This makes me want to talk to my landlord about doing more than just the painting I am doing.

Nothing like making somebody else investment property and tax deduction more valuable w/ your own money and sweat equity. Yes, I know this is not unusual for places like NYC, but I can't help thinking: save your money to buy your own place!

Still, beautiful work.

It looks amazing, but I'm with Lizzy C. They remodeled someone else's kitchen! If they have a option to buy on their lease, then I can understand it. But I just can't imagine renovating someone else's house!

I agree as well, but as a person who bought her first place at age 37 - trust me. There are a LOT of situations out there that prevent people from ever being able to buy, and I imagine when you factor in the NYC factor it's multiplied. We're not all fortunate enough to come into a down payment, even a 3.5 percent down payment if we're lucky enough to qualify for an FHA loan... and it would take years upon years of saving to make a nest egg large enough for a down payment. Not to mention in some areas, rent control means that rent is more affordable than ownership (not true here in AZ, where i'm paying less for my mortgage and double the sf than I was in my apartment). There are just all types of reasons for all types of people - and for some, the option of having a personalized "home" is worth letting someone else reap the financial benefit. Money isn't always everything, but to some people, your home is your heart.

what did they do to the floors? Is that some sort of whitewash finish? It looks incredible.

I agree with LizzyC. Why spend that kind of money on a place you don't own?

my apartment looks shockingly similar to the before pics -- battered floors, dark and ugly exposed brick, horror movie like bathroom. my landlord won't let me do a damn thing. they got lucky.

I wouldn't be upset about renovating someone else's house depending on the deal I worked out with the Landlord...I'd have to be given more than just reimbursement for materials. A friend of mine was given a HUGE discount on rent along with the materials reimbursement because the Landlord knew she'd get that money back tenfold with the next tenant and wasn't immediately strapped for the cash. Win/win situation for them.

After reading the article, I think their decision makes sense. They were able to negotiate a long lease and a rent reduction, so they can enjoy the fruits of their labor for a long period, and for lower rent. The rent appears to have been reduced to $1,400, which is probably pretty good for New York.

Also, the building owner sounds like a reasonable person who appreciates responsible tenants, so she is likely to renew their lease if they ask.

This might not work for every situation, but it seems like a good compromise for these particular people.

Even though it sounds crazy, in NYC buying a place can be out of the financial ability of a lot of people, even with good jobs. My husband and I rented a very small, stabilized apt for over a decade, and I wish we'd just gone ahead and renovated the kitchen early on and enjoyed it all those years, even though it would have been for someone else's investment. I don't think it would have cost us more than 2-months rent to have gutted it (it wasn't big.)

It seemed like not such a bad idea... until I read this:

As often happens in a renovation, the Caprons ended up doing more than they planned — and spending more as well (an additional $20,000 in labor and materials, they estimate, that they were not compensated for) — to realize their vision.

Yikes.

With the prices of NYC and Brooklyn real estate being so completely out of control... It's difficult to afford to rent, let alone buy.
With that, I understand renovating "someone else's" apartment...
in exchange for a long lease and reduced rent...the reduction being based on the work done for the reno. Smart negotiating...win win situation.
They get a great place with a cheap rent, the landlord gets a totally renovated space, should they ever leave.

I only hope the landlord will be as kind in negotiations when the lease comes due.

Meanwhile, wow...what a great job!
The kitchen is fabulous and I LOVE the bathroom....
as in jealous.

My mom has lived in her apartment for 30 years. Owning in nyc-even brooklyn is not an option- her rent is less than $700. I have told her for years to ask the landlord if she could renovate the bathroom. When the landlord did it, it was a hodgepodge hotmess. If you live in an apartment for 10 years , its worth it -within a reasonable budget.
This would make sense almost nowhere else.

@tequila red...I gasped a bit when I read that as well...
however...the additional $20,000 was optional....
and if you figure it out....it basically just negates the reduction over the 4 year lease... but they nowl have a fabulous apt. for $1900 a month...rather than a crappy one for the same price. Not to mention that $1900 for a 2 bedroom in Brooklyn is still quite a bargain. IMO.

I like this and hope it catches on. While this couple's particular case was on the extreme end of apartment makeovers, I think their are many tenants who would do a better job & use higher quality raw materials (such as low voc paint, etc) than the "landlord" is apt to use after a tenant moves out.

