What renovations are reasonable to do yourself

How handy are you? Definitely do painting, possibly floors, but know your limitations. No electrical or plumbing unless you're licensed. Cabinets can be done if your're good with a level (or don't care if they're slightly off). New bathroom items, if you get a good diy book (Home Depot sells a couple of great ones) are definitely dooable. Good luck. BTW, some professionals will do a worse job than you. Make sure you hire good ones. Nothing worse than paying for inferior work.

It's more of a theoretical question, since I don't have anything to renovate. That said, if I were to buy (not now), I would definitely prefer a larger space that needed work. I'm pretty handy and my SO is even handier (I've only built and refinished furniture, done wall repair and lots of painting). I was wondering what kinds of projects people on this board have attempted on their own. I would definitely consider cabinets, but I'd shy away from the bathroom, because I feel like tile work is best left to someone with a lot of practice.

Actually, take out and put in items, when the same shape, etc. can be fairly easy (i.e., a sink or a toilet). Tile work, moving electrical or plumbing, can be much harder. (Although if you have an empty bathroom, starting from the corner, tile work might not be so bad). We've done cabinets, and we've put in some bathroom stuff using existing plumbing. Good luck. You may want to have a quick look at how level the flooring, etc., is if you want to do certain kinds of work.

None of the skills needed for renovation are that hard. If you are reasonably handy (and I have run across a few folks who realy, realy are not) and have the proper tools you can do almost anything. You just have to be prepared to spend the time to learn how things are properly done (including safety), to spend far more time on it than a professional would require, to scrap far more material than a professional, and to accept an imperfect result (which you will get with a professional anyway).

I have drawn a line on working on live elecrical circuits (usually required to change your main panel). And I wouldn't personally try to skim coat or plaster (small repairs are another matter) as I don't think I would be happy with my results. You might want to avoid gas plumbing, if only for reasons of liability.

Apartment renovation is in general much easier than a freestanding home renovation (I have done both). In a home renovation anything is possible (so since it is possible, your spouse is going to want to do it), but in an apartment renovation there are so many constraints. In general you can't go into your downstairs neighbor's apartment to run a drain for a toilet to add a bathroom. Similarly, it will be a pain to replace a bathtub so get a professional to refinish the existing one (uses nasty chemicals). So it is common that an apartment renovation is the replacement of what is already there. So that boils down to cabinet installation, counter installation, basic plumbing, basic electrical, tiling, wood flooring or carpeting, fixture installation, and wall finishing (patching and painting or papering and moulding/trim).

mcmaster.com is a great resource for tools, hardware and some materials and they ship fast from a nearby distribution center. HomeFront Hardware is open 24 hours and can be a lifesaver http://www.hfront.com/ since you are probably going to be doing a lot of the work in the evening. The seemingly millions of fixture sellers on the internet make it easy to pick your fixtures if you can live without physically seeing it first. Dykes is a good source for lumber including moldings and trim, Ideal Tile for tile and grout. If you can "pass" as an installer, you might be able to get a nice discount in one of the Queens tile supply places. eBay is a great place to "rent" big tools that you won't want to keep (wet tile saw, table saw, sliding compound mitre saw if you are doing trim) - buy a used one and then sell when you are done.

If you embark on this journey, please remember that in a typical NYC apartment, NOTHING is plumb or square. Maybe things are different at 15CPW, but I doubt it. Make no assumptions and measure EVERY dimension. If you don't you will end up with a wall of new cabinets that don't fit in the space available, your tile won't line up, and your commode won't have enough clearence to the wall. If you were working on a typical house, you could probably accomodate somehow, but in an apartment you are typically stuck, and will have to order another cabinet, scrap the tile on the wall, and order a different commode that will accomodate the existing dimensions.

haha, I'm trying to picture a resident of 15CPW hauling their own renovation materials...
Seriously, thanks for the great insights and the websites. It's good to hear encouragement. My timeline for buying a place is the year or two, and I've always preferred the idea of buying something I could make better.

DOs: Painting (especially if you have the patience to sand between coats); medium-sized carpentry like building in shelves; minor electrical like adding dimmers.

MAYBEs: Demolition such as taking out a wall (there are generally waste disposal problems in NYC); floor refinish (tough on the lungs); adding or removing wallpaper (messy); switching over appliances or adding a wall (heavy)

DONTs: Major electrical (not that you couldn't figure it out, but you'd violate fire code and invalidate your insurance); skimcoating (takes a non-pro forever); tile work (which for most people is a "maybe," but I think non-pro tile work is easy to spot)

ali r.
{downtown broker}

When I did my own renovations I always felt like the people I was talking to about it thought that I was cheap for not hiring someone else to do it. They didn't come out and accuse me of being cheap but it was that condescending look as if I was below them for tackling painting, enlarging my bathroom, and redoing my closet on my own. On the opposite side of handy, some people can't even hang pictures in their units without having to "demand" the service of the building maintenance personal to do it for them.

I have painted my apartment and done minor work in the bathrooms, including changing shower heads and toilet seats (both pretty easy). The next project will be fixing up the closets. There seem to be decent DIY options from Container Store as far as racking goes, that simply require a drill and tape measure for installation.

Completely agree with front_porch about electrical. My dad, an engineer, helped me out with some electrical work in my apartment, and even he was hesitant because code is different from state to state (he's in MA). Minor things involving painting, drilling, hammering, should be done yourself whenever possible. I've redone a few bathrooms, including tiling, and that's when the call's a little trickier. You have to have some decent experience to undertake those kinds of things so they don't end up looking amateurish in the end.

I have done major plumbing (installing a new bathroom including sweating new copper plumbing) and basic electrical (new switches, outlets, new circuit), demo, kitchen cabinets, deck building and plenty of painting. All was done in single family homes (obviously, not in NYC).

I asked about this at some of the co-ops I visited and was told that I would not be allowed to do demo, electric or plumbing. Because of this, apartments that need work are MUCH less interesting to me.

Let me add that I understand why things are (and have to be) different in a multi-family dwelling. I'm just not thrilled about it.