Mayra David

This week we're turning our attention toward building amenities. We asked six New Yorkers whether they'd rather have a state-of-the-art gym in their building or a gorgeous landscaped roof deck? Here's what they had to say.

If you’re looking to buy a NYC apartment (where the average price of a NYC apartment was $1.425 million the last time we checked), there's a decent chance you are also in the market for a mortgage. You may already know that in order to be taken seriously as a buyer you should be pre-approved before you step into your first open house. But it's only once your real estate search is over and you’re ready to move forward on an apartment that the real financing fun begins.

Bike storage, central A/C, and a roof deck. Six New Yorkers share some of their home improvement wishes. Real bike storage We wish we didn't have our two bikes standing in the office. There was a lottery in the building for just one spot that costs $100 a month!! Of course, we didn't get it. -Josh, Morningside Cabinets as they were meant to be I had a great carpenter who started building all my cabinets in the kitchen. But one day he just left to go back to Estonia -- before he put doors on my cabinets! I haven't gotten around to finding another carpenter to finish my custom cabinets. It's been two years. I do get compliments on my "open storage" but it's so hard to keep clean and organized looking! - Martine, Upper East Side

Which neighbor would you rather share a wall with: A professional musician who practices daily or a monthly bringing-down-the-house kind of party? And our informal BrickUnderground survey says.... Professional musician: "I used to live above a professional musician. He was the musical director for an off-Broadway show, so he was asleep most mornings, gone all night and only played in the middle of the day. So I only heard him occasionally during the week and on some weekend mornings. I really liked waking up to his awesome piano playing. It wasn’t intrusive at all." -Alden, Park Slope

One of the joys of home ownership is being able to dream up home projects that may not necessarily have to end in one of the following kill-joy realities: