Rae R - $1,250/month

I am a design professional, focussed on my art and career. I have always lived with roommates and have a strong sense of good communal living. I am respectful of common space and how often I use it, keeping it clean and helping to maintain it. I also keep my personal space clean and organized.

I am not sensitive to noise and don't have strong feelings about set hours for activities in a shared apartment setting, within reason. I currently live in a layout where one of my roommates has a shared wall with my bedroom .We have arranged our beds/desks to best minimize disruption to each other's personal space and that is sufficient. For example, our beds are up against the far walls of our rooms, opposite the party wall, etc. He often watches television to fall asleep and sets the volume rather loudly - none of that is a problem for me whatsoever.

Currently, the primary roommate in my apartment has a stay at home job and since he has lived here for nearly 25 years, he dominates the common area which is a kitchen, living and dining space. This roommate gets very stressed out if anyone else is in the space while he is cooking - and he cooks for extended periods each day. He also gets cranky when people are in the kitchen cooking while he is laying on the couch watching television, etc. This leaves myself and our third roommate in a constant state of feeling uncomfortable using the kitchen. This is the only element of my current living situation that has become a bit of a drag. I would like to be able to make breakfast, lunch and dinner at home. I love sharing spaces, and never have any problems keeping my meal prep or consumption to a small area while others also cook and eat. I find a communal kitchen to be relaxing and enjoyable. I spend most of the rest of my time in my room illustrating, working on animation projects, reading, watching anime or relaxing.

I'd like to find an apartment setting where kitchen access is available to me. I can get along with nearly everyone but definitely prefer to be around people who are very comfortable with sharing communal areas of the apartment, interacting lightly in a pleasant fashion and can communicate openly and calmly about things they are and aren't OK with.

I have an on again/off again guy friend, more like a best friend who I see maybe once or twice a week. He usually comes over during the week for a few hours in the afternoon to watch some sci fi or anime. We like to make lunch and eat and then hang in my room listening to a podcast or brainstorming fun projects together. He will crash maybe once or twice a month if at all. That's likely the only guest that I will have around. Now and again my best friend Danielle will come grab me for Sunday brunch - maybe come up for a cup of tea. In short, I don't entertain guests save for one or two and always in my own space, save for a quick meal. I would like my roommate/s to be openly fine with this.

I generally make my own schedule at work and as such, I do work from home often. I rarely emerge from my room on those days, again, save for making some food. I am always very flexible with bathroom/morning shower scheduling and if you have a hard timeframe you like to have bathroom access, I am flexible and happy to work around it.

Overall, I'm a very easy going person and I do have great roommate references from a nice selection of professionals I have lived with in the past. My main reason for moving at this time is to better my kitchen access. Home cooked meals are a great joy/big love of mine! I've been living for a year doing everything possible to avoid my kitchen and I'm really missing making all of the things that I love. In addition, I have a goal and plan to buy my own place by 2023. In order to make that happen, I have to keep my rent down to 1200/50 x month. This is a great challenge in NYC and it almost always means living in small spaces with other people.