I pay $1,550 in rent and spent nearly $14,000 renovating my NYC apartment. Before and after photos show why it was worth it.

• Joe Yatco is an architect in New York City who pays $1,550 per month for his Brooklyn apartment.
• Yatco spent nearly $14,000 renovating the apartment, including building a bar, bookshelf, and new sink.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Joe Yatco, a New York City-based architect whose apartment renovation recently went viral. Insider has verified his rent and renovation expenses. The essay has been edited for length and clarity.

I've always been building things since I was a kid or just taking things apart and figuring out how they work.

I was in pre-med for two years in college and then transferred into architecture. But the first big project I did was for Eagle Scouts when I was 17. I decided to build a hockey rink. My uncle taught me everything about basic wall construction and curving plywood. Fairly complicated stuff, but that's the kind of thing that once you learn it, it's with you.

I always built things in my dorm rooms and would customize everything. The work was really shoddy, but you get better each time you do it. My thought was always, "Well, somebody built this. I can figure this out."

For my current apartment, I visited a friend who lived there and when I saw the place, I knew there was so much potential. I immediately asked if there were any rooms opening up.

It's a four-bedroom in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and is about 2,000 square feet. It's leased by room and I pay $1,550. The whole space is $6,055.

I've lived here for two years and basically started making changes a week in. It's not that I'm compelled to build, more so I am bothered by bad design. So I just start disassembling things.

I've spent about $14,000 renovating it and have zero regret about it.

Every time I renovate a place, I get better at it

My dean of architecture once told me it's better to ask for forgiveness than for permission. I figured if I'm putting a little bit of my own money in here to improve the place and the landlord is getting a free professional architect to renovate his apartment, he wouldn't care.

He came in for an insurance inspection and I was kind of terrified, thinking it's probably going to go one of two ways, and they're not good: He hates it and he's pissed off at it, or he loves it and he raises my rent. Luckily, he loved it and hasn't changed the rate of raising my rent.

The cost of renovating the apartment was all material. Design and labor were free because I was doing all of it. We lived in a job site for a very long time. I think I burned a little bit of capital with my roommates. Every time I come up with a new design, they're like, "What is this going to do to us?"

I probably drew 60 different versions of everything in that apartment. I 3D model everything. I try to get the most realistic view of how it'll come out, and I use professional programs for designing buildings. Other times I was just shooting from the hip.

Pouring a concrete bar I just figured out on the fly. I'd spend 16 hours in a weekend working on it, just to see if I could do it. It was stressful but it was a good kind of stress.

My personal favorite is the bookshelf, because that's the first thing that I've built from the ground up.

When our bathroom sink came off the wall during a New Year's party, my roommates were all freaking out but I was very low-key excited, because I hated that sink. I would just be in the shower thinking about how I would design it. When it broke, the next day I modeled it in my program and literally just went out to go buy the materials and started doing it.

I usually design around whatever emotion I want to convey. I wanted to make it a home. When people walk through the door and see it for the first time, almost always their jaw drops like, "Where the hell am I?" The fact that people want to be there is very fulfilling to me.

I enjoy building a lot, and every time I renovate a place, I get better at it. This is the first time that I have done a renovation where I would absolutely put it in my portfolio. This was just a culmination of years of practicing and having the right roommates.

This is my hobby, borderline my profession, so regardless if I got kicked out, I'd still have the joy of having built it. I always tell people that men would rather build a bar in their apartment than go to therapy.

Renovating a rental is worth it

Some people are all upset, like, "Why would you spend $14,000 not on your own place?" I did it because I enjoy it, and I did it for my friends, to give them a place to enjoy. And most of what I've spent is furniture that can be moved.

When you move into a place, you're just inheriting what it is, and a lot of people don't make changes to their place and it doesn't truly reflect them. This place was designed to reflect me and how I could see myself living and what is my dream apartment.

Honestly, I would pay double for how happy I am now.

In my mind, we're all on borrowed time. So I'm going to enjoy it and not think about how this may not be the right financial decision. I've done the responsible things with my 401K and investments, and now I'm at a point in my career where felt I'm making enough. Let's do some irresponsible things.

The only way to get good at it is to start doing it. You're going to mess up. That's fine. As long as you're willing to learn and take each mess up as a learning opportunity. You just slowly get more interested in it and over time all of a sudden you're good at it.

Even I could be doing so much better. It's something I want get better and craft over my lifetime.

Yeah, it's slightly irresponsible, but you only get one life. I'm done putting money into this, and now I get to live fairly cheaply in an amazing space because I was just willing to take the risk.

Do you have an interesting home, apartment, or van renovation you'd like to share? Email Kelsey Vlamis at kvlamis@insider.com.