Last year, Sulia Rose Altenberg and Forrest Wasko ran out of wall space.<\/p>\n
The couple, who went antiquing on their first date, had each brought a collection of art and artifacts to their relationship. For a while, they were able to combine them into an 888-square-foot apartment in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis. But there wasn\u2019t much room to grow.<\/p>\n
In fact, the space was shrinking as both Ms. Altenberg and Mx. Wasko, who uses they\/them pronouns, continued to produce artwork of their own.<\/p>\n
Curious about what else was out there, they started checking out open houses, until one finally sparked an epiphany. \u201cThat burst the bubble of, \u2018We can keep doing this,\u2019\u201d said Ms. Altenberg, 30. \u201cWe got home from that open house and were like, \u2018Nope, we can\u2019t keep doing this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
As they got their finances together, the two began assembling a wish list. They wanted more room to grow not just artistically but as a family, and hoped to have a space for hosting guests. That meant at least two bedrooms, ideally three, plus a basement that could act as a studio or flex space. They also couldn\u2019t imagine another Minnesota winter without a garage.<\/p>\n
A home with character would be a bonus, Ms. Altenberg said, and might include details like vintage doorknobs or original hardwood. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want a weirdly redone gray kitchen,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s not fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Above all, the couple, who got married last June, were looking to plant long-term roots. Ms. Altenberg grew up in the Twin Cities, while Mx. Wasko arrived from South Dakota in 2013, and they both value being a part of a neighborhood community: Ms. Altenberg works with the Powderhorn Park Rent Relief network, which provides rent assistance to neighbors in need, and Mx. Wasko is a local photographer and arts administrator.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted this home that we were going to move into to be the last home we were going to live in,\u201d said Mx. Wasko, 31.<\/p>\n
With that in mind, they called their friend Emily Rose Duea of ATD Realty to represent them on a deal and act as a trusted sounding board. They could work with a budget of up to $375,000, but hoped to find something for closer to $325,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were so prepared and so clear on what they were looking for,\u201d Ms. Duea said. \u201cArtists have the ability to see the potential of third spaces. A bedroom doesn’t have to be a bedroom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Find out what happened next by answering these two questions:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last year, Sulia Rose Altenberg and Forrest Wasko ran out of wall space. The couple, who went antiquing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49930,9,11,10,578],"class_list":["post-216343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-minneapolis-minn","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-real-estate-and-housing-residential"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}