00:00Hi, this is Christina. Welcome to my sweet digs. You can leave your shoes on. I don't even care. Come
00:07in.
00:07I live in the Highland Park area of Los Angeles and I pay $8.50 a month for a one
00:14-bedroom apartment, which is very little.
00:23This is my living room. I don't really have a decorating plan. All this furniture is either, like, you know,
00:30from Target or Craigslist or given to me.
00:34This chair I found on the street. My desk and my chair are from Craigslist.
00:38The only thing that I actually bought with any intention is this ridiculous chair that's shaped like a hand.
00:44When people see this chair, they're normally like, whoa, is that comfortable? And it is, so don't worry about it.
00:50It's pretty silly and I feel like it's the kind of thing that's, like, really hard to square away with,
00:55like, a roommate.
00:56Every other person I've lived with or, like, guy I've dated has been really into, like, the minimalist thing.
01:02Werner Patton chair, cowhide rug. I kind of just like stuff that makes me happy.
01:08A lot of the things that are on the walls are either art that people have given me or I've
01:13purchased.
01:14I am a writer and a comedian. I was an art critic for, like, seven years before I got seriously
01:21into comedy. I love it.
01:22This print is by an artist and a dear friend of mine named Megan Gordon.
01:27That is actually my hand doing an awkward dance.
01:30I like the contrast of stuff that is really nice that I've, like, paid to get framed versus, like, stuff
01:36that I just threw up there.
01:37There's three closets and they're all big.
01:41This is the first one where I hang all my coats for these harsh LA winters.
01:46I have a thing for cheeseburgers and hot dogs.
01:50My phone is a hot dog.
01:52Cheeseburger piggy bank.
01:54Purse in the shape of a Pink's hot dog.
01:56My favorite is in the kitchen.
01:58This is President Little Hamburger Man, and it's actually a marionette puppet that my boyfriend made when he was a
02:06kid.
02:07Kitschy stuff has always been something I've been into.
02:10Just stuff that's shaped like other stuff.
02:12Oh, a purse that's shaped like lips.
02:14Here's a teapot that's shaped like an elephant.
02:17I just really like it, and it brings me joy to have silly things around.
02:23The floor in this place was, like, a really gross vinyl floor from the 70s, so I actually paid my
02:30own money to just put, like, a slightly cuter vinyl floor in here.
02:33The thing about this kitchen is that it's very small, and these are fake drawers.
02:40Everything's kind of out in, like, jars and on the walls.
02:44Mostly this is a place for more stuff, because not a whole lot of cooking goes down in here.
02:50This is a pantry, but the bottom is the comedy cubby.
02:54Props or costumes or anything that I need to use for my act.
02:57A fake mustache, fake blood, nipple pasties.
03:01Laugh at me because I'm different.
03:03I laugh at you because you're all the same, and I bought two.
03:07I can't even get in there without, like, having a bunch of stuff spill out.
03:11Come this way.
03:13This is the hallway, which is just more of a liminal space.
03:16This is closet number two, and it's the biggest one, and it's where I shove things before people come over,
03:23such as yourself.
03:24And then here is the bathroom, which is pretty small as well.
03:28This is really where the magic happens.
03:32Nothing too fancy about it.
03:33My favorite part, though, is the floor, which I also paid to have the floor done myself.
03:39This whole place is cheap enough to make it worth it.
03:41Finally got to go to Linoleum City, this giant warehouse that only sells, like, different types of floor.
03:46A lot of the fun floors were really expensive, so I went to the scrap section, and there was just
03:51this scrap of flooring that was, like, left over from an airport bathroom.
03:54I spent a lot of time looking at it.
03:57Here is the bedroom.
04:02Some of the most sentimental pieces in my apartment are in this room.
04:06The paintings on the wall.
04:08The one at the top there is a painting that I did when I was, like, 12 or 13 years
04:12old.
04:12The more I look at other paintings, the more I realize that was a great painting that I did.
04:16The final walk-in closet is here in the bedroom.
04:20Oh, look, it's more clothes and shoes.
04:23There's no light in here, so I can only open it during the day.
04:27I found this place through a friend of a friend.
04:31There's an artist I was working with at the time.
04:33His assistant overheard that I was looking for a place to live and said, oh, I live in this really
04:38great little building, and it's very cheap.
04:40The apartment at the end of the hall has been empty for, like, a month.
04:43I called the owners.
04:44I just said, I'm going to move in.
04:46And I think I was here for, like, a full week before the owner actually came by with the lease
04:52and we signed it.
04:54By far, the best way to find a place in L.A. is to just know somebody who knows somebody
04:59who knows a guy who knows a girl.
05:01Everyone else who lives here has lived here for a very long time and we're very neighborly.
05:06There were a few times when I first moved in that my neighbor would knock on the door and be
05:11like, hey, I made too much ziti,
05:14so you should come over and eat some of this ziti.
05:17I think because the building is small and everyone's pretty close together, it feels more neighborly than most places I've
05:23lived.
05:23I do live here alone.
05:26Santi is my boyfriend, and we actually tried living together here.
05:31We nearly drove each other nuts because this place is very small.
05:35So he has his own place now, and we are sort of regrouping and trying to figure out how to
05:40make it work.
05:41We both work from home.
05:43I feel like the only thing that can make this space work for us is getting, like, a separate, like,
05:48studio or office space,
05:49which would kind of cancel out saving money on rent.
05:53But saving money on rent should not be the primary reason for moving in with someone in the first place.
05:59Reconciling, like, love and real estate in Los Angeles is a cruel math,
06:06and we're still trying to figure out how to do that.
06:10My favorite part of this neighborhood is that it's very walkable.
06:15Within, like, three blocks, there is coffee, breakfast, a nice bar, and a 24-hour taco stand, and the train
06:24station.
06:24So why I would go anywhere else in the city is beyond me.
06:29I would go anywhere else in the city.
06:32We'll be back.
06:33We'll be back.
06:34We'll be back.
06:36We'll be back.
06:36We'll be back.
06:37We'll be back.
