“We have been living with nothing for two and a half years,” says Susie Kwak Ting.
Her family’s story begins with a move to one temporary apartment and ends with a move to another. She hopes a permanent fix is on the horizon.
When the pandemic began, she and her husband, Li Ting, were raising their two daughters, one a 4-year-old and a newborn, in a one-bedroom apartment in the financial district. Under normal circumstances, living in such a small space would have been difficult. With all four of us at home all the time, that became almost impossible.
They bought EverBlocks Use heavy plastic building blocks to create partitions to create the illusion of separate spaces in a crowded apartment. “It eventually became a joke,” she said. “The four of us are in this one-bedroom. We knew we had to move.”
They took advantage of plummeting rents to lease a two-bedroom house a few blocks away, staying close to Ting’s family. His parents moved to the city from suburban New Jersey to become full-time grandparents, helping get their girls to school and providing afternoon care, and enjoying the opportunity to be a part of their grandchildren’s daily lives. It was.
“Just kidding, if it weren’t for my in-laws, I probably would have divorced Mr. Lee years ago,” Quack Tinh said with a laugh. “That’s how helpful my in-laws are. They’re amazing.”
Ting credits his wife with making this arrangement work. “Susie has been very patient with me and my family,” he said. “That’s one thing I’m really grateful for.”
But still, their daughters were growing up quickly, and the two-bedroom they had quickly found was never going to be a long-term solution. They wanted to buy their own house. “We knew we needed a garden and a tree,” Quack Tinh said. “But where shall we go?”
She was headed to Long Island, where she was born and raised and where her parents still live. “Lee was like, ‘No way, that’s not going to happen,'” she recalls.
“Susie and I are still deeply connected to this city,” Ting added.
In August 2021, out of desperation, he wrote a letter to Jordan Slocum and Barry Bordelon, known as the Brownstone Boys, offering them a job renovating New York City brownstones on their YouTube channel. “I went directly to their channel page and wrote ‘Help me’ in all caps in the comments section,” he recalled.
$4,520 | Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Lee Ting (45 years old) and Susie Kwak Ting (39 years old)
Profession: Mr. Ting is a lawyer specializing in insurance. Kwak Ting is a strategist on his Amazon channel
For mobile phones: “I don’t always know where my phone is,” Quack Tinh said. Fortunately, her husband is often a good ally in this regard. “She’s the kind of person who wakes up in the morning and if she has 2 percent of her phone, she’s on the road,” he said. “That’s the only way she can live. I wake up in the middle of the night and look for her phone so I can charge it.”
Regarding cohabitation: When Ting and Kwak Ting first met, she was living on the Upper East Side. When he asked her to move into an apartment downtown, she hesitated. “I’m right next to Central Park,” she said. In the end, she relented.
Mr. Slocum and Mr. Bordelon of the Brownstone Boys not only complied, but helped them find a 4,000-square-foot Park Slope brownstone with five bedrooms, heated floors, and a backyard where they could host parties. also cooperated. “We didn’t realize the possibilities until Barry told us everything,” Ting said. “If we were alone, we probably would have said, ‘No, this is not for us’ and walked away.”
So they bought a brownstone for $3.2 million and hired the Brownstone Boys to help build the house for about $400 per square foot. The only catch is that it could take him a year and a half to complete from permitting to finishing touches.
Throughout the planning and permitting stages, the family temporarily lived in the brownstone’s garden and parlor floor. “We definitely had a tough time there,” Quack Tinh said. “At least two rats lived with us.”
But once permits were approved and demolition began, they had to find another place to live.
After a year of camping in the brownstone, the family realized they didn’t want to move far from the area that would be their home for the foreseeable future.
The couple considered a one-bedroom in nearby Prospect Heights, but were daunted by the idea of living in such a small space again, even temporarily. “In the end, we will either divorce or kill each other,” Quack Tinh said with a laugh.
They then located the unit at 595 Dean Street. It was also a one-bedroom, but much larger and a surprise. The building’s developer, TF Cornerstone, worked with Brownstone Boys on the studio and one-bedroom designs. “We walked in and thought, oh my gosh, this place is beautiful,” Quack Tinh said. In a way, it will give them something to look forward to.
There was also a rooftop pool, playroom, lounge space and arcade. “Parents realized they could spend enough time with their daughters just by enjoying the building,” Ting said.
They moved into the building in April and crammed all the beds into single bedrooms. “I think for the first few months, it was like, ‘Slumber party every night!'” Quack Tinh said. “We’re feeling it right now. The bedroom is just a sea of beds. And there’s a little corner where I put my laptop. It feels tight.”
Noting that her eldest daughter Emily recently turned eight, Ting added: We can only co-sleep for a long time. And we’re Costco shoppers, so that doesn’t help. Everything has to go somewhere. ”
They hope to be able to move into the brownstone in August 2024, the third anniversary of Mr. Ting reaching out to the Brownstone Boys. “It took twice, maybe three times longer than I expected,” Quack Tinh said. “There were times when I thought, ‘I can’t do this, Lee.'”
But the family recognizes that they are lucky to be in this position, knowing that their next home will give them plenty of space and time to unpack their belongings.
The whole family is involved in choosing the finishes for the future home. Once completed, it will eventually be featured on the Brownstone Boys channel.
“The children are very excited,” Quack Tinh said. “We tried to involve Emily a little bit in the design process. She’s excited to have her friends in her room in her house.”
Even if their current one-bedroom is temporary, the relationship they’re building isn’t. “We are still connected to the neighborhood,” Quack Tinh said. “We’re still in the same community. We still meet friends in the city. I don’t think it’s temporary in that sense. It feels like home.”
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