Welcome to 1100 sq. ft., a blog created to explore the living arrangements of a family of four, living in an 1100 square foot apartment in Brooklyn. The cast includes Mom, a freelance coordinator in children's book publishing; Dad, a hard-working senior editor, our daughter and our son. The question is, can four people live in a cramped apartment without driving each other crazy?
We moved into this apartment almost 11 years ago, which breaks the record as the longest I've ever lived in in one place. Our long-range plans called for a move long before now, since the kids are now old enough to have their own rooms. But sometimes things don't work out the way you think they will, so we're staying put for now.
The real estate agents always say location, location, location. We've got that. We're near the park, we're in the historic district, and within walking distance of the subway, a good school, and shopping. We also live in Brooklyn, one of the best boroughs in New York City. There's much to enjoy here, but it's not always easy.
I've often said that living in this apartment is like living on a boat because it all works best when everything is stowed away. I could spend every waking moment cleaning this place up, but it's impossible to keep up with it. Things are especially out of sorts lately because we have moved our home office into the living room. It will probably take us another six to twelve months to sort through it all. My desk now overlooks the park, and we've added two large file cabinets to the desk area. To an already crowded dining room, complete with a spinet piano and a large china cabinet, we added two large black file cabinets. My scrapbooking supplies top the cabinets. Twenty-eight small white boxes are squeezed in wherever they will fit. More important, our son now has his own bedroom in what was our home office. It's cozy, with lots of bookshelves, with our books still on them. Our daughter is especially happy about painting over the pale yellow walls in her room with a purple and green theme.
We're also having our bathroom renovated. More on that another time!
2 comments:
I am looking forward to reading your blog! And the fact that you are doing this just goes to show that you should add "hard-working" to describe yourself too!!
Stacey
Hi Kim, Very nice blog. What a busy time of life! We've been doing rennovations too, and also building a house for Kevin, so I can relate to your unfinished space issue! Thanks for sharing and best of luck with your project. Claudia
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