The most coveted hand-me-down

A good apartment is the most valued of all things passed on

Of all the things that are passed on in New York—the names of good hairstylists, restaurant recommendations, professional contacts and parking secrets—perhaps the rarest and most valued is a good apartment. Who, in need of a new home, doesn’t thrill to the news of a vacancy in a friend’s building?

Two years ago, Nick Moran was on the receiving end of such good fortune. A friend with a two-bedroom in Astoria, Queens, was moving in with his girlfriend on the Upper West Side and asked if Mr. Moran, now 31, would like to take over the lease.

Mr. Moran, a musician who leads a nine-piece “funky blues band,” was delighted. He had been living rent-free as a caretaker at a Harlem property, which enabled him to record his first album, but the situation was coming to an end. And he hadn’t relished the idea of returning to his previous living situation: occupying “a closet” in a Williamsburg, Brooklyn, share that cost so much he had to work nights as a hotel doorman to pay the rent.

The Astoria apartment, with its two good-sized, windowed bedrooms and large closets (occupied only by possessions, not people), seemed ideal. And the rent was a reasonable $1,800 a month.

“The apartment had been through a lot of musicians, artists and actors in our friend group,” Mr. Moran said. “Having a space that allows you to pursue your craft is important. I think that’s why it was passed down.”

Mr. Moran shared the apartment with subletters for almost a year, timing the leases so that one of his closest friends, Alex MacDonald, could move in when he returned from doing a Fulbright in Ireland.

Mr. MacDonald, who is 32 and a professional tap dancer, teaches and performs with Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, among other groups. He and Mr. Moran met at SUNY Geneseo, where they sang in a barbershop quartet.

Before Mr. MacDonald moved in last October, they had never been roommates. But they had lived in one Sunnyside apartment several years apart; Mr. MacDonald had eventually ceded it to his roommate so her fiancé could move in.

As they passed through their 20s, the group of friends saw many such housing switches and swap-outs, as professional opportunities and romances necessitated new arrangements. 

Many early apartments were abandoned, but a few of the better finds were passed along.

Both Mr. Moran and Mr. MacDonald had visited previous occupants in the Astoria two-bedroom, but it had never occurred to either of them to covet the apartment. For Mr. Moran, it brought to mind a post-collegiate crash pad “covered in video games.”

Only years later, when they had had sufficient experience with the New York housing market, did they recognize the apartment’s graciousness and desirability: windows in every room (including the eat-in kitchen and bathroom), hardwood floors, an entry hall and a spacious living room with an alcove they could use as a dining nook.

They especially prize the two walk-in hall closets, where they are able to store the space-hogging tools of their respective trades: tap boards for Mr. MacDonald to practice on and vintage electric keyboards for Mr. Moran, including a Wurlitzer and a Rhodes that weighs “about 10,000 pounds,” he said, because “it has actual physical hammers, like a real piano.”

As cozy as the space looked on a recent rainy afternoon, it was not exactly homey when they took it over. For all the friends who had passed through, nothing was left behind except a jar of peanut butter. Gradually, they found furniture that represented an improvement over the Ikea castoffs that previous tenants had used to fill the space.
 

But “it didn’t really feel like our apartment until we started naming the furniture,” Mr. MacDonald said, pointing to “Oscar the couch,” a plaid affair they got on AptDeco, an online marketplace for secondhand furniture.

Chess rivalries aside, the friends have found they are well suited to sharing an apartment. For one thing, both are tidy. “Most apartments I’ve lived in, I washed everyone’s dishes,” Mr. MacDonald said. “Now I only wash my own.”

Someday, they said, they may pass the apartment on to other friends. But for now, neither has any plans to leave.

© The New York Times 2018