00:00Hi guys, I'm Diana and these are my sweet digs.
00:03I live in Prospect Heights with my husband and our psycho cat and we pay $2,600 in rent.
00:09I think that's really too much.
00:10Come on in and I'll show you more.
00:20I do think we pay a lot, but I really do love the space.
00:24I think there's actually enough space.
00:25Come on into the bedroom.
00:27It's my favorite room because it houses my desk where I do a lot of my writing.
00:32I got this desk from IKEA, super exclusive.
00:35I think it's still there.
00:36Not exclusive at all, JKL.
00:37I love sitting here and hanging out, either doing that or lying in bed with my husband,
00:42Bill.
00:43Hello.
00:44Bill and I met on OkCupid and then we got married last November, so that's cool.
00:50I love books.
00:51I collect them wherever I go, whenever I can, much to the chagrin of Bill because he always
00:56says that we don't have enough room, but I mean, if you got room, you got room.
01:01This is taken from a photograph of my mom from the 1980s when she first came to America
01:05from Haiti.
01:05She came alone, so my grandpa sent her here hoping that she'd be able to get a great job
01:10and send some money back home.
01:11She's done a lot.
01:12She's really hardworking.
01:13And I like looking up here and getting inspiration from her whenever I need it.
01:17And I'm like, if Marie could do it, you could definitely do it.
01:20So come on over.
01:20I'll show you another room in the apartment.
01:24When we were moving in, they asked us if we wanted them to color the walls.
01:28I chose coral because I feel like it's more calming but vibrant.
01:31This bathroom is spacious for New York City.
01:33I love it most because it can hide all of my haircare and my, you know, skincare routine.
01:41So that's pretty sweet.
01:44This is our living room.
01:46One of the biggest perks of this apartment is, as you can see, there was a lot of room
01:50for sitting because we're very big on movie nights and TV nights.
01:54The thing I like the least about the apartment is probably the light.
01:57We do have a lot of pants.
01:59We have a lot of pants, but also we have a lot of plants, but most of them are like
02:03low
02:03light plants because we're on the first floor.
02:05And the other thing about being on the first floor is getting naked is kind of tricky.
02:10If I'm like running from the bathroom to the living room because I don't know, I left the
02:13tea kettle on or something, I have to like do a mad dash or throw on a rope.
02:18You know, I'm not trying to have anybody look at my lady.
02:20My favorite home find, just like street finding, which is a thing I really love.
02:24My mom used to do it when I was little.
02:26Bill texted me one day and he said, hey, I found some bookcases on the street.
02:31And he managed to carry both of them under his arms all the way home.
02:34It was like three blocks.
02:3515 blocks.
02:36It was 15 blocks and I love him dearly, but they were free and it was awesome, so.
02:41The most expensive thing in our apartment is Bill's standing desk.
02:45It's very useful and I think he's going to have it forever.
02:47Babe, where's the standing desk from?
02:50Uh...
02:50Virgo Depot?
02:52No.
02:52Virgo.
02:52As in Virgo?
02:54Ergo...
02:54Ergo...
02:55Ergo Depot, the Fargo model?
02:57Fargus.
02:58Jarvis.
02:59Jarvis.
03:00The communication is really good in this relationship.
03:03This is our dining room.
03:05New room.
03:06Exciting.
03:07We basically just have the two of us sit here and eat breakfast sometimes.
03:10We'll eat lunch.
03:11Not really dinner.
03:11We like to sit in front of the TV for that.
03:14This is a little friend that I picked up at Urban Outfitters.
03:18When Bill and I moved in here, it kind of became his thing because it is filled with
03:23his Legos.
03:25Bill loves Legos.
03:26It was my fault.
03:27I got him a DeLorean our first Christmas together.
03:29He put it together and said, wait, I can build Legos all the time.
03:32And I said, no, don't do that.
03:34One of my favorite things in the entire apartment is this little Lego set that Bill made for us.
03:41He could not find a black woman Lego head that was not Storm America.
03:47So he had it shipped from the UK and specially made, which I thought was super, super sweet.
03:53And we house it right here so people can come over and go, what the hell is that?
03:57And I go, it's me.
03:58This is our kitchen.
04:00Hey, hi.
04:03It looks really fancy, but that was not us.
04:07The owners of the apartment, one of them is actually an architect.
04:09So everything is very useful.
04:11All the space is useful.
04:12We try to do a lot of cooking.
04:14The last few weeks we've been ordering a lot of Thai food, but that is supposed to change
04:19today and not because the cameras are here.
04:21I mean it.
04:22We have our cookbooks up here.
04:23I don't use the cookbooks as much as I would like.
04:26It's a great space.
04:27I love the counter.
04:27I mean, look at it.
04:28My favorite thing to make in this kitchen.
04:30I want to say like, oh my God, delicious baked goods, but no, it's eggs and toast.
04:36Even though I'm born in America, there are a lot of words that I don't really know in English
04:39and only know in French or Creole like Pilon.
04:42The first time I heard someone say mortar and pestle, I was like, I don't know what
04:45the hell that is.
04:45And then I saw this and I was like, I totally know what that is.
04:47These sugar, flour and coffee tea holders that Bill's grandma had from the 1960s.
04:54We found the apartment on Street Easy.
04:55We loved it.
04:57It was great.
04:57But a bunch of other people were also in here because it's New York City and five million
05:01people come to an open house.
05:02And we were like, okay, this place is cool, but we're going to look at other spots because
05:06we're going to be able to find something else.
05:08So we like walked around.
05:10We went to like maybe four or five open houses.
05:12And then we ended up just coming back here and betting that we could maybe get it.
05:16And we did.
05:17Our apartment is very comfortable.
05:19It's one of my favorite things.
05:20I think the world can sometimes be really brutal, especially for me as a black woman, just
05:24trying to make my way and feeling unwelcome.
05:26So home is very much a space where I feel I can just be myself.
05:32We'll see you next time.
05:32Bye.
05:33Bye.
05:37Bye.
05:39Bye.
05:39Bye.