@Flowersmom: In the article, the couple says they went $20,000 over their original proposal, which wasn't compensated--there's your down-payment.

@crazylady: if you're buying a 100K home, sure!

I think it's well worth it. They calculated they would get the money back, are close to the husband's family, get to live in their dream pad. That said, if they had stuck to their budget it would be an even better deal but, oh well.

Plus, you don't only need a down payment, you also need closing costs. We're in the same situation in the SF Bay Area: two excellent jobs and we can't afford to buy a decent house in a safe neighborhood with even a "good enough" school for our 2 kids, where we wouldn't have hours of commute time (or have to buy a second car). I honestly don't know how anyone buys a home here or in NYC, unless you get a windfall like an inheritance or make a bundle on a starter home you bought before the market ballooned. We are currently looking for a new place to RENT and can't even find the right combination of decent home, neighborhood, school, and commute. From where I sit this Brooklyn family's choices look perfectly reasonable. Plus their place is lovely.

"Why spend that kind of money on a place you don't own?"

Did folks not see the part where the couple got a rent reduction for the term of the 4 year lease equivalent to the cost of the original budget?

"In the article, the couple says they went $20,000 over their original proposal, which wasn't compensated--there's your down-payment."

Show me a habitable 2 bedroom place in Manhattan or Brooklyn for $100,000 - or any other place in the United States where there are jobs for that matter - and you've got a deal.

Seems like it pans out financially even with the 20k over. Why not? They get a great place for the same amount of money. The only thing they 'loose' is their time and effort. But I would venture they enjoy this sort of thing, or they would not have done it.

And as a bay area resident, I understand that buying is usually in the very distant future if ever. Life is short, enjoy it how you like! The 20k would be about a 2 or 3 percent deposit on a junk heap, just for reference.

Most importantly, that place is gorgeous. Nice work!

you literally have to be a millionaire to own a property in many major cities, so renovating a rental makes enough sense. i just hope their landlady doesn't go and jack their rent to $3000 because now it's a fabulous apartment thanks to them.

@CrazyLady, I have to second bepsf -- if you know of a secret source for decent $100k homes in a vibrant city, roll out the welcome mat! I'm on my way.

P.S. This place looks fabulous. I'm actually making some (much, much cheaper) changes to my apartment on my own dime. It's worth it. I'll have lived here 20 years in February, and my rent is so far below the usual SF rate it's ridiculous. So it still works out in my favor.

I wrote about this article in my blog, too. If you're in a fantastic rent stabilized place (I had friends who were in a $1200 1 bedroom in Chelsea until they were busted for subletting), you may want to consider some cosmetic changes. The $20K over budget part is what put me over the edge. And while you can't get anything in NYC for $100K, you could maybe buy something as a weekend home for that amount. I remember a Times article a few months ago about that.

PS-You can buy a nice apartment in Queens for about $125000.

http://newyork.craigslist.org/que/reb/1505993738.html

(Just an example-I am in NO way affiliated with this apartment.)

In Europe, it is the norm that tenants do these sorts of renovations at their own cost. The housing market is so tight, purchasing out of reach in many parts of Europe, that this is how you get a nice home.

Owning your own home isn't quite as common everywhere else in the world as it in the US. Also note what started the economic disaster the whole world succumbed to.

i would like to do much cheaper renovations in my rental apartment but my boyfriend is adamant we don't...boo.

...and since an appreciation of the space seems to have been lost I'd like to state the obvious: Todd and Marlene Capron did an AWESOME job fixing this place up! Bravo! and Congratulations on such a great home!

I agree, it's awesome. This is no different than spending a lot of money on trendy fashions like great shoes or the latest bag: you enjoy it for awhile, and then you move on. In this case, they're going to enjoy their improvements for as long as they live in the apartment, and then they're going to move on. I think that everyone is too focused on "permanent improvements" and the investment aspect of the whole thing. We all purchase (some) things without thinking about the return on our investment. Good for them for thinking outside of the box. It seems like a bigger waste to pay a lot of rent to live in a place that you hate.

The work they did was good and I am happy that they are enjoying it.

But.

