Extreme Makeovers

She also installed new kitchen cabinets -- a task that proved especially tricky due to the construction of her building. She couldn't find the vertical wooden beams that hold up the wall, known as studs, on which to hang the cabinets. "It seemed like a ghost wall," she said. It wasn't until the building's engineer told her that her terra-cotta walls were held up by horizontal slats that she was able to finish her kitchen.

Because she only had a month to work on the apartment before starting medical school, Miller opted not to knock down any walls. Such a drastic change would have required approval from her condo board, often the bane of do-it-your-self condo dwellers. Considering all of the neighbors who could be affected by one misplaced sledgehammer, restrictions on the kinds of work that can be done inside condo units and who can do it are not uncommon.

Sarah Kenny, a 36-year-old government employee who is vice president of the condo board in her Adams Morgan building, said that, in her building, owners must seek approval for renovations before beginning any work that "intrude[s] upon the existing walls." Laying new tile over existing tile is okay, but board approval is a must if the owner wants to rip out the existing tile first. Nearly all projects get the go-ahead, but owners in Kenny's building must hire contractors for plans that go beyond cosmetic changes, such as installing new light fixtures.

"We don't let people do this work by themselves," she said. Only contractors who are licensed in D.C. and can provide evidence of workers' compensation insurance can work in Kenny's building. Rules differ from condo to condo, but many other D.C. buildings have similar requirements.

Kenny recently completed her own condo renovation, a significant project that involved tearing down a wall to combine her one-bedroom condo with a neighboring studio she had purchased earlier. Kenny thinks that she and her husband, Michael Rabasco, may have been able to tackle some of the redo's smaller tasks, but thinks the contractor's work was superior to anything they could have achieved. "We don't have the skills," she said.

When the real estate market was particularly strong in 2003, Sterling Ashby faced little resistance from the board at his Adams Morgan condominium. "At the time, everyone was just so excited where the prices were headed," he said.

Ashby, an attorney in his 30s, wasn't looking to do anything drastic to his place, just fix it up to sell. He removed a disco-era mirrored closet door and, with the help of a handyman, painted the walls white and installed wood floors. He also took down some window treatments to let in more light and moved many of his belongings to storage to cut clutter. He had tried to sell his two-level, two-bedroom condo several months before he made these changes, but without any luck. These small tweaks -- which he estimated cost $6,000 -- translated into a $60,000 increase in his ultimate selling price.

But that was 2003. These days, a renovation securing a higher selling price is not such a sure thing. According to Dan Melman, a real estate agent with Melman and Molik, a division of W.C. & A.N. Miller Realtors, buyers certainly do look for wood floors, good lighting and updated kitchens and bathrooms, but price and location reign supreme in today's cooling market.

That news shouldn't discourage would-be do-it-yourselfers. Melman suggests making improvements to a condo that you'll appreciate as an owner, not just as a seller. "You're going to get most of your dollars back [when selling after a renovation]," he said. "Might not be all of them, but you'll get some enjoyment out of it, too."