00:00Hi, I'm Lucy. Welcome to My Sweet Digs.
00:02I live in a three-bedroom apartment in Bushwick in Brooklyn. It's about half an hour away
00:07from Manhattan, which is a great commute, and it's also a cool neighbourhood with lots of
00:11coffee shops and bars. I pay $1200, so does my flatmate Fernanda, who also lives on the top level.
00:17All together we pay $37.50, but the bottom room is about to get remodelled into a living space.
00:22I found this apartment through Rumours. They are a co-living agency, which basically means that they
00:28match you up with roommates and give you a fully furnished apartment. I got to know them through a
00:33scholarship that I won last year, but I enjoyed it so much that I ended up staying as a tenant.
00:37This apartment is 592 square feet, which feels really roomy for New York. I think given the price,
00:44it's pretty reasonable. I know people who pay the same and have a lot less space, so I'm pretty happy
00:49with it. This is our kitchen. One of the things that attracted me to this apartment most was the
00:53kitchen. It's not super big, but it has really great appliances, including a gas stove. I'm a full-time
01:00food policy student. I'm also a part-time programme assistant, and I do part-time creative food
01:06consultancy. I do that from home, so the kitchen is really important to me. I love to cook Mediterranean
01:12food. I grew up in France, so it's something that reminds me of my childhood and also reminds me of
01:18sunshine, but actually what I prefer is cooking for people I love and making sure that they're enjoying
01:24it. I met my roommates in our old apartment. We were matched together by rumours. We got on really
01:30well, and we decided that we wanted to stay together and find a place just for the three of us.
01:36Fernanda I get along with super well. We're very close friends, and we spend a lot of time cooking
01:41and eating and watching TV together in this space. Zach's also a good friend, but he definitely spends
01:46more time at work, and he has a private space downstairs, so he tends to spend more time down there.
01:52The kitchen was pretty well decked out when we moved in. The only thing we've had to add
01:58is this shelving unit. It's actually an outdoor unit, but we thought it worked well in here. It just gives
02:03us a little bit more space and a little bit more storage, and it also fills up a wall which
02:08is
02:09otherwise blank. Apart from that, it was just buying lots of ingredients and hot sauces.
02:14In an ideal world, I'd love to have a walk-in pantry to accumulate as many ingredients and hot
02:20sauces as possible. This is our bathroom. It's really nice and spacious. We have a really nice
02:25bathroom. Zach has his own ensuite downstairs. Up here, we share a shower and bath between the three
02:32of us. It has an actual bath, which I haven't seen in many other buildings, and I really like the
02:37tile work and the gold sink and shower finishings. We take turns cleaning the bathroom. We only really
02:44have one rule, which is don't leave hair in the shower, and otherwise we just all do our bit to
02:49stay on top of it. This is our current living area. I wouldn't really say it's a living room because
02:54it's open plan. We don't have a TV on this side of the room, which is really nice. It means
02:59it's a
02:59really calm and relaxing space, and it actually means that we read in this area. I use the desk
03:05space over here, usually for studying and sometimes for consultancy. It's a really nice, calm nook,
03:13and it also gets great natural light, so it's a really good place to work. The desk actually did
03:17not come as part of the property. The apartment came about three quarters furnished. We definitely
03:23added bits here and there just to round it all out. I wasn't surprised to move into a furnished space
03:29because at home it's really unusual to move into an unfurnished house, so that was kind of a culture
03:35shock to learn that that was the norm here. It's not hard to share the living space because we're
03:40all really respectful of each other, and we also really enjoy hanging out together. We usually take
03:45turns hosting friends, but all of our friends know each other, so it just becomes one really nice
03:50social area. This is my flatmate Fernanda's bedroom. The layout is pretty much exactly the same as mine,
03:56but she's definitely made it her own. This is my bedroom. It's definitely my favourite part of the
04:02apartment. It's really important to me that my bedroom is calm and peaceful, especially living
04:08in such a wild city. I use plants, incense and candles to try and give it a really chilled out
04:14vibe,
04:14and I also try not to work in here and keep it just somewhere where I sleep and relax. I
04:19really
04:20love the natural light in my room. It makes it such a really peaceful, lovely place to be,
04:26and I love being able to open the blinds and give my plants lots of light. When I moved in,
04:31the bedroom was mostly furnished, but it didn't have much in the way of storage or decor, so I added
04:37an
04:37IKEA unit that I turned on its side, and it also works as a tabletop for a mirror I purchased.
04:43I'm
04:43definitely like a visual person, so if things look out of place it kind of stresses me out. I use
04:49decorative boxes as a way of just putting clutter into them, and then it looks good from the outside
04:55and you get to forget about all your mess. There was one piece of artwork already in the space that
05:00was chosen by Rumours. I added a few more pieces. Most of them are just postcards or posters from
05:06places I've traveled to, so I have pieces from Paris, Amsterdam, and a few things from home as well.
05:12I actually really appreciated that this space was partially decorated,
05:16because I wasn't able to bring many decorative elements with me when I moved,
05:20and the elements that are here are pretty neutral, so don't really interfere with my own personal
05:25taste. I definitely try not to accumulate too many things. The less the better for me. There are a few
05:32things I bring with me everywhere, and they tend to be very small trinkets and sentimental items. I also
05:38always bring with me cards that I've been given from loved ones that just are a really sweet reminder of
05:46home. That kind of made it sound like I was talking about dead people, and I wasn't really talking about
05:50dead people. My most sentimental items are probably a paper mache gold moon that I have on my desk. I'm
05:57not sure where it came from, but I have really vivid memories of having it in my bedroom when we
06:02lived
06:02in France. Before I left Scotland, my mum gave me a small porcelain elephant, which is just a really
06:08sweet reminder of home. In France, it became a thing for people to start bringing us tiny wooden
06:15elephants, and then we also had this elephant rug, which I brought over with me from Scotland.
06:20I like living in Bushwick. It's relatively residential, so it's usually quiet, which makes it a nice place
06:28to be. It's only half an hour into Manhattan, which is great, and there's a cool little coffee shop just
06:33one block away, so that's my favourite little part of the neighbourhood. In an ideal world, I'd love to
06:39live in Manhattan and be in the West Village and be able to walk to school and work, but I
06:44think it's more
06:45likely that I'll probably stay in Brooklyn, and I'd love to live closer to one of the parks.