I doubt the wisdom of the financial decision. I know Prospect Heights well and $1900 is too much for that square footage, especially in this market, two BR or not, particularly in that condition. I think their perspective was skewed because they just wanted anything less expensive than the $2K they were paying in Manhattan. $1600 is about all I would have paid. It seems as though they have a nice and reasonable landlord which is a definite plus but it's unfortunate that when they leave, she'll probably leverage the four-year-old reno to inflate the rent even further.

Am with mschatelaine and creative license -- my view is that too much emphasis is placed on property ownership in certain cultures (including my native culture, British, and my adopted culture, Kiwi).

Want to congratulate this couple on their great work. Not all decisions have to boil down to the $.

I think it looks fantastic and was totally worth doing.

I live in the Midwest where you can buy a nice house for around $100K and where housing prices were relatively unaffected by the housing bubble. My sister-in-law and her husband recently sold their house for exactly what they paid when they bought it 7 years ago, despite having done a lot of upgrades inside the house. How is that financially different from putting money into a rental? At least the people from the article got a reduction in their rent!

Tashy, starter homes in my Midwestern town go for $350,000 on up. Sigh...

There's another component to this that increases the risk associated with this level of renter renovation into the unacceptable category. What happens if the landlord decides to sell the building next week? Yes, there are certain rights the tenants MIGHT be able to exercise under NY law to enforce the terms of the lease they negotiated, however all I see is a huge legal battle fraught with all sorts of extra expense and attorneys fees so you could have your perfect, dreamy, Brooklyn apt for another 3 years?

Amazing result but way too much benefit to the property owner to be realistically viable.

@TheoJ: Are you serious? "Places where people actually want to live?" "Small town america...lovely foreclosure in a place with a 20 percent unemployment, no culture and no decent public services."

You, sir, are a coast-centric snob, it would seem. Contrary to what appears, too often, to be popular AT belief, not every place outside of NYC/SF is a crap heap nobody with any expectations could possibly live it. I realize that perhaps you didn't intend to sound like a snooty jerk, but you did. You think everywhere outside the big, cosmopolitan cities sucks, and those of us who know better think you tell yourself that to make yourself feel better about the insane percentage of your salary that you are most likely obliged spend on basic living expenses. The truth is somewhere in the middle, but you would do well not to...crap on everywhere that's not where you live. It's incorrect, insulting, and unnecessary.

I think it was money well spent and now they have a very nice place to enjoy. Most people outside NYC would have spent this money owning a car or 2.

Shanalulu, TheoJ is entitled to his opinion as are you. And I (along with 19million others) in NYC agree with him.

Job well done in making a rental property into a home that you can enjoy.
Congratulations.

This looks lovely, but I would NEVER spend that kind of money on a rental.

Hello,

I am Todd Capron. Thanks to everyone for their comments. Marlene and I have been following all the posts that you have written about the NY Times article. All of your view points have been very well stated, and most, if not all of these views came into consideration when we decided to take on this project. For us it came down to being able to negotiate our lease so that we could create our own environment. A large portion of the costs stated in the article were calculated as “sweat equity” and not out of pocket cost. As a designer it was an amazing opportunity to create a space with very few limitations, and to experiment with new design ideas. We wouldn’t have gone through the process if we weren’t having such a great time doing it.

Please feel free to check out my website at www.buildfabrication.com to see more examples of my work.

P.S. “what did they do to the floors? Is that some sort of whitewash finish? It looks incredible” posted by ec05
- We hired someone to sand the floors, and we whitewashed and finished them ourselves.

Thanks again,
Todd Capron

My dream of owning my own place was and is not even close to happening so I renovated a lot of the last rental I lived in. It was an old brick cottage on a small lake and although it was pretty scary at first, I could see what a fabulous place it could be with a little work. I’m a landscape designer and carried out much of the work in the winter, when I could use some idle labourers as needed. Painting the whole place goes without saying!

Dining Room: Overlooking the lake with a single glazed picture window that didn't open and rough-ins for laundry at the end of the room (exposed and in the open)...I found a great unused bay window with 2 side casements at a recycling place that my housemate (a contractor!) installed. A W/D would have been nice, but we chose to frame the end wall and turn it into a badly needed closet. BIG differences!

