It is cold and rainy in Connecticut so no golf today and I will jump in.
Similar to golf courses, I like to have a perpetual renovation and tinkering of our NYC apartment.
First part was 3 bedrooms, 2 baths RTJ style apartment in a 1960's building that is very nice, but lacking in architectural style. Red brick building with stamped out apartments and brown colored windows that was very very popular in the 60's
. When we moved in, the kids were small so we did a paint job with some minor upgrades to the interior like upgrading the kitchen, baths and sanding the floors. Kids destroy apartments in NYC, so did not want to do too much.
Second part was buying the attached studio and combing it with the main apartment. This became the master bedroom for Mom and Dad. We hired the Ian Andrews of Architects (up and comer, renovation expert without the Tom Doak prices
) to lay out the entire floor plan. Approvals from the Condo Board and NYC are really simple!
We then took the studio down to its bones, and combined the kitchen and small bath of the studio into a master bath that has a kick-ass Pine Valley/Merion style shower that makes me feel like I am in heaven every morning
Plasma screen TV and my home office in this studio is as close as I can get to a man cave as my wife sleeps in there too!
For quirk, due to our family relationships with CAMBA and
www.TheCaribbeanProject.com, we have some interesting art (not expensive) from Africa and The Islands:
http://www.camba.org/Support/ShonaSculptures/tabid/222/menuheader/101/submenuheader/101/Default.aspxThe result is a classic New England mishmash 18 holer. 9 holes by Styles and Van Kleek that have been redone by Ian, and a mess of a now beat up RTJ that needs a restoration.
When the older one goes off to college, the goal is to do a complete renovation and perhaps take it down to 3 bedrooms by expanding the living room.