Mix and Match
A little imagination goes a long way. Start today!
I am often asked if you can start renovating, or at least submit plans to a condo or co-op board, before you close. (Well, you can't.) But I approve of the sentiment! The best time to renovate is, indubitably, before you move in.
So even though the board won't speak to you until you are officially an owner in the building, you can celebrate signing your contract by window-shopping for furniture, furnishings and building materials. This is also the time to choose designers, contractors and architects, if you haven't already.
Renovating before your move will save you the stress of living in an active work zone, and you'll enjoy the upgrades for as long as you live there. Too often, people wait to renovate until they need to sell, and then they feel envious of their own buyers! Why wait? Take the leap now, and enjoy your renovations for as long as you remain in residence.
Now is the time to really let your imagination run wild. Your design and contracting consultants can suggest ideas, and they will also rein you in if your dreams are budget-busters (jacuzzi in the living room), simply not physically feasible (jacuzzi in the living room) or bad for resale (jacuzzi in the… etc.). One of the unsung luxuries of living in NYC is that you can visit half a dozen showrooms in one subway ride. You can do plenty of inspiration-seeking online as well, whether you want to browse stores' and suppliers' offerings or ogle what others have done on sites such as Pinterest.
My favorite contractor is fond of "hacking" ready-made furniture (from IKEA, for example) into novel configurations that stray far from their mass-appeal roots. This can mean taking sliding doors meant for a wardrobe and repurposing them as a room divider. Or, as in the photo above, you could use two very basic bookcases as the frame for a unique living-room gathering space. Mixing and matching materials can add up to a very lively renovation as well as real cost savings.
So if you've just signed a contract to buy your new home, go ahead and start planning. Just keep your future buyers in mind (which is to say, temper your wilder instincts or be prepared to renovate again before you sell), and remember to have fun!