Kitchen: Terrible, stained white countertop and massive wasted empty space on other wall. Really ugly, torn roll flooring and gross, home-made cabinet doors. I found a set of plain upper and lower cabinets (used) for the empty wall, and 2 precut, off-the-rack laminate counters (6' & 10') from Home Depot. Replaced flooring with vintage checkerboard linoleum tiles. Routed all cabinet doors for beadboard look (cut centres out of 2 and replaced with ridged glass). Painted all cabinets. replaced lighting with tracks. Covered hideous range hood to ceiling with galvanized sheet metal. Removed 1 cabinet and installed dishwasher (mine from last place). GREAT place to cook and hang out then!

Bathroom: Originally too terrifying to enter without shoes! We ripped up the cracked and broken flooring and installed second hand oak hardwood (out into front hall as well). Built short wall at end of bathtub out of free glass block (left overs from an acquaintance). Replaced tub surround with new one piece from recycling place. Installed bead board wainscoting.
Then it was not only cleaner, but quite spa-like.

The Outside: It was criminal, but there was nowhere to sit outside to enjoy the lake (sloping terraced lawn towards lake). As a landscape designer I had to deal with this. Our crew had 3 days between large projects and I used that time to have them all over to help me landscape! Almost all of the materials were free and had been removed from other projects. We regraded the area, creating a large flat terrace and installed interlocking stone and when that ran out, upside down patio slabs, artfully arranged! Steps were formed out of old 6” x 6” cedar timbers, salvaged from a deck we had demolished months before. I found an old metal bin at the back of the house that I converted into a basin for a water feature. Rubble from other stonework projects was used as a dry stone retaining wall on the upper side. The only things I paid for were good soil, some rocks, the urn, pump and liner for the fountain, a chiminea for cool nights and cash for labour.
This patio became THE go to place for friend and neighbours and was money well spent.

I’d say that the total cost to me for interior work was about $ 3000 (including cash to some installers), with some of the material costs absorbed by my kindly landlord. The total for the exterior ran to about $ 4000.

Many told me I was crazy to do this, but my reasoning is this: I planned on living there for several years (6 yrs after all). For the cost of the work, I could have had 6 mediocre holidays, but would have spent each day (I worked at home as well) in a place that was pretty awful. My priority was to have a nice, welcoming home…which I did...as well as still managing the some great holidays!

I thought about putting some effort into my current place (extending the kitchen cabinetry and installing a B/I dishwasher). I would have split the cost of the work (about $ 2500 total) with them and to sweeten the deal, donated a nice DW to the apartment, to be left when I left, but my landlords seemed offended by the idea as the place had just been renovated! (hehehe).

Like Marlene and Todd, much of it was sweat-equity. My reasoning is similar to theirs...its all in the priorities…and I’d do it again if the situation came up!

Sheila

Afterthought:

My landlord paid for only a small portion of the cost of the work, but didn't raise my rent ($1200 plus utilities...steep btw as the insulation sucked and we used oil!) for 5 years, when he did it was a nickle and dime thing (up $40/month) and really p#*%d me off!

After all that, no one was to ever live there again as we were all evicted (5 tenants in 3 separate buildings, like a little village!) when the property was suddenly sold and demolished for a HUGE monster house. Sad...really sad.

But, c'est la vie...right?

I wish we would've renovated our last place. The money you put in you get back in enjoyment. A couple thousand to replace kitchen counters? Versus three years worth of cursing them every day when I wiped them down...

Anyway, I was just looking at that Patrick Townsend chandelier for our kitchen. So nice to see it in a real place. I think I love it. (Lighting makes a huge difference... and you can totally it with you when you go.)

I love the Patrick Townsend chandelier too - I've only seen it in white - it comes in black too? Also do you think it's too small for a 2 story foyer? I hate my existing brassy chandelier.
thanks!

Obviously very well thought out and beautifully executed!

Anyone looking for cheap homes in an area where there is jobs hasn't looked very hard. Check out Greenville, SC. Consistently highly rated for easy happy living (following Tucson AZ), just rated in the top 10 best Main Streets in America, great businesses around here, 2 hours to Charlotte and Atlanta, 4 hours to the coast, and if you live just outside the city, you can get a gigantic house on a few acres for the same $200k you'd spend elsewhere. Heck, spend less and get a cool ranch on an acre. Plus, there is hiking and outdoor awesomeness just 30 minutes away in some national forests. Why are people so hung up on the cramped major cities? My rent is $800 for a sweet loft in an old mill.