This week, on Tiny House!

January 19, 2012 7:10 PM

The world's tiniest 2-bedroom with three people and a dog. I shouldn't, right?

Oh, NYC apartment shopping. So this apartment is essentially perfect for me- right in Boerum Hill by the Atlantic Terminal, 15 minutes from my job in lower Manhattan, and the room is $750. That is so much less than other apartment in that area. I would never be able to afford to live there, or anyplace else in downtownish Brooklyn, if I didn't live in this specific apartment.

But. It's basically one room with a kitchen, table and couch, plus two bedrooms the size of, literally, walk-in closets. And one of them is occupied by a couple. Who have a dog.

The couple seem like really great, laid-back people. But I just don't know if I can deal with that situation or not. I FEEL like I could, but my desire to live in that neighborhood for that price may be blinding me to possible issues.

Has anyone else shared a tiny apartment with a couple? Was it workable?

posted by showbiz_liz to Home & Garden (13 answers total)

I've shared spectacularly enormous houses with a couple and that doesn't work, so unless there's some kind of inverse law where the smaller the place is the better everybody gets along, I don't think this would work either.
posted by tumid dahlia at 7:11 PM on January 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

How often are you at home? It maybe could work if you're one of the types who just comes home to sleep. If you like to relax quietly at home, you might find having them there (and I assume they'll be home a lot, if they have a dog) means you can never relax.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:13 PM on January 19, 2012 [4 favorites]

Is it month to month or a lease? How much do you hate moving?

Can you try it out for a couple months and move if it doesn't work for you?
posted by insectosaurus at 7:14 PM on January 19, 2012 [3 favorites]

I have been the couple... it wasn't fun but it was super nice to have cheap rent. At the end of the lease we were all pretty ecstatic to say goodbye.
posted by MyMind at 7:14 PM on January 19, 2012

In Chicago I paid 325 for a weird arrangement... Two guys had normal bedrooms, I had a walk in closet sized bed room. It was good for sleeping or reading or if I wanted quiet, but not much else. I ended up spending most of my time in the common room. One guy was hardly there and his bedroom was pretty much a deadzone (Whoever wanted to spend 500 dollars for a room they didn't use?) The other bedroom had a couple and we didn't really get along very well. No drama or anything, and it really wasn't a super big personality clash, the dude and I were both kinda bros... I was just kinda a quiet, geeky bro, while he was the too-cool, really super competitive in everything bro. In the end, whenever I was out of my room (which was most of the time) he was in his room (especially when both him and his girl was home). It was awkward. Again, I don't remember ever annoying each other, we just needed more space since we weren't good friends.

I guess it kinda worked, but I left the minute I got a chance.
posted by midmarch snowman at 7:33 PM on January 19, 2012

while that's not a lot of money for a share, it sounds like a lot of money for that particular arrangement. It depends on what your priorities are. Are you a homebody? Do you plan on treating your room like a hotel (a place you only go to sleep?) What are your personal needs and will they be met? What kind of lifestyle do you have? Is this what you can afford?

These are the questions I'd be asking myself to help make my decision.
posted by vivzan at 7:54 PM on January 19, 2012 [2 favorites]

What you save in rent, you lose in sanity. I say no.
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:46 PM on January 19, 2012

Consider, too, that if your living arrangements are cramped/uncomfortable then you are probably more likely (depending on your present lifestyle, I suppose) to spend more money on being out-
E.g tiny kitchen which is always busy means you eat out more,
always-busy living area means you go to the pub/wherever more. In my experience the rent saved can be quickly eaten up under these circumstances, at least to some degree
posted by jojobobo at 8:54 PM on January 19, 2012 [3 favorites]

I find a similar situation hard enough, and in my case the person occupying the second bedroom is my 5-year-old child. This sounds like an extremely bad idea.
posted by bardophile at 9:51 PM on January 19, 2012

I've seen people work this arrangement out happily, but in all the cases, they were friends before they moved in together (and the apartments were not tiny). I personally would be very uncomfortable in such a situation with strangers.
posted by redlines at 10:06 PM on January 19, 2012

It depends on how the living is going to go. It's likely in NYC that the couple wants a break on rent but really won't want to have the third person around 'in their space' all the time. Like someone else said, if you're a 'never home' person this could work. Otherwise further out, bigger place, and just one roommate who either works a lot or stays with partner a lot is better!
posted by bquarters at 3:03 AM on January 20, 2012

Response by poster: Ok, I think I've been talked out of it. It's sad though, I feel like I met the man of my dreams and then he turned out to be like a giant racist or something.

God, this process is excruciating. Anyone looking for a roommate?
posted by showbiz_liz at 6:54 AM on January 20, 2012

Just to be a dissenting voice, I share a tiny 2 bedroom in Boerum Hill (seriously, I think you might be looking at a room in my building or the one next to mine) with my husband and a roommate. The arrangement works really for us—we've been sharing this place for 5 years. Mr. Thinking and I did not know Roommate at all when he first moved in.

We are on top of each other all the time, but we're all fine with being in the same room and ignoring each other. We also all like the same TV shows, go to work at different times (so the shower isn't an issue), and make an effort to share the kitchen gracefully. Basically, the cheap rent in an amazing neighborhood are worth it for us, and the three of us just mesh well.

Maybe it could be great for you too, maybe not, but don't rule it out just because 'everyone' says it can't work.
posted by (Over) Thinking at 6:18 PM on January 22, 2012