When Patrick Seeley received a 1,200 square meter loft in Red Hook, Brooklyn, he never expected that the room would reflect his life so successively and would be visually changed with any iteration or a large milestone that he experienced.
“I built rooms, torn them off, rebuilt them and created various realities,” said Seeley, 46, a light designer for “Saturday Night Live”. “I was able to express any major change in life I had in this apartment.”
He also did not believe that 20 years later he would live in the room. But three engagements, two marriages, a divorce and three children later, he still lives in the apartment, in a building that was previously a luggage factory.
23 already lived in Park Slope with his girlfriend in 2003 and paid $ 1,000 a month for a 400 square meter studio apartment on the first floor. Born in Portland, in 1997 moved to New York. For a short stay, he became a licensed real estate agent and got a job from a now closed real estate agency in New York.
One morning or later with his girlfriend and a friend looking for a place of residence.
“When we came in, it looked cold and industrially, but the room was amazing – a huge rectangle with exposed brick, large windows and high ceilings. It was three times larger than where I lived and we could make it creatively a playground. “
The trio moved a month later.
This story was condensed and processed for length and clarity.
2003-2007
Add walls The previous tenant left wood. We used it to build a second floor above the entrance and the kitchen. That was two, 400 square meters of bedrooms. We built cupboards and stairs, added walls and doors and created a art studio on the ground floor on the windows.
Make it worth living The kitchen had only a sink and a counter. We built and pulled an all-round worktop and added the waist-high cabinets that turned the area from the rest of the room. The bathroom was disgusting. The way you would find in a petrol station if you had to ask about the key. I painted a sky, clouds and grass to make him happy; It made it worse.
Failed relationships My friend lasted six months. I got engaged. We tried to live with us. I got a job to illuminate events in the Rainbow Room. My girlfriend separated from mine twelve days before my wedding in June 2007.
2007-2012
Add bikes A turn of people moved into the second bedroom at the top. Someone built a closet; Another one desk. They are still here. I built a second room that became a motorcycle business and used an additional section of the large living room. I was obsessed with repairing the motorcycles. I like building, adapting and improving things. At the peak I had three in the apartment and two in the courtyard. I repaired it for myself and sold them over the years, not with a profit.
New job, new romance I started working part -time for “SNL” and started to date. I got engaged in summer 2010 and married in 2011. I removed a wall to expand our bedroom. My wife, a minimalist, renovated and paints everything white. We tore open the kitchen, added a counter, replaced the sink and got new devices. The administrative company has rebuilt the bathroom. The room felt grown up and beautiful. The once traveling side district became coherent. Then I was divorced 11 months later. I kept the apartment because it was my home. My ex-wife was not long enough to have this feeling.
Building a hut I covered the dividing wall back up, added the original two bedrooms and rented it out. The same applies to the art studio. I went down and expanded the motorcycle business again to expand the wall by another eight foot so that it could double as my bedroom. The room became known as my cabin because I used wood instead of drywall.
Many people, a bathroom Everyone who was rented by me had a friend. Suddenly I lived around with dogs in a crowded community. We started organizing parties. It became too much.
2014-2019
A tree house I was discontinued as a lighting technician on the “Portlandia” show, which was shot in Portland. “Snl” needed me Thursday to Sunday. I started commuting. I rented the cabin and built a 150 square meter room on the second floor above the art studio called Treehouse. It fit a bed and chest of drawers and allowed me to have a footprint in the apartment while I was in Portland.
Find love, withdraw During his time in Portland I again connected with a high school friend, Lauren, who divorced, and had two children. We started to meet and got engaged in 2015. The following year we had our son Oliver and married and made ourselves a family of five. It was exhausting to juggle two jobs in two different countries. We quickly exceeded Portland. Lauren, a versatile romantic who had seen the loft in recent years, also loved the room. We have withdrawn to the east.
Fold children The two existing roommates that were cleared in 2019. One of the bedrooms on the top floor became a camp, the other was used by Lauren's 9-year-old daughter Gwen at the time. The art studio was Oliver and then 3, which we decorated in toys. Lincoln, her son, then 15, stayed in Portland to live with his father. The tree house became a guest room and Lincoln stays there when he visits.
A full face of face Lauren and I moved into the cabin that got a facelifting. We reduced and redesigned everything. The kitchen is now corals. We replaced the couch, the dining table and the chairs. My motorcycle punk rock aesthetics became less nervous. The decor became a collaboration. Our mood came together to make a comfortable, warm, loving home from a chaotic space full of loud music, parties and occasional fist fight. The rent is now 3,200 US dollars, but that's still inexpensive. This once empty, dirty loft became a quiet oasis with a soul.