My Life in New York City: Chapter 2

If you haven't read Chapter 1, click here to read it.

They say if you can make it here you can make it anywhere. I was going to make it come hell or high water. I just didn't know how, yet... A.L. required first and last months rent, 2 months deposit and 6 months in prepaid rent to let me move in. Just so you don't have to do the math it was about $20,000!!!! I was not about to abandon ship now.

What to do, what to do, what to do?

I sat on my only comfortable chair, Poppy on my lap, and wondered where or how I would come up with next months rent money. I sat there and petted my little dog and cried and looked at my apartment. I looked and looked and then an idea came, like the proverbial light bulb. I looked at my high ceilings and at my closet and I noted that I had this area above my closet that the previous renter had used as storage and so I followed suit. It was the size of a twin size mattress and about 3 ½ feet tall but it didn't have a ladder or way to get up there. I had pushed junk on top of it by standing on a chair and just pushing it in till nothing else would fit.

I had rented out rooms in Portland, Oregon and I was going to rent out my closet or to be technical the space above my closet in New York City. I looked for a carpenter on Craigslist, always my first point of reference. I found a guy from Canada, and he gave me a price of $165.00 to build a ladder in my apartment. And so he did, he went and got the supplies from the hardware store around the corner and built a solid ladder into the wall (see pictures) in my hallway while I watched. I then proceeded to clean the area out and buy a mattress, linens, a lamp and a pillow. I was ready. I put an ad in Craigslist and almost immediately a woman answered. She needed a place for a week and I was renting my closet out for $100 a night (which, at that time was at least half of what you would pay for a hotel). I made the additional money needed for my rent and a new friend. She was an Asian concert pianist (later in our friendship she played Carnegie Hall), when she asked me if I needed references I said “no...how many Asian serial murdering pianists are there”? I figured I was safe and we became fast friends.

From that time on, I managed my rent by supplementing my income by renting out my closet and sometimes my couch (if there were two people). I wrote another article about how to do this, if you want more details click here. I met people from all over the world and found it most entertaining as well as lucrative. I would put an ad on Craigslist and just waited for the clicks to come in. Some months were better than others, for example January was the worst and November and December were the best. I rented out my loft to Israeli soldiers, Brazilian ballet dancers, American Opera singers, Actresses and businessmen. I had people stay with me from France, Spain, Canada, Australia, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Israel, England Ecuador and Korea to name a few. One woman paid me just to keep her luggage for the day and another man paid me $400.00 and never stayed a night.

I learned that people are pretty much the same everywhere. The really great thing is that they would tell me all their secrets...because what the heck, they were never going to see me again. Being the curious sort, I was greatly entertained and was able to pay my rent on time month after month.

Now you may ask, isn't this a little scary, sharing your space with complete strangers? And to answer that I would say, yes, it was, but for me it wasn't a deal breaker. I have never been the sort to shy away from a little excitement and adventure. By the way, I was never murdered or assaulted! :). This was a way for me to stay in the city I loved, a way for me to supplement my income, it was a way when there was no way. Nothing like living on the edge, but then I didn't come to New York City to live a quiet, unassuming, boring life now did I?

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