Upon arrival we were met by Doug's father, who was great. Very helpful and accommodating, and throughout our stay was always available to help and answer any of our questions. The apartment is basically the basement of Doug's family home, with a flight of steps above leading to the rest of the house. The room, bedroom, kitchen and shower is open plan, separated by wardrobes and a divider at the bottom of the bed (which we moved and placed back upon leaving, both because it obscures the view of the TV from the bed, and because it actually makes the living quarters more open and generally nicer looking). There is pretty much everything you could possibly need in the apartment, oven/grill, microwave, iron & ironing board etc, plus a little outside area which we used to occasionally dry clothes - although there seems to be a slight issue with the reception of the cable TV, making it difficult to watch a full programme. Being a basement, there's maybe a slight amount of damp within, which is apparent from slight scent upon entering and nearer to the shower area, but there are dehumidifiers to help combat this. This aside, the apartment was very nice and warm, even during the night, which was a great combination with the very comfy bed there! We did however have quite a few problems sleeping due to certain amount of noise. The microwave made a repetitive beeping throughout the night and displayed a message that the appliance required a service. We advised Doug of this and was told that the microwave was fine but that the previous guests may have set an alarm on it for when we were there. We were able to unplug this, and turn off the humidifier during the night, but the noisy fridge and the house boiler (which being in the basement is basically situated in the same room) were more of problem to deal with. I slept with ear plugs, but this still failed to drown out the loud humming and banging of the boiler. Wanting to explore NYC at night and returning late, we found ourselves with very little sleep during our stay. We did advise of the boiler noise and Doug's wife did offer to take a look at it, but as we stressed, the problem is not that it's broken - quite the opposite. The main downside of apartment is its location. New York's transport system is quite a bit behind that of other big cities, and although a daytime Metro journey into Manhattan is quite convenient (if the trains are running that day, or if the station isn't closed - we had to walk a further 20-25 mins on occasions), if you're wanting to return back later in the evening it can take a very long time to return back on the local trains (if they're running). Unfortunately we didn't feel safe at all around the area of the apartment (which we were surprised about, due...