By Kim Velsey 10/04/12 7:56pm

Big Problems

One thing leads to another.

Woman Needs Fake Roommates, Apartment to Dupe Visiting Family

We all know how this will end. A Korean woman who lives with her Caucasian fiancé needs to borrow an apartment with female roommates to trick her visiting brother, who’s been sent by the family back home to make sure little sis is doing okay in the big city. And not, you know, living in sin with a white guy whom she plans to marry. And definitely not dreaming up intricate ruses to deceive her overprotective family about the fact that she is living with a white guy whom she plans to marry.

The woman posted her quandary on Reddit “Offering $100 (or more) for help with a weird request,” where it was thankfully spotted by Gothamist. Apparently this woman has never seen The Wedding Banquet. But, as anyone who has ever created a multifaceted lie to cover up the most basic realities of his or her life (or anyone who has ever watched a romantic comedy) knows, these things have a way of spiraling out of control. Read More

By Rachel R. White 5/09/12 10:55am

Arrangements

(Getty Images)

Home Invasion! How Old Is Too Old for Roommates?

When Michelle, a writer working on a first novel, tells people her husband, Daniel, is a hedge fund manager, they often remark, “Oh, honey, you did well.” And she did. The recently married pair live in a large dazzling loft in Dumbo. They currently rent, though they’ve started looking at places to buy and are Read More

By Kim Velsey 3/30/12 12:47pm

Open House

The bad: Park Slope. (Kim Velsey)

From Real Estate Heaven to Craigslist Hell: In Pursuit of a Perfect New York Apartment

When it comes to real estate, I have been lucky, much luckier than a 20-something journalist renting shared spaces with roommates has any right to be.

It began when I arrived as a freshman at the University of Chicago and discovered that my dorm was not the depressing low-rise tower with cinderblock walls and shared bathrooms in the hall that I had braced myself for, something designed by an architect who did dorms when he wasn’t designing prisons. Instead, I was greeted by an historic, if down-at-the-heels, former luxury hotel overlooking Lake Michigan. It had a ballroom, a storied history of mobsters and celebrities, and enormous suites that boasted not only living rooms but also full baths, kitchens and dining rooms. All that was missing was a bellhop.

As first loves often do, the dorm/hotel became the archetype of all that I wanted and expected in a home—beautiful and rambling, abundant in history and friends. It was unreasonable to want it, even more so to expect it, but then, I kept on getting what I wanted. Even more perplexing, it was often through Craiglist. Read More

By Joe Pompeo 7/15/09 12:41am

The Artful Lodger

Jake Bronstein and his girlfriend, Kristina Hoge, were lounging around on a flowery retro love seat in the living room of their South Williamsburg apartment on a recent Thursday evening, drinking Miller High Life out of frothy beer mugs and enjoying a cool breeze that was blowing in from their backyard. Their dog, a young Read More