- 7 minutes ago
We explore Abby & Suriya's apartment that they share with a third roommate in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hi, I'm Abby. I'm Saria. And welcome to our Sweet Digs, where we have no shortage on doors.
00:04We live in Crown Heights in a two-bedroom converted into a three-bedroom apartment.
00:10It's about a thousand square feet, and altogether we pay $2,550.
00:16I pay $800 individually.
00:19I pay $785.
00:21And our third roommate, Chloe, pays $950.
00:24I'd say for a two-bedroom, which this technically is, it's too much.
00:29I know I'm getting a good deal, and that it's cheap for New York, but I don't have a real
00:34room,
00:35so $785 feels like a lot for a converted bedroom.
00:40So this is our living room.
00:42We brought together a bunch of different furniture, either from past houses, or a few items that we found on
00:48the street,
00:49and a few things that the last tenant left here.
00:51We all have similar tastes.
00:53I think that there's definitely specific things where I'll be like, that's definitely Abby's, or that's definitely mine.
01:00But we try to melt them all together.
01:04Looking around, and you'll see little bits of, like, Saria, or me, or Chloe.
01:09I have a poster that's, like, on the wall that we know is mine, but we all love.
01:14Abby's Dolly Parton Saint Candle is, like, just so her, but it works in the space because, like, all of
01:20our styles really do come together in it.
01:22This is our dining area, and this is my table.
01:25I brought it up from New Orleans when I moved here last year.
01:28Everyone said that it wouldn't fit in our Brooklyn apartment, but I feel like it works really well with the
01:33space,
01:33and it's, like, a nice dark wood, so it matches a lot of the other, like, dark wood features that
01:38we have.
01:38Welcome to my room.
01:39My room is pretty small, but I feel like I've made the space work pretty well for myself.
01:44I would say that my style is Scandinavian functionalism.
01:50I, like, kind of read about that before I moved in.
01:53It's all about, like, using every inch of the space.
01:56I have some of these high shelves up here above my bed.
01:59I use them for storage and then also just decoration.
02:02I have this little, like, vanity shelf.
02:04It's great because it doesn't take up too much space.
02:06It holds all of my stuff.
02:08It kind of frames my mirror really well.
02:10I have a little bit of, like, a double-decker two-story closet.
02:13I have a lot of clothing, so I put in a top clothing rack up there as well,
02:18and I use this little hook to get stuff out from the top.
02:22My dad is a carpenter, and I explained to him how small my room was,
02:27so I went home one weekend.
02:28And we built this together in his workshop, and then I brought it back to New York.
02:32And I set up a computer, and we Skyped while I drilled it in.
02:37He was, like, giving me instructions and everything.
02:39It's held up really well since then.
02:41It's definitely my favorite thing in the room.
02:43Thanks, Dad.
02:44Overall, I really like the space.
02:46It's definitely small, and it was a little shocking when I first moved in here.
02:51I've worked a lot on making it really functional,
02:54but also make it a space that I feel comfortable in and that I feel represents me.
03:00Hey, this is my room.
03:02It doesn't have any windows, but it is pretty spacious,
03:07and it has two different doors, which is pretty cool.
03:09It definitely means I don't get as much privacy as everybody else,
03:14but I like that we have the French doors, so I can still get light in my room,
03:17but still have, like, some privacy, too.
03:19My style, in terms of decorating, is definitely influenced by my mom's style,
03:25my Thai heritage, for sure.
03:28The moon phases at the top is something that she has in her house,
03:33and when I moved, she wanted me to feel like I was at home,
03:35and so she got me one, too.
03:37And then I just have photos of me and my brother and my sister,
03:40and then my grandparents, which are also a really big part of my life.
03:45This Rubik's Cube that my brother sent me, he's 11,
03:48and he is really into it right now and wants me to get really good at it.
03:52I have not done a great job practicing, but I will.
03:56This is a pretty small portion of my shoe collection.
