Bronx couple sells ornate, palace-looking apartment in Fordham

One Bronx couple is putting their ornate, one-of-a-kind apartment on the market.
Opening the door to Emery and Christopher Ortiz’s apartment is like stepping into another world.

“They're just like, ‘ahh,’ soaking it in, and it's like birthing the place all over again. It's pretty cool,” says Emery Ortiz.

It’s a palace that Ortiz and her husband built up from pretty much nothing back in 2011 when they bought the Fordham apartment.

Neither of them had any interior design schooling, but as a newly married couple they knew what they liked, and they definitely learned a lot about each other through the whole process.

“We took it as a hobby and pieced things together and it worked out really well,” says Ortiz.

Most of the furniture they found at estate sales. The coffered ceilings, a mural of a piece of art that's exhibited in the Louvre, a Turkish-tiled bathroom and an original butcher pantry from the 1800s are all inside the Fordham apartment.
They're saying goodbye to this labor of love, putting it on the market last week listing the two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment at $325,000.
Despite being emotional to say goodbye, Ortiz says she and her husband are ready for the next challenge.

“We will top ourselves, we have to top ourselves from this, this is just warming the palette so to speak, and now I know what he can do,” says Ortiz.

The Ortizes also have a special surprise for the buyer of their home – a poem placed inside the walls.
“Just know you're not just purchasing an apartment, you're purchasing an expression of love towards two people, towards each other,” says Ortiz.