Visits: 51
Before they got married this summer, Vincent Jayrill Brathwaite and Magalie Lachoua-Brathwaite had never shared a country, let alone a city or an apartment.
The couple met in 2015, when Mr. Brathwaite — who was living in Los Angeles before moving to Brooklyn — attended an art event on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, organized by the Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator, an organization that he and her uncle were working with at the time. After a long-distance courtship, they were looking forward to the moving into their first home together.
In the weeks leading up to the wedding — after which Ms. Lachoua-Brathwaite planned to move to the United States — Mr. Brathwaite found what seemed to both of them the perfect place to live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It was well sized and tastefully renovated, and the $2,550-a-month rent included not only furniture, but also kitchen supplies, bed linens and internet service. The catch? It also included two roommates.
“We didn’t have to worry about anything. When we arrived, it was like home already,” Ms. Lachoua-Brathwaite said. “People were already living here.”
While not all newlyweds would consider a co-living arrangement an ideal love nest, both Mr. Brathwaite and Ms. Lachoua-Brathwaite had lived with roommates before and agreed that they didn’t mind doing so after their wedding. In fact, it made for an easy transition, they said, because they don’t have to deal with many of the issues that make living with roommates — or a significant other — so fraught.
Their landlord, the co-living operator Common, provides a weekly cleaning service, a supply closet stocked with toilet paper and dish sponges, art on the walls, even olive oil.
“Being in this place, we’re able to focus on each other, growing as newlyweds. We don’t want to have to consider all these bills,” Mr. Brathwaite said — which is helpful because until Ms. Lachoua-Brathwaite gets a work permit, they are living on just his salary as a user-experience design instructor. “It’s just rent and our phone bill.”
$2,550 | Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Vincent Jayrill Brathwaite, 34, and Magalie Lachoua-Brathwaite, 32
Occupation: Mr. Brathwaite is the lead UX design instructor at General Assembly, a coding and tech school. Ms. Lachoua-Brathwaite, who worked for a national bank in Guadeloupe, is waiting for a United States work permit and exploring ideas for a local beauty-box start-up.
On Williamsburg: “We like the area for accessibility and walkability, and going into the city is easy,” Ms. Lachoua-Brathwaite said.
The convenience of co-living in a Common property: A movie screening room in the basement was good for watching the World Cup. And the building’s programs and events has made it easier to meet new friends.
Before moving into the three-bedroom share, Mr. Brathwaite had been living in another Common property, in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, where he had moved a year earlier after leaving Los Angeles to work at General Assembly.
He hadn’t considered staying in that share with a wife. And, in fact, only certain suites, with at least two bathrooms, allow couples, so it wasn’t a possibility. Instead, he contacted a broker and started looking for one-bedrooms.
“After about two weeks of looking, it gave me a really realistic idea of the search,” Mr. Brathwaite said, describing how he discovered that a bathtub — as opposed to a shower stall — was something of a luxury amenity.
Brownstone Brooklyn was out of their price range, but in Brighton Beach, he found some large, reasonably priced apartments, including a one-bedroom he liked for $2,050 a month. The neighborhood also appealed because he thought that Ms. Lachoua-Brathwaite might enjoy living close to the beach.
“I wanted her to be as comfortable as possible here,” he said. “And I thought the beach might remind her of home.”
But when he started delving into the application process with the broker, the costs of first and last months’ rent, security deposit and broker’s fee added up quickly.
“I did the math, and it was a little over $10,000 that I would have had to pay right before the wedding,” Mr. Brathwaite said. “It was not in the budget.”
On top of that, they knew they would have to scrape together additional money for furniture. So Mr. Brathwaite, who knew some Common properties had rooms for couples, spoke with his property’s manager. Within two days, he had toured the Williamsburg suite, secured Ms. Lachoua-Brathwaite’s approval and signed their lease, paying the first month’s and security deposit to move in.
While all Common residents are vetted and approved by the company, the pair did not select their roommates, “very active professionals” they don’t see all that often. When they do meet — usually around dinner time — they share their weekend plans or talk about what happened during the day.
“And one of them even speaks French, which was a nice surprise for me,” Ms. Lachoua-Brathwaite said. “It’s nice to have an exchange with someone who speaks French fluently.”
“I’ll get there someday,” Mr. Brathwaite said.
Their room has several features that ease the friction of living with others: its own temperature control and bathroom (with a real bathtub), as well as above-closet and under-bed storage, “so it doesn’t feel too cramped,” Ms. Lachoua-Brathwaite said.
And if some features didn’t strike them as strictly necessary — the coat rack and umbrella stand in the foyer, for example — the apartment’s aesthetic is “more than O.K.” in her estimation, she said, even if it could do with more plants. (They have added several to their bedroom.)
“There’s just enough decoration so you don’t feel like you’re walking into an asylum,” Mr. Brathwaite said.
“If we’d moved into a place that we would have had to furnish ourselves, we’d probably still be sitting on beanbags,” he added.
“We’d have to go through the process of whether or not we agree on a couch,” Ms. Lachoua-Brathwaite said.
“Here, whether or not we agree, it’s here,” he said.