04:00They're some of my favorite ones, and then I also keep some out in the living room.
04:04I keep some in my wardrobe and some under my bed, too.
04:07When I was a kid, my dad used to work at Nike in, like, product development,
04:11so I always got to test the ones that hadn't come out yet.
04:15I always felt like I was the coolest kid, like, walking around in Nikes that hadn't come out yet.
04:19I like that all my shoes are really different from each other,
04:22but they're, like, a really cool way that I like to show my personal style.
04:26Overall, I really love my room.
04:28I think I've done a really good job of making it feel like me.
04:32I was a little nervous when we first moved in because it is not technically a bedroom.
04:36I wasn't sure how homey it would feel, but it definitely does feel really homey.
04:41It feels like me.
04:42It feels like a very sentimental space.
04:45This is our bathroom.
04:46We just have the one between the three of us.
04:48It has a shower and, like, a little mini tub.
04:51We all have very different schedules,
04:53so we never really run into, like, an issue where someone's in the bathroom
04:56and I need to get in there.
04:57It is really small, though, and, like, this door doesn't open past the toilet.
05:02It just, like, hits it and stops.
05:04But in general, it, like, does its job.
05:06None of us really get ready in here.
05:08We just have, like, face wash, toothbrushes, toothpaste, that kind of stuff.
05:11It's definitely not used as, like, a vanity space at all.
05:14And this is our kitchen.
05:15This is our kitchen.
05:16It was really nice when I moved in because this came with the house
05:20and it has a really nice wooden top.
05:23I bake a lot, so it's been really nice for, like, shaping bread
05:26or, like, rolling out pie crust and stuff.
05:29It was nice that it just came with the house instead of having to go buy one.
05:32You know in the movie Matilda, there's that scene where the boy has to, like,
05:34eat the chocolate cake, and it's a horrifying scene.
05:37I think that's why I never ate chocolate cake as a kid because it was, like, scarring.
05:41But Abby looks at scene and is like, that is a good cake.
05:43I want to eat that chocolate cake.
05:45It looks good.
05:46I love chocolate cake.
05:47We could definitely use more storage in there.
05:49I would love, like, a slightly bigger fridge.
05:51But we're lucky that we have a dishwasher, we have a garbage disposal,
05:55and it's definitely not as cramped as, like, a lot of kitchens could be.
05:58Yeah, I agree.
05:59I think more storage would be really nice.
06:01It's kind of like a skinny hallway with stuff on either side.
06:04For splitting food and pots and pans and everything between three people,
06:08it'd be great if there was a little more.
06:10And my baking takes up some space.
06:13So this is our deck patio area.
06:16It definitely was a huge selling point of a house.
06:19Often in New York, you don't get outdoor space,
06:21and so we really liked having this option.
06:23Yeah, we use it a lot for when we have people over.
06:26If it's nice out, we'll, like, eat out here.
06:29We have a grill over here.
06:30We grew some plants.
06:32We had, like, sunflowers and different vegetables when it was nicer out.
06:35So once it's springing again, we'll plant.
06:37It definitely is probably the best part of the house.
06:40For sure.
06:40We just re-signed on our second year of our lease,
06:43and I think that we're really excited to have a whole other year here in this place.
06:48I'm still putting up artwork, and I think we're still kind of decorating a little bit,
06:53and so I think it would be really nice in this next year to really solidify, like,
06:59what the style is of the apartment.
07:01I would also want to do, like, a little bit more gardening on the back deck.
07:04I did a little bit last summer, but to, like, really get some vegetables out of there would be awesome.
07:08I really like living in Crown Heights.
07:11I think it's a really diverse neighborhood.
07:13It's very multicultural, and a lot of our friends live in the neighborhood, too.
07:17So we have our friends who live downstairs.
07:19Some of our best friends live literally on the next block,
07:22and so it's nice that everyone kind of feels like we're all here together.