The First 90 Days After Closing: A Renovation Planning Guide for Northern Westchester
The first 90 days after closing on a northern Westchester home is the highest-leverage window most new homeowners use poorly — rushing into a contractor before design, skipping the regulatory mapping, and starting demo before permits. This guide walks through how to spend those 90 days as the planning phase rather than the demolition phase, with specific actions for each 30-day block.
Renovating a Mid-Century Ranch in Hawthorne, Thornwood, or Valhalla
Most of Hawthorne, Thornwood, and Valhalla was built between 1948 and 1972, and these mid-century ranches and split-levels need a different renovation playbook than pre-war Chappaqua colonials. Here is what's structurally and mechanically distinctive about the stock, the renovations that pencil well, and the mechanical landmines (aluminum wiring, FPE panels, vermiculite) to budget for before demo starts.