Tired of Waiting to Buy, They Redesigned Their Brooklyn Rental

Col­lec­tion: Me and Gen­er­al Design
The New York Times
By Tim McK­eough
Nov. 14, 2023

Cristi­na Casañas-Judd and Gen­er­al Judd thought they would live in the same home in Clin­ton Hill, Brook­lyn, for the rest of their lives.

After rent­ing the brown­stone apart­ment for more than a decade and rais­ing their two daugh­ters, Najal, now 22, and Rafia, 13, there, the cou­ple had start­ed talk­ing to their land­lord about buy­ing the build­ing, and had even begun draw­ing up ren­o­va­tion plans. But after their land­lord died in 2015, the remain­ing own­er had a change of heart and the deal evaporated.

“It was dev­as­tat­ing,” said Ms. Casañas-Judd, 52, who runs the inte­ri­ors firm Me and Gen­er­al Design with Mr. Judd, 60. ​“My dreams were shat­tered, and I was just like, ​‘I’ve got to go.’”