“Ask ten friends if they’d move to Staten Island and eleven will say no,” laughs Russell Farhang. The hedge-fund VP and his wife, artist Cynthia von Buhler (who has a solo show at the Staten Island Museum next month), looked for more than a year before stumbling across St. George in 2005. Their 3,800-square-foot find (an eight-minute walk from the ferry) cost $655,000—about the price of a Manhattan one-bedroom.

Though it was built in 1920 to look like a Spanish castle, the interior “was boring white,” remarks Von Buhler. So she sponged rich hues onto the textured walls and installed her gothic-meets-Renaissance pieces throughout (a painting in the living room depicts Adam and Eve, complete with a very convincing plaster snake; another piece vends little vats of menstrual blood).

Beyond the duo, the four stories play host to eight cats, a toothless dog, six doves, a slew of goldfish and a rat (recovering from surgery). “We have so many animals we kinda had to get a house,” jokes Farhang, noting the 4,000-square-foot backyard as a plus.

In an attempt to lure more people to Staten Island, the couple created prodigalborough.com, which features the area’s loveliest for-sale homes. “The neighborhood has welcomed us,” says Von Buhler, describing the “mostly liberal Democrats” on their block. “Everyone should live here.”