:37dictates what we do around here in regards to like, like the decorating. We have like her cat tree,
04:43we have like her litter box in here, and we also have a lot of toys for her. The really
04:47great thing
04:47about Princessa is that she is actually like a princess. She's very precious about a lot of things.
04:53Like you have cats that like knock things over. She's the cat that like pushes them back. And then
04:58this is our bathroom. Our old bathroom was literally the size of a closet where we had the sink over
05:05the
05:06toilet. And we also didn't have a bathtub. So anything with a bathtub is definitely an upgrade for us.
05:11I would say that my style is very comfortable, warm and very functional. One of the things that I also
05:17wanted to include in there was just personal touches that tells a very honest and true story
05:24about who we are as a family. My partner and I actually met in college. And to be honest, he
05:30really
05:30didn't like me at first because the first thing I said to him was I was making fun of the
05:35book that he
05:36was reading. One of the last things that he actually said to me before he graduated was that how he's
05:41never
05:41going to see me again. And 10 years later, here we are happily engaged, except just kidding,
05:47because we're not happy.
05:52I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. It's our sense of humor. You can put that in there if you want.
05:57When our lease ended at our last place, we actually got our landlord to put us on a month-to
06:04-month lease.
06:04So we had a lot of flexibility in regards to when we have to move out. So I basically stopped
06:11StreetEasy for about eight months before this place came on the market. This building has like a courtyard
06:16and it also has like a koi pond and it's in a gated area. So it feels like an urban
06:21oasis. The thing
06:23that made it really feel like home is when we started adding our personal touches in there. So like all
06:27of
06:28the pictures that we have and all of the photographs that we have. And then just everything that like
06:32reminds us of like our cat and our dog. It's an ever-evolving concept to us. So we're always adding
06:38in things that we acquire through traveling or through our vacations. And then just also like
06:43additional, you know, even our bookshelves, for example, it's always evolving. So we actually just
06:48renewed our lease. So we're going to stay put for a little bit, but I'm going to be terribly sad
06:53the day
06:53that we actually have to leave this neighborhood.
