What we do to Keep the Rent Down and the Memories Pumping

I have been living in my same apartment in NYC for about 5 years...the longest time for me in any place since my childhood home that I left at 14.

Its one of those cozy small east village apartments where you can hear the chair squeek from any room in the place. Though its small, its got the works (dishwasher, washer/dryer/airports galore (ok so those came from my techie roommates but still counts as perks)) but most importantly we pay way way under market value for our place. In all our years our landlord never raised the rent, except once when we asked him after the first year about if he was going to raise the rent, "Oh, raise the rent? Uh ok I raise it $100". This is very unheard of for a New York apartment, they try to get you anyway they can....usually sideways and dirty. But I will just say that our landlord is very connected in some sort of "underground" "business" if you catch my drift. So when the landlord asks for a favor, you pretty much say "yes sir" and make it happen.

So, the other day our landlord asked us to make my bedroom look not like a bedroom. "Just take the bed out". Not as easy as it sounds, cause where the hell do you hide a bed, "You just hide it under another bed," he suggests. Right. Obviously we don't ask why we must do this...one because we like a knee caps and two we pretty much already knew it had something to do with building permits/taxes/shady ass shit.

As I was still in SF my roommates made this masterpiece happen...and our landlord was more than pleased....

The area in the back where the two chairs are is actually where my bed normally is. They did a great job...but just imagine if you had a room in your small ass apartment that was devoted as a lounge/computer room located right off your living room...instead of say having a dinning table or something else more useful...

When you do a favor for the m*b, you have a favor waiting for you...cheap ass rent...