Mayra David

This week, we're asking New Yorkers to weigh in one of the most basic questions of city life: doorman or no doorman? Six Manhattanites share their thoughts. 

Wishing for glazed windows, glazed bathtubs and a refrigerator that's one size smaller! As the temperatures rise, we asked five New Yorkers to blow off steam by telling us what they would change about their homes if they could:

New Yorkers love their city with a passion. But that doesn’t mean we're blind to its shortcomings—namely, the oppressive heat. As such, a city-wide exodus has always been an inevitable part of NYC summers. And when the city empties, it quiets down—a nice bonus for those of us who decide to stay put.

So we asked five city dwellers: Would you rather escape the city for the whole summer or stay and enjoy the relative quiet?

Adding an extra room, repainting the kitchen and selling the place altogether: five New Yorkers share their home improvement dreams.

When I moved into my slightly dilapidated one-bedroom co-op in Hamilton Heights, I not only bid adieu to my years as a renter, I also embarked on a complete overhaul of the place, from redoing the kitchen floors to remodeling the bathroom to adding an office—on a shoestring budget, and much of it with my own hands. It's been a messy, dusty, sweaty two-and-a-half years, but now the ladder and miter saw are in storage, and I'm ready to enjoy the fruits of my labor.