Thursday, August 02, 2007

I want to live here... pretty please?

Harry Potter is going to come flying around the corner any minute now...

So, last wednesday I went to visit my friend HK, her husband Thor and their adorable new niblet, Ada. And I almost died of jealousy.

They live in Washington Heights, which is inconveniently located at the northern tip of Manhattan, in a beautiful coop called Hudson View Gardens. It's this rambling, tudor-style building that has it's own private gardens, playgrounds and lots of beautiful little details (hello - leaded glass windows??? and do you see that crazy lantern and brick work???).

It's like a castle, or a larger version of those fabulous tudor-style apartment buildings on Capitol Hill. It's positively dreamy. It makes me think of The Secret Garden or the Chronicles of Narnia, and I could totally see how a child who grew up here could have the vividest of imaginations.

My neighborhood has become so overrun with NYU students - I am so very tired of seeing Abercrombie and Fitch written across people's asses - and filthiness, it makes me a little sad sometimes. When I go up to visit their neighborhood, it seems so homey and delightful - and totally unlike any other neighborhood I know in the city. It's all parks, and pre-war buildings, and cute little kids running through sprinklers.

I know it's not what anyone who wants me in Seattle wants to hear, but if I have to be in New York... can't I live at Hogwarts?

4 comments:

Heather said...

Yes, it looks very nice and I'd like to visit there. How long will it take for me and my boyfriend from NYU to take the subway up from my new place on Third Ave in the East Village?

h said...

Al, I too wish you lived up here. Living in a castle is a lot funner when there are good friends around. The little niblet agrees! Move north!

Sona said...

Gosh that looks dreamy. If you have to live in a big city, somewhere with charm is wonderful. And, usually, more expensive.

Have you checked to see how much?

K said...

Ohhhh, it's funny, now that I know you are pregnant I wonder if these are your hormones talking. Besides the obvious nesting, you will become increasingly aware/saddened by filfth of all kinds, commercial and organic. You will wonder how a homeless person could have once been swaddled in clean soft blankets.

'm serious.