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Welcome to what is a “hopefully” entertaining chronicle of what happens when an interior deisgner becomes his own client and has some fun along the way. First off, by way of background, I’d been looking for an apartment for all of a single day when I found the one I eventually bought. I walked into the open house and fell in love. Tall ceilings? Check. Fireplace? Check. Two bedrooms? Check. Fun, hip neighborhood? Check. In my budget? Double check! And when I found out I could raise the ceilings to 12 feet and expose the brick behind the living room sheetrock walls I was sold! I put in an offer the next day.

And as a good-karma aside–totally unbenowst to me–it was the apartment of one of my friends’ best friends! What are the chances in New York City? So, with that glowing good will in mind, and (after the uniquely New York process of board approvals) keys in hand, I gave the plan to my contractor to go to work!

Let me add, by way of full disclosure, this is not a do-it-yourself blog. If I were to try and renovate this myself the NYC Department of Buildings would slap me with so many fines, I’d go broke…(that is, if the chunks of plaster crashing into my head and the live wires falling into my shower hadn’t killed me first).

The apartment was in pretty good shape so the idea was to freshen up the kitchen and bathroom, raise the ceilings, expose the brick and build some new cabinetry. No big deal, right? Stay tuned for the next chapter.