Chez Steve

I thought you all might like to see some photos of my humble abode. Yes, this is what a New York City studio apartment looks like. This is what passes for the living room -- and bedroom.


This is a close-up of the bookcase in the top photo. The bookcase itself came from my grandfather. Some of the vases -- the tall red one, the short blue one on the right, and the big beige one in the middle -- were wedding presents to my grandparents back in the 1920s. The elephant bookends up top were theirs, too.


Here's the side of the room across from the bed. You can see my cat, lying in her favorite spot next to the heater. (She spends her entire life in this spot from October through March -- except when she's lying on me.) On the heater I keep souvenir rocks from my travels. The baobab tree atop the stereo is made of grass -- I picked it up in Madagascar.


This is the corner where I meditate. I set up a cushion right there next to the little Buddha statue. The big white seashells on the bookcase came from Sanibel Island, Fla. I found them on the beach the summer I was 12.


From the living area, there's a step up into the dining area and kitchen. My father made my dining table. He used an old government surplus desktop of solid wood, and attached the legs and braces. Pretty cool, huh? These days, he says he's amazed he did that.


And here's my little kitchen, more justly called a kitchenette, I suppose. You can see why it's hard to cook anything too elaborate. But I do have a four-burner stove; some studios have stoves with only two burners.

And that's it -- life in the city! You can see why I'm obsessive about not collecting stuff and keeping things neat. When you live in such a small space, it's a necessity!

Technically, my co-op requires owners to have rugs, to keep down noise. But I hate rugs, and I never wear shoes in my apartment, so noise isn't really a problem.

I'll spare you the entrance hall and the bathroom.