Home Improvements?

Dear Reader,

I am currently in the throes of what is a major restructuring of my living space, my little studio apartment. I have lived in this apartment since July, 1981; yes, 25 years, 1/2 of my life. Whoa!

There are several reasons for this stasis, not the least of which is the fact that, in New York City lingo, I am rent-stabilized. This means that my rent can only be raised incrementally, and the increments are determined annually by a huge fight at the Rent Stabilization Board, during which the various parties argue that whatever decision is made will either make 1/3 of NY City apartment dwellers homeless (against increases), or that all of the landlords will be forced to sell off their buildings to the highest bidder (for increases). The rent increases ultimately decided upon are always much below the market, and supposedly not enough to support the expenses of the landlords, although they aren’t going out of business that fast.

In any case, my current rent remains well below that of the market rate for my apartment, by about 40-50%. Part of the reason, aside from “rent stabilization,” is that my landlord took my building COOP in the mid-‘80’s. As part of this step, the “sponsor” tried to demonstrate that all of the people living in the building at the time were “hotel guests,” not rent-paying tenants. So, there were a couple of years of litigation, during which the rents in the building were frozen. When things were finally settled, rents began to increase again, but only within the boundaries of the Rent Stabilization Board. So, I got a couple of years of rent control, which has kept me below market.

But, why else would I stay in my apartment for so long, when I’ve obviously outgrown it, at least materially?

Well, basically, I love it. It’s in a pre-WW II building, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. This is the most desirable neighborhood in NYC at the moment. It’s always been a great neighborhood, although when I moved here in 1981 it still had a pretty large “funk” factor. The problem with the area at that time was that it was too far south of Columbia University (at 116th St.) to have much of that influence trickle down, and too far north of 96th St., the last major stop on the No. 1 subway line, to be part of that area. My immediate area on 102nd St. was sort of a no-man’s land. We do have a subway stop on the next block, but back in those days it was pretty much a homeless shelter and drug supermarket. But at the time, it was the only apartment I could afford, so I took it. It was a doorman building (still is), had a 24-hour laundry in the basement, was close to the subway, was on Broadway, which I love, and the layout wasn’t too bad. So, what's not to love? If I won the lottery tomorrow, I would keep my apartment, and continue to use it as an office or pied a terre, even as I bought other apartments in my building to live in. But that’s only if I win the lottery!

Over the years, I have developed very deep roots in this neighborhood. In addition to being within walking distance of Barnard/Columbia, where I went to school, I am also within blocks of the woman with whom I have worked for the last 22 years. I have worked in various volunteer gardening roles in the neighborhood, including in the medians of Broadway for 12 years, and currently in Riverside Park, which is 2 cross-town blocks (longer than avenue blocks) away from me. I’ve made many friends and acquaintances in the neighborhood, from the paper guy at 101st St. to the “boys” who hang out at the Broadway Restaurant, which is also the only place I know where one can get grits for breakfast.

So, I love the neighborhood, the price is right, the apartment, though small, is a good one for one person. Why move?

The problem with not moving, of course, is the inevitable accumulation of stuff over time. Moving can provide that incentive to shed things; to decide if you really want to bring those books you didn’t read in college with you, or whether you really will ever wear those platform shoes again. I come from a family who moved fairly regularly, at least when I was a kid. During those moves, I have to admit, my parents pretty much brought everything, and didn’t make too many of those decisions. When we moved from New Mexico to Rhode Island (look it up; that’s quite a move!), we even brought our cat! When we moved to Europe we took almost everything, but some items did stay behind in storage. Very little was actually shed. So, as you might surmise, I have a problem with getting rid of things. Hence, the attempted restructuring that’s happening now.

But first, I’ve had to work on the actual physical plant. I did an extensive re-surfacing, repainting and making improvements in 1990, but have done little since. I needed new appliances in the kitchen, and the apartment ceiling needs painting desperately. Got the new stove, but the new fridge didn’t work, so went back to the old one. Kitchen still needs work, really a paint job, which I may do next summer. And a Deep Cleaning, hopefully before the painting. The main room ceiling painting is scheduled, but what I have to do to prepare for the painters seems nearly impossible at this point. I’ll do my best; certainly, I’ll do all the taping, because I know if I don’t they will ruin my detailing. I don’t know how I’m going to make the place accessible to the painters, but I’ll figure something out. The problem is, of course, that I simply have too much stuff in the apartment to be able to make room for a paint crew. I wish I could do this myself, but I just don’t have the time or energy at this point. It will be a challenge in space-making; I hope I’m up to it.

Over the last 15 years I’ve accumulated a garage load of gardening tools, equipment and paraphernalia, which I need to find a way of storing in the apartment. I do use the tools pretty regularly so they can’t go to storage. I’ve also accumulated the requisite papers; business, news and other. I tend to save papers; souvenirs of concerts and events; papers from my choruses; materials from my clients and former clients (not work related); and all of the standard financial, banking, other stuff. I also like to save articles from the newspaper. I know I could get them on-line, but I like the tactile-ness of the printed page. I cut out recipes, articles about nature, parks and space, stuff that interests me. Frequently I have read them through and decide I want them for my “archive,” but just as frequently I cut them out with the idea that I’ll read them “later,” whenever later turns out to be. I also keep the NY Times magazines, until I have a chance to leaf through them, and I am working on doing the Sunday crosswords, but it takes a lot of time. Anyway, too many things I like to keep, too little space, and I am working on culling stuff and finally parting with some of it.

Another issue in my apartment is my cats. I have had 3-4 cats for most of the time I have lived here. This makes for a lot of shed hair and general messiness. Although cats are fastidious about their immediate persons, they don’t pick up or sweep after themselves. Add to this that I am just not a very good housekeeper, at least of my own house, and this adds up to long periods where I simply don’t vacuum/dust/mop, etc.

I am trying to get my house in order so that I can have friends in my place without my being completely embarrassed, or their being completely uncomfortable. I’m concerned that at the moment, the place is so disorderly and crowded, that folks would not be at ease, but be looking to run for the door. I am hoping to avoid this.

This process is difficult for me, but I hope my friends will understand that I am doing this so that I can have them in my home, and they will be comfortable. Yes, I am afraid of judgmentalism, but I’m more afraid of people being unhappy, and I am striving to avoid that. I’m hoping to be able to have folks in before Thanksgiving, or certainly before Christmas. We’ll see.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for reading,
Catbird