00:00Hi, I'm Lucy. Welcome to My Sea Digs. Before you come in, subscribe below. Okay, cool. Follow me.
00:06I live in a three-bedroom apartment in Bushwick in Brooklyn. It's about half an hour away from
00:11Manhattan, which is a great commute, and it's also a cool neighborhood with lots of coffee shops and
00:16bars. I pay $1,200. So does my flatmate Fernanda, who also lives on the top level. All together,
00:22we pay $3,750, but the bottom room is about to get remodeled into a living space. I found this
00:27apartment through Rumors. They are a co-living agency, which basically means that they match
00:33you up with roommates and give you a fully furnished apartment. I got to know them through a scholarship
00:38that I won last year, but I enjoyed it so much that I ended up staying as a tenant. This
00:42apartment is
00:43592 square feet, which feels really roomy for New York. I think given the price, it's pretty reasonable.
00:49I know people who pay the same and have a lot less space, so I'm pretty happy with it. This
00:54is our
00:54kitchen. One of the things that attracted me to this apartment most was the kitchen.
00:58It's not super big, but it has really great appliances, including a gas stove. I'm a full-time
01:04food policy student. I'm also a part-time program assistant, and I do part-time creative food
01:11consultancy. I do that from home, so the kitchen is really important to me. I love to cook Mediterranean
01:16food. I grew up in France, so it's something that reminds me of my childhood and also reminds me of
01:22sunshine. But actually, what I prefer is cooking for people I love and making sure that they're enjoying it.
01:28I met my roommates in our old apartment. We were matched together by roomers. We got on really well,
01:35and we decided that we wanted to stay together and find a place just for the three of us.
01:40Fernanda, I get along with super well. We're very close friends, and we spend a lot of time cooking and
01:45eating
01:46and watching TV together in this space. Zach's also a good friend, but he definitely spends more time at
01:51work, and he has a private space downstairs, so he tends to spend more time down there. The kitchen was
01:57pretty well decked out when we moved in. The only thing we've had to add is this shelving unit. It's
02:04actually an outdoor unit, but we thought it worked well in here. It just gives us a little bit more
02:09space and a little bit more storage, and it also fills up a wall which is otherwise blank. Apart from
02:14that,
02:14it was just buying lots of ingredients and hot sauces. In an ideal world, I'd love to have a
02:21walk-in pantry to accumulate as many ingredients and hot sauces as possible. This is our bathroom.
02:26It's really nice and spacious. We have a really nice bathroom. Zach has his own ensuite downstairs.
02:32Up here, we share a shower and bath between the three of us. It has an actual bath, which I
02:38haven't
02:39seen in many other buildings, and I really like the tile work and the gold sink and shower finishings.
02:44We take turns cleaning the bathroom. We only really have one rule, which is don't leave hair in the
02:50shower, and otherwise we just all do our bit to stay on top of it. This is our current living
02:55area. I
02:56wouldn't really say it's a living room because it's open plan. We don't have a TV on this side of
03:01the
03:01room, which is really nice. It means it's a really calm and relaxing space, and it actually means that
03:06we read in this area. I use the desk space over here, usually for studying and sometimes for
03:13consultancy. It's a really nice calm nook, and it also gets great natural light, so it's a really
03:19good place to work. The desk actually did not come as part of the property. The apartment came about
03:25three quarters furnished. We definitely added bits here and there just to round it all out. I wasn't
03:31surprised to move into a furnished space because at home it's really unusual to move into an unfurnished
03:37house, so that was kind of a culture shock to learn that that was the norm here. It's not hard
03:42to share
03:42the living space because we're all really respectful of each other, and we also really enjoy hanging out
03:48together. We usually take turns hosting friends, but all of our friends know each other, so it just
03:54becomes one really nice social area. This is my flatmate Fernanda's bedroom. The layout is pretty much
03:59exactly the same as mine, but she's definitely made it her own. This is my bedroom. It's definitely my
04:06favourite part of the apartment. It's really important to me that my bedroom is calm and peaceful,
04:11especially living in such a wild city. I use plants, incense, and candles to try and give it a really
04:17chilled out vibe, and I also try not to work in here and keep it just somewhere where I sleep
04:23and relax.
04:23I really love the natural light in my room. It makes it such a really peaceful, lovely place to be,
04:30and I love being able to open the blinds and give my plants lots of light. When I moved in,
04:35the bedroom was mostly furnished, but it didn't have much in the way of storage or decor, so I added
04:41an
04:41IKEA unit that I turned on its side, and it also works as a tabletop for a mirror I purchased.
04:47I'm
04:47definitely like a visual person, so if things look out of place it kind of stresses me out. I use
04:53decorative boxes as a way of just putting clutter into them, and then it looks good from the outside
04:59and you get to forget about all your mess. There was one piece of artwork already in the space that
05:04was chosen by Rumours. I added a few more pieces, most of them are just postcards or posters from
05:11places I've traveled to, so I have pieces from Paris, Amsterdam, and a few things from home as well. I
05:16actually really appreciated that this space was partially decorated, because I wasn't able to
05:22bring many decorative elements with me when I moved, and the elements that are here are pretty neutral,
05:27so don't really interfere with my own personal taste. I definitely try not to accumulate too many
05:33things, the less the better for me. There are a few things I bring with me everywhere, and they tend
05:39to
05:39be very small trinkets and sentimental items. I also always bring with me cards that I've been given
05:45from loved ones that are just a really sweet reminder of who is not here. That kind of made
05:51it sound like I was talking about dead people, and I wasn't really talking about dead people.
05:55My most sentimental items are probably a paper mache gold moon that I have on my desk. I'm not sure
06:02where it came from, but I have really vivid memories of having it in my bedroom when we lived in
06:06France.
06:07Before I left Scotland, my mum gave me a small porcelain elephant, which is just a really sweet
06:13reminder of home. In France, it became a thing for people to start bringing us tiny wooden elephants,
06:20and then we also had this elephant rug, which I brought over with me from Scotland.
06:25I like living in Bushwick. It's relatively residential, so it's usually quiet, which makes it a nice place
06:32to be. It's only half an hour into Manhattan, which is great, and there's a cool little coffee shop just
06:37one block away, so that's my favourite little part of the neighbourhood. In an ideal world,
06:42I'd love to live in Manhattan and be in the West Village and be able to walk to school and
06:48work,
06:48but I think it's more likely that I'll probably stay in Brooklyn and I'd love to live closer to one
06:53of the parks.
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