Last year I picked up "How Big Things Get Done" by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner not thinking that it would apply to what I'm now going through with the processing buying staples for my new apartment.
That's right. Your girl got her keys and is preparing to move. And, as serendipitous as it was, my bonus came in.
I didn't plan to engage an interior designer, and the only renovation works that need to be done are to install some grills to cat-proof the balcony and windows. I didn't need a lot of money did I?
Turns out, starting your window-shopping at places like Nitori may not have been the best start. Nitori has the loveliest, most Japanese-themed furniture you can buy for the lowest budget you can afford. But also, one should listen to instincts and not use its couch prices as the benchmark, especially when the couch should have been an investment.
Nobody also tells you how expensive installing lights and curtains would be. Let's just say budgeting $1,000 each may have been a little over-optimistic. Those costs inflated twice and quadruple times (rounded up) respectively, in spite of feeble attempts to negotiate for a better-priced deal.
Let's not even talk about the cat-proofing.
And none of these options have installment plans.
Setting up your home - your sanctuary, your safe sapce, your recovery corner - shouldn't have to be expensive. But the market has been influencing new homeowners to engage an interior designer to reinvigorate your space to create the home of your dreams. These jobs can cost anywhere between $40,000 - $70,000 - conservatively - and could take however long it needs to take - a month? Two months? And who's cleaning up the mess?
I've spent more time than I needed this month - sacrificing my lunch hour, breaks, and weekends to visit furniture showrooms at remote locations, review my floor plans and mood boards and budget spreadsheeets, and trawl through enough posts, reels and videos - to realise that :
(1) your home is never permanent. Who knows if you're still there after five years?
(2) renovations are a sunk cost for a design choice that could change - unless they are intended to make the home more accessible;
(3) less is good. Invest in pieces that bring you joy;
(4) investments don't need to be expensive; and
(5) you don't have to get everything at the same time. As I type this, I realise it combined all expenses I inteded to make for the nest. But I didn't need to spend them all within the same month. So sure, expenses in my first month may be higher, but I can plan and budget phase 2 over the next two months - getting the cat tree, litterbox, adoption...
When will I be moving? Probably sooner than expected. But not until after I've decluttered my current space. And that's another project on its own.
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