The Hunt - Can't Get That Place Out of My Mind - NYTimes.com AFTER growing up in Far Rockaway, Queens, Bruce David Martin headed for Greenwich Village. His first apartment there, in 1973, was a shared two-bedroom on the Avenue of the Americas and Bleecker Street; the rent was $185 a month. Back then he didn't mind the noisy street. Over the years, Mr. Martin bought and sold several apartments, all in Greenwich Village, trading up to bigger and better places. He remained far too long, however, in a Bedford Street co-op across from a noisy bar. He heard his neighbors, and they heard him, too. "I couldn't enjoy my piano because the neighbor complained," said Mr. Martin, who is also a guitar player. So he especially loved his next purchase, a 650-square-foot one-bedroom on Greenwich Street that he bought for $215,000 in 1998. The building, once a warehouse, had concrete floors. "It was like a vault," he said. We had people playing in a band until 2 a.m. You could do jumping jacks and nobody would hear you. That's where Mr. Martin, who then worked in television news operations, was living when he met his wife, Mary Xanthos, a veterinarian who grew up in Astoria, Queens. She joined him there, and together they opened the Greenwich Village Animal Hospital. Mr. Martin ran the business; Dr. Xanthos treated the pets. "I don't think Mary understood what was going to happen when you live three blocks from your animal hospital," said Mr. Martin, 58. Every pet owner in the neighborhood knew her. "I couldn't walk the dog without people being, like, "Can you look at Fluffy's paw?" " Dr. Xanthos said. They would put notes under my apartment door, they would ring the doorbell, they would stop me in the street. There was never a moment off. So the neighborhood was closing in on me. I felt like I was working 24-7. The couple sold that animal hospital and, five years ago, moved to the Olcott, a prewar condominium on West 72nd Street. In Central Park, Dr. Xanthos, 43, could walk the dog, Rudy, in peace. As for Mr. Martin's beloved Greenwich Street place? It sold to Dandridge Myles, who worked in banking, for $700,000. Mr. Martin had vowed never again to live in an apartment facing the street. The Olcott one-bedroom, which the couple bought for a little under $1 million, was adjacent to an elevator and faced a back driveway that was unexpectedly noisy. After a year, they moved within the building. With a higher price and transaction fees, the move cost $300,000, Mr. Martin said - but the quiet was well worth it. Three years ago, the couple opened the Reade Street Animal Hospital in TriBeCa. This time, "I was far enough from the practice so I could have some escape time," Dr. Xanthos said. Mr. Martin, always interested in real estate, obsessively checked listings. He saw that Ms. Myles had listed his old apartment for sale, and he called to tell her that it was overpriced. "Bruce would always keep in touch," said Ms. Myles, whose original listing price was $925,000. He is that kind of person. If he's got something on his mind he is going to say it, so he would call me and offer advice on things. She was planning to move to the South, but had no timetable. "I had it priced a little bit high just because I wanted to encourage serious people who, if they didn't like the price but loved the apartment, would make an offer," she said. Meanwhile, Mr. Martin and Dr. Xanthos agreed they were better as business partners than as spouses. They decided to sell the Olcott apartment and find separate homes. They plan to divorce. Mr. Martin went on the hunt for a pet-friendly one-bedroom in Greenwich Village for him and Rascal the cat. His budget was up to $900,000. "He has always lived in the Village and that's in his blood," said Dr. Xanthos, who wished to remain on the Upper West Side.