“The owners had cleaned, painted and removed the old furniture. But when the handyman prepped the apartment, he disconnected the wires and forgot to reattach them. We couldn’t see anything so the owners brought up a camping light,” Ms. Mlinar said. “We crashed on the mattress I had preordered and hoped we hadn’t made a mistake.”
In the morning they awoke to an apartment “flooded with the most wonderful sunlight,” said Ms. Mlinar, who added that the windows were larger, the ceilings higher, the closets bigger, and the bedroom roomier than the virtual tour suggested. Even Henry’s room, described as an office off the bedroom, “had a door, huge window, floor-to-ceiling closet and mirrored sliding door.”
To the right was a tiny kitchen and tinier bathroom.
“I love to cook, so I’ve had to embrace the kitchen, but it’s limiting. The refrigerator is in the living room,” Mr. Burns said. “It changes what and how you cook. I’ve learned to be intentional and use as few pots and pans as possible. I’ve been perfecting pasta dishes.”
A gym locker that doubles as storage for shoes and jackets, “is a theoretical room divider,” Ms. Mlinar said. “The living room portion is to the left. We had to get creative with the space.”
A tree-lined block was revealed as well.
“We couldn’t tell from FaceTiming, but our apartment is the same height as the trees that surround us,” she said. “You feel as though you’re in the trees. That has become a part of our lives.”
They furnished most of their home from Facebook Marketplace and AptDeco online, or Yesterday’s News, a local vintage store, with rugs, shelves, desk, a bed frame, and a dining room table. Other items were found on the curb.
