I think some of the NYT readers are better suited to read 'The Worker's Daily'. Btw the Soviets had great housing choices.
I lived in typical Soviet housing for ten years. Not much to look at on the outside, but on the inside it was roomy. solidly built, and warm. And it had two balconies. Wonder what that would cost in NYC.
Wow, so many snarky comments. Why shouldn't the Olafssons live in a nice home if they can afford it? Sounds like envy to me.
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I think there would be less snark if, as in Iceland, nearly everyone could afford decent housing. Then it doesn't rankle quite so much that some people have much better. In the US, where so many struggle and even fail to keep a modest roof over their heads, an admiring story about a couple who 'need' more and more space (more than a 2-bedroom, and the first child hasn't even been born!) and who 'earn' more than 7 million a year can feel like a slap in the face.
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If I understand correctly, they did and paid for all this work to a place they rent?
If that is the case, they have found another way way to flush a bunch of money.
"With the approval of the owner, who has become a good friend, the Olafssons broke through ceilings and built floating wood staircases to connect the units. Along the way, they added a laundry room and did away with one bathroom and three kitchens, moving their own kitchen one flight up to capture as much sunlight as possible".
The noive!
Now we know where all those tinny stacks of pennies of royalties went that one late writer supposedly "earned" on her Hillary Biography but never saw:
Olaf Olafsson and his fellow Time Warner writer/execs AND her lawyers, who now send her son her annual notification of what would have come her way had she left The Washington Post and Gone to Work for TW.
Sorry Hillary. Had they hyped her book the way they look after themselves, you might just have defeated The Donald!
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Interesting and talented person. Remarkable that an Icelander has succeeded in insinuating himself very early on into the top levels of corporate USA, then continued to insinuate himself therein.
Nonetheless, this and similar unbelievably positive "profiles" of Mr. Olafsson have appeared regularly in widely read publications of "prestige" such as the NYTimes. An aspect of Mr. Olafsson's main talent of self-promotion, not to diminish the accomplishments of keeping high-paying corporate jobs and writing published long-form fiction and to do so in English, which may well be a native language to Mr. Olafsson as is Icelandic. Icelandic, by the way, archaic variant of North Germanic, and a very cool language despite the very few, hundreds of thousands currently, native speakers.
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Some people live in comfort like the family shown here, some struggle to hold onto their modest homes, some live in decrepit housing, and others are homeless. What does that say about our society?
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With all dues respect to the Olafssons, who seem to be a fine couple, this is a laughably typical NY Times real estate piece in its obliviousness about the rental possibilities of the 99% who live in NYC. Taking another "floor" in the building! Why, sure, that's what we all do when we're crimped for space.
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Well, this is relatable!
That said, I'm here and I'm looking ... real estate addict I guess.
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not a word about what this cost?
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I suspect this is a case of "if you have to ask....." ;)
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Don't worry. He can afford it. Just google his name and the word compensation.
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Oh, that's all part of "The Big Lie"...showing and talking about the most extreme of opulent consumption....but NEVER saying what it costs. (Not in good taste, my dear. And might cause the unwashed masses to rebel!)
If you have to ask....you can't afford it.
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This place is wonderful, especially the kitchen (I don't really cook, but I love the ambiance.) and the roof top area. I think the author's desk may be a dining table, which gives you a lot more space to spread out than most standard desks afford.
Since they have first dibs on the building in the event the owner decides to sell, I wouldn't be too concerned about it's being a rental.
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Generally when you renovate, you don't then have to buy the house. Now that they have renovated, they will likely pay millions more to buy the house when it goes on the market. This is not fiscally responsible.
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Irresponsibility implies a negative consequence; they clearly have the means if they were on the verge of buying a 7,000 square foot townhouse. I personally wouldn't have spent that much effort and money renovating a rental but they chose to do so with their own resources, nothing wrong with that.
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I am a great fan of using dining tables as desks, you can really spread out. I have a mid century Danish teak table as my desk (with two computers and monitors and a printer I need space and two file cabinets fit perfectly on either side of the legs) while my wife has a free form raw oak with tree trunk legs, just for the hell of it.
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When I finished reading this, I felt confirmed in my feelings that most of the time, it's just fine to change your mind. There's nothing wrong with changing your mind; it could be simply saying that you know yourself better now than you did before. More power to 'em.
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