Graduating to Their First Big City Rental

Two years ago, Alexi Stathakis and Lauren Witonsky met as summer interns at a public relations firm. They became fast friends and stayed in touch after returning to school — Ms. Stathakis to Fairfield University in Connecticut and Ms. Witonsky to Syracuse in upstate New York.

After they graduated in the spring, both with jobs in Manhattan, they were eager to room together. It was easy for Ms. Stathakis to ride the train to the city from Fairfield and take charge of the apartment hunt. Listings, photos and videos flew back and forth.

“She almost acted as my real estate agent,” Ms. Witonsky said. “She was doing all the legwork, which was awesome.”

The friends wanted a two-bedroom rental in a fun neighborhood with a reasonable commute to their jobs. Ms. Stathakis is the social media manager at Berns Communications Group in Murray Hill, while Ms. Witonsky is a social media assistant at Health magazine, in the financial district.

The fun, they decided, was somewhere on the East Side. “We agreed on that,” Ms. Stathakis said. “I am not sure why.”

Both wanted to be near a Trader Joe’s, and both hoped for a dishwasher and a washer-dryer, knowing they might get one or neither.

With a budget of $3,500 to $3,800 for a two-bedroom, they had plenty of options. Ms. Stathakis happily visited dozens of places, from no-frills tenement buildings to high-rises with swimming pools, documenting everything for Ms. Witonsky. In one video, she was out of breath. “She walked up six flights of stairs!” Ms. Witonsky said. “I loved hearing her narrations.”

On the Upper East Side, the places they saw were relatively large and nicely finished. Ms. Stathakis loved a charming two-bedroom on First Avenue near 70th Street that was filled with light. The rent was $3,600, with two months free on a 13-month lease.

But the roommates, both 22, decided the Upper East Side felt removed from both fun and work. “That was a tough pass,” Ms. Stathakis said. “But we are young 20s and didn’t want to be on the Upper East Side. That is more like in five years or so.” Worse, the neighborhood didn’t have a Trader Joe’s.

In and around the East Village, places were either depressingly rundown or impressively updated. Ms. Stathakis decided the neighborhood was too gritty for her taste, so she found a happy medium: the Midtown East area.

She saw a spacious two-bedroom for $3,350 in the Devon Condominium, circa 1961, on East 34th Street in Murray Hill. It was appealing, but the women decided that such a fancy doorman building was not for them. They wanted character.

“We wanted to be New Yorkers,” said Ms. Stathakis, who is from Madison, Conn. “We wanted to live in a walk-up.”

Through StreetEasy, Ms. Stathakis connected with Jessica Wolf, a licensed salesperson at Compass, who took her around for a day. Eager to see everything she could, she accompanied Ms. Wolf to View 34, a huge rental building on the East River with a grand lobby, 24-hour gym and landscaped roof deck.

The building is popular with recent college graduates, Ms. Wolf said: “Typically they love it, but she didn’t. She felt average about it. She described how she felt about some of the walk-ups on the smaller streets. That vibe was what she was going for.”

Sure enough, it was a five-story brick building on a tree-lined Kips Bay side street that Ms. Stathakis couldn’t resist. “Although high-rises and doormen are awesome, we wanted the full New York City experience, and decided a walk-up was best for our first apartment,” she said.

Ms. Witonsky, who is from Philadelphia, watched the video and felt the same. “It was like a magic moment,” she said. “This is the one.”

The two-bedroom was classic and charming, with a pretty stoop and a nicely updated interior with an exposed brick wall and French doors. It also had the coveted appliances: a dishwasher and a washer-dryer.

The departing tenants — two female roommates — were still living there. “It was craziness and chaos,” Ms. Witonsky said. “It was so messy, but it felt right.”

They were easily able to see past the mess and signed on for a monthly rent of $3,795, with one month free on a 13-month lease and no broker fee. Each used a parent as a guarantor. They arrived in the early summer.

Ms. Stathakis’s bedroom has a pocket door that lets light into the otherwise dim living room/kitchen area, which they furnished with a love seat and a table for two. The bathroom has a shower but no tub.

The roommates are getting used to living small. The stacked washer-dryer, which encroaches upon the bathroom space, works well, at least for small loads. But the dryer needs several cycles to get clothes fully dry.

“I bump into my bed every day,” Ms. Witonsky said. “Our oven looks like an Easy-Bake Oven. We have only cooked Tater Tots in our oven so far.” Fortunately, a cookie sheet fits.

With little money for eating out, she is grateful for the dishwasher. “I take my lunch every single day, and a dishwasher makes washing Tupperware easier,” she said.

The nearest Trader Joe’s is about 10 minutes away. The roommates use a tag-team approach there, with one waiting in line while the other does her shopping, and then switching off. “By the time we’re done grabbing everything, we are close to the checkout,” Ms. Stathakis said. “The lines are so long.”

Their new home, she said, provides “a happy mix” of what is most important to them. “Where we ended up has so much character,” she said. “You feel you are in New York City when you walk out the front door.”

Email: thehunt@nytimes.com

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