About

About 4 years ago, when interest rates were at a historic low, I bought a one-bedroom coop apartment. Partly an investment, I figured I might as well own my place and build equity rather than rent and pay all that money to some landlord. The town that I live in is actually quite an expensive area but my combined mortgage (15 year) and maintenance fee monthly housing overhead is less than the average rental costs of most comparable apartments. So I’m quite happy about that.

When I bought my place, it was in original condition. That means that no renovation or remodeling of any kind had been done since the building was built. My real estate agent had shown me other apartments that had been nicely renovated but I decided I wanted to start with a blank slate and do my own renovation. Plus, it was cheaper too.

Since then I had worked on and finished my bedroom. Currently, I am working on the kitchen. This blog is to document the entire process and to serve as a venue for me to organize my thought processes and to “think out loud” through my writing.

All work, with the exception of certain tasks that absolutely require the use of qualified, outside help, are done by myself . I have no prior experience in this sort of work so it is a learning experience for me as well.