On Park Avenue South, a Layout for a Photographer For nine years Andrew Matusik, a fashion photographer, lived and worked in a Chelsea rental. His 1,350-square-foot brick-walled space was nearly ideal. The 11-foot ceilings were a tad on the low side, but the skylight soared to 18 feet. It was "really ugly when I moved in," he said, "so I put 15 grand into it. It was wonderful. The apartment was on the fourth and top floor of a walk-up building, although he didn't think much about that in the early years. "I was a lot younger," Mr. Matusik said. I can't believe I used to run upstairs with equipment. Over time, the monthly cost of $4,000 worked its way up to $6,000. Mr. Matusik, now 44, was reluctant to keep spending so much on rent. He wanted to buy a "dumpy place" to renovate that in the end would be comparable to or better than his rental apartment. "Photographers are very particular about our needs," he said, "and it's very important we have control over how the place is laid out. So it is better to start from scratch and customize it, unless the person who moved out was a photographer. His top price was $1.2 million. The purchase was to be a business deal with his mother, who would finance it by selling a nine-unit apartment building near the beach in Los Angeles. But "warehouse-type guttable places" - those zoned for both living and working - were scarce, Mr. Matusik said. After three months of hunting, he had found nothing suitable. I was honestly thinking there was no way I was going to pull this off, and my dream was dashing really quick. A chain of friends led him to Mary Lou Currier of Bond New York. She showed him a place in a condominium building in the South Street Seaport Historic District. The apartment had 1,300 square feet and 11-foot ceilings. It was listed for $1.15 million, with monthly charges around $2,600. "It was completely 1980s and needed to be gutted," Mr. Matusik said. That might have been all right, but he felt the building, which had a doorman, was too residential. The unit later sold for $1.05 million. But on Park Avenue South in the Flatiron district, a former Tiffany glass-blowing studio had an apartment with everything Mr. Matusik wanted. The 1,300-square-foot space had 13 1/2-foot ceilings. Enormous windows faced both north and south. The price was $999,000, monthly maintenance around $2,200. "It was a big square box that looked like an "80s Colorado bungalow," he said. The wood trim exuded a ski-lodge vibe. I hate that look. It was dingy and dated-looking, but I knew what it was going to be when it was clean and done properly. He told Ms. Currier that this was the place for him, "but she wanted to make sure," he said. I don't think she understood how serious I was about wanting a dump. So they went to Central Harlem to see a beautiful loft with 1,450 square feet in a condo. The listing price was also $999,000, monthly charges in the mid-$800s. The loft was too finished for Mr. Matusik's purposes. And it was too far from Midtown. Groups of people, toting heaps of clothing and accessories, would need to taxi up to Harlem, he said. Who pays for that? I do. It later sold for around $940,000. A commercial co-op unit, the ground floor of a residential building, also near South Street Seaport, had more than 1,500 square feet. The price was $1.1 million. Maintenance was $1,900 a month. At that point, it would have been possible to convert it to a live-work space. But Mr. Matusik moved on, unhappy with the 9 1/2-foot ceilings and a lone window. After his visit, the unit was flooded by Hurricane Sandy, and the board is now inclined to keep it strictly commercial. It remains for sale, now at $995,000. Mr. Matusik knew he would find no place better than the Flatiron apartment. But first he needed his mother's approval. She would make the purchase, and he would make monthly payments to her. "She told me later it was underwhelming, considering we are selling a nine-unit apartment building in Los Angeles for one box," he said. But she trusted me. She saw what I did with my other space. He negotiated a price of $915,000, then managed to subtract another $15,000 to cover the cost of removing a mezzanine that was too low. Because of scheduling snafus, zoning issues, building permits and the certificate of occupancy, nine months passed before Mr. Matusik was able to take possession and begin renovations. Now, acting as general contractor, he works there nearly every day. He gave up his rental last summer, and has been couch-surfing and cat-sitting since. "I honestly thought we would be further along," he said. His renovation budget started at $80,000 but "I knew deep down that we were going to be spending more." His new budget is $130,000. Everyone says: twice as long, twice as much. The first thing he built was a "vertical cube storage facility," he said. I have designed it so I can move all the furniture and stick it inside this cube. When the studio is not being used, I will pull it all out and have a home" - far preferable to having a big shooting area that sits empty much of the time. He has replaced the mezzanine with one of an appropriate height. One bathroom will have a shower and the other a whirlpool bath. The washer and dryer will be hidden behind a mirrored door. The kitchen island will be on casters, so he will be able to roll it away. "It is going to be just gorgeous," Mr. Matusik said, "and everything I envisioned is manifesting, so I am ecstatic. I got to design every millimeter of it.