My wife and I wanted a bigger apartment, so we signed a lease with her sister. It's like an endless sleepover.

• My now-wife and I wanted a bigger apartment but couldn't afford it on our own.
• When her sister wanted to move to NYC, we jumped at the chance to live with her.
• Some people think it's weird to live with a roommate your first year of marriage, but we love it.

When my now-wife Taryn and I moved to New York City in 2021, we were done with roommates. We had enough roommate horror stories to last a lifetime and swore off the unnecessary stress as we built our lives together. We were able to get a COVID deal on our apartment that made it financially feasible to share a one-bedroom with our two cats.

We had been so excited to move that we didn't really shop around for apartments and snagged the first spot we toured. At first, things were great. We loved the city, our Brooklyn neighborhood with a coffee shop and grocery store within a block radius, and the freedom to walk around our apartment in our underwear. Three years in, we didn't feel the same.

After we got engaged, we decided we needed to find a new apartment

There wasn't enough natural sunlight, and I worked from home then. I spent all my days sitting in this dark, gloomy apartment, which got exponentially worse when the sun started to set at 4 p.m. during the winter. I was ready to move, but we weren't sure we could give up our rent-stabilized deal.

After getting engaged, I was determined for something to change. We were officially starting our lives together, and I couldn't imagine doing that in the apartment we were in.

Taryn's sister Jaeden had started considering moving to the city, and we jumped at the opportunity to get a bigger place — in fact, we practically bullied her to move in with us. Taryn and I had started touring places casually, but as soon as we stepped into this gorgeous apartment with a mint-green kitchen backsplash, windows for days, and an amazing view of the New York skyline, we called her and asked her to fork over the deposit. It was now or never.

It was nerve-racking for me, considering Jaedan would soon be my sister-in-law. I worried about how well we would get along while living together. Even our friends and family thought we were crazy for complicating our first year of marriage with a third roommate, but moving in with my sister-in-law transformed our home life in ways I wasn't even expecting.

Living with Jaeden has been incredible

We had a built-in maid-of-honor. She helped us plan our wedding from the comfort of our shared couch. It brought us closer together and led to the wedding of our dreams. When we returned from our honeymoon to see Jaedan cooking a "welcome back" meal, it felt like returning to the perfect home.

Most people assume that getting married means settling into a cozy, two-person household, but we hadn't realized how comfortable we had grown in our routine as a couple. Jaedan helped us turn tired fights over whose turn it was to cook dinner into lively, communal meals. There was always someone to watch TV with or help settle a minor marital debate, like who should take out the trash. It even pushed Taryn and me to start going on dates again so that we would have time to ourselves. No,w we go out together once a week to spend quality time together without our roommate.

Splitting rent three ways meant we could afford a nicer apartment without breaking the bank, and we'd also get the added bonus of having an ongoing sleepover (but with more wine). With rent prices rising, more and more people are choosing untraditional living arrangements. Three years ago, I would never have thought living with family would be a dream come true, but it is.

We've just hit our first anniversary of living together, and I couldn't imagine ever leaving this apartment — or my sister-in-law.